S4C was launched on 1st November 1982 

Prior to the launch of S4C, Welsh language programmes had been limited to occasional broadcasts on BBC Wales or HTV Cymru, often at inconvenient or off-peak times. This was highly unsatisfactory to audiences in Wales, who either wanted a full service in Welsh or who wanted the choice to watch English language broadcasts during the times allocated to Welsh programmes. 

The 1970s saw vigorous campaigning for a TV service in Welsh, and by the 1979 election, both major parties had pledged to introduce a Welsh-language fourth channel if they won the election. Shortly after the Conservative victory, the Home Secretary William Whitelaw decreed that Wales should not be granted its Welsh language channel.

Much civil unrest and disobedience ensued, with people risking prosecution and even prison by refusing to pay TV Licence fees, or taking part in sit-ins at BBC and HTV studios. More extreme action included attacking television transmitters. 

Then in 1980, Gwynfor Evans, a former president of Plaid Cymru, threatened to go on hunger strike if the Conservative government didn't fulfil its promise to establish a Welsh-language TV service. S4C started broadcasting on 1 November 1982, the night before Channel 4's opening.  

On this day in 1895, the last Turnpike toll gate in Wales was removed. 

The Rebecca Riots were civil disturbances that occurred between May 1839and the autumn of 1843. They began with an attack on the toll gate at Efail-Wen in Carmarthenshire and continued mainly in west Wales where they were typified by groups of dissenters dressing in women's clothing before destroying the gates of the despised Turnpike Trusts. The hated workhouses were also targeted, as was the home of tithe agent Rees Goring Thomas. 

There were many factors which caused the riots. In the early to mid 19th century farmers in west Wales were badly affected by a series of wet harvests, in addition, high rents were levied by largely English-speaking landlords and there was a sudden increase in the population. Taxes that had been levied to pay for the building of new workhouses also generated discontent in rural Wales.  One of the main hardships, however, was the network of toll gates that had been constructed almost everywhere in Wales. Turnpike Trusts had initially been founded to repair and maintain road systems, with tolls charged in order to finance improvements. However, by the middle of the 19th century, toll gates had become bitterly resented.

For example, there were 11 different Turnpike Trusts operating around Carmarthen, each with several gates. Each time people passed through a gate they had to pay.  The tolls charged by the Turnpike Companies were  too high for a  struggling rural society. By the end of the 1830s, moving cattle or essential materials like lime and animal food had become prohibitively expensive. 

The form of the riots, with men dressing as women, reflected a world that had been turned upside down. It is widely supposed that the name given to the rioters came from the book of Genesis where Rebecca and her daughters claimed to 'possess' the "gates of those which hate them." A simpler answer could be that Twm Carnabwth, one of the earliest known rioters, borrowed his disguise from a woman called Rebecca. 

For four years after 1839, toll gates were regularly smashed or burned, and on19 June 1843 2,000 people marched into Carmarthen to ransack the town workhouse. Dragoons charged the crowd, but the riots continued.  In August 1843, 3,000 men and women marched on Mynydd Sylen in Pontyberem. Such was the concern of the government that The Times even sent a reporter, Thomas Foster, to investigate the Rebecca Riots. His sympathetic reporting did much to support the grievances of the farmers of west Wales. 

The riots finally subsided in the autumn of 1843. The death of Sarah Williams, the aged gatekeeper at Hendy, diminished support for the riots. Over a period of weeks, several rioters were transported to Australia and others detained in prison. 

The riots themselves, the journalism of Thomas Foster, forced the government to call a Commission of Enquiry to explore the grievances of the Welsh farmers.  In 1844, as a result of the enquiry, the Turnpike Trusts within each county were consolidated, with tolls on commodities such as lime being reduced by half. 

'Rebecca and her daughters' seemed to have won their victory, although some of the gates lasted another 50 years.  

On 1st November 1455, Edmund Tudor married Lady Margaret Beaufort. Margaret was barely 12 years old, and Edmund was 24. Only a year later, Edmund died of the plague in captivity at Carmarthen, leaving Margaret a 13-year-old widow, seven months pregnant with their child who was to become the future Henry VII. 

Edmund was a descendant of the royal house of Gwynedd; his grandfather Maredudd having been a stalwart supporter of Owain Glyndwr's uprising of 1400. His father, Owen Tudor (Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur), married Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V of England, making him a step brother of Henry VI, who knighted Edmund in 1449 and made him Earl of Richmond in 1452. Edmund was fighting for Henry VI (a Lancastrian) during the Wars of the Roses, when he was captured by the Yorkist partisan William Herbert in mid-1456. Edmund was held captive at Carmarthen Castle, where he died of the plague and was buried at Carmarthen Grey Friars. His remains were removed to St David's Cathedral when the monasteries were dissolved.

Margaret Beaufort was the great- granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III, and had been chosen by Henry VI as a bride for Edmund. When Edmund died, she was taken into the protection of Edmund's brother Jasper at Pembroke Castle, where, on 28 January 1457 she gave birth to the future Henry VII of England. The birth was difficult  due to her young age and small size. After this difficult delivery, she would never give birth again, although she did re-marry twice.

Margaret and her son remained in Pembroke until 1461 when the Yorkists took the castle. The infant Henry was taken under the guardianship of his uncle Jasper, who carried him from one castle to another, eventually taking him to Brittany to seek refuge, where he remained safe. He saw his mother only on seldom occasions, although they corresponded frequently.

After Henry won the crown at the Battle of Bosworth Field, Margaret was respectfully referred to in court as "My Lady the King's Mother". 

As arranged by their mothers, Henry married Elizabeth of York, but Margaret was reluctant to accept a lower status than her daughter-in-law, the queen consort, and walked only half a pace behind her. Henry died on 21 April 1509, having designated his mother chief executor of his will. She arranged both the funeral of her son and the coronation of her grandson Henry VIII.
Margaret always respected the name and memory of Edmund, as the father of her only child and specified in her will that she wanted to be buried alongside him. However, she was buried at Westminster Abbey, probably on the orders of Henry VIII.  

  On 1st November 1910, coal miners working for the Cambrian Combine began a 10-month strike, which was to lead to the "Tonypandy Riots".  

The unrest had begun a year earlier when the pit managers at the Ely pit in Penygraig had devised a scheme to determine the exact output of the mine. They opened a new seam and allowed only 80 miners to mine it for a trial period. A miner's pay at this time was dependent on the amount of coal extracted by each individual, with an allowance paid by the company to bring the pay up to a 'minimum wage' if there was a shortfall. After a few months of the trial period, the managers accused the men of deliberately working slowly, although the miners denied this, telling the company that this was a particularly difficult seam to work. When the test period was over, the company set an unrealistically low price for the coal being extracted from the new seam, below what was considered to be a living wage. The miners protested, and in retaliation the company posted 'lockout' notices on 1st August 1910.

The miners called a strike and were joined by miners from neighbouring collieries. By 1st November a strike was called by the South Wales Miners Federation of 30,000 miners in the Cambrian Combine area, and by November 7, all pits affected by the strike were being picketed.

The situation culminated in what is known as the 'Tonypandy Riots', when thousands of miners marched through the Rhondda valley, filling the streets, gathering at pitheads and in some cases, sabotaging the collieries by extinguishing boiler fires, making the mine unworkable. The local police were worried that they could not contain the situation and called for army reinforcements. On November 22 a group of picketing miners was entrapped by soldiers with bayonets drawn on a hill near Penygraig, where they fought for several hours with troops and police. Eventually, the prolonged lack of pay took its toll on the community and the miners were forced to capitulate. They returned to work in September 1911.  

  On 1st November 1887, The Helvetia was wrecked off Worms Head, Rhossili, and its remains can still be seen at low tide.   

A strong gale off the Gower coast caused two ships to be stranded off Mumbles' Head. They were unable to reach the safety of Swansea Harbour and were blown down the Bristol Channel. One of the ships reached the shelter of Lundy Island, but the Helvetia was swept around the  Worm's Head  into the shallow waters of Rhossili Bay. 

The Helvetia dropped anchor here and the captain was taken ashore by the coastguard. However, he left the crew aboard, as he was reluctant to leave the vessel at the mercy of thieves. Unfortunately, the wind did not die down, and eventually, the ship was abandoned and left to the elements. Her wreck and her cargo of 500 tons of wood were strewn along Rhossili beach, but no lives were lost.

Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963, in Ruabon, near Wrexham), is a Welsh football manager and former international footballer who played 72 matches and scored 16 goals for Wales. 

 He played at various times for Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, as well as the English clubs Chelsea, Southampton, Everton and finally Blackburn Rovers, before he retired in 2002.

 Appointed in 1999, managing Wales was his first managerial position. Although Wales failed to qualify for a World Cup or European Championship during his five years as manager, there was a significant improvement in results. Wales came close to securing European Championship qualification in 2004.  

William Mathias CBE (1 November 1934 — 29 July 1992) was a Welsh composer. 

Born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, Mathias played the piano at three years of age and started composing aged five. He attended Aberystwyth University, where in 1954 he wrote 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo' for the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers.He became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1965, and in 1968, he was awarded the Bax Society Prize of the Harriet Cohen International Music Award. He served as professor of music and head of department at the University of Wales, Bangor between 1970 and 1988.

His compositions include an opera, three symphonies and three piano concertos, though his most famous anthem, Let the people praise Thee, O God was written for the July 1981 royal wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which had a television audience of an estimated 1 billion people.

He founded the North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph in 1972 and directed it until his death in 1992.  He is buried outside St Asaph Cathedral, Denbighshire.  

Today is the feast day of St. Cadfan, Abbot of Tywyn & Bardsey (c. AD 530-c. AD 590) 

St. Cadfan was a Breton nobleman, the son of Eneas Ledewig (the Breton) and Princess Gwen Teirbron. He was attracted to the ecclesiastical life while still a young man through the influence of St. Winwaloe, his half-brother. He established churches in Brittany before travelling to Wales with a group of missionaries who included St. Tydecho, his cousin, St. Cynllo, Cynan, Llywen and Padarn.

Cadfan founded a monastery at Tywyn in Meirionydd but later sought seclusion on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey). The monastery he established on the island became a destination of pilgrimage for holy men and royalty, and it is popularly believed that not only his original followers but some 20,000 further saints are buried in the Abbey's graveyard. 

 Cadfan died on 1st November, sometime in the late 6th century and was buried there by his successor, St. Lleuddad. Centuries later, his body was moved to Llandaff Cathedral.

The first episode of Super Ted was aired on 1st November 1982.

SuperTed is a Welsh fictional anthropomorphic bear character created by Mike Young. The character originally featured in stories written by Young to encourage his son to overcome a fear of the dark. These were published as a series of illustrated books, and eventually became a Welsh language animated series on S4C.

SuperTed was produced by Siriol Animation, which Young had set up with his wife, as he was determined to keep the production both local and Welsh speaking. It was later dubbed into English and broadcast on BBC1 throughout the UK.

 The world-famous hymn tune 'Cwm Rhondda' by John Hughes was first performed on 1st November 1907 

John Hughes (22 November 1873 – 14 May 1932) was born in Dowlais and brought up in Llanilltud Faerdref (in English: Llantwit Fardre). He started work in Glynn Colliery at the age of 12 and eventually became a clerk at the Great Western Colliery in Pontypridd where he was employed for over 40 years. He was a respected deacon and leader of congregational singing in Salem Baptist Chapel.

His initial version of the tune, written in 1905, was called simply "Rhondda", and was composed for the Cymanfa Ganu (hymn festival) in Pontypridd, at the height of the enthusiasm of the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival.

 The tune in its present form was adapted in 1907 for the inauguration of the organ at Capel Rhondda, in Hopkinstown.  Hughes himself played the organ, using an English translation of William Williams's words to accommodate the large number of English-speaking workers who had migrated to the area.

The name was changed from "Rhondda" to "Cwm Rhondda" by Harry Evans, of Dowlais, to avoid confusion with another tune by M O Jones.