This Day in History

[Dave]

Latest post of the previous page:

March 1st

Today, the first of March, is St David's Day and to commemorate it here is its history.

1692 The first Salem Witch Trials saw Sarah Good and a female slave convicted of witchcraft and sent to jail. Sarah was later hanged. In the following months 19 others would be executed for witchcraft.

1936 The construction of the Hoover Dam was completed.

1940 English actress Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind.

1971 Hundreds of thousands of workers across Britain take part in an unofficial day of protest against the government's new industrial relations Bill.

1981 Bobby Sands, IRA member, began his 65-day hunger strike in Maze Prison, County Down.

1994 Fred West was charged with two further murders following the discovery of more human remains in the garden of his Gloucester home.

1998 Titanic becomes the first film to gross $1 billion. James Cameron's epic account of the sinking of the Titanic had a budget of $ 200 million and grossed over $ 2 billion in the end.

2008 Prince Harry who was sent secretly to Afghanistan with his regiment in December at his request is forced to return to Britain following the American website The Drudge Report making his deployment public.

2016 The death of Tony Warren (aged 79) , creator of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running TV 'soap opera' in production.

And Finally.

1967 Working at Abbey Road studios, London, The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'. The song was inspired by a drawing his 3 year-old son Julian returned home from school with one day. The picture, which was of a little girl with lots of stars, was his classmate - Lucy O’Donnell, who also lived in Weybridge, and attended the same school as Julian.

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[Dave]

March 2nd

1750 Benjamin Franklin proposes the use of lightning rods to protect houses in a letter to his colleague Peter Collinson.

1882 An unsuccessful attempt was made by Scotsman Roderick Maclean to assassinate Queen Victoria. As she was leaving Windsor railway station he stepped forward from the cheering crowd, lifted a revolver and fired into her carriage. Before a second shot could be fired, he was overpowered by the crowd and arrested by Superintendent Hayes. Remaining calm, the Queen and her companions rode on to Windsor Castle.

1930 David Herbert Lawrence (known as D.H. Lawrence), novelist and poet, died from tuberculosis in Vence - France at the age of 44. His books included Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love and Sons and Lovers.

1950 Karen Carpenter, best known for her singing as part of the Carpenters, was born today.

1969 The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline. The Anglo-French plane took off from Toulouse and was in the air for just 27 minutes.

1970 Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia, declared Rhodesia a republic, thereby severing its links with the British Crown.

1978 Grave robbers steal Charlie Chaplin’s body from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey.

2015 Police were given new powers to catch motorists driving under the influence of drugs. The levels for the illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis, meant that there would be 'virtually zero tolerance' for drivers apprehended with these substances in their system.

2015 The last surviving Dambusters pilot (Squadron Leader Les Munro) decided to sell his gallantry medals awarded for the famous raid and donate the proceeds to the newly-built Bomber Command Memorial in London, dedicated to the 55,573 airmen killed during the Second World War.

And Finally.

1963 The arctic weather that hit the country during the 1962/63 season decimated football up and down the country with Yorkshire being particularly hit. Third Division Halifax Town hadn’t played at home since December 15th when they decided to cash in on the conditions and on March 2nd 1963 opened their Shay ground – as an ice-skating rink! A thaw soon followed.

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[Dave]

March 3rd

1934 The largest ever English football crowd outside Wembley watched the match between Manchester City and Stoke City. Spectators numbered 84,569.

1943 World War II: 173 people were killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station, in London.

1966 The BBC announced that it would begin broadcasting television programmes in colour in 1967.

1974 A Turkish airliner en route to London crashed near Paris, killing all 345 people on board. Among the victims were 200 passengers, many of them British, who had been transferred from British Airways flights cancelled because of a strike by engineers at London airport.

1982 The Queen opens the Barbican Centre the largest arts centre in western Europe covering five-and-a-half acres of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II.

1985 Miners' leaders vote to end the longest running industrial dispute in Britain History without a peace deal over proposed pit closures.

1991 Rodney King becomes a beating victim of the Los Angeles police with the incident caught on videotape. The following year, L.A. street riots erupted after the four white police officers involved were acquitted.

2002 After about 200 years Switzerland became no longer “Neutral”. They became officially a part of the UN upon voters’ approval.

2009 12 gunmen fire on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on their way to play a match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed and 6 members of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. The gunmen were believed to be members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

And Finally.

2011 Justin Bieber’s lock of hair sold for $40,668 when he gave it to chat show host Ellen DeGeneres. She promptly put it up for auction on eBay reporting bids of $10,000 within one hour and finally sold for $40,668.

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[boatbuilder]

An additional item for
March 3rd

1988 It is 30 years since a sinkhole swallowed a bus in Norwich city centre.
It happened after a medieval chalk mine collapsed under Earlham Road on 3 March 1988, taking with it the number 26 bus.
The bus driver led passengers to safety.

[Dave]

After all the snow we've had, boatbuilder, I think there will be quite a few potholes the size of sinkholes in the roads.

[Dave]

March 4th

1824 The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was formed by Sir William Hillary. Initially known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, Hillary was inspired to form the charitable organization when he saw a fishing fleet destroyed by a storm off the Isle of Man.

1963 Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was sentenced to death for attempting to assassinate Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962. The event is chronicled in detail in the (otherwise fictional) 1971 work 'The Day of the Jackal'.

1966 Beatle, John Lennon, caused outrage amongst Christians by stating "We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now. I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity." Beatles' records were consequently banned in many US states and in South Africa.

1969 The Kray twins, Ronald and Reginald, face life sentences after being found guilty of the murder of Jack McVitie at the Central Criminal Court.

1975 Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin became Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

1976 An Irish born mother-of-four, plus six other people, known collectively as the Maguire Seven, were jailed for possessing explosives. Their convictions were later quashed.

1980 Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become the country's first black prime minister.

1997 In London, the match-fixing trial of footballers Bruce Grobbelar, John Fashanu and Hans Segers ended in deadlock, with the jury failing to reach verdicts.

2014 Maori King Tuheitia refused to meet with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their upcoming tour of New Zealand. The King said that the ninety minutes that would have been allotted for their meeting was not nearly enough time. He also stated that he did not want to be treated like a cultural carnival act, only to be brought out for show.

And Finally.

2003 A noisy neighbour was banned from playing her music and had her stereo system impounded, after she had played Cliff Richard music too loudly. 23 year-old Sian Davies was fined £1,000 ($1,700) plus court costs after environmental protection officers raided her flat in Porth, Rhondda, Wales and seized 15 amplifiers and speakers, plus 135 CDs and cassette tapes.

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[boatbuilder]

After all the snow we've had, boatbuilder, I think there will be quite a few potholes the size of sinkholes in the roads.

Don't let my daughter who lives in Lancashire hear you say that Dave, she has had to replace four, yes FOUR, tyres on her car because of potholes in the past month. I have told her to write to Lancashire County Council and complain - they have cost her about £250.

[Dave]

This end of the country, boatbuilder, the potholes get filled in only to appear again later. I'm sure if a bit more money was spent repairing them it would save cash in the long run.

[boatbuilder]

I couldn't agree more Dave, I think it's the same in most places. I seem to recall reading something fairly recently about a new system for repairing them that is quicker, less expensive and at the same time more durable. I'll have to try and find it.

Interestingly enough, although not about what I have mentioned, I just came across this:
Norfolk potholes, County Council compensation for drivers doubles

and this:
Pothole row breaks out over new Lancashire road repair policy

[Dave]

March 5th

1857 James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age, was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.

1936 The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and was the fighter plane that helped to win the Battle of Britain. Mitchell died in 1937 without ever knowing how successful his aircraft would become. The Spitfire was first put into service with the Royal Air Force in 1938 and they remained in active service with the Royal Air Force until 1954.

1946 Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase 'The Iron Curtain' as the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.

1948 The birth of Elaine Paige, singer and actress. Her debut was in the 1968 production of Hair. She played Eva Perón in the first production of Evita in 1978 which won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a Musical.

1953 Joseph Stalin, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and the supreme chief of the Communist Party died.

1965 In a ‘Commons fiasco’ the controversial Bill to abolish hanging suffers a setback that could kill it completely, as Tory MPs outvote Labour by just eight votes.

1993 Disgraced Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson is banned from athletics for life after failing a drugs test for a second time.

2001 PC Alison Armitage (aged 29) became the first female officer in the Greater Manchester Police force to be killed in the line of duty since it was formed in 1974.

2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged by 39 MPs not to back military action in Iraq.

And Finally.

1963 The Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented by the company’s co-founder, Arthur “Spud” Melin.

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[Dave]

March 6th

1836 Mexican forces led by Santa Anna defeat the 187 Texans at the Alamo - including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie - who had declared their independence from Mexico in an effort to establish their own country.

1917 The birth of the comedian Frankie Howerd, famous for his risqué double entendres whose career spanned six decades. He hid his potentially career-destroying homosexuality from both his audience and his mother, as acts between consenting males was illegal in England and Wales until 1967 and illegal in Scotland until 1981. Howerd died on 19th April 1992, one day before fellow comedian Benny Hill.

1926 The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford upon Avon was destroyed by fire. It was replaced with The Royal Shakespeare Theatre which opened in 1932, on Shakespeare's birthday (April 23rd)

1961 Today saw the death of Lancashire born entertainer George Formby, 'king of the ukulele'.

1967 Stalin's daughter defected to the West. The Soviet dictator's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

1970 The British Government announced an indefinite ban on the importation of domestic pets. It followed the death from rabies of a dog called Sessan in Newmarket a week before. The animal had been imported from Pakistan and released from quarantine on November 30.

1987 The British-owned cross-channel ferry the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' left Zeebrugge, Belgium, with its bow doors open. The ferry capsized killing 193 passengers.

1992 Thousands of computers around the world were infected with a computer virus called Michelangelo. 6th March is the anniversary of Michelangelo's birth.

1997 A £650,000 Picasso was stolen from a London art gallery. The thief escaped in a taxi.

And Finally.

1950 Silly Putty was introduced as a toy by Peter Hodgson. It was invented in 1943 by James Wright in an effort to make synthetic rubber.

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[Dave]

March 7th

1876 The Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the telephone. Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf; factors that profoundly influenced Bell's life's work. Ironically, Bell considered the telephone an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and he refused to have a telephone in his study.

1946 Doctors mounted a campaign to oppose the introduction of a National Health Service.

1965 State troopers assault scores of demonstrators demanding better voting rights for blacks as they attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery.

1965 Goldie, a golden eagle, which escaped from Regent's Park Zoo was still on the loose after outsmarting his keepers' latest attempts to recapture him.

1973, A song from the movie Deliverance called 'Dueling Banjos' by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel became one of the few 1970s instrumentals to be awarded a Gold record. The record had topped the Cash Box Magazine Best Sellers list and reached No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1975 The body of Lesley Whittle, a 17-year-old heiress who had been kidnapped from her Shropshire home 52 days earlier, was found at the bottom of a drain shaft. She had been held for 52 days then strangled by Donald Nielson, known as The Black Panther.

1990 The Egyptian Fayed brothers were allowed to keep Harrods despite an official report that branded them liars during their £615m takeover bid of the House of Fraser Stores.

2000 The ‘Forgotten Five’ finally got their recognition. Alan Ball, George Cohen, Roger Hunt, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson became the last of England’s World Cup winners to be honoured when they received their MBEs from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

2014 Birmingham city council began investigating an alleged plot to oust headteachers in the city's schools, replacing them with people who would run their schools on 'strict Islamic principles'. The plan, dubbed 'Operation Trojan Horse' claimed that up to four schools in the city had already been taken over.

And Finally.

1933 In Atlantic City (USA), an unemployed electrical engineer Charles Darrow invented the famous board game [url=http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/history.htm]Monopoly.[/url] This economic strategy for two or more people gained the most popularity in the late XX century in many countries, including the Soviet Union.

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[boatbuilder]

1965 Goldie, a golden eagle, which escaped from Regent's Park Zoo was still on the loose after outsmarting his keepers' latest attempts to recapture him.

Was it really 53 years ago? Gosh how time flies.

2000 The ‘Forgotten Five’ finally got their recognition. Alan Ball, George Cohen, Roger Hunt, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson became the last of England’s World Cup winners to be honoured when they received their MBEs from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Roger Hunt was actually 'knighted'. Not by the Queen but by the supporters on the Kop at Anfield, way back in the 1960's. I should know, I was one of those who helped. He became 'Sir Roger Hunt'

[Dave]

1965 Goldie, a golden eagle, which escaped from Regent's Park Zoo was still on the loose after outsmarting his keepers' latest attempts to recapture him.

Was it really 53 years ago? Gosh how time flies.

It sure does, boatbuilder, and so did Goldie.

[Dave]

March 8th

1917 The beginning of the Russian Revolution ( Often Called The February Revolution March 1917 in the Western Calendar ) against Czarist Rule following the lack of food in Petrograd leading to the abdication by Nicholas II and the beginning of the communist party rule in Russia.

1971 In the Fight of the Century, Joe Frazier triumphs over Muhammad Ali. Ali had been stripped of his World Heavyweight Champion title in 1967 for refusing to serve in the armed forces. As he was still undefeated, Frazier had to beat him to be recognized as the world champion.

1972 The Goodyear airship Europa flew over Britain. It was the the first airship over Britain in 20 years.

1972 A bomb exploded in the cockpit of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 at Las Vegas airport.

1979 The compact disc is presented to the public. The CD was developed by Philips and Sony. The companies later collaborated to produce a standard format and CD players.

2001 Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.

2003 Singer and actor Adam Faith died. He had the 1959 UK No.1 single 'What Do You Want', plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles, and acting roles include the TV series 'Love Hurts.'

2011 Nineteen million dollars worth of jewellery that was stolen from a Harry Winston boutique, in a 2008 armed robbery, was found in a drain in a Parisian suburb. Police stated that they found three sets of earrings and nineteen rings in a plastic container set in concrete in a home in Seine-Saint-Denis. Nine people had been charged in connection to the theft in 2009 after police found part of the stolen jewelry in another Seine-Saint-Denis home.

2013 The US state of South Dakota passed a law that would allow teachers to be armed in schools. The law, aimed at preventing mass shootings, would allow schools and districts to choose whether or not to allow their staff to carry firearms.

2014 The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare's Law) came into effect across England and Wales. The scheme allowed people find out from police if their partner has a history of domestic violence and was named after 36 year-old Clare Wood who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009.

And Finally.

1990 Cher won the worst dressed female, and worst video for 'If I Could Turn Back Time', in The Rolling Stone Magazine's awards, Donny Osmond won the most unwelcome comeback award.

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[Dave]

March 9th

1831 The French Foreign Legion is founded.

1925 The start of Pink's War, an air to ground bombardment carried out by the Royal Air Force, under the command of Wing Commander Richard Charles Montagu Pink, against the tribesmen in north west Pakistan. It was the first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army and Royal Navy.

1946 33 fans were killed and hundreds injured when a barrier collapsed at the Bolton Wanderers' football ground. The dead and injured were taken from the stand, with those who had perished lain along the touchline and covered in coats. Incredibly, a little under half an hour after leaving the pitch, the game was restarted, with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the bodies. It was the deadliest football stadium-related disaster in British history until the Ibrox Park disaster in 1971.

1952 Bill Beaumont, former British Lions and England international rugby captain was born.

1956 British authorities deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus in an attempt to restore law and order to the island. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

1976 A line supporting a cable car snaps killing 42 people, including children, in the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy. 14-year-old Alessandra Piovesana was the only survivor.

1981 John Lambe who became known as the M5 Rapist was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was given a life sentence on each of 12 counts of rape and a six year sentence (concurrent) on four charges of attempted rape.

1994 IRA terrorists launched a mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.

2015 Archaeologists began excavating up to 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground under London's Liverpool Street station. The Bedlam burial ground was used from 1569 to at least 1738 and included bodies belonging to victims of the Black Death. The site is to serve the cross-London Crossrail line, due to open in 2018.

And Finally.

1562 Kissing in public is made illegal in Naples, Italy, punishable by death.

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