On This Day

[chalky_ncfc]

Thanks Altobelli, another interesting read,I never knew that the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings was only three weeks apart,where was you when I was skiving from school because of boredom
The last of the Magdalene asylums closing as late as 1996 is a sad eye opener

[Altobelli]

I was a rebel and always skiving school Chalky, something I much regret as I used to get into so much trouble, not to mention missing out on my education.

I don't know much about the Magdalene asylums so I'm a bit wary of them, just like old peoples homes as you don't know what goes on behind closed doors, I'm sure there are good things to come out of them but its the bad ones that drag the rest down.

[Altobelli]

26 SEPTMBER

1580 The Devonshire born seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to circumnavigate the earth. Drake plundered a few Spanish ships en-route to keep morale high!

1687 The city council of Amsterdam voted to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution. King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) was overthrown and William ascended the English throne as William III of England, jointly with his wife Mary II of England.

1748 The birth, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars. This statue of Collingwood is at Tynemouth overlooks the River Tyne.

1815 Russia, Prussia and Austria sign the Holy Alliance

1861 The first British Open Golf Championship began at Prestwick, Ayrshire.

1879 The world's first railway dining car was introduced in Britain on the line between London and Leeds.

1887 The birth of Sir Barnes Wallis, scientist, engineer and inventor of the bouncing bomb used by the RAF in the 'Dambusters' raid to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. They practiced their techniques at the Derwent Dam in Derbyshire where there is a memorial to them.

1892www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of James Keir Hardie, Britain's first socialist MP. He was (born in North Lanarkshire and elected for West Ham South. This bust of Hardie is outside Cumnock Town Hall in Ayrshire.

1901 Great Britain annexes the Ashanti Kingdom and places it under the governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana)

1918 Beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, more than 1 million American soldiers in the largest and most costly offensive of WWI

1934 The liner Queen Mary was launched at Clydebank, Scotland, by ........ Queen Mary.

1938 Concerned about the prospect of war with Germany (which turned out to be a year away) British civilians were issued with gas masks.

1953 Sugar rationing in Britain came to an end.

1955 Frozen Birdseye fish fingers first went on sale in Britain.

1956 The highest score in a single match in the European Cup was won by Manchester United, who beat Anderlecht 10-1.

1973 Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time, cutting the previous record in half, and flying at an average speed of 954 mph.

1979 Compulsory metrication in Britain was abandoned.

1984 Britain agreed to transfer full sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997, ending 150 years of British rule.

1997 Queen Elizabeth II and the British Government announced that the Royal Yacht Britannia would neither be refitted nor replaced because of the high cost. She is now a floating tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

2011 The wreck of SS Gairsoppa, a UK cargo ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, was found in the Atlantic, around 300 miles off the coast of Ireland by US exploration firm Odyssey Marine. The wreck contained 200 tonnes of silver worth about £150m making it the largest haul of precious metal ever discovered at sea.

2013 The funeral service was held for 5 year old April Jones, in her hometown of Machynlleth, mid Wales. She was murdered by 47-year-old Mark Bridger almost a year previously, sparking the biggest missing person search in UK police history. Her body was never found. At the time of her disappearance, ribbons were tied to the railings around the town's clock tower, on shop doors and pinned to trees.

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Famous Weddings

1861 Political cartoonist Thomas Nast (21) weds Sarah Edwards (20) in USA

1919 German chancellor Konrad Adenauer (43) weds Auguste Zinsser in Cologne, Germany

1931 Earl Claus von Stauffenberg marries Freiin Nina von Lerchenfeld

1933 Director Victor Fleming (44) weds Lucile Rosson

1986 Fashion designer Calvin Klein (43) weds assistant Kelly Rector in a civil ceremony in Italy

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2016 Actress Naomi Watts and actor Liv Schreiber announce their separation after 11 years together

[chalky_ncfc]

I was a rebel and always skiving school Chalky, something I much regret as I used to get into so much trouble, not to mention missing out on my education.

I don't know much about the Magdalene asylums so I'm a bit wary of them, just like old peoples homes as you don't know what goes on behind closed doors, I'm sure there are good things to come out of them but its the bad ones that drag the rest down.

I also regret missing out on education and its all my own fault,I had teachers there willing to educate me on the way of the world and I preferred running amok with my mates in town,I love history and stuff now,can't keep me off the History/Discovery channels

There was nothing good about Magdalene asylums, if you got pregnant out of wedlock you could have ended up in one,apart from you being labeled a prosititute it was harsher than being in prison,terrible,terrible places and in the name of God as well,its astounding that they was around so late as 96 as I always thought that they went the same way as the old workhouses

Thanks for your work in keeping me educated,always interesting

[alfinyalcabo]

Alfie returned from his vacation ..

By the way Great thread ..

[Altobelli]

Thanks alf, and again Chalky

[Altobelli]

27 SEPTEMBER

1066 William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River in Picardy, northern France, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.

1290 Earthquake in Gulf of Chili China, reportedly kills 100,000

1540 Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded by Ignatius Loyola confirmed by Pope Paul III in Rome

1598 The birth, in Bridgwater, Somerset of Robert Blake, military commander and one of the most famous English admirals of the 17th century. He was nicknamed 'Father of the Royal Navy'. This statue is in his home town of Bridgwater.

1672 A new British company, the 'Royal Africa Company' was given a monopoly of the African slave trade to America, with discounts for those who purchased entire shiploads.

1779 John Adams negotiates Revolutionary War peace terms with Great Britain

1821 Mexican revolutionary forces led by Agustín de Iturbide occupy Mexico City as Spanish withdraw, bringing an end to the Mexican War of Independence

1822 French scholar Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone

1825 The world’s first public railway service began with the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Built by George Stephenson, the track was 27 miles long, and the steam locomotive Active pulled 32 passenger wagons at ten miles per hour. Stephenson was born at this house in Wylam, Northumberland which was shared with three other families.

1849 The opening, by Queen Victoria, of Newcastle's High Level Bridge . It was designed by Robert Stephenson to form a rail link towards Scotland for the developing English railway network.

1871 The inauguration of Rochdale Town Hall, a Grade I listed building, described by art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as possessing a 'rare picturesque beauty'. It's said that Adolf Hitler admired it so much that he wished to ship the building, brick-by-brick, to Nazi Germany had the United Kingdom been defeated in the Second World War.

1888 The first use of the name, 'Jack the Ripper' in an anonymous letter to the Central News Agency. He went on to kill five women, and it's believed he may have been responsible for the deaths of four more.

1905 The physics journal Annalen der Physik publishes Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

1908 Henry Ford's first Ford Model T automobile leaves the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan

1938 The 83,000 ton liner 'Queen Elizabeth' was launched at John Brown's Yard on Clydebank in Scotland by the Queen Mother. With her sister ship Queen Mary, she provided luxury liner service between Southampton and New York via Cherbourg in France.

1960 Bank Underground Station in London opened Europe's first 'moving pavement' .

1967 The Queen Mary arrived in Southampton at the end of its last transatlantic voyage.

1968 The musical Hair, (which took advantage of the end of British stage censorship by including a scene cast in the nude), had its first London performance. It played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973.

1979 Gracie Fields, the Rochdale born wartime singer, died aged 81, in Canzone Del Mare, Capri. Her most famous song was 'Sally' which she sang at nearly every performance she made from 1931 onwards. This statue of her was unveiled in her home town of Rochdale.on 18th September 2016 by Roy Hudd, President of the Music Hall Association

1979 The BBC's Question Time aired for the first time, chaired by Robin Day, who stayed with the programme for ten years.

1987 Tony Jacklin led a team of 12 golfers, including Seve Ballesteros, to win the Ryder Cup. It was the first time the US team had been defeated on their home ground.

1991 The first Scrabble Championship was held in London, with 20 countries competing.

2011 David Croft died, aged 89. He was particularly noted for producing and co-writing a string of popular BBC sitcoms including Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo!, Hi-De-Hi!, Are You Being Served?, You Rang M’Lord? and It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

2014 Amy Hughes, a 26-year-old sports therapist, from Oswestry in Shropshire set a new world record by running 53 marathons in 53 consecutive days. The money she raised was for the Isabelle Lottie Foundation, set up after her friend's daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

2016 The late Sir Terry Wogan (who died on 31st January 2016) was honoured in a special memorial service live in Westminster Abbey, on the 50th anniversary of his first BBC radio broadcast.

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Famous Weddings

1759 Political activist Thomas Paine (22) weds household servant Mary Lambert (21)

1865 Physicist Johannes van der Waals (27) weds Anna Magdalena Smit (18)

1876 Poet Frederic Mistral (46) weds Marie Louise Aimee Rivière

1920 Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies (25) weds Pattie Maie Leckie (21) at Kew Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, Australia

1934 Baseball player and manager Leo Durocher (28) weds businesswoman Grace Dozier

[Altobelli]

28 SEPTEMBEER

935 Saint Wenceslas is murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia

1066 Claiming his right to the English throne, William, Duke of Normandy (or William the *******, as he was often called at the time, due to his illegitimate status ) landed at Pevensey in East Sus*** to begin his invasion of England.

1106 Henry I of England defeated his brother, Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Tinchebray, in Normandy. It was a decisive victory and the battle lasted just one hour. The Duke was captured and imprisoned in England and then at Cardiff Castle until his death. England and Normandy remained under a single ruler until 1204.

1745 At the Drury Lane Theatre, London, God Save the King, the national anthem, was sung for the first time. The score used was prepared by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) leader of the orchestra and composer of Rule Britannia.

1781 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops begin siege of Yorktown

1864 'The First International' was founded in London, when Karl Marx proposed the formation of an International Working Men's Association.

1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first qualified woman physician in Britain. Along with Benjamin Britten, artist J.M.W. Turner and the poet George Crabbe, she had connections with Aldeburgh in Suffolk..

1884 Simon Marks, a Polish immigrant, and Yorkshireman Tom Spencer opened their Penny Bazaar in Leeds, setting the foundations for the Marks and Spencer chain.

1887 Yellow River or Huáng Hé floods in China, killing an estimated 1.5 million people

1912 Unionists in Northern Ireland signed the Solemn League and Covenant, pledging resistance to Home Rule for Ireland.

1918 World War I: The start of the Fifth Battle of Ypres. The British sustained almost 5,000 casualties but advanced the front line by up to 18 miles and captured approximately 10,000 German soldiers, 300 guns and 600 machine guns.

1923 The Radio Times was first published.

1928 Parliament passed the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis.

1928 Scottish born pharmacologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered what later became known as penicillin when he found that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. His 'bacteria killer' discovery changed the world of modern medicine and has saved millions of people around the world. Fleming was born here at Lochfield Farm at Darvel in Ayrshire on 6th August 1881.

1939 German-Soviet Frontier Treaty is signed by Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov; redraws German and Soviet spheres of influence in central Europe and transfers most of Lithuania to the USSR

1946 Future England football captain Billy Wright played in his first England international.

1984 A high court judge ruled that the miners' strike was unlawful because a union ballot was never held.

1985 Riots broke out on the streets of south London after a woman was shot and seriously injured in a house search. Local people had already been very critical of police tactics in Brixton and a mood of tension exploded into violence as night fell.

1986 British boxer Lloyd Honeyghan won the world welterweight title.

1996 At Ascot, Frankie Dettori became the first jockey to win all seven races at a meeting. The odds on this happening were 25,095 to 1. Bookmakers lost over £18 million pounds as a result.

2013 Baroness Thatcher's ashes were laid to rest in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. Lady Thatcher died, aged 87, on 8th April. A simple headstone bore the inscription Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013. She was Britain's first woman prime minister and the longest-serving prime minister of the twentieth century

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Famous Weddings

1922 Stage and film actor James Cagney (23) weds dancer Frances Vernon

1933 Sally Eilers weds Harry Joe Brown

1935 Comedian Stan Laurel (45) marries 2nd wife actress Virginia Ruth Rogers

1936 "Marx Brothers" comedian Harpo Marx (47) weds "Million Dollar Legs" actress Susan Fleming (28)

1951 Actor Franchot Tone weds actress Barbara Payton

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1937 Martha Raye divorces Bud Westmore

2010 Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (66) divorces romance novelist Melanie Craft after six years of marriage

[Altobelli]

29 SEPTEMBER

522 BC Darius I of Persia kills Magian usurper Gaumâta, securing his hold as king of the Persian Empire

480 BC Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I

1399 The first English monarch to abdicate, Richard II, was replaced by Bolingbroke, who ascended the throne as Henry IV.

1567 War of Religion breaks out in France - Huguenots try to kidnap King Charles IX

1650 Henry Robinson opened the first marriage bureau, in England.

1696 After nearly 150 years of neglect, the roof of Howden Minster collapsed. The minster ruins were left where they fell until 1748 when the site was cleared, and the townsfolk took building stones for their own. St. John of Howden was one of the earliest Canons of Howden and he was treated as a saint by the local community after his death, although he has not been officially canonised. Pilgrims, including Kings Edward I, Edward II and Henry V visited the Minster to see his tomb.

1755 Robert Lord Clive, (Clive of India), founder of the British empire in India, was born.

1758 Lord Horatio Nelson was born, in the village of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. He defeated the French and her allies on numerous occasions during the age of Napoleon Bonaparte and was naval hero at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson's parents were married in St. Michael's Parish Church, Beccles, Suffolk.

1793 Tennis was mentioned for the first time in an English sporting magazine.

1829 The Metropolitan Police of London, later also known as the Met. was inaugurated and was London's first regular police force, The officers became known as 'bobbies' after Robert Peel, the home secretary who founded the modern police force.

1885 The first practical, public electric tramway in the world was opened in Blackpool..

1913 The birth of Trevor Howard, film, stage and television actor. Over time he became one of Britain's finest character actors whose works included such films as Mutiny on the Bounty, Von Ryan's Express, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Ryan's Daughter, Superman, Gandhi and Brief Encounter which was partially shot at Carnforth railway station and the station's buffet room. It is alleged that throughout his film career Howard insisted that all of his contracts held a clause excusing him from work whenever a cricket Test Match was being played.

1938 England, France, Germany and Italy signed the Munich Pact, under which the Sudetenland was given to Nazi Germany. In return, Hitler promised not to make any further territorial demands in Europe. World War II began the following year!

1942 The small market town of Somerton in Somerset was hit by four Luftwaffe bombs. The bombs were aimed at the Cow and Gate milk factory at nearby Etsome which was largely destroyed. Nine people were killed and a further thirty seven injured. The civilians who died are commemorated on Somerton's War Memorial -

1946 BBC launched the 'Third Programme', later to become Radio 3.

1952 British and world water speed record holder John Cobb was killed on Loch Ness in Scotland when his craft 'Crusader' broke up after hitting waves at 240 mph close to Urquhart Castle.

1956 Sebastian Coe was born. As a 1500m runner he won Olympic gold in 1980 & 1984. He headed the successful London bid (2005) to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and became chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

1963 The Rolling Stones started their first tour, as the opening act for Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers.

1997 British scientists said they had established a link between a human brain disease - vCJD - and one found in cows - BSE.

2007 Calder Hall, the world's first commercial nuclear power station, was demolished in a controlled explosion. When it closed on 31st March 2003, the first reactor had been in use for nearly 47 years.

2008 Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, its largest single-day point loss, following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual

2011 Britons basked in record-breaking temperatures of 29C (84F). The mercury peaked in the East Midlands, beating the previous 29th September high of 27.8C (82F), which was recorded in York in 1895.

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Famous Weddings

1818 Inventor Samuel Morse (27) weds Lucretia Walker in Concord, New Hampshire

1844 Politician Boss Tweed (21) weds Mary Jane C Skaden

1926 Canadian-American actress Norma Shearer weds film producer Irving Thalberg

1930 Singer and actor Bing Crosby marries Dixie Lee

1933 NY Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig (30) weds Eleanor Twitchell in New Rochelle, New York

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2011 "House M.D." actress Olivia Wilde (26) divorces Italian prince Tao Ruspoli (35) due to irreconcilable differences after 8 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

30 SEPTEMBER

1520 Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selam I as Ottoman Sultan (rules till 1566)

1630 John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, became the first man executed in the English colonies. He was hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel.

1772 The death of James Brindley, British canal builder and one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century. The Trent and Mersey Canal was the first part of Brindley's ambitious project to use canals to link the four great rivers of England: the Mersey, Trent, Severn and Thames (the "Grand Cross" scheme). However he did not live to see it completed and died at Turnhurst within sight of his unfinished Harecastle Tunnel just nine days after the completion of his Birmingham Canal.

1788 Lord Raglan, British field-marshal was born. He lost his arm in battle, thus giving his name to a design of sleeve.

1840 The foundation stone for Nelson's Column was laid in Trafalgar Square.

1846 Anesthetic ether used for 1st time by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth

1862 Prussia Minister President Otto von Bismarck's delivers his "Blood & Iron" speech

1888 Jack the Ripper murdered two more women - Liz Stride, found behind 40 Berner Street, and Kate Eddowes in Mitre Square, both in London's East End. Unlike murderers of lesser fame, there is no waxwork figure of Jack the Ripper at Madame Tussauds' Chamber of Horrors, in accordance with their policy of not modelling persons whose likeness is unknown. He is instead depicted as a shadow.

1933 The birth, in Oldham, Lancashire of Barbara Knox, best known for playing Rita Tanner (née Littlewood, previously Fairclough and Sullivan) in the television soap opera Coronation Street . She has been a 'regular' since 1972 and In 1989 she won the TV Times award for best actress following her involvement in the dramatic Alan Bradley storyline.

1936 Pinewood Film Studios opened near Iver, in Buckinghamshire, to provide Britain with a film studio to compete with America's Hollywood Studios in California.

1938 The League of Nations unanimously outlawed 'the intentional bombings of civilian populations'.

1938 Treaty of Munich signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain, forces Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany

1939 Identity cards were issued in Britain.

1944 Calais was reoccupied by the Allies.

1945 The Bourne End rail crash, in Hertfordshire killed 43 when an overnight sleeping-car express train from Scotland to London Euston derailed due to a driver's error when he took a turn at nearly 60 mph when the maximum speed was 15 mph. The engine and the first six carriages overturned and fell down an embankment into a field, only the last three coaches remained on the rails.

1946 22 Nazi leaders found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg

1951 Big crowds attended the final ceremonies which marked the official end of the Festival of Britain.

1967 The BBC Light Programme, Third Programme and Home Service were replaced with BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 Respectively. BBC Radio 1 was also launched, with Tony Blackburn, a former Radio Caroline DJ, presenting the first show.

1971 The British Government named Oleg Lyalin as the Soviet defector who, the previous week had exposed dozens of Russians alleged to be spying in the UK.

1987 Keith Best, MP, was sentenced to four months in prison for trying to obtain British Telecom shares by deception.

1988 A court in Gibraltar declared that the killing of three unarmed IRA suspects by British soldiers was lawful.

2014 In the first official study of money spent on 'illegal' activities it was found that Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said that spending on illegal drugs and prostitution was worth an estimated £12.3bn to the UK economy in 2013.

Famous Birthday's

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Famous Deaths

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James Dean
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Simone Signoret
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Famous Weddings

1932 Actor and director Ray Milland (27) weds Muriel Frances Weber

1939 Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding (28) weds analytic chemist Ann Brookfield

1950 First Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew (27) weds lawyer Kwa Geok Choo (29) in Singapore

1968 Jazz musician Miles Davis (42) weds singer Betty Mabry (23)

1977 "Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom" author John Updike (45) weds Martha Bernhard

Famous Divorces

1938 Jazz musician Louis Armstrong (37) divorces pianist Lil Armstrong (40) after more than 14 years of marriage

2010 "CSI: Miami" actor Eddie Cibrian (36) divorces actress Brandi Glanville (37) due to irreconcilable differences after eight years of marriage