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This Day in History

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:34 pm

Latest post of the previous page:

March 16th

1926 Jerry Lewis, best known as a comedian who had his best success in the late forties and early Fifties in the "Martin and Lewis show", starring Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin , was born on this day.

1935 Voluntary driving tests were introduced in Britain and became compulsory in June of the same year.

1940 World War II: James Isbister became the first person killed in a German bombing raid; on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

1968 U.S. troops kill between 300 and 500 unarmed civilians in My Lai, South Vietnam. Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only platoon leader Lieutenant William Calley Jr. was convicted. He was found guilty of killing 22 villagers and given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.

1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, announced his run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1971 The British heavyweight boxing champion Henry Cooper announced his retirement after being defeated by Joe Bugner.

1976 Harold Wilson, Prime Minister for almost eight years, and leader of the Labour Party for 13 years, resigned. He insisted that there were no hidden reasons for his resignation although it was suggested that he might already have been aware of the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which was to cause both his formerly excellent memory and his powers of concentration to fail dramatically.

1988 A gunman killed 3 mourners and injured at least 50 who had been attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar.

1998 Sir George Martin (producer of The Beatles in the 1960s and 70s) announced his retirement, aged 73.

And Finally.

1974 Richard Nixon performs at the Grand Ole Opry. The U.S. President plays piano for the opening of the famous radio show's new theater.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:35 pm

March 17th

1873 The birth of Margaret Grace Bondfield, Labour politician who became chairman of the TUC in 1923 and Minister of Labour in 1929. She was the first woman Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom and one of the first three female Labour MPs.

1912 The death of Lawrence Oates, a member of Scott’s ill-fated South Pole expedition who was suffering serious frostbite and hampering the progress of his companions. He had left his tent the previous night saying ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’ ‘A very gallant gentleman,’ Scott recorded. His body was never found. Date of birth 17th March 1880 - Died 17th March 1912.

1968 More than 200 people are arrested after thousands clash in an anti-Vietnam war protest outside the United States embassy in London.

1973 The photograph known as 'Burst of Joy' is taken. Photographer Slava Veder was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the image depicting a former U.S. prisoner of war being reunited with his family.

1984 The 130th Boat Race was postponed (for 24 hours) an hour before the start, after the Cambridge boat was in collision with a barge and sank.

1993 The death of Charlotte Hughes, aged 115 at St David's Nursing home in Redcar, Cleveland. At the time of her death she was not only the oldest person in Britain, but the second oldest person in the world.

1995 Notorious gangland killer Ronnie Kray has died in hospital two days after he collapsed in his ward at Broadmoor where he was serving a life sentence for murder.

2001 The Eden Project opens, It is the worlds largest greenhouse and is designed to help save the worlds largest number of plant species from around the world, with a number of domes each emulating a natural climate and geographical area of ecologically , the project has over 100,000 plants and is now one of the UK's most important tourist attractions.

2012 Referee Howard Webb was forced to abandon the televised FA Cup 6th Round tie between Spurs and Bolton Wanderers shortly before half time when Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch. He had suffered a heart attack.

And Finally.

2015 The UK's first Bio-Bus, nicknamed 'the poo bus' was officially launched in Bristol as Service Number 2. Powered entirely on gas generated by human and food waste it went into regular service on 25th March.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Sat Mar 17, 2018 10:35 pm

March 18th

1824 The birth of the brewer John Smith. The brewery's headquarters are in Tadcaster where brewing began in 1758 as the area's hard water proved to be well-suited for brewing. John Smith's has been the biggest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s.

1834Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, were sentenced to be transported to Australia for seven years for forming the first trade union and introducing collective bargaining for better wages. There was such an outcry that they were pardoned two years after sentencing and allowed to return to England.

1960 The naming ceremony of the steam locomotive Evening Star, at the Swindon Works, where the locomotive was built. Evening Star was the last steam locomotive built for British Rail and holds the distinction of being the only British main line steam locomotive that was earmarked for preservation from the date of its construction.

1967 The Torrey Canyon oil tanker, with a cargo of 100,000 gallons of crude oil, ran aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles and its cargo discharged into the sea. The RAF and the Royal Navy were called in to napalm bomb the slick in an attempt to reduce the risk of pollution. In the weeks that followed the accident, oil escaped and spread along the shores of the south coast of England and the Normandy coast of France. Worst hit were the Cornish beaches of Marazion and Prah Sands, where sludge was up to a foot deep.

1979 Three die and eight are seriously injured in an explosion at Golborne colliery in Lancashire.

1982 Moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse brought a charge of gross indecency against a National Theatre director under the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The play, Romans in Britain featured male rape scenes. The trial was halted after intervention by the Attorney-General.

1988 The death of Percy Thrower, English gardener and radio and TV broadcaster. He was Parks Superintendent at Shrewsbury from 1946 to 1974, becoming the youngest parks superintendent, aged 32.

1990 A pair of thieves dressed as policeman steal $500,000,000 in art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, including works by Rembrandt, Manet, and Degas. The case and whereabouts of the artwork remains unsolved.

2017 Chuck Berry died aged 90. The American guitarist, singer and songwriter was one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as 'Maybellene' (1955), 'Roll Over Beethoven' (1956), 'Rock and Roll Music' (1957) and 'Johnny B. Goode' (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive.

And Finally.

2015 Two Polish men were rescued after trying to paddle from Britain to Calais in a rowing boat, after failing to find jobs in Britain. Last year 28 illegal immigrants were caught trying to smuggle themselves out of Britain.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:50 pm

March 19th

1848 Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter, was born. He led the gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1881) in Tombstone, Arizona.

1921 The birth, in Caerphilly, of Tommy Cooper (Thomas Frederick Cooper), comedian and magician.

1945 World War II: Adolf Hitler issued his 'Nero Decree' ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed in order to prevent their use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany.

1958 Britain’s first planetarium opened at Madame Tussaud’s, London.

1976 Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon are to separate after 16 years of marriage, it has been announced by Buckingham Palace.

1982 A group of Argentines landed at South Georgia (a dependency of the disputed Falklands Islands which Britain claimed in 1833) and planted their nation's flag. The provocation led to war between Britain and Argentina.

1988 Two British soldiers, in civilian clothes, blundered into an IRA funeral in Northern Ireland and were kicked and beaten to death.

2015 Top Gear presenters James May and Richard Hammond rejected an offer to present the season's last three shows without the suspended star, Jeremy Clarkson. On 25th March the BBC's director general confirmed that Jeremy Clarkson's contract would not be renewed, after an 'unprovoked physical attack' on a Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.

2015 Margaret Aspinall and Trevor Hicks, who campaigned for 20 years to secure fresh Hillsborough inquests, received their CBE medals from the Queen. Britain's worst sporting tragedy took place at the Hillsborough Stadium, in Sheffield on 15th April 1989. 96 people died as a result of the crush on the terraces at the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest football match.

And Finally.

1965 The Tailor And Cutter Magazine ran an article asking The Rolling Stones to wear ties to save tie makers from financial disaster.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Mon Mar 19, 2018 10:41 pm

March 20th

1727 Isaac Newton, English scientist and discoverer of the 'Laws of Gravity', died, aged 84.

1780 James Watt began manufacturing the first duplicator, which he had invented to help with the burden of office work generated by his steam engine business.

1796 The birth of the British politician Edward Gibbon Wakefield. His abduction of and marriage to the 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner of Pott Shrigley led to 'The Shrigley abduction case - 1826'. The couple were married in Gretna Green before Turner's father was able to notify the authorities and intervene. The marriage was annulled by Parliament and Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his brother William, who had aided him, were convicted at trial and sentenced to three years in prison.

1806 The foundation stone of Dartmoor prison in Devon was laid. It opened three years later to house French prisoners of war, but by 1850 the first convicts were being imprisoned.

1966 The football World Cup (Jules Rimet trophy) was stolen whilst being exhibited at Central Hall in London.

1974 An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in the Mall by a gunman who fired six shots, then tried to drag her out of the car. He fled as passers-by joined her bodyguard and police to foil the attempt, and was later caught. Ian Ball, who was charged with attempted murder, claimed he did it to highlight the lack of mental care facilities.

1991 Eric Clapton's four year old son, Conor, fell to his death from the 53rd story of a New York City apartment after a housekeeper who was cleaning the room left a window open. The boy was in the custody of his mother, Italian actress, Lori Del Santo and the pair were visiting a friend's apartment. Clapton was staying in a nearby hotel after taking his son to the circus the previous evening. The tragedy inspired his song ‘Tears in Heaven’.

1993 Two boys died and more than 50 people were injured as a result of two bombs exploding in the centre of Warrington.

2017 The hundredth birthday of Dame Vera Lynn. During the Second World War she toured Egypt, India, and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. Her songs included "We'll Meet Again" and "White Cliffs of Dover". The release of a compilation album made her the first centenarian singer to have a new album.

And Finally.

2002 The Daily Mail newspaper reported that Robbie Williams had become a priest. He was ordained via the Internet by the non-denominational Universal Ministries and officiated the wedding of Billy Morrison from rock band The Cult and Jennifer Holliday.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Tue Mar 20, 2018 10:54 pm

March 21st

1829 The Duke of Wellington, aged 60, fought a bloodless duel with the Earl of Winchelsea. The reason for the duel was the Duke’s support of Catholic emancipation. Wellington was both Prime Minister and leader of the Tory Party at the time.

1935 The birth of Brian Clough, English footballer and manager of Nottingham Forest from 1975–1993. Clough was widely considered to be one of the greatest managers of the game and the greatest English manager never to have managed the England team.

1943 A plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bomb fails. German Wehrmacht officer, Rudolf von Gersdorff, failed to blow up the dictator but managed to defuse his bombs just before they went off and avoid suspicion.

1945 British warplanes destroyed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, killing over 70 Nazis. The raid also killed civilians, including 86 schoolchildren, in Denmark's worst civilian disaster of the war.

1960 More than 50 Africans die and 169 are injured as police open fire in the South African township of Sharpeville.

1963 Alcatraz, the San Francisco prison, closes, it had been built in the 1830s. The federal prison, known as the Rock, housed such famous prisoners as, Al Capone, Robert Stroud, known as The Birdman of Alcatraz, and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

1963 The first of a new generation of trains that drive themselves not needing a driver but controlled by computers which are controlled by picking up signals from coded electrical impulses from the rails and signalling areas and give them the intelligence to start, accelerate, coast or slow down automatically are to be used on London Underground. An operator will still be on-duty aboard the train in the drivers cabin to survey opening and closing doors and to take charge of the train if any of the electrics fail during a journey.

1980 President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would boycott the Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Moscow that summer. The announcement came after the Soviet Union failed to comply with Carter’s February 20, 1980, deadline to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1999 Ernie Wise, comedian, died aged 73. 'Morecambe and Wise' were a comedy legend for generations of people in Britain. They were honoured with posthumous fellowships at the British Academy Television Awards.

And Finally.

1992 Chelsea’s Vinnie Jones was booked after just 3 seconds for a foul on Sheffield United’s Dane Whitehouse in a First Division match at Stamford Bridge. He later said of the incident "I must have been too high, too wild, too strong or too early, because, after three seconds, I could hardly have been too bloody late!”

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:34 pm

March 22nd

1744 Mary Cooper published the first book of English nursery rhymes. Called Tommy Thumb's Song Book, it included Baa Baa Black Sheep, whose 'three bags full' is thought to refer to a tax imposed on the wool trade in 1275.

1888 The English Football League was founded when 12 clubs met at a hotel in Fleet Street, London.

1906 The first rugby international between France and England in Paris ended with a 35-0 victory to England.

1912 The birth of Wilfrid Brambell, Irish film and television actor best known for his role as Albert Steptoe in the television series Steptoe and Son. He also performed alongside The Beatles in their film A Hard Day's Night, playing Paul McCartney's fictional grandfather and played Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical version of A Christmas Carol.

1956 Civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, has been convicted of organising an illegal boycott by black passengers of buses in the US state of Alabama.

1978 73-year-old Karl Wallenda, the German-American tight-rope walker with the Great Wallendas, falls over 100 feet to his death during a performance in Puerto Rico.

1979 British ambassador in Holland Sir Richard Sykes was shot dead outside his Dutch home.

2002 A woman, paralysed from the neck down and known to the court as 'Miss B', won the legal right to die by having her treatment withdrawn.

2017 Four members of the public were killed and fifty injured at Westminster in a terrorist incident on Westminster Bridge. The terrorist, who was attempting an assault on the Houses of Parliament, was shot and killed after he drove his car at pedestrians on the bridge and then knifed PC Keith Palmer to death.

And Finally.

1903 The Niagara Falls runs dry following a drought.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Thu Mar 22, 2018 10:56 pm

March 23rd

1645 The birth of William Kidd (later known as Captain Kidd). He was tried and executed for piracy in 1701 after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Despite the legends and fiction surrounding Captain Kidd, his actual career was punctuated by only a handful of skirmishes followed by a desperate quest to clear his name.

1840 John William Draper announced that he had obtained a focused image of the Moon.

1857 The world's first passenger safety elevator went into service in a store at 488 Broadway and Broome Street in New York City. The safety elevator invented by Elisha Otis was powered by steam through a series of shafts and belts.

1861 London's first tramcars began operating, along the Bayswater Road, from Notting Hill to Marble Arch. They had been designed by a Mr. Train who was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

1929 Dr. Roger Bannister, the first person in the world to run a mile in under four minutes was born. His world beating record time was 3 min 59.4 sec.

1984 Sarah Tisdall, the young British civil servant who tipped off the Guardian newspaper that Cruise missiles were on their way to Britain, was sent to jail for six months.

1985 Ben Hardwick, Britain’s youngest liver transplant patient at just three years old, died in hospital. He inspired a national fund raising campaign.

1987 More than 30 people were injured in a car bomb explosion at the UK Army headquarters in Rheindahlen, West Germany.

2015 89 year old British D-Day landings veteran Ted Turner was presented with the Legion d'Honneur (France's highest honour) at a ceremony at the Royal Marines Museum in Southsea,f or his role in the Normandy invasion in the Second World War.

And Finally.

1839 The initials “O.K.” are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:48 pm

March 24th

1909 Clyde Barrow, American bank robber, of Bonnie and Clyde fame, was born today.He and Bonnie Parker were killed by a Texas ranger and his posse, who riddled their car with hundreds of bullets.

1943 G.I. Joe, an American carrier pigeon, was born today. In 1943, during WWII, the carrier pigeon known as G.I. Joe is credited with saving over 1,000 British troops. U.S. air bombings were scheduled against German positions at Calvi Vecchia, Italy. However, British troops had captured the village. Unable to get a message to the Americans to stop the bombings, they sent G.I. Joe. The pigeon travelled the 20 miles in 20 minutes, just in time to halt the bombings.

1944 World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners began breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1953 Her Majesty, Queen Mary, (Queen Consort to King George V) died peacefully in her sleep after a long illness.

1958 Elvis Presley is inducted as US Army as a private #53310761 and completed basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, before being posted to Friedberg, Germany with the 3rd Armored Division.

1964 Stansted was chosen as the site of London's third major airport.

1976 The death of British Field Marshal Montgomery, one of the outstanding Allied commanders in World War II.

1981 The 'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs was rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping.

1992 Punch, Britain's oldest satirical magazine dating back almost 151 years, announced that it would cease publication because of financial losses.

And Finally.

1877 The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames ended in a dead heat. Legend in Oxford has it that the judge, 'Honest John' Phelps, was asleep under a bush when the race finished, leading him to announce the result as a 'dead heat to Oxford by four feet'.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Sat Mar 24, 2018 10:34 pm

March 25th

1609 English navigator Henry Hudson (Hudson Bay in Canada was named after him) set off on his third voyage in an attempt to find the north west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

1807 The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent, eventually bringing an end to the slave trade. British merchants transported nearly three million black Africans across the Atlantic between 1700 and the early 19th century. The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act outlawed slavery itself throughout the British Empire but slaves did not gain their final freedom until 1838.

1897 The birth of the actor John Laurie. He went to school at Dumfries Acadaemy and performed a wide range of film and theatre work (particularly in Shakespearean roles). In spite of his acting versatility he is probably best remembered for playing the part of Private Frazer in the TV sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977).

1947 Elton John, English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist who has had hits in the charts since 1970 with his first hit "Your Song", was born today.

1950 Ski jumpers soar over Hampstead Heath as Norway comes to North London for a ski-jumping competition complete with imported snow.

1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia died after a gun attack despite the efforts of doctors to keep him alive.

1980 Ian Botham was best known as a cricketer but on this day in 1980 he made his debut as a footballer for Scunthorpe United, coming on as a sub in the Division 4 match at Bournemouth.

1980 The British Olympic Association votes by a large majority to defy government requests and send athletes to the Olympic Games in Moscow.

2014 The death, aged 93, of Captain Raymond "Jerry" Roberts, the last surviving member of the small Bletchley Park team of cryptographers who broke the Nazis’ top-secret Lorenz code. Historians believe that the Bletchley Park codebreakers may have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, shortened the Second World War by between two and four years and that the outcome of the war itself would have been uncertain without the codebreakers' work.

And Finally.

1969 John Lennon and new wife Yoko Ono staged their ‘Beds in Peace’ at the Amsterdam Hilton. It lasted until 31st March and each day they invited the world's press into their hotel room, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. It was Yoko’s idea to get over their peace message while on honeymoon. Although the press were expecting them to be having sex, the couple were sitting in bed, in John's words 'like angels', talking about peace, with signs over their bed reading 'Hair Peace' and 'Bed Peace'.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Sun Mar 25, 2018 11:24 pm

March 26th

1839 The Henley Regatta was born, at a public meeting held in Henley Town Hall. The regatta lasts for 5 days (Wednesday to Sunday) over the first weekend in July.

1902 The British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes died in Cape Town, aged 48. Rhodes who controlled 90% of the world's diamond production, was influential in establishing the British crown in South Africa and Rhodesia.

1920 The British special constables, known as the Black and Tans, arrived in Ireland. Their nickname came from the colours of their uniform.

1931 Leonard Nimoy, American Actor and Director best known for his role of Spock in the original Star Trek series, was born today.

1944 Diana Ross, American R & B, soul, disco and jazz singer, was born today.

1953 Dr. Jonas Salk announces he has discovered and successfully tested an anti-polio vaccine on 90 adults and children. It was the first successful vaccine for the dreaded disease.

1981 Four Labour defectors, known as the Gang of Four, launched the Social Democrats party. The four were Roy Jenkins, (former Labour cabinet minister), David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams. Their aim was to 'reconcile the nation' and 'heal divisions between classes'.

1999 Ex-miners suffering from lung diseases won a compensation deal worth £2 billion. It was the biggest industrial injuries case in British legal history.

2007 Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams made history in Northern Ireland with their first face-to-face meeting, where they agreed on the restoration of the Stormont assembly and the return of power sharing.

And Finally.

1937 Spinach growers of Crystal City, Texas, erect a statue of Popeye.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Mon Mar 26, 2018 10:56 pm

March 27th

1905 For the first time fingerprint evidence is used to solve a murder case. The worlds first official Fingerprint Bureau was founded in Scotland Yard in 1901.

1920 Famine was just starting in Russia due a food shortage. No wheat flour was available caused by disturbances in agriculture during the World War I and the Russian Revolution and civil war that followed.

1963 The Beeching Report on Britain's railways was published. The report concluded that only half the network's routes carried enough traffic to cover the cost of operating them. Many lines and stations were subsequently closed.

1964 Six months after the ‘Great Train Robbery’ in Buckinghamshire, 20 of the gang were still at large, but the ten who were arrested were found guilty of stealing more than £2.6m from mailbags. They included Ronnie Biggs. Sentences totalled 307 years in jail.

1966 The stolen football world cup was found in south London by a dog called Pickles, whilst it was out for a walk with its owner.

1977 At least 560 people die when two jumbo jets collide on a runway in the popular holiday destination of Tenerife.

1980 At least 120 oil rig workers are feared dead as a North Sea accommodation platform collapses during gales.

2004 HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander class frigate, was sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, about 40 minutes by boat from Plymouth. It was the first of its kind in Europe and the ship soon became a very popular dive site and a source of study for marine life.

2013 Singer Dionne Warwick filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The singer had build up debts of nearly ten million dollars in taxes.

And Finally.

1991 David Icke, former footballer, BBC sports presenter and member of the Green Party, announced that he had been "chosen" to save the world.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Tue Mar 27, 2018 10:52 pm

March 28th

1819 The birth of Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, English civil engineer. As chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works he created a sewer network for central London which was instrumental in relieving the city from cholera epidemics, whilst also beginning the cleansing of the River Thames.

1866 The birth of Jimmy Ross, Scottish footballer nicknamed 'The Little Demon'. When the Football League implemented a maximum wage of £4 per week for professional football players and full-time players like Ross could earn up to £10 a week, the prospect of a reduced wage was a serious threat to their livelihood. In order to curb this threat, Ross and other top players of the time formed the Association Footballers' Union.

1881 The Barnum and Bailey Circus is formed.

1917 The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded. They were Britain's first official service women.

1941 English novelist Virginia Woolf, suffering from depression, filled her overcoat pocket with stones and walked into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex and drowned herself. Her body was not found until 18th April.

1942 British commandos destroyed the U-boat base at St Nazaire. The destroyer Campbeltown rammed the dock gates at 20 knots with five tons of explosives on board. A German ship trying to cut off the British commandos as they made their getaway in fast launches was sunk, in error, by German guns.

1964 Pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, began transmitting from a ship in the North Sea. Simon Dee, who later became the first ‘pirate DJ’ to join the BBC was the first voice to be heard on Radio Caroline.

1979 Radioactive steam leaked into the atmosphere at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania prompting fears for the safety of the plant's 500 workers.

2017 A 12-sided £1 coin went into circulation. The new coins feature a string of security features including a hologram that changes from a '£' symbol to the number '1' when the coin is seen from different angles. They are being made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales.

And Finally.

2014 Beryl Walker, 88, was named as the oldest paper girl in the world by Guinness World Records. "Beryl has been doing the round for 35 years, gets up at 6am every morning and hops on her bike 'Hercules' to deliver papers to homes in Gloucester. She works six days a week and cycles over eight miles a day.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Wed Mar 28, 2018 11:01 pm

March 29th

1871 Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in London. The hall was originally supposed to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria to Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences when laying the foundation stone, as a dedication to her deceased husband and consort Prince Albert.

1920 Sir William Robertson, who enlisted in 1877, became a field marshal in the British Army, the first man to rise to this rank from private.

1940 The Bank of England introduced thin metal strips into banknotes as an anti-forgery device.

1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, along with Morton Sobell, are convicted of selling top secret information to the Soviets. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953, making them the first U.S. citizens executed for treason during peace time and the first married couple executed together in the U.S.

1971 Charles Manson and three members of his hippy cult are sentenced to death in Los Angeles.

1974 The Terracotta Army is discovered in Xi'an, China. The famous collection of some 8000 soldier sculptures, depicting Emperor Qin Shi Huang's army, was located by local farmers when they were digging a water well.

1981 The first London marathon took place, with around 7,000 entrants.

1988 Lloyd Honeyghan became the first British boxer to regain a world title since Ted ‘Kid’ Lewis, 71 years previously. Honeyghan knocked out Jorgé Vaca of Mexico in the third round at the Wembley Arena, London.

1999 The case of James Hanratty was sent back to the Court of Appeal, 37 years after he was hanged for murder. New DNA evidence emerged and a police inquiry highlighted flaws in the original investigation.

2017 Theresa May triggered 'Article 50' to start the negotiation process for Britain to leave the European Union.

And Finally.

1973 Dr Hook And The Medicine Show got their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine after their hit, 'The Cover of Rolling Stone' reached No. 6 on the US singles chart. According to members of the group, they really did buy five copies for their mothers, just like the song said.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by Dave » Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:40 pm

March 30th

1867 Alaskan Purchase. The U.S. buys Alaska from the Russians at the bargain price of 2¢ an acre by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward. This was called Seward's Folly by critics at the time. Russia was eager to sell the territory, fearing that they would lose it anyway if a war broke out with the United Kingdom.

1944 The allied bombing raid on Nuremberg. 795 aircraft were despatched from along England's east coast , including 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos. The bombers met German fighter resistance at the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands. In total, 95 bombers were lost, making it the largest Bomber Command loss of World War II.

1945 The birth of Eric Patrick Clapton, English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time.

1950 The birth of Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor, comedian and author; known both for his role in the TV series Cracker and as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter films.

1964 The seaside holiday resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by rival gangs of 'mods' and 'rockers'.

1972 Britain assumed direct rule over Northern Ireland, with William Whitelaw as Secretary of State.

1974 Red Rum won the Grand National at Aintree for the second year running.

1978 Tory leader Margaret Thatcher recruited advertisers Saatchi & Saatchi to revamp her Party's image ahead of the General Election.

1979 Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave was killed by a car bomb as he left the House of Commons car park. The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

1981 Reagan Assassination Attempt U.S. President Ronald Reagan, James Brady, and two others are shot by John W. Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he had developed an obsession with after seeing the film Taxi Driver. James Brady, was left paralyzed from a gunshot wound to the head. He would die in 2014 due to causes directly related to the shooting. A secret service agent and a D.C. police officer were also shot, but survived the shooting.

1987 The picture 'Sunflowers', painted by Vincent van Gogh was sold at auction by Christie's for £24,750,000.

1997 Pop group The Spice Girls helped launch Britain's newest terrestrial TV channel - Channel 5.

2002 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, (born August 4th 1900), died peacefully in her sleep, aged 101.

And Finally.

2017 43 years late, man cashes in bet on Red Rum to win the Grand National.

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Re: This Day in History

Post by boatbuilder » Thu Mar 29, 2018 11:04 pm

Two items in your post for tomorrow, Dave, have reminded me of where I was on those days. In 1974 - my wife and I were at the Grand National itself, and in 2002 - which was the Easter weekend - we were staying at my sister's in Shropshire.

Incidentally, shouldn't the last item about the bet, be dated 2017 - 43 years on from 1974?
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