Today in History

Today in History August 14th

1952 Hound Dog is first recorded by Big Momma Thornton.

Tops Number 1 on the R&B Chart for seven weeks straight before later becoming Elvis Presley’s biggest hit song in 1956

 

On This Day - 14th August
1040 King Duncan of Scotland was murdered by Macbeth, who then became king and ruled for 17 years.


1852 The first public lavatory was opened, on London's Fleet Street.


1888 An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's 'The Lost Chord', one of the first recordings of music ever made, was played during a press conference in London to introduce Thomas Edison's phonograph. The gramophone records that followed were one of the dominant audio recording formats throughout much of the 20th Century.


1908 The world's first international beauty contest was held at Folkestone, Kent.


1930 The 'cautious' (!) use of contraceptives was approved by the Church of England.


1934 The birth of Trevor Bannister, the English actor best known for having played the womanising junior salesman, Mr. Lucas, in the sitcom Are You Being Served? and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.


1941 World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Atlantic Charter of war, stating their post-war aims.


1945 World War II: Following the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II.


1948 Australian cricketer Don Bradman played his last Test match innings at the Oval Cricket Ground in London. After receiving a standing ovation, he was bowled out for nought - blinded, it's claimed, by the tears in his eyes.


1948 The closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in London.


1960 The birth of Sarah Brightman, English soprano and former wife of Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Her duet 'Time To Say Goodbye' with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sold 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.


1967 All UK offshore pirate radio stations were declared illegal when the UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act became law at midnight On This Day, but Radio Caroline continued to broadcast until March 1968.

 

On This Day - 16th August
1513 King Henry VIII of England and his troops defeated the French in the Battle of the Spurs, at Guinigatte, NW France.


1652 The Battle of Plymouth .... an action of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654). The sea battle took place off Plymouth, resulting in a Dutch victory for Admiral de Ruyter and an English defeat for Admiral George Ayscue who had to retreat to Plymouth, enabling the Dutch and its valuable convoy to continue on its journey west.


1743 The earliest prize-ring code of boxing rules was formulated in England by the champion fighter Jack Broughton.


1819 The Peterloo massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester when militia, with sabers drawn, charged at a crowd of 60,000–80,000 gathered to hear a discussion on the reform of parliamentary representation. 15 people were killed and 650 injured.


1858 A telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to US President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.


1897 Endowed by the sugar merchant Henry Tate, the Tate Gallery, in London, was opened.


1900 Second Boer War: The Battle of Elands River (in western Transvaal) ended after a 13-day siege. The battle began when a force of 2,000 - 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. Outnumbered and surrounded, the garrison was asked to surrender but refused. The siege was lifted, with a 10,000-strong column led by Lord Kitchener.


1913 The completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary, the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I.


1930 The birth, at this terraced house in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, of Ted Hughes, English poet & former Poet Laureate. He served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. There is a commemorative blue plaque at his former home on Aspinall Street


1930 The first British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games) were held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.


1952 Twelve bodies were recovered and 24 people were missing, feared dead, in a flood that swept through Lynmouth in north Devon.


1960 Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus.

 

Today in History August 17th

 

On This Day - 19th August
1274 The coronation of Edward I, known as 'Longshanks', as he was 6 feet 2 inches tall.


1561 Mary Queen of Scots arrived in Scotland (following the death of her French husband Francis II,) to assume the throne after spending 13 years in France.


1612 Three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury were put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft. It was one of the most famous witch trials in English history as all three - Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley were acquitted. The charges against the women included child murder and cannibalism. In contrast, the others tried at the Lancaster Castle assizes , including the Lancashire Pendle witches, were accused of maleficium i.e. causing harm by witchcraft.


1631 John Dryden, English poet and dramatist was born. He was the first official Poet Laureate of Great Britain.


1685 The beginning of the 'Bloody Assizes' in England with Judge Jeffreys regularly sentencing people to death.


1879 The laying of the foundation stone for the Eddystone Lighthouse.


1897 The London Electric Cab Company began operating electric-powered taxi cabs in London's West End and the City. They had a range of up to 30 miles, and a top speed of 9 miles an hour. The cabs prove uneconomical and were withdrawn in 1900.


1919 Afghanistan gained full independence from Britain.


1942 British and Canadian troops launched a disastrous attack on German-held Dieppe. Of the 6,000 troops involved, only about 2,500 returned. The rest were killed or captured.


1953 The England cricket team, under captain Len Hutton, won The Ashes against Australia for the first time since the tour of 1932-1933.


1960 Penguin Books received a summons in response to their plans to publish Lady Chatterley's Lover.

 

Today in History August 28th

 

On This Day - 3rd September
1189 Following the death of his father Henry II, Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.


1650 English Parliamentarian forces led by Oliver Cromwell defeated an army loyal to King Charles II of England at the Battle of Dunbar. Cromwell described the victory as 'one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people.' As a result of the destruction of the Scottish army, he was able to march unopposed to Edinburgh and quickly occupied the Scottish capital.


1658 Richard Cromwell (the third son of Oliver Cromwell) became Lord Protector of England but served just under 9 months, leading to his nickname of 'Tumbledown Dick' by Royalists.


1783 Britain finally recognized the United States of America by signing the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the American War of Independence.


1878 Over 640 died when the crowded paddle steamer Princess Alice collided with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames. It was the greatest loss of life in any Thames shipping disaster.


1916 Captain Leefe Robinson became the first pilot to shoot down a Zeppelin airship - during a German air raid on London in World War I. The airship caught fire after being attacked and crashed at Cuffley in Hertfordshire. Robinson was later awarded the Victoria Cross.


1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile at over 300 mph.


1939 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in a radio broadcast, announced that Britain and France had declared war on Germany. He formed an all-party War Cabinet with Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.


1939 In Britain, the formation of Citizens' Advice Bureau - was established to help people understand and comply with new rules and regulations that were introduced at the start of World War II.


1943 The Allies landed at Salerno, on mainland Italy, and the Italian government surrendered. It was four years to the day after the war had been declared on Germany.


1954 The National Trust purchased Fair Isle in northern Scotland, famous for its bird sanctuary and knitted sweaters.


1966 British soldiers Captain John Ridgway and Sergeant Chay Blyth become the first Britons to row across the Atlantic. They completed a 91-day row across the Atlantic in the English Rose III, when they rowed into Inishmore on the Isle of Aran.


1988 The first fines for not filling and returning poll tax registration forms were issued in Scotland.

 

Today in History September 12th

1962 Kennedy's Moon speech on Sept. 12, 1962,

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,"




President Biden is in Boston today to visit the JFK library

 

On This Day - 13th September
1759 British troops, under the command of General Wolfe, secured Canada for the British Empire after defeating the French at the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and the French commander were killed during the battle.


1806 The English statesman Charles James Fox was taken ill and died at his home in London, just as he was about to introduce a bill abolishing slavery.


1894 The birth, in Manningham, Bradford, of John Boynton Priestley, the English author generally referred to as J.B. Priestley. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions (1929), as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls (1945). There is a statue to him outside the National Media Museum in Bradford.


1902 The first conviction in Britain using fingerprints as evidence was in the case against Harry Jackson by the Metropolitan Police at the Old Bailey. He had left his thumbprint in wet paint on a window sill and was tracked down through it. He was sentenced to seven years.

1916 The birth, in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents) of the author Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl Plass is a public plaza in the heart of Cardiff Bay. plaque. The area is home to the Senedd (Welsh Assembly Building) and the Wales Millennium Centre. Some of Roald Dahl's notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant).


1938 John Smith, former leader of the Labour Party was born.


1940 Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb during 'The Blitz'.


1944 The birth of Carol Barnes, a British television newsreader and broadcaster who worked for ITN from 1975 to 2004. In 1994 she was voted Newscaster of the Year at the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards


1957 The Mousetrap became Britain's longest-running play, reaching its 1,998th performance.



1958 Cliff Richard made his British TV debut on Jack Good's Oh Boy, performing Move It.


1970 In Colombia, en route to the World Cup finals in Mexico, the captain of the England football team, Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a diamond bracelet from a shop. After being kept under house arrest, he was released and all charges were dropped.


1980 Hercules, the bear who went missing on Benbecula (in the Outer Hebrides) while being filmed for a Kleenex television commercial, was recaptured after 24 days 'on the run'.


1988 Medina Perez, a Cuban diplomat opened fire in a crowded London street because of an American plot to make him defect, (his government said).


1989 Britain's biggest ever banking computer error gave customers an extra £2 billion in a period of 30 minutes; 99.3 percent of the money was reportedly returned.

 

On this day in history 1975, Saturday Night Live debuted on NBC

 

40 Years ago, today

 

On This Day - 24th October
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. The club's finest hour came in 1904 when they won the FA Amateur Cup, a competition conceived after a suggestion by Sheffield. They are commemorated by the English Football Hall of Fame for their significant place in football history.


1895 The birth of Jack Warner OBE, the English film and television actor who is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon in the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, a part he played until the age of eighty.


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.


1945 The United Nations was formed with the aim to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.'


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. Born at Pontrhydyfen, this Richard Burton sculpture is on the Richard Burton Trail in the Afan Forest Park in Neath-Port Talbot


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.


1985 The birth of Wayne Rooney, an English footballer. He made his senior international debut in 2003 becoming the youngest player at that time to represent England.

1986 The UK government broke off diplomatic relations with Syria following revelations of 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. Concorde was retired after 27 years due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the 11th September terrorist attacks in 2001 and a decision by Airbus to discontinue maintenance support.


2008 'Bloody Friday' saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

 

On this day in History October 26,1984 The Terminator was released in movie theatres

 

On This Day - 27th October
939 Edmund I succeeded Athelstan as King of England.


1644 The Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War took place in Speen, adjoining Newbury in Berkshire. The combined armies of Parliament inflicted a tactical defeat on the Royalists but failed to gain any strategic advantage.


1662 Charles II of England sold the coastal town of Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France.


1728 The birthday of Captain James Cook, an 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.


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 -


1914 World War I: The British super-dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious was sunk off Tory Island, north-west Ireland, by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin. The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Sir John Jellicoe, proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, to which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed, and for the rest of the war, Audacious' name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities.


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.


1939 The birth of John Cleese, actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He appeared in BBC TV's Monty Python's Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers and has starred in many films including the four Monty Python films, Clockwise and A Fish called Wanda.


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


1958 The birth of Simon Le Bon, an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran.


1965 An airliner crashed at Heathrow, killing 36 people.


In 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.


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 The government suddenly deregulated financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operated, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.


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 knifepoint.

 

Today in History October 29, 2012 Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and the greater NYC area with devastating impact

 

On This Day - 29th October
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 was sent, from Paddington to Slough.


1863 Eighteen countries, including Britain, met in Geneva and agreed to form the International Red Cross. The final resolutions adopted included The foundation of national relief societies for wounded soldiers - Neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers and a protection symbol for medical personnel in the field, namely a white armlet bearing a red cross.


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


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.


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.

 

Today in History November 9th

The Great Boston Fire of 1872

The Fire occurred on Saturday and Sunday, November 9 & 10, 1872. The fire destroyed 776 buildings across 65 acres of land, with the assessed value of the properties at nearly $13.5 million and personal property loss of $60 million dollars. The downtown area of Boston had undergone a rapid development in the years after the Civil War,

Water mains had not been upgraded during these years. The fire department at the time was dealing with an epizootic, a disease which affects equine animals, thus affecting the horses that pulled the heavy fire apparatus.

The fire spread rapidly, creating its own energy or firestorm, due to the tremendous heat generated. Although many or most buildings were made of brick or stone, the window frames and other fixtures were made of wood, thus allowing the fire to communicate to nearby structures. During the course of the fire, which burned uncontrolled for more than 12 hours, buildings were blown-up using black gun powder in a controversial effort to create a fire break.








Below, Newspapers at the time didn't have the ability to transpose photographs onto the newsprint, which is why whenever you read old newspapers, all the pictures are drawings (or lithographs) even though photography was readily available at the time

 

Gordon Lightfoot is 84 years old today



The sign that inspired the song Carefree Highway