On This Day

raveydavey · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:48 pm Post subject:

July 12th:

100 BC: Birth of Gaius Julius Caesar. At the time of his birth this month was called Quintilis, but was renamed in honour of the most famous general in Roman history, who became a dictator. He is also famous for inventing one of the worlds most famous salads.

290 Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I.

1191: Soldiers of the Third Crusade capture the port of Acre in the Holy Land and massacre its inhabitants.

1450: A rebellion against war taxes ends when its leader, Jack Cade, is driven out of London and later killed.

1543: Sixth and last marriage of Henry VIII, to Catherine Parr at Hampton Court. She outlived him.

1690 William of Orange defeated the deposed Catholic, King James II, at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.

1730: Birth of Josiah Wedgwood, English pottery designer and manufacturer. He worked in his family’s pottery business at Churchyard Works, Burslem, Staffordshire. He contracted smallpox and his right leg was amputated; while convalescing, he spent a great deal of time on research and experimentation, and as a result, Wedgwood pieces became prized all over the world.

1794 British admiral Horatio Nelson lost his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica. (Nelson was born at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk - a turnip muncher then.)

1910 Charles Rolls, aged 33, pioneering pilot and co-founder of Rolls-Royce, was killed when he crashed his biplane in a flying competition at Bournemouth.

1930: Don Bradman, the Australian batsman, hit 309 runs in one day in the Test at Headingly, Leeds. He broke records not only for the most runs in a single day, but with his final score of 334.

1932 Yorkshire cricketer Hedley Verity took 10 wickets for 10 runs in a county championship match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley, Leeds.

1965: The creation of Britain's comprehensive education system begins with the publication of 'Circular 10/65'.

1969 Tony Jacklin became the first British golfer since 1951 to win the Open Championship.

1974 The manager of Liverpool football club, Bill Shankly announced his retirement.

1982 Kenneth More, British actor died.

1984 Robert Maxwell bought the Mirror Group newspapers.

1986 Dozens were injured in the second consecutive night of violent riots in Portadown, County Armagh. Violence flared when Orangemen converged on the town after their annual marches to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne (1690).

1989 Judy Leden became the first woman to cross the English Channel by hang glider. She was launched from a hot air balloon 13,500 ft above Dover and completed the flight in less than 30 minutes.

1989: In a court in Cleveland, Ohio, a shouting woman, who had been convicted for stealing jewellery, was ordered by the judge to have her mouth taped shut.

2000 House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd announced that she would resign from the high-profile post and her seat before the General Election. She did a far better job than her successor....

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

30 Mill · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:34 pm Post subject:

I always have fun looking at the confusion on my freinds faces when I show them / tell them Leeds has its own supporters club called Heavy Woolen Laughing

_________________
Remember children, the bigger your post count, the bigger your penis will be

raveydavey · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:46 pm Post subject:

July 13th:

1527: Birth of John Dee, English alchemist and mathematician. He was astrologer to Mary Tudor before being imprisoned for practising magic. He was not disgraced for long, casting horoscopes for Elizabeth I and naming the day for her coronation. He also advised navigators and explorers. The real importance of his work lay in encouraging an interest in mathematics, though he was more popular for the ‘magic shows’ which he gave while touring the courts of Europe.

1713 A treaty signed between Great Britain and Spain at Utrecht ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity. Hah, stick that in your sombrero! Wink

1837 Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to move into Buckingham Palace.

1911 The night of the 1911 census. A suffragette hid in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons so that she could record The House of Commons as her address, ‘thus making my claim to the same right as men’.

1919 The British airship R-34 crossed the Atlantic, both ways, in 13 days.

1923: A bill was passed by the British Parliament which outlawed the sale of alcohol to anyone under the age of 18. News of this law still hasn't reached many off-licences, it would seem...

1930: The inaugural football world cup kicks off in Uruguay, with the hosts winning the final 4-2 against Argentina. England wouldn't take part in the competition until after World War 2.

1943 The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft, ended in defeat for Germany.

1955 Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain - executed at Holloway Prison for the murder of her lover David Blakely.

1967 In the heat of the mountain stage of the Tour de France, British cyclist Tony Simpson, 29, collapsed and died.

1973: The Everly Brothers disbanded in mid-concert in California: Phil smashed his guitar and left Don on stage to finish the gig by himself. Shocked

1983 The House of Commons voted 361-245 against the restoration of the death penalty.

1985 Two simultaneous 'Live Aid' concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid. The 16-hour 'super concert' was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.

1991 Bryan Adams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with Everything I Do I Do It For You from the film Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. It stayed at No.1 for a record breaking 16 weeks, and was also a No.1 in the US and 16 other countries.

1993 Officials in Scumchester bidding to hold the 2000 Olympic Games were told that their chances were 'very, very high'. Their bid was not successful.

1995 The first man in Britain to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act appeared at Epsom Magistrates, when Szymon Serafimowicz, aged 84, was charged with murdering 4 million Jews in 1941 and 1942.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject:

June 14th:

Bastille Day, the national day of France, commemorating the storming of the Bastille in 1789. The Bastille in Paris was the notorious state prison. It was razed to the ground, marking the beginning of the Revolution. For many French, the day is also marked by them taking their annual bath.

National day of Iraq. This day marks the assassination in 1958 of King Faisal in a military coup led by General Kassem, after which Iraq became a republic.

1766 The official opening of the 137 mile long Grand Union Canal (Britain's longest canal) that links London to Birmingham.

1858 Emmeline Pankhurst, the English suffragette who led the fight for women's suffrage in Britain by violent means, was born.

1865 British climber Edward Whymper led the first team of climbers to reach the summit of the Matterhorn in the Alps. As they made their way down, Douglas Hadow, aged 19, slipped and dragged 2 English climbers and a guide after him. The rope snapped and they plunged to their deaths down a 4,000 ft precipice.

1867 Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel demonstrated dynamite for the first time, at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey.

1903 It became known that the government would reject proposals to introduce driving tests, vehicle inspections and penalties for drunken drivers. Shocked

1916: On the Western Front, an attack by a battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment on an enemy-held wood became pinned down by a German machine-gun, suffering heavy casualties. Sergeant Boulter, despite being wounded, pressed on in the open against the German position and used hand grenades to force the enemy gun crew to retreat. The battalion was then able to resume its advance and captured the wood successfully. Boulter was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).

1939 The government announced that all infants and nursing mothers would get fresh milk free or at no more than two pence a pint.

1940 World War II: Britain tackled the threat of a German invasion by forming the Home Guard - a part-time volunteer army, generally comprising men too old for national service.

1958 Iraq became a republic after the assassignation of King Faisal.

1962 The Beatles played their first gig in Wales when they appeared at The Regent Dansette Theatre in Rhyl. The tickets cost five shillings.

1967 Abortion was legalized in Britain.

1991 British troops protecting the Kurdish population in Iraq began to pull out of the region.

1996 A bomb exploded in a hotel at Enniskillen in Northern Ireland in which 40 people were injured. It was the first bomb in the province for two years.

1997 Convicted murderer and former London gangster Reggie Kray married Roberta Jones at Maidstone Prison in Kent.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

halfaperson · David Batty Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 1157

30 Mill · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:15 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:02 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:

July 15th:

971 According to the legend of St. Swithin, if it rains today, it will be the start of forty days of rain. St Swithin was bishop of Winchester Cathedral, and asked to be buried outside it so that he would be exposed to ‘the feet of passers-by and the drops falling from above’.

1099: The Muslim governor of Jerusalem surrendered to the Crusaders in the Tower of David. The Crusaders were led by Godfrey and Robert of Flanders and Tancred of Normandy.

1685 Charles II's illegitimate son (the Duke of Monmouth) was executed for rebelling against James II. His head was then put back on his shoulders so that his portrait could be painted.

1815 French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to Captain Maitland aboard the English ship Bellerophon, at Rochefort, before being sent into exile on the island of St Helena.

1857 200 British men, women and children were chopped up by local butchers and thrown down a well at Cawnpore, as the Indian Mutiny continued.

1865 The birth of Alfred (Charles William) Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. Northcliffe introduced the first tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, followed later by the Daily Mirror. He also took over The Times in 1908, and improved its declining sales.

1869: Margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mège Mouries in Paris. How ironic... Very Happy

1881: Death of Billy the Kid (William H Bonney), the notorious outlaw. He had broken out of jail and was trying to escape re-arrest, when he was shot in New Mexico by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Billy the Kid was 12 when he first killed a man, and went on to murder 21 more people.

1912 National Insurance payments began in Britain.

1948 Alcoholics Anonymous, in existence in the USA since 1935, was founded in London.

1953 Murderer John Christie, responsible for the deaths of at least six women in his home at 10, Rillington Place, London, was hanged.

1966 A West Indian, refused a job at Euston Station was later employed there after managers overturned a ban on black workers.

1996 Prince Charles and Princess Diana were granted a decree nisi. Princess Diana could no longer be addressed as Her Royal Highness but was to be known as Diana, Princess of Wales.

1997: Versace murdered on his doorstep. Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion.

1971 The British Government endorsed a cull of 350 baby seals in The Wash, under legislation aimed at protecting the seal population from over-crowding and being killed indiscriminately.

1977 The government announced a 10% pay restriction on wages to help curb inflation.

2000 Two men caught on camera for dangerous driving escaped prosecution in a landmark case, as it had violated their human rights.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

30 Mill · Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:42 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject:

July 16th:

622 This day is traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Islamic Era. Muhammad fled to Medina from persecution in Mecca, in what is known as the hegira, Arabic for ‘flight’.

1439 Kissing was banned in England because of the Plague. Perhaps they'll bring this rule back to combat swine flu..?

1902 Eight bills for the building of London underground lines received their second reading in the House of Commons.

1945 The leaders of the three Allied nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1945: In New Mexico, the first atomic bomb developed by Robert Oppenheimer and his team at Los Alamos was detonated. It was the official beginning of the atomic age.

1948: The first turbo-prop aircraft, the Vickers Viscount, had its maiden flight.

1950: 205,000 people formed the largest crowd ever to attend a football match. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil lost 1-2 in the Brazil-Uruguay World Cup match.

1955 Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix at the Aintree track near Liverpool - the first time an Englishman had triumphed in the race.

1964 The Rolling Stones had their first UK No.1 single with It's All Over Now.

1969: Apollo 11 takes off for the Moon. The Apollo 11 space rocket takes off from Cape Kennedy at the start of the first attempt to land a man on the Moon.

1970 Prime Minister Edward Heath declared a state of emergency following the start of a national dock strike - the first state of emergency issued in Britain since 1926.

1987 The two biggest airlines in the UK (One time rivals British Caledonian and British Airways) merged in order to compete with America's giant air corporations.

1988 Lord Harewood, the Queen’s cousin, brought in police to investigate the theft of the world’s smallest horse, Pernod, a 27-inch-high Shetland stallion.

1993 Britain's internal security service, MI5, held the first photocall in its 84-year history when Stella Rimington (Director General) posed openly for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisation's activities.

1996 Diana, Princess of Wales, announced that she was severing links with more than 100 charities.

2000 Footballer George Best's doctor begged every barman in Britain to refuse to serve alcohol to the footballing legend to help him beat his addiction.

2001 Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that public services could not be transformed totally within the coming Parliament.

2001 The Labour Government was defeated in the House of Commons for the first time since it came to power in 1997.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:36 pm Post subject:

July 17th:

1453 With the defeat of the English at the Battle of Castillon, the Hundred Years' War between France and England came to an end.

1761 The official opening of the Bridgewater canal.

1841 The first issue of the humorous magazine Punch was published in London. It ceased publication in 1992 but was re-launched in 1996.

1917 World War 1: The British Royal Family adopted the name of the House of Windsor in place of their German family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1918: At Villers-Bretonneux, Lieutenant Borella led an Australian infantry platoon during an attack on formidable German defences. He and his men charged a machine-gun post and took it, although the attack left them sorely depleted in numbers. With just ten men left, Borella took a trench held by a much larger German force, capturing thirty of them. The Australians then held off a counter-attack by a force ten times their number. Borella received the Victoria Cross (VC).

1944: On anti-submarine patrol over the Atlantic, an RAF Catalina flying-boat of 210 Squadron piloted by Flying Officer Cruickshank sighted a U-boat. U-742 chose to fight it out on the surface and met the Catalina's attack with accurate anti-aircraft fire. One of the RAF crew was killed, and others wounded, and the aircraft suffered serious damage. Cruickshank himself suffered no less than 72 wounds, but ignored his injuries to bring the Catalina around for a second attack run. This proved on target, depth charges straddling the submarine and destroying her. The damaged Catalina then faced a 5.5 hour flight home. Cruickshank lost consciousness several times but managed to help land the aircraft safely. He received the Victoria Cross.

1958 British troops were sent to Jordan to deal with unrest there, possibly involving Peter Andre...

1960 The Beatles began a three-month engagement at The Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany, their first appearance outside Britain.

1964 British speed pioneer Sir Donald Campbell set a new land speed world record of 429mph in his car, Bluebird.

1974 An explosion in the Tower of London left one person dead and 41 injured. The incident happened without the coded warning typical of the IRA.

1975: US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts crossed over from their docked spacecraft to shake hands at an altitude of 140 miles.

1976: African countries boycott Olympics. The opening ceremony of the 21st Olympic games in Montreal is marred by the withdrawal of 25 African countries. They are all protesting at New Zealand's sporting links with South Africa.

1981 The Humber Bridge, joining Yorkshire with Lincolnshire, was officially opened by the Queen. For 16 years after its construction it was the world's longest single-span structure.

1987 Former Guinness director Thomas Ward was ordered to repay £5.2m to the brewing giants after being found guilty of illegal practices during the takeover of drinks company Distillers Group the previous year.

1995 Robbie Williams left Take That, leaving them as a 'fab four'. The group had scored six UK No.1 singles with Robbie in the group.

2000 British supermarket Tesco decided to revive imperial measures in its stores after shoppers' pressure. Except it hasn't really as everything is still marked in metric measurements...

2001 Michael Portillo was dropped from the Tory leadership contest after coming third in a final ballot of MPs.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:58 pm Post subject:

July 18th:

64 BC: Rome burned, and legend has it that Nero fiddled (or played a lyre) as the fire gutted two-thirds of the city. In fact, one of the few things Nero deserves credit for is rebuilding Rome after the fire.

1817 Jane Austen, English novelist of Pride and Prejudice died, aged 41.

1848 W.G Grace, cricketing legend, was born

1872 Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot.

1877: Edison had his first success in his experiments with recording and storing the sounds of the human voice. He worked to improve his methods, and early the next year he demonstrated his invention at the offices of the Scientific American.

1901 The water supply was turned off in Scumchester as a heat wave hit the U.K. with the temperature reaching 35 degrees Centigrade.

1918: Birth of Nelson (Rolihlahla) Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and freeman of Leeds. The South African lawyer and politician earned the nickname ‘Black Pimpernel’ in 1961, when he was on the run from police. In 1964 he was imprisoned for plotting to overthrow the government, and he remained in custody until 1990. He went on to be elected President of South Africa.

1920 The unveiling of the Cenotaph War memorial in Whitehall, London to commemorate the war dead. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and takes its name from the Greek words kenos and taphos meaning empty tomb.

1923 Under the Matrimonial Causes Bill, British women were given equal divorce rights with men.

1934 The official opening, by King George V, of the first Mersey Road Tunnel in Liverpool.

1950 Richard Branson, British entrepreneur, was born.

1955: Disneyland opened at Anaheim, California. It had cost $17 million to build Walt Disney’s 160-acre theme park.

1970 Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett was sacked after he joked on air that the wife of the conservative transport minister Mary Peyton had 'crammed a fiver into the examiner's hand', when taking her driving test.

1975 Former British MP John Stonehouse was flown back from Australia to face charges relating to his attempt to falsify his own death.

1992 John Smith was elected leader of the Labour party, with Margaret Beckett as his deputy.

2000 Police confirmed that the body they had found in a West Sussex field the previous day was that of missing eight-year old Sarah Payne.

2003 The body of government scientist Dr David Kelly was found in woodland, in Oxfordshire. Dr Kelly had been at the centre of a row between the British Government and the BBC about the use of intelligence reports in the run up to the war against Iraq.

2009 Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, died, aged 113. (see seperate post)

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:17 pm Post subject:

July 19th:

1545 The Mary Rose, the pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives. (The ship was raised on 11th October 1982 to be taken to Portsmouth Dockyard.)

1553 Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I as Queen of England after having the title for just nine days.

1814: Birth of Samuel Colt. Colt spent time at sea, during which he created a six-shot revolver out of wood. He patented his invention in 1835, but it was not immediately successful, and his manufacturing business suffered. His guns had gained popularity by the time he invented the first remote-controlled naval mine, and Colt made his fortune. He was a progressive businessman, with advanced ideas about the welfare of his workers.

1837 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 236 ft steamship, the Great Western, was launched at Bristol. On the same day in 1843, his 'Great Britain', the first Atlantic liner built of iron, was launched at Wapping Dock.

1903: The first Tour de France cycle race, devised and promoted by journalist Henri Desgranger, saw its first winner as Maurice Garin crossed the finish line.

1918 The end of World War I approached as the German army began retreating across the Marne River in France.

1941 Winston Churchill introduced his 'V for Victory" campaign which rapidly spread through Europe. The BBC took the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, and played it before news bulletins. Thats not something the BBC would consider nowadays, prefering to seek balance with the views of the Germans given equal, if not more, prominence in the news....

1969 British rower John Fairfax arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after becoming the first person to row across the Atlantic alone. He had left the Canary Islands on January 20th in a 24’ rowing boat and after 180 days and 4000 miles he had finished his journey. Three years later, with his girl friend, he rowed the 8000 miles from San Francisco to the Hayman Islands off the Queensland Coast

1976 British fishermen urged the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Crosland, to secure a 50-mile fishing zone around the UK.

1986 English boxer Frank Bruno was beaten in a heavyweight world championship contender fight by American Tim Witherspoon.

1990 MPs voted in favour of permanent televising of the House of Commons.

1997 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) restored its cease-fire (broken on 9 February 1996) in order to participate in talks on the future of Northern Ireland.

1999 An academic study revealed that four million children in Britain were living in poverty.

2001 Ex Conservative MP Lord Jeffrey Archer, was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:53 pm Post subject:

July 20th:

1304: Stirling Castle surrendered to Edward I after a four-month siege, marking his successful conquest of Scotland. However, this was only to remain unchallenged for less than two years when Robert the Bruce rebelled.

1588: The Spanish Armada set sail from Coruña. They had originally intended to sail a month earlier, but a severe storm forced the fleet to disperse.

1807 Round-arm (over-arm) bowling was introduced to English cricket by John Willes in the Kent v England match at Fenenden Heath.

1837 London’s first railway station opened, in Euston Grove. The new Euston station was described as ‘mightier than the pyramids of Egypt’.

1871 The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition was formed, to become better known as the FA Cup. The first final saw the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by one goal to nil, watched by a crowd of 2,000.

1875: Professional football was legalized in England.

1889 John Reith, Scottish engineer and first director general of the BBC, was born.

1919: Birth in New Zealand of Sir Edmund (Percival) Hillary. A mountaineer and Antarctic explorer, he teamed up with Sherpa Tenzing to be the first to reach the summit of Everest. He later became New Zealand High Commissioner to India.

1938 Diana Rigg, English actress, was born.

1944 World War II: Adolf Hitler escaped death after a third attempt on his life when a bomb exploded in Rastenberg.

1957: British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan invited ridicule when he said ‘Let’s be frank about it. Most of our people have never had it so good,’ at a meeting in Bradford, and again five days later in the House of Commons. It became a catchphrase, spoken in the same derisory tones as his nickname, ‘Supermac’.

1968 During a BBC radio interview, actress Jane Asher announced that her engagement to Beatle Paul McCartney was off. He was not the first to find out!

1974: Turkey invades Cyprus. Thousands of Turkish troops invade northern Cyprus after last-minute talks in the Greek capital, Athens, fail to reach a solution.

1982 An IRA terrorist bomb in Hyde Park, London, killed 3 members of the Blues and Royals during the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Two hours later 8 bandsmen were killed by an IRA bomb planted at the bandstand in Regent's Park.

1990 An IRA bomb blew a 10-foot hole in the London Stock Exchange.

2000 Families of the victims of serial killer GP Harold Shipman won their High Court battle for an open inquiry into how their loved ones came to die.

2002 Charles Kennedy, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and his fiancee Sarah Gurling, were married in the House of Commons chapel.

2003 The BBC confirmed that weapons expert Dr David Kelly, found dead two days earlier, was the source for reports that the government had "sexed up" an Iraq dossier.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:49 pm Post subject:

July 21st: National day of Belgium, marking the day in 1831 when Belgium broke from the Netherlands to become a kingdom in its own right. Prince Leopold became King Leopold I of Belgium.

1336: Edward III launched a pre-emptive attack on Scotland before Philip VI of France's plans to reinforce his Scottish allies could be brought to fruition. With less than a thousand men, Edward hurried north towards Aberdeen, thought the most likely port for the French to head for. The Scottish troops under Murray were caught completely off guard and had to abandon their seige of Lochindurb, held for Edward by the Countess of Atholl. Having burnt Forres and Elgin, Edward reached Aberdeen on 21 July and razed it to the ground.

1796 Robert Burns, Scottish poet died, aged 37.

1897 London's Tate Gallery, built on the site of the Millbank Prison, was opened, with 67 paintings.

1909 Six suffragettes, jailed for breaking windows in Whitehall, were released for insubordination, kicking and biting female wardens and for going on strike.

1931 A Bill proposing the sterilisation of the mentally defective was defeated in the House of Commons.

1960 English yachtsman Francis Chichester docked in New York in his boat Gypsy Moth II - setting a new record of 40 days for a solo crossing of the Atlantic.

1962 British group The Rolling Stones made their first public appearance at the Marquee Club in London.

1969: Man takes first steps on the Moon. American Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the Moon. The astronaut stepped onto the Moon's surface, in the Sea of Tranquility, at 0256 GMT, nearly 20 minutes after first opening the hatch on the Eagle landing craft.
Armstrong had earlier reported the lunar module's safe landing at 2017 GMT with the words: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." As he put his left foot down first Armstrong declared: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

1974 The Police national computer (PNC) began operating.

1976 The British Ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, was killed by a terrorist car bomb in Dublin.

1982 The flagship of the British taskforce to the Falklands, HMS Hermes, arrived back in Portsmouth.

1988: While landing at Baroda Airport, western India, an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 was charged by a bull who tried to take the jet by the horns. None of the passengers was hurt, but the bull died.

1994 The MP for Sedgefield, Tony Blair, was confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the unexpected death of John Smith. History has proved it a dark day for the Labour movement.

2000 Downing Street insisted they would not intervene after Home Secretary Jack Straw's car was stopped by the police for speeding.

2001 Police met community leaders in Brixton after a demonstration against the fatal shooting by police of a man waving a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun.

2005 London's underground network was plunged into chaos after explosions on two trains and a bus - exactly a fortnight after four suicide bomb blasted the capital.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:36 pm Post subject:

July 22nd:

1284: According to legend, this is the day when the Pied Piper appeared in Hamelin, Brunswick, and agreed a deal with the burghers to remove the rats. When the burghers refused to pay, the Pied Piper led away all the town’s children.

1298 The English used longbows for the first time, when they defeated the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk. The Scottish pikemen were cut to pieces by Edward I's archers.

1812: Advancing into Spain, Wellington's allied army manoeuvred around encountered Marshal Marmont's French troops near Salamanca. Well matched in strength, the two armies manoeuvred for several weeks, each seeking a tactical advantage. On the morning of 22 July, Marmont thought he detected an opportunity and attacked. However, Wellington was well prepared: he held Pakenham's 3rd Division and the cavalry in reserve, and seeing that the French were over-extending themselves in the advance, unleashed them. Additional troops were thrown in, although the French defeated attacks by Cole's 4th Division and Pack's Portuguese. Marmont had fallen wounded, and Clausel assumed command. He attempted one last counter-attack, but this broke upon Clinton's 6th Division. Although overshadowed by Waterloo, Salamanca was perhaps Wellington's most accomplished display of tactical skill. He lost some 5,000 men, inflicting losses of 14,000 on the French.

1844 The Rev. William Archibald Spooner, Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford, was born. He was famous for 'Spoonerisms' such as 'Come into the arms of the shoving leopard' instead of 'Come into the arms of the loving shepherd'.

1934: Death of bank robber John Dillinger, ‘public enemy No. 1’. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, had offered a $10,000 reward for his capture, dead or alive. FBI agents received a tip-off that a particular man coming out of the Biograph Cinema, Chicago, would be Dillinger. The man appeared in the crowd, and when he appeared to reach for a gun, the agents shot him dead. However, some people have compared US Naval records of Dillinger’s description when he was a crewman, and suspect that he was not the man who was shot.

1938 Terence Stamp, actor, was born, in Stepney, London. He had an off-screen romance with Julie Christie, while they were filming Far from the Madding Crowd.

1940: The Special Operations Executive was established, "to set Europe alight", under the direction of the Minister for Economic Warfare, Hugh Dalton.

1942: Thwarted in their attempts to take Port Moresby in New Guinea by amphibious landing, the Japanese attempted to advance across the Owen Stanley Mountains along the Kokoda Trail. They encountered determined resistance from Australian troops in what proved a long and appalling fight in the most difficult of terrain; mountainous rain forests. The Japanese advanced to within 30 miles (48km) of Port Moresby in September, before being driven back. Fighting continued until November.
In the Western Desert, Australian troops encountered heavy machine-gun fire as they advanced. Private Gurney attacked alone, and bayoneted in turn the crews of two machine-gun nests. He then disappeared from sight, heading for a third. His attacks made possible an advance by his comrades, who found his body some hours later. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC).

1946 More than a year after the end of World War Two, bread was rationed in Britain. The shortage was blamed on a poor harvest and drought.

1965 The leader of the Opposition, Alec Douglas-Home, surprised colleagues by resigning from his post.

1972 Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Sweden for possession of drugs.

1986 MPs voted to abolish corporal punishment in state schools. Thin. End. Wedge.

1991 British prime minister John Major unveiled the government's Citizen's Charter aimed at improving public services. Still a roaring success to this day...

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales was among 3,000 people at a Mass in Milan in memory of murdered Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace.

1999 The first Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show in the North of England was held at Tatton Park in Cheshire.

2003 Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, were killed in a gun battle in northern Iraq.

2005 Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was mistaken for a terrorist suspect and was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station in south London.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:32 pm Post subject:

July 23rd:

1745 Charles Stuart, the 'Young Pretender' landed in the Outer Hebrides in his attempt to win back the throne for the Stuarts. Lets hope he didn't land on a Sunday, that would have upset the locals (see seperate story elsewhere)

1884: The Australian owner and crew of four on a yacht sailing from Britain to Sydney, were forced to abandon ship when the pump failed during a storm. Their provisions ran out; the cabin boy drank sea water and went mad. The others dealt with the problem by killing and eating him on this day. They were eventually rescued, and made no effort to hide what they had done. They were tried and sentenced to death, but as a result of public sympathy their sentence was reduced to six months’ imprisonment.

1886 Arthur Whitten Brown, British aviator was born. He was the navigator of the first successful non-stop transatlantic flight, (14th June 1919), with John Alcock as pilot.

1892: Birth of Ras Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia. He modernized his country, but went into exile when the Italians invaded in 1936. Ethiopia was liberated by British and Ethiopian forces in 1941, whereupon he returned and resumed his position.

1901 Tim Henman's great-grandmother (Ellen Stawell Brown) became the first woman to serve overarm at the All England Tennis Club.

1913 Michael Foot, Former Labour Party leader (1980-83), was born.

1916: British and Australian troops began an offensive at Pozieres Ridge during the Battle of the Somme. The village of Pozieres itself fell to Australian troops in the first hour, but the ridge, heavily fortified, took another two weeks to fall. Two Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for their gallantry on the first day: Second Lieutenant Blackburn led a succession of difficult attacks which took over 350 yards (320m) of German trench-lines, while Private Leak distinguished himself as a bomber, at one point eliminating at close-quarters a rival enemy grenade team.

1940 The Local Defence Volunteers were renamed the Home Guard by Winston Churchill.

1943: In Essex, there was a huge explosion when a grenade mine designed to blow up tanks, went off under the seat of a wheelchair occupied by a domestic tyrant. The man was accompanied by a resident nurse, and she survived, but there was no trace left of the wheelchair or its occupant. The man’s son, Eric, a soldier, who had been on the receiving end of his father’s tyranny, was charged with murder. He was found guilty, but insane.

1944: After two months concentrating its efforts on supporting the Normandy landings, Bomber Command resumed operations against German cities and industry, launching 629 aircraft against Kiel. The German defences were caught off-guard by the change in focus, and further confused by effective radio counter-measures conducted by the specialist aircraft of 100 Group. Only four Lancasters were lost. The bombing was particularly effective, with every major U-boat yard hit.

1955 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater in the Lake District when he reached 202.32mph in his craft 'Bluebird'.

1957 There were violent scenes around Britain as the strike by busmen entered its fourth day.

1980 Cliff Richard received his OBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

1984 A government report into cancer levels near the controversial nuclear plant at Sellafield in Cumbria confirmed suspicions of higher than-normal levels of leukaemia in the area, but said it could not definitely link this to the nuclear plant itself.

1986 Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson and was created Duke of York.

1995 Britain sent 1,200 troops to relieve the besieged Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

1996 The BSE scare was extended to sheep after research showed that mad cow disease could be transmitted to sheep in laboratory tests.

1997 Tony Blair's Government announced that students would have to pay tuition fees and that maintenance grants would be abolished.

1997 History was made when for the first time in 127 years hen harriers were raised in Derbyshire, 1500 feet above the Goyt Valley near Buxton.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject:

24 July:

1567 Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1 year old son, James VI of Scotland - (James I of England).

1701: The city of Detroit was founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, administrator in French North America, as a fur trading post which he called Font-Pontchartain du Détroit.

1704: Gibraltar was captured from Spain by Admiral Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovel.

1837 Robert Cocking made a parachute jump from a hot air balloon 5,000 feet above Kennington Common. Unfortunately the cone-shaped parachute inverted and he became the first person to die in a parachute jump.

1851 The window tax in Britain was abolished.

1883 Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English channel (1875) drowned whilst attempting to swim the rapids at Niagara Falls.

1908 Fifty six runners began the London Marathon from Windsor Castle as part of the London Olympic Games.

1925: At Guy’s Hospital, London, six-year-old Patricia Cheeseman received the first successful treatment with insulin.

1926 The first greyhound racing track in the UK was opened, at Belle Vue, in Scumchester.

1936 The GPO (General Post Office) introduced TIM - the automated speaking clock using the voice of Miss Ethel Cain - a telephonist at the GPO's Victoria telephone exchange in London.

1966 After a local and national campaign, the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles first performed, was re-opened. Prime Minister Harold Wilson performed the opening ceremony.

1986 'Live Aid' organiser Bob Geldof was made an honorary knight of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

1987 Former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Jeffrey Archer, was awarded record libel damages at the High Court. The Daily Star newspaper was ordered to pay the MP £500,000 damages, along with up to £700,000 costs, for a front-page story in November 1986 alleging that Mr. Archer had paid to have sex with a prostitute.

1996 Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen's Christmas broadcast would no longer be a BBC exclusive.

2000 Loyalist paramilitary hit man Michael Stone was released from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. He was given a 684 year sentence in 1989 for six murders and five attempted murders, but was set free as part of the Good Friday peace agreement.

2005: At 1917 hrs a three vehicle patrol from B Company, 2nd Battalion, 121st Regiment of the Georgia National Guard was attacked by a massive command initiated IED in the Al Bayaa district near Baghdad. The ensuing explosion resulted in the complete destruction of a 'sHumvee's patrol vehicle and the deaths of four US personnel. Due to the significance of the attack, a team from CEXC, commanded by Captain Norton, was tasked immediately to the scene. On arrival, Captain Norton was faced with a scene of carnage and the inevitable confusion which is present in the aftermath of such an incident. He quickly took charge and ensured the safety of all the coalition forces present. A short while later he was briefed that a possible command wire had been spotted in the vicinity of the explosion site. With a complete understanding of the potential hazard to himself and knowing that the insurgents had used secondary devices before in the particularly dangerous part of Iraq, Captain Norton instructed his team and the US forces present in the area to remain with their vehicle while he alone went forward to confirm whether a command wire IED was present.

A short while later, an explosion occurred and Captain Norton sustained a traumatic amputation of his left leg and suffered serious blast and fragmentation injuries to his right leg, arms and lower abdomen. When his team came forward to render first aid, he was conscious, lucid and most concerned regarding their safety. He had correctly deduced that he had stepped on a victim operated IED and there was a high probability that further devices were present. Before allowing them to render first aid, he instructed his team on which areas were safe and where they could move. Despite having sustained grievous injuries he remained in command and coolly directed the follow-up actions. It is typical of the man that he ignored his injuries and regarded the safety of his men a paramount as they administered life saving first aid to him. It is of note that a further device was found less than ten metres away and rendered safe the following day. Captain Norton'ss prescience and clear orders in the most difficult circumstances undoubtedly prevented further serious injury or loss of life.

Captain Norton has deployed to numerous other incidents during his time in Iraq, three of which a warrant mention. On 30 April 2005 he was investigating the scene of a suicide vehicle borne IED when his team was attached by two rocket propelled grenades. Despite the attack he still managed to conduct the necessary post-blast analysis. On 9 May 2005, whilst exploiting a supposedly neutralised suicide vest IED, which was packet with a combination of high explosives and ball-bearings, Captain Norton discovered that the detonators were still connected. He immediately, and without thought for his own safety, made the device safe by hand. Furthermore on 23 June 2005, whilst investigating the scene of an IED, Captain Norton discovered, concealed in the roadside, a secondary claymore mine. His quick and instinctive thinking ensured the area was rapidly evacuated and allowed a US Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team to clear the device, thereby saving further loss of life. Captain Norton has come under fire and has been exposed to significant danger on a number of occasions. He has consistently behaved in an exemplary fashion and his professionalism has been of the highest order. Captain Norton'ss outstanding bravery at the incident in Al Bayaa and throughout his tour fully justifies formal recognition. For his heroic actions Captain Peter Norton was awarded the George Cross (GC), and was the twenty-second member of the Armed Forces to do so since 1945.

2009: The Homecoming Parade of 1 Yorks The Yorkshire Regiment in Leeds following successful deployments in Iraq and Kosovo.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 2:45 pm Post subject:

July 25th: Only 5 months 'til Christmas!

1797 British naval commander Horatio Nelson's right arm was shattered by grapeshot during an assault on Tenerife. The injured arm was amputated later.

1814 The chief engineer at the Killingworth colliery, George Stevenson, unveiled Blutcher, his steam powered locomotive that could haul eight carriages loaded with 30 tons of coal at the break-neck speed of 4 mph.

1834 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (whose works included 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner') died.

1843 Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor died. He invented waterproof clothing, hence the term macintosh or mac.

1865 Dr. James (Jane) Barry, the first woman doctor (because she masqueraded as a man), died.

1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell began setting up his experimental camp on Brownsea Island near Poole to test the feasibility of Scouting.

1909 Frenchman Louis Blériot won the Daily Mail prize for the first successful flight across the English Channel. He made the trip in 37 minutes, landing close to Dover Castle. His success delighted the French but worried the British, who felt that they had suddenly become vulnerable to air attack.

1915: The Royal Flying Corps' first dedicated air combat formation, 11 Squadron, was equipped with the two-seat Vickers Gunbus. Meanwhile, Captain L G Hawker, 6 Squadron, flying a Bristol Scout with an improvised machine-gun mounting, damaged one German reconnaissance aircraft, forced another down, and destroyed in flames a third, during a single sortie over the Ypres salient. Hawker was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) and went on to become the RFC's leading fighter pilot. He was killed in action on 23 November 1916, during a dogfight with Leutnant Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen: he was the Red Baron's eleventh and most distinguished victim.

1944 The first jet fighter to engage an enemy in combat was a Messerschmitt 262, over Munich, when it was intercepted by a Mosquito of 544 Squadron.

1959: The experimental SRNI hovercraft, one of several tested by Sir Christopher Cockerell, crossed the Channel in 50 minutes.

1962 In London, the Buckingham Palace Art Gallery officially opened to the public.

1978 The first test-tube baby in Britain was born Louise Joy Brown, at Oldham Hospital, Lancashire. It had taken 12 years of research by gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and Dr Robert Edwards to make the birth possible. Louise weighed 5lb 12 oz and was delivered by caesarean section.

1992: World unites at Barcelona Olympics. The Olympic Games opens in Barcelona with all countries present for the first time in modern history.

2000: Concorde crash kills 113. Concorde crashes minutes after take-off from Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris killing 113 people.

2002 The Queen opened the Commonwealth Games in Scumchester. Around one million visitors are thought to have gone to Scumchester to see the event live and the world television audience was estimated to top one billion.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

raveydavey · Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 2:39 pm Post subject:

July 26th:

1745 The first recorded women's cricket match was played near Guildford, Surrey, between teams from Hambledon and Bramley.

1845 The Great Britain, (the first iron ship designed by Brunel), sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage.

1858 Lionel Rothschild took his seat in the House of Commons to become Britain's first Jewish member of Parliament.

1890 From the roof of the General Post Office in Aldersgate, Guglielmo Marconi made the first public transmission of wireless (radio) signals.

1943 Mick Jagger, British rock singer with the Rolling Stones, was born.

1943 World War II: The Allies mounted one of the largest raids of the war – sending more than 1,000 aircraft to bomb the German industrial city of Hamburg. An estimated 60,000 people were killed.

1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in a landslide victory. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister. He said: 'Labour can deliver the goods'.

1958 In Britain, debutantes were presented at the Royal Court for the last time.

1983 A mother of 10 failed to prevent doctors prescribing contraception to under 16s without parental consent.

1989 56-year-old Leslie Merry was knocked off his feet, a rib broken and his spleen ruptured, by a turnip thrown from a passing car in east London. He finally died of respiratory failure brought on by the accident.

1990 It was announced that the Fraud Squad would investigate the National Union of Mineworkers' accounts over Soviet miners' untraced donations.

2001 Prime Minister Tony Blair was greeted by dozens of angry farmers in crisis-torn Cumbria on a visit to help boost the region's struggling tourist industry following the foot and mouth crisis.

_________________
The advert above is nowt to do with me!

Boycott Sheffield

	everythingleeds.myfastforum.org Forum Index -> Current Affairs	All times are GMT - 1 Hours Page Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 39, 40, 41 ... 46, 47, 48 Next
Page 40 of 48