The Cross of Neith was a sacred relic taken from the home of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd at Aberconwy by Edward I, following the death of Llywelyn and the subsequent subjugation of Wales.  In May 1285, it was paraded through London at the head of a Royal Procession.

The Cross of Neith ( Y Groes Naid ) was believed to be a fragment of the True Cross which is thought to have been brought back from Rome by Hywel Dda around 928, following his pilgrimage and handed down from prince to prince.

It is thought to have been later destroyed during the Puritan revolution of 1649.  

Born this day 1739 in Kilkenny Castle, Ireland

Eleanor Charlotte Butler , who with her friend Sarah Ponsonby, beame known as the Ladies of Llangollen, two upper-class women from Ireland, whose relationship scandalised and fascinated their contemporaries and were described as "the two most celebrated virgins in Europe".

Rather than face the possibility of being forced into unwanted marriages, they left Ireland, for Llangollen in 1778 and although the ladies wanted to live a quiet life, reading, writing, drawing and gardening, it was a sensation in the 18th century for unmarried ladies to live together independently and they became celebrities and would often entertain up to 20 visitors per day.

However, probably because of their aristocratic backgrounds, they insisted on maintaining a household that consisted of a footman, a gardener and maids, which incurred them considerable debts and led to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, persuaded her husband to grant them a pension.

Their home, Plas Newydd is now a museum and a major tourist attraction.   

On this day 1963 MI5 agent, Welshman Greville Wynne was found guilty by a Moscow tribunal of spying for the West , he was sentenced to  three years in prison and five in a labour camp, his co-accused, 43-year-old Soviet official Oleg Penkovsky, was given the death sentence and executed by firing squad one week after the trial.   this came at the height of the Cold War when relations between the superpowers were particularly strained.

Wynne, from Ystrad Mynach, had acted as a go-between passing on "information about Soviet rockets" provided for him by Penkovsky during secret meetings in London, Paris and Moscow and 17 months into his sentence, he was exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.  On his release, Wynne was in a poor state of health. He had lost a lot of weight and doctors said his time in prison had left him "emotionally and mentally exhausted".  Wynne went on to writee about his time as a spy in a book entitled The Man from Odessa, which was one of the early examples of a book being published about secret work that the government never expected to be made public.  

Born this day 1880 in Llandinham, Montgomeryshire

David Davies, 1st Baron  Davies  politician, the grandson of the industrialist, David Davies "Llandinham".

Davies was a Liberal MP and an active supporter of the League of nations.  In 1932, he was instrumental in the establisment of the New Commonwealth Society for ‘the promotion of international law and order’ and his ideas had an impact on the writing of the UN Charter.