On This Day

raveydavey · Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:33 pm Post subject:

October 17th:

1651: Charles II, defeated by Cromwell at Worcester, fled to France, destitute and friendless.

1727 The birth of John Wilkes, English political agitator and advocate of press freedom who, despite being elected to Parliament four times, was not allowed to take his seat. Eventually, working, and middle-class support secured him his rightful entry to Parliament where he fought for reforms and religious tolerance.

1855 A steel-making process was patented, by Englishman Sir Harry Bessemer.

1860 The world's first professional golf tournament was held, at Prestwick in Scotland.

1936 Newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook promised King Edward VIII that he would arrange for the British press to remain silent on the subject of his relationship with American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson.

1942: 94 Lancasters from Bomber Command's 5 Group conducted an audacious long-range low-level daylight raid on the Schneider arms factory at Le Creusot in central France, which was manufacturing heavy guns and railway engines for the Germans. After intensive low-flying training, the aircraft set out over the sea, passing around Brittany to make landfall on the Biscay coast. Despite the lack of fighter cover, only one aircraft was lost, when it attacked its intended target at such low level it crashed into the building. Four other aircraft were damaged by bird strikes. 140 tons (142 metric tons) of bombs fell on the factory and a nearby electricity transformer station. Sadly, a nearby housing estate was also badly hit by bombs that fell short.

1956 Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in Cumbria - Britain's first large scale atomic energy station.

1973 The start of a major world oil crisis when oil producing Arab states increased prices by 70 per cent and cut production in protest at US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

1978 Public pressure led ministers to reduce the number of grey seals to be culled in Scotland.

1980 In Rome, the first ever meeting between a British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and the Pope, during a State Visit to the Vatican.

1985 The House of Lords, in the Gillick case, permitted doctors to prescribe oral contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent.

1989: Earthquake hits San Francisco. A powerful earthquake rocks San Francisco killing nine people and injuring hundreds.

1991 Four independent television companies: TV-am, Thames, TVS and TSW lost their licences to broadcast following a 'sealed bid' system of awarding the franchises by the Independent Television Commission.

1996 England international footballer Paul Gascoigne was accused of beating up his wife Sheryl at a hotel in Scotland.

2000 Four people were killed when a high speed passenger train derailed in Hatfield, just north of London.

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raveydavey · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:13 pm Post subject:

October 18th:

1016: Cnut, King of Denmark, defeated Edmund Ironside, King of England, in battle at Ashingdon. Ironside was forced to cede the north of England to Cnut, and his subsequent murder resulted in Cnut gaining control over the whole of the country.

1674 The birth of Richard ‘Beau’ Nash, English gambler who made Bath a city of fashion; improving its streets and buildings.

1826 Britain's last state lottery was held, prior to the launch of the National Lottery in 1994.

1865 British Tory politician Lord (Pumice-stone) Palmerston died in office. His abrasive and arrogant style earned him his nickname.

1910 The trial of English murderer Dr Crippen began at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London.

1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation was officially formed.

1940: There was very little daylight Luftwaffe activity. Night targets included London, Bristol, Liverpool, Southampton and Birmingham. Convoys SC-7 and HX-79 suffered grievously at the hands of U-boat wolfpacks, losing seventeen and fourteen ships respectively.

1957 The Queen and Prince Philip visited the US and the White House to mark the 350th anniversary of the British settling in Virginia.

1963 Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister because of ill health. Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister.

1966 The Queen granted a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, wrongly convicted and hanged in 1950 for the murder of his wife and child. The real murderer was John Reginald Christie who had been hanged for mass murder in 1953.

1977 Hilary Bradshaw became the first woman to referee a rugby match when Bracknell played High Wycombe.

1987 Nigel Mansell won the Mexican Grand Prix.

1988 British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, banned all broadcasts involving terrorist spokesmen. IRA spokesmen could be seen, but not heard, although their statements could be reported by the media.

1995 Red Rum, three times winner of the Grand National at Aintree, died at the age of 30 - an exceptional age for a horse.

1998 Richard Bacon, presenter of the BBC TV programme 'Blue Peter' was sacked for taking cocaine.

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raveydavey · Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject:

October 19th:

1216 King John died during a Civil War which was the result of his refusal to recognize the Magna Carta signed the previous year. He was known as Lackland for losing so much territory to France.

1745 Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, died aged 77.

1781 The American War of Independence came to an end when British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000 troops to George Washington at Yorktown, in Virginia, after a three week siege.

1914 World War I - The start of the First Battle of Ypres. It saw the British and French defeat repeated German attempts to break their lines in an attempt to capture the channel ports.

1914 Wartime licensing laws came into operation, premises having to close at 10 p.m. Shocked

1918: Advancing Allied troops liberated Zeebrugge and Bruges, finally putting an end to the depredations of the Flanders-based U-boat flotillas which had enjoyed great success against British shipping.

1954 The first day of the public inquiry into the crashes of two Comet airliners within months of each other heard that metal fatigue was the most likely cause. The Comet's certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn after the second crash.

1958: Driving for Ferrari, Mike Hawthorn became world motor racing champion despite coming second in the Moroccan Grand Prix to compatriot Stirling Moss, the winner.

1970 British Petroleum announced the first major discovery of oil under the British sector of the North Sea.

1978 For the first time in Britain, the International Motor Show was held outside London, its new home being the newly-completed National Exhibition Centre (NEC) near Birmingham.

1987 Black Monday. Millions of pounds were wiped off the value of shares and other financial markets around the world. Wall Street ended the day down 22%, a greater fall than the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

1989 The 'Guildford Four' had their convictions quashed after wrongly serving 14 years in prison for the IRA bombings at Guildford and Woolwich.

1991 London's Royal Opera House had to cancel its performance, as orchestra members, pursuing an industrial dispute, refused to wear dinner jackets and turned up in jeans.

2001 It was announced that a 'serious error' was made by researchers who wasted five years testing the wrong animal brains for BSE!

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raveydavey · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:36 pm Post subject:

October 20th:

1632 The birth of English architect Christopher Wren. He was responsible for the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral following the Great Fire of London.

1714 The Coronation of King George I.

1792: Birth of Colin Campbell, Baron Clyde, British commander-in-chief during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 who was nicknamed ‘Old Careful’ because of his sense of economy: this included winning battles by losing as few of his men as possible.

1818 The 49th Parallel was established by the USA and Britain as the official boundary between Canada and the United States of America.

1822 The first edition of the Sunday Times newspaper.

1822 The birth of Thomas Hughes, English author who wrote Tom Brown's Schooldays.

1827: During the Greek War of Independence, a Turkish-Egyptian fleet had landed troops at Navarino Bay in the Peloponnese, despite demands by the three Great Powers, Britain, France and Russia, for an armistice. A fleet from all three Powers, led by Vice Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, was ordered to intervene. On 20 October, the allied fleet entered Navarino Bay and destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian ships. The decisive defeat led to Egypt withdrawing its support to the Ottomans. Navarino was effectively the last major Royal Navy action under sail, with steam propulsion being widely adopted in later years.

1944: General MacArthur returned to the Philippines, now the liberator, fulfilling a promise he made when his forces retreated from the Japanese; while on the same day the Allies captured Aachen, the first German city in their drive to Berlin.

1946 'Muffin the Mule', a wooden puppet operated by Annette Mills (sister of actor Sir John Mills) first appeared in a children's television programme on BBC TV.

1959 Women's colleges at Oxford University were given equal rights to those of the men's.

1960 D.H Lawrence's controversial novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' put Penguin Books in the dock at the Old Bailey, London. They were accused of publishing obscene material but were eventually found not guilty.

1973 Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Sydney Opera House in Australia, designed by Danish architect John Utzon.

1988 The British Government announced plans to change the law so that remaining silent could incriminate rather than protect a suspect.

1996 Oscar winners 'Wallace and Gromit' disappeared after being left in a taxi in New York. Both the life-size plastic models from Britain's award winning animation film were later found safe and well !

1997 'Brown Monday' on the London Stock Exchange with £10 billion being wiped off the value of shares after British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown failed to clarify his Government's stance on the European single currency.

2000 Rail safety chiefs warned they would consider closing sections of track following the Hatfield crash.

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raveydavey · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:32 pm Post subject:

October 21st: Trafalgar Day, commemorating Nelson’s victory and his death.

1805: At the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson gave his famous signal, ‘England expects...’ which flew from the HMS Victory shortly after 1100 hrs. The British won this important battle against Napoleon’s combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar, south-west of Spain, but Nelson was one of the day’s casualties. His body was sent home in a barrel of rum. One of the guards reported hearing gurgling coming from the barrel en route to Deptford where it was unloaded. After Nelson’s corpse was removed, sailors found half a barrel of rum abandoned in the dockyard and apparently got ‘pickled’. Neat rum is still known in the Royal Navy as ‘Nelson’s Blood’.

1824 Portland cement, the modern building material, was first patented by Joseph Aspdin of Wakefield in Yorkshire.

1868 Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, the English inventor of the military tank, was born.

1940 Geoff Boycott, Yorkshire and England batsman was born.

1958 The first women peers were introduced into the House of Lords.

1960 Britain launched its first nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnaught, at Barrow.

1966 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed in the small Welsh mining village of Aberfan when tons of slush, from a nearby coal slag tip weakened by rain, slid downhill and engulfed the village school, a farm and a row of terraced houses.

1975 Britain's unemployment figure reached 1,000,000 for the first time since World War II.

1982 Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness made history as they become the first members of Sinn Fein to be elected to the Ulster Assembly.

1984: Niki Lauda became world motor racing champion for the third time.

1985 In one of Britain's worst motorway crashes, 13 people were killed on the M6 motorway in Lancashire.

1988 A Greek cruise ship sank after a collision with a freighter. All 390 British schoolchildren and 81 teachers were rescued.

1996 Frances Lawrence, widow of headmaster Phillip Lawrence who was stabbed to death by a group of teenagers outside his school gates, launched a 'better citizenship campaign' to promote good behaviour in schools.

1997 'Candle in the Wind' - the re-working of the hit single Elton John sang live at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was declared the biggest selling single in music history.

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raveydavey · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:27 pm Post subject:

October 22nd:

1707: HM Ships Association, Romney and Eagle ran aground on Scilly Isles during a storm, whilst returning from operations in the Mediterranean. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, one of the Royal Navy's most experienced and distinguished commanders, is believed to have survived the wreck, but to have been subsequently killed by looters.

1797: The first parachute jump was made by André-Jacques Garnerin from a balloon 6,000 feet above the Parc Monceau, Paris.

1878 The first floodlit rugby match took place, between Broughton and Swinton, at Broughton, Lancashire.

1883: The Metropolitan Opera House, New York opened.

1910 American born Doctor Hawley Crippen was convicted at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London of poisoning his wife Cora. Crippen was hanged on November 23rd at Pentonville prison.

1917: The Trans-Australian Railway was opened, running from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta.

1930 The BBC Symphony Orchestra played their first concert, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at the Queen’s Hall, London.

1937 The Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrived in Berlin to meet German leader Adolf Hitler, to study housing conditions and to hear a concert.

1946: The Corfu Incident - the destroyer HMS Saumarez struck a mine whilst passing down the channel between Corfu and the Albanian coast. 36 crewmen were killed. She was taken in tow by her consort HMS Volage, but she in turn struck a mine, losing eight crewmen. Volage nevertheless continued to tow Saumarez to safety, passing the towline over her bow and steaming astern. The International Court of Justice ruled that the mines had been laid after the end of the war, and awarded the UK £1 million in compensation.

1952 In Kenya, British troops arrested the leader of the 'Mau Mau' rebels, Jomo Kenyatta.

1966: KGB Double-agent breaks out of jail. One of Britain's most notorious double-agents, George Blake, escapes from prison in a daring break-out believed to have been masterminded by the Soviet Union.

1966: Britain’s David Bryant won the first world bowls championship singles title in Sydney.

1972 Gordon Banks, England’s star goalkeeper, damaged his eyes in a car crash.

1974 A bomb exploded in a London restaurant near to where opposition leader Edward Heath was dining. Three members of staff were injured.

1975 The 'Guildford Four' were sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of planting IRA bombs in pubs in Guildford and Woolwich. Fifteen years later they had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal, following an extensive inquiry into the original police investigation.

1983 The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held its biggest ever protest against nuclear missiles in London, with an estimated one million people taking part.

1986 The world’s youngest heart transplant patient, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby from north west London, was given the heart of a five-day-old Belgian boy by Professor Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex.

1987: An aeroplane was found by a deer hunter in the branches of a tree in Star Lake, New York. It had taken off 65 miles away without its pilot who had cranked its propeller to start it. It fell tail first after it ran out of fuel.

1990: Aral Sea is 'world's worst disaster'. Scientists tell the Royal Geographical Society how irrigation has destroyed what was once the world's fourth largest fresh water sea.

2001 Towns and villages in Cambridgeshire and Essex were on flood alert as forecasters predicted more torrential downpours following what experts said were the worst floods in 20 years.

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raveydavey · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject:

October 23rd:

1642 The first major battle of the English Civil War took place at Edgehill in South Warwickshire. Charles I and Prince Rupert led the Royalists and the Earl of Essex led the Parliamentarians.

1843 Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square was finally completed. It commemorates Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

1906 In Britain, women suffragettes, campaigning for the right to vote, held a demonstration at the House of Commons. Ten were arrested and sent to prison.

1918: On the Western Front, Lieutenant-Colonel Greenwood led a battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in a series of assaults against formidable German defences, at one point attacking single-handed a machine-gun position which had pinned down his men. Elsewhere, Private Miles, Gloucestershire Regiment, attacked two machine-guns in turn, opening up an advance by his battalion that captured 16 machine-guns and their crews. Greenwood and Miles each received the Victoria Cross.

1922 The shortest term of office this century for a British Prime Minister began on this day when Andrew Bonar Law took office. Due to ill health, he was replaced six months later by Stanley Baldwin.

1931 The birth of Diana Dors, an actress remembered for her 'sex symbol' roles.

1942: A massive artillery barrage marked the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein, as Montgomery unleashed 8th Army against the German and Italian defensive positions commanded by General Stumme. The initial infantry assault was led by 51st Highland, 1st South African, and the New Zealand Divisions. The Desert Air Force, reinforced by a small USAAF contingent of fighters and medium bombers, provided continuous close-air support.

1951 Conservative leader, Winston Churchill, wound up his election campaign by denying that he was a warmonger: "If I remain in public life at this juncture it is because I believe I may be able to make an important contribution to the prevention of a 3rd World War."

1954 Britain, the US, France and the USSR agreed to end the occupation of Germany. On the same day, the Western nations agreed to allow West Germany to enter NATO.

1966 John Surtees, British racing driver, won the Mexican Grand Prix.

1967 British farmers began slaughtering cattle following a severe outbreak of 'foot and mouth' disease.

1972 Access credit cards came into use in Britain.

1987 Former Champion Jockey Lester Piggott was jailed for three years for tax evasion.

1987: In San Antonio, Texas, a burglar sentenced to seven years complained that seven was his unlucky number. The judge raised it to eight years.

1991 The House of Lords ruled that husbands could legally be convicted of raping their wives.

2001 The Northern Ireland peace process reached an historic breakthrough as the IRA announced that they were decommissioning their weapons.

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raveydavey · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject:

October 24th:

1537 Henry VIII's 3rd wife, Jane Seymour, died following the birth of future king, Edward VI.

1857 The founding of the world's first official football club, Sheffield Football Club, in Yorkshire, by a group of former students from Cambridge University. That figures. If it had been left to the locals they still wouldn't have a club, unless someone else paid for it...

1861: The US transcontinental telegraph line was completed, and the Pony Express Mail Service which ran from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, stopped running after just 18 months.

1879: In Afghanistan, half a dozen men, led by Captain Sartorius, 59th Regiment, attacked a mountain-top position held by tribesmen. They were under fire most of the way up a steep and difficult path, and one man was killed, but they successfully reached the top and cleared the position. Sartorius was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).

1908 Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel were sent to prison for ‘inciting the public to rush the House of Commons’. Two Cabinet ministers were witnesses for the defence including Lloyd-George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.

1922 George Cadbury, the English chocolate manufacturer, died aged 83.

1931: Chicago gangster boss, Al Capone, was given an 11-year jail sentence and fined $80,000 for tax evasion. He served eight years.

1945 United Nations Organisation is born. Allies of World War II ratify the UN Charter at a ceremony in Washington DC. The aim of the UN was to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.' Confused

1961 Malta was granted independence from Britain.

1969 British actor Richard Burton bought his wife, American actress Elizabeth Taylor, a 69.42 carat diamond costing more than half a million pounds.

1976 British Formula One driver James Hunt won the Japanese Grand Prix and secured the world championship.

1983 Civil servant Dennis Nilsen, from North London, went on trial accused of six murders and two attempted murders.

1986 The UK government broke off diplomatic relations with Syria following revelations of official complicity in a plot to blow up an El Al airliner.

1987 Heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno knocked out Joe Bugner in Britain's most hyped boxing match, held at White Hart Lane, London. Bruno took home £750,000, Bugner got £250,000.

1995 Britain's main church leaders attacked the setting up of Britain's first National Lottery, accusing it of undermining public culture and damaging society.

2003 The legendary supersonic aircraft, Concorde, made its last commercial passenger flight amid emotional scenes at Heathrow airport.

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raveydavey · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 2:41 pm Post subject:

October 25th: The Feast Day of Crispin and his brother, Crispinian, patron saints of shoemakers, a craft they practised in Soissons, France, after fleeing persecution in Rome. In 287, they were martyred when, according to one version, they were both thrown into molten lead, but more probably were beheaded. A Kentish claim was that their bodies were cast into the sea and floated ashore at Romney Marsh.

1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet famous for the Canterbury Tales, died.

1415: Henry V won his great victory at Agincourt. Massively outnumbered by the French forces, and with his own men exhausted after marching through appalling weather, the result should have been very different. But the French squandered their advantages, failed to use their crossbowmen and archers to any effect, and attacked the English frontally through thick mud. English losses may have been as low as 100, whilst thousands of French perished or were captured, including the flower of their nobility.

1760 King George II died. George III Hanover, his grandson, became king.

1839 Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the world's first railway timetable, was published, in Scumchester.

1854: The Russians under Prince Menshikov moved on the Allied supply depot at Balaclava supporting the siege of Sebastopol. An initial attack seized defensive redoubts on the heights which had been manned by Turkish troops supported by British gunners. A large formation of Russian cavalry then advanced towards Kadikoi, just north of Balaclava. Sir Colin Campbell held the position with 700 Sutherland Highlanders and 1,000 Turkish troops. The "Thin Red Line" held despite tremendous odds.
Then Major General Scarlett led the Heavy Brigade in one of the finest actions of the British cavalry's history, charging uphill with some 300 men to break at least 2,000 Russian cavalry. Sergeant-Major Grieve and Sergeant Ramage were awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).
However, Balaclava is best remembered for the disastrous charge by Lord Lucan's Light Brigade "into the valley of death". (Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote poems about both cavalry charges.) Lord Raglan wanted the Light Brigade to stop the Russians taking away the British guns from the captured redoubts on the hills. Instead, the 673-strong Brigade charged approximately a mile and a quarter (0.6km) down the valley, which was lined with perhaps as many as 70 Russian artillery pieces. The survivors overran the artillery at the head of the valley, then had to cut their way through Russian cavalry before falling back, having lost 360 men killed and wounded, and 517 horses; their return to the Allied lines was aided by a gallant attack by the French cavalry on the Fedoukine Heights. VCs were awarded to Lieutenant Dunn, Sergeant-Major Berryman, Sergeants Malone and Farrell, and Private Parkes.

1906: Professor Lee de Forest of the US patented the three-diode amplification valve, the Audion, which made broadcasting possible.

1927: Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang recorded ‘Goose Pimples’ and ‘Sorry’. They are still available today... on CD.

1951 Margaret Roberts (later Thatcher), aged 26, of the Conservative Party, became the youngest candidate to stand at a general election. The Conservatives won a narrow overall majority but the future British Prime Minister failed to win the seat.

1964 The Beatles won five UK Ivor Novello Awards - 1963's Most Broadcast Song, and Top-Selling Single 'She Loves You', Second Best-Selling Single 'I Want to Hold your Hand', Second Most Outstanding Song 'All My Loving', and the Most Outstanding Contribution to Music.

1976 The new National Theatre on the South Bank in London, was officially opened after years of delays.

1978 Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool.

1984: Europe grants emergency aid for Ethiopia. The EEC is donating £1.8 million to help combat the famine in Ethiopia.

1995 Fans gathered outside Buckingham Palace, to sing 'Congratulations' after singer Cliff Richard formally received his knighthood.

2001 British Crime Survey revealed that the chances of being a victim of crime were the lowest for 20 years.

2004 John Peel, veteran BBC broadcaster and Radio 1 DJ died from a heart attack whilst in Peru on holiday. He was the only original DJ from when Radio 1 started still broadcasting on the station.

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raveydavey · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject:

October 26th: National Day of Australia.

0899 King Alfred the Great, Saxon King of Wessex, south west England, is believed to have died on this date. A soldier and scholar, he fought against the invading Danes and formed England's first navy. His son, Edward the Elder became King.

1760 George III was crowned, beginning one of the longest reigns in history (60 years), during which he went insane.

1863 The Football Association was formed at a meeting at Freeman's Tavern in London.

1881: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place outside Tombstone, Arizona Territory between the Ike Clanton gang and the Town Marshal Virgil Earp, his deputized brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, as well as the alcoholic Doc Holliday. In the gun battle, Ike Clanton’s brother Billy was shot dead as well as two other members of the gang. Ike Clanton and Billy Claibourne escaped. Virgil and Wyatt Earp both died of old age.

1907 The Territorial Army was formed by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane.

1917: The Second Battle of Passchendaele began. The ANZAC troops, who had suffered heavily in the previous phases of the Third Ypres offensive, had been relieved by the Canadian Corps. Although the combination of artillery fire and heavy rain had reduced the terrain to a quagmire in many places, the assault was renewed. The Germans resorted to the use of increasing quantities of mustard gas to stave off the attacks. Progress was slow, and casualties extremely heavy.

1929 London's world famous buses were painted red.

1942: An Australian soldier, Private Gratwick, single-handedly destroyed a machine gun post and a mortar position at El Alamein. He was killed charging a second machine-gun. He received a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC).

1950 The first sound and vision broadcast from the House of Commons was broadcast, showing George VI reopening the chamber after repair work carried out on damage sustained during the war.

1951: Churchill wins general election. The Conservatives defeat Labour in the general election by a small majority making Winston Churchill prime minister for the second time.

1965 The Beatles went to Buckingham Palace to be presented with their MBEs by Queen Elizabeth II. Four years later, John Lennon sent back his MBE, stating that he was returning the award in protest against British involvement in Biafra, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

1986 Leading politician Jeffery Archer was forced to resign from the deputy chairmanship of the Conservative party following allegations that he made a payment to a prostitute to avoid a scandal. He denied the allegations and later fought a successful libel case.

1989 The re-built Globe Theatre in London reopened for the first time in 350 years.

1989 The British Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson resigned over policy differences with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. John Major replaced him.

2000 The long awaited report into the spread of BSE or 'mad cow disease' and its fatal human equivalent, vCJD, criticised officials, scientists and government ministers.

2001 British troops were put on standby for action in Afghanistan as Tony Blair warned that Osama bin Laden must be stopped.

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30 Mill · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:52 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject:

October 27th:

1662 Charles II of England sold the coastal town of Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France for 2,500,000 livres.

1728 The birthday of Captain James Cook, Yorkshire-born English naval officer and one of the greatest navigators in history. His voyages in the Endeavour led to the European discovery of Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands. Thanks to Cook’s understanding of diet, no member of the crew ever died of scurvy, the great killer on other voyages. In his youth he was apprenticed to a ship owner in Whitby.

1854: Birth of Sir William Smith, founder of the Boys’ Brigade movement in Glasgow.

1890: A Royal Navy squadron captured Witu in East Africa, using a Naval landing party of sailors, plus troops from the Government of Zanzibar and police from the Imperial British East Africa Company, after the Sultan instigated the murder of nine German citizens.

1901: A getaway car was used for the first time when thieves robbed a shop in Paris and raced away.

1904: Mayor McLellan opened the New York Subway.

1914 Birth of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. He had a long affinity with Laugharne, spending the last four years of his life in the Boathouse.

1918: A Canadian officer, Major William Barker, RAF, patrolling in one of the new Sopwith Snipe fighters, single-handedly fought off five German formations numbering some sixty or more fighters after successfully destroying a German two-seater. His elbow was shattered, he suffered bullet wounds in each thigh, and twice lost consciousness, but Barker managed to shoot down another three of his opponents, before crash-landing safely behind Allied lines despite having suffered multiple wounds. He received the Victoria Cross.

1936 American Wallis Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor, was granted a divorce from her second husband Ernest, leaving her free to marry King Edward VIII.

1942: Lieutenant Colonel Turner of the Rifle Brigade led an attack which captured a position on Kidney Ridge at El Alamein. His battalion was counter-attacked by 90 enemy tanks. Turner led a desperate defence which destroyed 50 of the tanks, and personally helped man an anti-tank gun despite suffering a head wound. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1952 The BBC screened part one of the 26 part series 'Victory At Sea', Britain's first TV documentary.

1958 First transmission of the BBC children's television programme Blue Peter.

1965 An airliner crashed at Heathrow, killing 36 people.

1967 Britain passed the Abortion Act, allowing abortions to be performed legally for medical reasons.

1968 An estimated 6,000 marchers, demonstrating against the Vietnam War, faced up to police outside the US Embassy in London.

1971: The Republic of the Congo changed its name to the Republic of Zaire. They also stopped drinking Um Bongo.

1978 Four people were killed and four others seriously wounded after a gunman (Barry Williams) went on a shooting spree on the Bustleholm estate, Wednesbury and later at a service station in Nuneaton.

1980 The start of a hunger strike by Republican prisoners interned in the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland.

1986: ‘Big Bang’ Day in the City of London, brought about by the deregulation of the money market, which I'm sure we'll all agree has been an unmitigated triumph for all concerned.

1987 Gilbert McNamee was sentenced to 25 years in prison for being an IRA bomb maker

1998 Welsh Secretary Ron Davies resigned after what he described as his 'inappropriate behaviour' late at night on Clapham Common, London which led to him being robbed at knife point. Embarassed

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raveydavey · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:15 pm Post subject:

October 28th:

1216 Henry III was crowned. His son was England's warrior king, Edward I.

1664: King Charles II authorised the raising of the Duke of York & Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, the first infantry unit specially raised for service aboard ships and the ancestors of the modern Royal Marines. The men were raised from the Trained Bands of the City of London, and the Royal Marines retain the right of marching through the City with Colours, drums, and fixed bayonets.

1794 The birth of Robert Liston, Scottish physician who carried out Britain's first operation with the aid of an anaesthetic.

1831 English physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated the dynamo, founding the science of electro-magnetism.

1886: The Statue of Liberty was presented by France to the US. It was dedicated by President Cleveland to mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Designed by Auguste Bartholdi, it took nine years to complete.

1893 HMS Havelock, the Royal Navy's first destroyer, went on trials.

1912 The birth of Sir (William) Richard Doll, English physician and cancer researcher who first proved the link between cigarette smoking and cancer.

1914: Birth of Jonas (Edward) Salk, US microbiologist who developed an anti-polio vaccine which virtually eradicated polio in developed countries.

1938 David Dimbleby, TV journalist and commentator was born.

1949 The glove puppet Sooty, with Harry Corbett, made his first appearance on BBC TV.

1958 The State Opening of Parliament was televised for the first time.

1959 The first use of a car phone, with a call from Cheshire to London. A mere twenty five people had paid the astronomical sum of £200 each for one of the phones.

1962 The opening of Britain's first urban motorway - the M62 (now M60) around Scumchester.

1971 The House of Commons backed Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath and, by a majority of 112, voted for Britain to apply to join the EEC - the European Economic Community.

1974 Sports Minister Denis Howell's wife and young son survived a bomb attack on their car. The attack was thought to be the work of the Provisional IRA and the first on a serving minister during the current IRA campaign.

1979 Chairman Hua Kuo-Feng, the first Chinese leader to visit Britain, was welcomed at Heathrow by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

1986: 'Evil' Bamber jailed for family murders. A 24-year-old Essex man is sentenced to life for killing five members of his family, including his two young nephews.

2000 Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble narrowly won party support to keep a Northern Ireland power sharing government alive.

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raveydavey · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:32 pm Post subject:

October 29th:

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh, English seafarer, courtier, writer and once a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I (he named Virginia after her) was beheaded at Whitehall. He had been falsely accused of treason and sentenced to death, commuted to imprisonment. He was released after 13 years to try and find the legendary gold of El Dorado. He failed, and returned to an undeserved fate.

1656 Edmund Halley, British astronomer, was born.

1843 The world's first telegram were sent, from Paddington to Slough

1863: The Red Cross was founded by Swiss philanthropist, Henri Dunant. On the 46th anniversary of its formation in 1909, Dame Anne Bryans was born and would become the chairman of the Red Cross and Order of St John in Britain.

1886 Fred Archer rode the last of his 2746 winners at Newmarket, retiring as a jockey after 16 years.

1929: ‘Black Tuesday’, so-called when Wall Street crashed leading to the Great Depression. Shares had begun to slide dramatically on ‘Black Thursday’ (24 October) and the fall only ended on 2 July 1932 when the Dow Jones Industrial Index average had fallen almost 90%.

1945 The Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment was set up in England.

1975 More than 20 people were injured in an IRA bomb attack on a restaurant in Mayfair, London.

1975 The world’s largest mining complex was opened at Selby, Yorkshire. (Selby is now an attractive market town with an ancient abbey that dates back to shortly after the Norman conquest.) Only one pit is still operating largely due to a series of geological faults, despite there being a centurys worth of coal still down there...the power stations of the lower Aire Valley are now powered by coal shipped in from China and Poland...

1982: The Dingo Baby Murder Case ended in Australia with Lindy Chamberlain, the mother, being convicted of the murder of her nine-week-old baby Azaria at Ayers rock who, she claimed, had been carried off by a dingo. The Darwin Supreme Court sentenced her to life imprisonment, but she was later given a discharge.

1983 Yachtsman Chay Blyth had to cancel his plans to create a new world clipper record when his trimaran capsized 500 miles east of New York.

1986 The final section of the M25 was opened. The motorway around Greater London was designed to relieve traffic congestion within the capital.

1988 Two of Britain’s greatest middle distance runners, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, re-ran the 367 metre ‘Chariots of Fire’ race around the Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge. Sebastian Coe was the winner in 45.52 seconds. In the original race Lord Burghley crossed the line in 42.5 seconds.

1989 Eight people died when winds of almost 100mph struck South Wales and the West of England, causing flooding, fallen trees and power cuts.

2003 The Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, resigned after failing to win the backing of his fellow MPs.

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raveydavey · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:37 pm Post subject:

October 30th:

1485 Henry VII of England founded the Yeoman of the Guard - 'Beefeaters' - to guard Royal Palaces in London.

1580 English explorer Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world when his ship, the 'Golden Hind', arrived back at Plymouth on the south coast of England.

1650 The Society of Friends became known as 'Quakers'. During a court case the founder of the Society, George Fox, told the magistrate to 'quake and tremble at the word of God'.

1863: During a campaign against the "Hindustani Fanatics" on the North-West Frontier, Brigadier-General Sir Neville Chamberlain led two brigades of the Indian Army in an encircling movement via the Ambela Pass, but in so doing aroused the hostility of the Bunerwal tribe. One of several bitter actions was fought on 30 October, when tribesmen succeeded in capturing the Crag Piquet, a British post overlooking the Pass, killing 60 soldiers. Lieutenant Pitcher of the 4th Punjab Regiment and Lieutenant Fosbery of the 4th Bengal Regiment led the counterattack up a steep and narrow path. Fosbery was wounded by a boulder hurled from above, but Pitcher was the first man to reach the top, and succeeded in driving the enemy from their position. Both officers were awarded the Victoria Cross. The Bunerwal were eventually persuaded by their own casualties to help destroy the "Hindustani Fanatics", whose base at Malka was destroyed on 22 December.

1905: Aspirin went on sale in Britain. It was developed by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer. The active ingredient is actually a form of acid and occurs naturally in willow trees.

1914: The Battle of Ypres began. (It ended on 21 November.)

1925 In his workshop in London, Scotsman John Logie Baird achieved the transmission of the first television pictures using the head of a dummy as his image source. He then persuaded a 15 year old office boy, William Taynton, to sit in front of a camera, becoming the first live person captured on camera.

1938: Orson Welles’ radio production and adaptation of H G Wells’ story, War of the Worlds, caused panic and at least one death through heart failure by convincing many that Martians had really landed in the US. It made 23-year-old Welles and many of his Mercury Theatre cast (including Joseph Cotton) household names.

1942: Montgomery’s Eighth Army began its major offensive at El Alamein with thousands of guns lighting up the sky.

1942: The German submarine U-559 was badly damaged by Royal Navy destroyers and RAF aircraft in the Mediterranean, and forced to surface. Her crew began to scuttle her and abandoned ship. Lieutenant Fasson and Able Seaman Grazier of HMS Petard scrambled aboard the sinking U-boat and managed to find the top secret Enigma cryptographic machine. They succeeded in passing this safely to colleagues, but were unable to escape themselves before the submarine sank. The recovery of the machine and its latest key settings were invaluable to the Allied code-breaking effort. Both men were awarded a posthumous George Cross (GC).

1957 The Government revealed details of plans to reform the House of Lords, which included creating the first women life peerages.

1959: Ronnie Scott’s jazz club opened in London’s Soho.

1965 English model Jean Shrimpton wore a miniskirt to the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia. The event became a milestone in the advancement of the mini as the defining fashion of the 1960s.

1967: Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones was jailed for nine months for drug offences, but released on bail pending an appeal.

1974: Muhammad Ali regained his world heavyweight boxing title when he knocked out grilling legend George Forman in the eighth round in Kinshasa.

1979 Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer and inventor of the wartime dam busting 'bouncing bomb' died. The pilots of 617 squadron used Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire to practice their low level flying. There is a memorial to them at Derwent Dam.

1984 In Liverpool, the surviving members of the 'Beatles' Pop group were given the freedom of the City. George Harrison refused to attend.

1990 English and French tunnellers met for the first time underneath the English Channel during the construction of the Channel Tunnel.

1995 At Winchester Crown Court, Rosemary West, the wife of serial killer Frederick West, broke her 20 month silence to plead her innocence over her husband's murders.

2001 Farmer Tony Martin, the loner who shot dead a teenage burglar, was cleared of murder but told he must spend at least another year in jail.

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raveydavey · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 2:14 pm Post subject:

October 31st:

1485 The coronation of Henry VII.

1795 John Keats, English romantic poet, was born.

1828 The birth of Sir Joseph Swan, English chemist and inventor. Both he and Edison were separately credited with the invention of the electric lamp. Edison was first, but his had a much shorter life and was therefore not practical.

1888 Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop patented pneumatic bicycle tyres.

1903 Hampden Park football ground - Glasgow, was opened.

1915 For the first time during World War I, British troops wore steel helmets.

1926 Sir Jimmy Savile, radio and TV entertainer was born.

1940: On what is generally regarded as the final day of the Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe operations were mostly limited to fighter sweeps and hit-and-run fighter-bomber raids.

1942: At El Alamein, Sergeant Kibby, an Australian, was noted for his gallantry in a series of actions between 23 and 31 October, including capturing a machine-gun post and repairing damaged field telephone lines in the open under heavy fire. Finally, on 31 October, once more attacking an enemy position on his own, he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

1944: 24 RAF Mosquito aircraft conducted a low-level precision attack on the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus University in Denmark. Their bombs destroyed the records of Gestapo investigations into Resistance operations. In addition, they killed a team torturing Pastor Harald Sandbaek. He was rescued alive from the rubble by the Resistance and smuggled to safety in Sweden.

1951 In Britain, 'zebra' crossings came into use for the first time.

1955 Princess Margaret called off her plans to marry divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend.

1956 Britain and France bombed Egypt in retaliation for the barring of their ships from the Suez Canal.

1964 The Windmill Theatre off London’s Piccadilly Circus finally closed after 32 years. Their slogan ‘We Never Closed’ was a tribute to them staying open to troops during the war.

1971 A terrorist bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower in London. The building has been closed to the public ever since.

1982 The Thames barrier, part of London's flood defences, was raised for the first time.

1988 Coventry became Britain's first city to introduce a by-law banning the drinking of alcohol in public places.

1997 A 19 year old British au pair Louise Woodward, was found guilty by a court in America of murdering 8 month old Matthew Eappen.

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raveydavey · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject:

November 1st:

1695: The Bank of Scotland was founded.

1762 The birth of Spencer Perceval, British Prime Minister, who was later assassinated in the House of Commons.

1848 WH Smith opened its first railway bookstall at Euston Station in London.

1858 Following the bloody events of the Indian Mutiny, Queen Victoria was proclaimed ruler of India, replacing the reign of the East India Company.

1887 The birth of L.S Lowry, English artist, famous for his matchstick figures. The Lowry theatre and art gallery is at Salford Quays.

1911 The first Woman's Weekly magazine was published in Britain.

1914 In the Pacific, off Chile, the first major naval engagement of the First World War was fought at Coronel. Vice-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock commanded a squadron of largely elderly Royal Navy ships, the most modern vessels being concentrated in the North Sea and Mediterranean. His opponent was Vice-Admiral Graf von Spee, commanding the German East Asiatic Squadron, which was attempting to return to Germany. Cradock had left his most powerful but slowest ship, the old battleship HMS Canopus, guarding the Falkland Islands. In appalling weather, his two armoured cruisers, HMS Good Hope (flagship) and HMS Monmouth, fought gallantly but with little effect against the far more modern German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and went down with all hands, including Cradock. The light cruiser HMS Glasgow, and an armed merchant cruiser, Otranto, managed to escape. The Admiralty immediately dispatched a powerful battle-cruiser squadron to the South Atlantic. Spee's squadron was destroyed at the Falklands on 8 December, both Canopus and Glasgow playing a key part in the action.

1922 The first radio licences went on sale in Britain at a cost of ten shillings (50p).

1927 Betting tax was first levied in Britain. Two days later the bookies went on strike at Windsor in protest.

1944 Britain's Home Guard, formed in 1939 to fight the expected German invasion, was ordered to disband.

1945 It was announced that all available evidence supported the theory that German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin.

1956 Premium Bonds first went on sale in Britain with the winning numbers picked at random by a machine with the acronym 'ERNIE'. The first Premium Bond was bought by the then Lord Mayor of London, Sir Cuthbert Ackroyd.

1959 The first stretch of the M1 motorway linking London with Yorkshire was opened. The link proved to be a boost for millions of Southerners.

1982 A new terrestrial television channel, Channel Four, began transmitting its first programme - the word game 'Countdown'.

1990 The UK's deputy Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe, resigned after disagreements over the government's European policy.

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raveydavey · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:45 pm Post subject:

November 2nd:

1734: Birth of Daniel Boone, legendary American frontiersman and hunter who led a party to find a trail through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains and eventually settled in Kentucky. Although he was captured by the Indians, he was adopted as a son of the Shawnee chief, Blackfish, before returning to the settlement.

1755: Birth of Marie Antoinette, Austrian princess and Queen Consort of Louis XVI of France, whose arrogant and extravagant behaviour helped fuel the unrest that led to the Revolution. Of the poor she said, ‘If they have no bread, let them eat cake.’

1757/1758/1940: 2 November proved an eventful date for Royal Navy ships bearing the name Antelope. In 1757, HMS Antelope captured a French privateer, Moras, which had been raiding merchant ships in the Atlantic. Exactly a year later,Antelope captured the French Belliquex off Ilfracombe. And in 1940, a destroyer of the same name, similarly defending merchant vessels from attack, sank the German submarine U-31 whilst escorting convoy OB-237.

1871 British police began their Rogues' Gallery, taking photographs of all convicted prisoners.

1896 The first motor insurance policies were issued in Britain, but they excluded damage caused by frightened horses.

1899 Boer War: The start of the Siege of Ladysmith in Natal when Boers encircled British troops and civilians inside the town.

1903: The Daily Mirror was first published in Britain, devised as a daily paper for women. Not much has changed... Wink

1917 British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour submitted a declaration of intent to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British government hoped that the formal declaration would help garner Jewish support for the Allied effort in World War I.

1924 Almost 11 years after its appearance in America, the first crossword puzzle was published in a British newspaper, sold to the Sunday Express by C.W. Shepherd.

1936 The world's first regular TV service was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation at Alexandra Palace at 3:00 p.m. An estimated 100 TV owners tuned in.

1942: Australian troops in New Guinea succeeded in recapturing the airstrip at Kokoda, allowing their advance across the appallingly difficult terrain of the Owen Stanley mountains to resume.

1950 George Bernard Shaw, the renowned playwright died, aged 94.

1951 The final phase of the largest troop airlift since the war brought in British reinforcements to quell unrest in the Canal Zone, Egypt.

1954 The comedy series 'Hancock's Half Hour' was first broadcast on BBC Radio.

1960 Penguin publishers were cleared of obscenity for printing the D.H. Lawrence novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'.

1963 Gerry & the Pacemakers reached the number one spot with 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.

1964 The first episode of the television soap opera 'Crossroads' was broadcast on ITV.

1981 Citizens Band radio (CB radio) was legally allowed in Britain

2000 The controversial chief inspector of schools in England, Chris Woodhead, stepped down, to the delight of teachers' unions.

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raveydavey · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:59 pm Post subject:

November 3rd:

1534 England's Parliament met and passed an Act of Supremacy which made King Henry VIII head of the English church, a role formerly held by the Pope.

1718 The birth of John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich who gave his name to the Sandwich Islands, and (allegedly) to the 'sandwich' as a result of his reluctance to leave the gaming tables but requiring a quick and easy to eat snack.

1843 The statue of English Admiral Horatio Nelson was raised to the top of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. The operation was completed on the 4th when the statue’s two sections were assembled.

1941 English broadcaster Roy Plomley conceived the idea for 'Desert Island Discs'. The programme was first broadcast on BBC Radio in January 1942.

1942 World War II: The Battle of El Alamein. The British Eighth Army, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery, broke through the German front line having taken 9000 prisoners and destroyed 300 tanks.

1943: RAF Bomber Command mounted a major raid on Dusseldorf on the night 3/4 November, 589 bombers attacking the city, with another 62 conducting a diversionary attack on Cologne. 38 of the Dusseldorf aircraft made the first large-scale test of the new G-H blind-bombing system, attacking a steel works on the northern edge of the city. Although a high percentage of the G-H sets failed to work properly, those that did proved quite successful, and the system was duly developed to allow a good level of accuracy to be achieved later in the war.
En route to Dusseldorf, a Lancaster of 61 Squadron, flown by Flight Lieutenant William Reid, was attacked twice by night fighters. The navigator was killed, the wireless operator was fatally wounded, and both Reid and his flight engineer, Sergeant Norris, were wounded - Reid twice. The aircraft itself suffered extensive damage, but Reid continued on for another two hundred miles (321.8km) and the bomb aimer, Sergeant Rolton, dropped the weapons on target, as proved by the aircraft's camera. On the return journey, Reid lost consciousness, but Norris managed to keep the aircraft airborne. Reid recovered enough to attempt a landing in mist at Shipdham in Norfolk, despite being partially blinded by blood from a head wound. The undercarriage collapsed on landing, but the surviving crew members escaped successfully. Flight Lieutenant Reid received the Victoria Cross.

1944: 364 days after the raid above, Bomber Command returned on the night 2/3 November for its last major raid on Dusseldorf with 992 aircraft. The north of the city was devastated.

1949 The BBC purchased the Shepherd's Bush Studios from the Rank Organisation.

1957: Russians launch dog into space. The Soviet Union sends the first ever living creature into the cosmos aboard Sputnik II.

1975 Queen Elizabeth II opened the North Sea pipeline - the first to be built underwater - bringing ashore 400,000 barrels a day to Grangemouth Refinery on the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

1976 The first £100,000 Premium Bond was won, by an anonymous person in Hillingdon.

1984: Father Jerzy Popieluszko was buried after being murdered by Polish Secret Police. Over 200,000 attended his funeral.

1985 Two French agents in New Zealand pleaded guilty to sinking the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior and to the manslaughter of a photographer on board. They were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.

1996 The death of Conservative MP Barry Porter narrowed to one seat the majority held by the Conservative Party in Parliament.

1997: Angry truckers blockade French ports. Thousands of lorries are at a standstill in France as striking drivers form roadblocks around the country. To be fair, this subject could probably be posted on most days through the years...

2001 Osama bin Laden warned Arab leaders in a video tape broadcast that using the UN for peace negotiations was tantamount to renouncing Islam.

2002 Lonnie Donegan, singer, musician, and legendary skiffle king, died at the age of 71.

2004: George W Bush wins second term. George W Bush is elected president of the United States for the second time, beating his Democratic rival by a comfortable margin.

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