On This Day

[chalky_ncfc]

Cheers Altobelli, informative and interesting as usual

[Altobelli]

01 OCTOBER

331 BC Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela

959 Edgar the Peaceable became king of all England. 'The Peaceable', was not necessarily a comment on the deeds of his life, for he was a strong leader, shown by his seizure of the Northumbrian and Mercian kingdoms from his older brother. His reign though, was a remarkably peaceable one, thanks to draconian laws that involved having one's tongue ripped out, at best, for stealing an apple. Edgar died on 8th July 975 at Winchester in Hampshire.

1207 The birth of King Henry III, the son and successor of King John. He reigned for 56 years, from 1216 until his death.

1553 The Coronation of Queen Mary I. She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism and she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions.

1688 Prince Willem III of Orange accepts invitation of take up the British crown

1814 Opening of the Congress of Vienna, redrew Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte

1843 The News of the World, Britain's most popular Sunday newspaper, was first published. It was, at one time, the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, but amid a public backlash after allegations of phone hacking, News International announced the closure of the newspaper on 7th July 2011.

1867 Karl Marx' "Das Kapital" published

1868 The Midland Railway opened St. Pancras station in London. The first train arrived at 4:20am (the 10:05pm overnight mail train from Leeds). Designed by William Henry Barlow its arched engine shed (the Barlow train shed) was, at the time of opening, the largest single-span roof in the world.

1870 The first British halfpenny postage stamp, in lilac, was issued.

1906 The first hot-air balloon race was staged at Whitley, Yorkshire and was won by US Army Lieutenant Frank Lahm.

1908 Henry Ford introduces the Model T car (costs $825)

1935 Julie Andrews, English actress and singer was born.

1936 The BBC began regular TV broadcasts from Alexandra Palace, north London.

1943 World War II: The Italian city of Naples fell to Allied soldiers.

1946 Germany's Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolph Hess - captured in Scotland after mysteriously parachuting from a plane during World War II - was sentenced to life imprisonment.

1954 The UK Top 12 Pop Chart became a Top 20.

1957 A vaccine against the strain of influenza that had been sweeping around the world was made available to the British public.

1974 The first McDonalds restaurant opened in London.

1974 British boxer John Conteh became Light Heavyweight Champion of the World.

1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Joe Frazier in 15 for heavyweight boxing title in "The Thrilla in Manila"

1988 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, effectively head of state of the Soviet Union

1993 RAC patrolman Mervyn Jacobs was called out to jump start a minesweeper. It was not a problem for him. He just ran a 50 foot lead from his van!

2012 Surrey police confirmed that the late Sir Jimmy Savile was questioned over allegations of child *** abuse in 2007. In the aftermath, towns and organisations distanced themselves from their associations with the former TV presenter, commemorative plaques were removed and Savile's triple gravestone was sent to a landfill site after being removed from a Scarborough cemetery.

2014 The vehicle tax disc, first introduced in 1921, ceased to exist in paper form from 1st October, with a new electronic system being put in its place.

2015 Smoking in 'enclosed cars' containing children under 18 was banned in England and Wales, with a fixed penalty fine of £50 issued to people who smoked or who failed to prevent another person from smoking


Famous Birthday's

Bonnie Parker
(1910 - 1934)

Jimmy Carter
93rd Birthday

Mark McGwire
54th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Louis Leakey
(1903 - 1972)

E. B. White
(1899 - 1985)

Famous Weddings

1791 Prince Willem Frederick (later King of Netherlands) marries his cousin princess Frederica Louise Wilhelmine of Prussia

1884 Politician William Jennings Bryan (24) weds Mary sweetheart Elizabeth Baird

1913 Writer and poet Vita Sackville-West (21) marries diplomat Harold Nicolson (26)

1949 Television host and comedian Johnny Carson (23) weds Joan Morrill Wolcott (23) at the North Platte Episcopalian Church

1984 Actress Sigourney Weaver (34) weds filmmaker Jim Simpson (28)

[Altobelli]

02 OCTOBER

1187 Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from Crusaders

1452 King Richard III was born. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth (Leicestershire) where there is a memorial to him. On 25th August 2012 archaeologists began a dig, searching under a car park in Leicester for his last resting place. On 12th September they said that the human remains found showed similarities to the king's portrayal in records.

1492 King Henry VII of England invades France

1789 George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification

1900 Keir Hardy became the Labour Party's first Member of Parliament.

1901 The Royal Navy's first submarine, built by Vickers, was launched at Barrow. The company's shipbuilding division is now BAE Systems Submarine Solutions. The building, is Europe's largest ship building hall at almost 200 ft high and 900 ft long.

1904 The birth of the author, playwright and literary critic Graham Greene. His most notable works were Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair.

1909 The first rugby football match was played at Twickenham, between Harlequins and Richmond.

1925 London's first red buses with roofed-in upper decks went into service, but they had been in use in Widnes, Cheshire, since 1909.

1925 John Logie Baird (Scottish born engineer born at Helensburgh) performed the first test of a working television system. Although Baird's electromechanical system was eventually displaced by purely electronic systems, his early successes earned him a prominent place in television's invention.

1928 "Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God", known as Opus Dei, founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá

1942 The British cruiser Curacao sank with the loss of 338 lives, after colliding with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal.

1944 Nazis crush Warsaw Uprising killing 250,000 people

1950 Legal Aid was introduced in Britain

1951 The birth of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known by his stage name Sting. Prior to starting his solo singing career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bass player for the rock band The Police.

1953 A photograph of William Pettit, wanted for murder, was shown on BBC TV at the request of the police - the first time in Britain that television was used to help find a wanted man.

1968 A woman gave birth to six babies in what was hailed as the first recorded case of live ***tuplets in Britain.

1981 The IRA hunger-strike at the Maze prison ended after after seven months and ten deaths.

1983 Neil Kinnock was elected leader of Britain's Labour Party, with Roy Hattersley joining him as deputy.

1991 Ron Chassidy (who had been jailed for not paying his poll tax) was released after a 'whip-round' at his local pub so that he could play in a dominoes match!

1996 Mandy Allwood lost the last five of the octuplets she had been expecting after a 19 week pregnancy. She had refused 'selective reduction' and her case provoked a media storm in Britain.

2001 Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Taliban that it would be the target of military action unless it gave up Osama bin Laden.

2007 President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walks across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il

2012 The decision to award the West Coast Main Line rail franchise to FirstGroup was scrapped because of 'significant technical flaws' in the way the risks for each bid were calculated. FirstGroup, which beat current operator Virgin Trains to win the 13-year deal, said it had submitted its bid correctly and was disappointed at the news.

Famous Birthday's

Paul von Hindenburg
(1847 - 1934)

Mahatma Gandhi
(1869 - 1948)

Coco the Clown
(1900 - 1974)

Famous Deaths

Samuel Adams
(1722 - 1803)

Marcel Duchamp
(1887 - 1968)

Paavo Nurmi
(1897 - 1973)

Famous Weddings

1900 Belgium crown prince Albert von Saksen-Coburg weds Elisabeth of Bayern

1909 American Playwright Eugene O'Neill (20) marries 1st wife Kathleen Jenkins

1955 Actress Joyce Randolph marries publisher Richard Charles

1970 Scottish singer Donovan (24) weds Linda Lawrence at Windsor Registry Office

1970 Actor Christopher Plummer (40) weds actress Elaine Taylor (26) in Montreal, Quebec

Famous Divorces

1942 Jazz musician Louis Armstrong (41) divorces Alpha Smith after 4 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

03 OCTOBER

2333 BC State of Gojoseon (Modern-day Korea) founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Yao

52 BC Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia

1283 Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Gwynedd and the last independent ruler of Wales, became the first nobleman to be executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered; for plotting the death of King Edward I. Dafydd was dragged through the streets of Shrewsbury attached to a horse's tail then hanged alive, revived, then disembowelled and his entrails burned before him before being cut into four quarters.

1691 The Treaty of Limerick was signed, ending the Irish Rebellion against English rule.

1712 The Duke of Montrose issued a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor, the famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century. He was later imprisoned, finally pardoned in 1727 , died in 1734 and is buried in Balquhidder churchyard.

1811 The first recorded women's county cricket match - between Hampshire and Surrey at Newington.

1844 Sir Patrick Manson, Scottish doctor, was born in Aberdeenshire. He was known as 'Mosquito Manson' from his pioneer work with Sir Ronald Ross in malaria research.

1896 The death of William Morris, English craftsman, painter, wallpaper and textile designer and novelist. The south transept window in St Michael church and All Angels - Lyndhurst, Hampshire was made in the William Morris workshop. It is thought that the bearded man being grabbed by the scruff of his collar in the lower left window may be a depiction of William Morris.

1906 SOS became the international distress signal, replacing the call sign CDQ, sometimes explained as ‘Come Damn Quick!’

1916 The birth, in Sunderland, of James Alfred Wight (James Herriot ), vet and author of 'All Creatures Great & Small'. His surgery was in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

1922 1st facsimile photo sent over city telephone lines, Washington, D.C.

1929 The Church of Scotland merged with the United Free Church of Scotland, retaining the name Church of Scotland.

1932 Iraq gained independence from Britain. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Republic of Iraq was created.

1935 Italy invades Ethiopia, starting the Second Italo-Ethiopian War

1940 Former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned from Winston Churchill's coalition Government.

1952 Britain's first atomic bomb was detonated on the Monte Bello Islands, off W. Australia.

1952 News of the end of tea rationing meant the prospect of unlimited 'cuppas' for the first time in 12 years.

1956 The Bolshoi Ballet performed in Britain, at Covent Garden, for the first time.

1959 Postcodes were introduced in Britain.

1967 Sir Malcolm Sargent, British music conductor died.

1967 The first conservation area was established, at Stamford in Lincolnshire.

1990 Reunification of East and West Germany. West German flag is raised above the Brandenburg Gate on the stroke of midnight.

1991 Sir Allan Green, a QC and British Director of Public Prosecutions resigned after being stopped by police for alleged kerb crawling. Sir Allan and his wife later separated, on the eve of their silver wedding anniversary and Lady Eva Green, (47) committed suicide in January 1993.

1995 O.J. Simpson found not guilty of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, California

2013 The cost of a National Lottery Lotto ticket doubled to £2. The rise was the first since the lottery started in 1994.

2014 Samuel Tree (68) who claimed that plastic devices he made in his garden shed could detect bombs and drugs and find the missing schoolgirl Madeleine McCann was jailed for three and a half years. His plastic 'Alpha 6' cost just a few pounds but sold for thousands.

2014 The cast and crew of the BBC's Top Gear had to abandon their vehicles and flee Argentina after they were pelted with stones. A crowd was incensed that one of their vehicles had a number plate (H982 FKL) that appeared to refer to the Falklands conflict of 1982.

Famous Birthday's

Al Sharpton
63rd Birthday

Stevie Ray Vaughan
(1954 - 1990)

Gwen Stefani
48th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Gaius Cassius
( - 42 BC)

Myles Standish
( - 1656)

Janet Leigh
(1927 - 2004)

Famous Weddings

1833 Composer Hector Berlioz marries actress Harriet Smithson

1944 Comedian Jerry Lewis marries singer Patti Palmer

1953 MLB player and manager Sparky Anderson (19) weds childhood sweetheart Carol Valle

1965 Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (23) weds artist Deborah Lee

1970 75th Prime Minister of UK John Major (27) weds Norma Johnson (28) at St Matthew's Church, Brixton

[Altobelli]

04 OCTOBER

1535 The first complete English language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) was printed by London printer Miles Coverdale, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1821 The death of the engineer John Rennie. His work on canals, aqueducts, bridges and dockyards mark him as one of the greatest engineers of his age. His first works were canals, notably the Lancaster Canal and the Kennet & Avon Canal, including the infamous Caen Hill Flight. He also designed Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge and 'New' London Bridge. Other works included Grimsby Docks, London Docks and the Sheerness Dockyard.

1829 John Thompson of London designed the first greeting card.

1883 The Boys' Brigade was founded, in Glasgow, by Sir William Alexander Smith. The interdenominational Christian youth organisation combines drill and fun activities with Christian values. In May 1903, Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Association, became their vice-president. By 2003, there were 500,000 Boys' Brigade members in 60 countries.

1883 The Orient Express departs on its first official journey from Paris to Instanbul

1900 In a final confrontation, some 4000 Ashantis are defeated by the British in Gold Coast (Ghana)

1911 Britain's first escalators were introduced. They connected the District Line and Piccadilly Line platforms at Earl's Court underground station in London.

1939 The birth, in London, of Jackie Collins, author and the younger sister of actress Joan Collins. In total, her books have sold over 500 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television mini-series. She died (aged 77) on 19th September 2015 at Beverly Hills, California.

1948 The birth of Ann Widdecombe, former MP and a novelist since 2000. She retired from politics at the 2010 general election.

1957 USSR launches Sputnik I, 1st artificial Earth satellite

1958 Aviation history was made when 2 British designed and built De Havilland Comet 4 airliners operated by BOAC (now British Airways) made the first scheduled jet passenger service flights across the North Atlantic.

1963 The Beatles made their first appearance on the ITV show Ready Steady Go!

1965 The BBC announced it would begin broadcasting a new programme for immigrants.

1973 The BBC broadcast the 500th edition of Top Of The Pops. On the show were Slade, Gary Glitter and The Osmonds.

1976 British Rail began its new 125mph Intercity 'High Speed Train' service. At the time of its introduction it was the fastest diesel-powered train in regular service in the world and remained so for many years afterwards. Engineers have calculated that, with a certain amount of rewiring, the Mark 3 carriages can be made to last until at least 2035.

1983 The Scottish entrepreneur Richard Noble reached a world land speed record of 663.5mph at Nevada in his jet-powered car, Thrust II, now housed in the Coventry Transport Museum. Noble was also the project director of ThrustSSC, the vehicle which holds the current land speed record, set at Black Rock Desert, Nevada by RAF pilot Andy Green on 15th October 1997.

1996 Following a series of 'memoir books' regarding events in the Gulf War, members of the SAS and other British forces were to sign a 'contract of silence' or face dismissal.

2000 It was reported that Harry Potter author JK Rowling had donated a six figure sum to the National Council for One Parent Families.

2001 Michael Stone was found guilty, for the second time, of the murders of Dr. Lin Russell and her daughter Megan, killed on 9th July 1996 in an attempted robbery. 9 year old Josie survived, with severe head injuries, but went on to make an excellent recovery.

2010 The death of Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, songwriter and actor.

2003 London won the coveted title of number one 'Crap Town' in the UK, held for the previous decade by Hull, . Not only was Hull stripped of its title, it completely dropped out of the top 50. Less than 2 months later, Hull was named the UK's next City of Culture, beating Leicester, Dundee and Swansea Bay to the right to hold the title in 2017.

2006 WikiLeaks is launched, created by internet activist Julian Assange

2013 Amanda Hutton (43), from Bradford, whose four-year-old son Hamzah Khan starved to death and whose mummified remains were left in his cot for nearly two years was found guilty of killing him by gross negligence. Hutton claimed she had struggled to get her son to eat and that he had died suddenly. She was jailed for 15 years.

2013 93 year old Clifford Dadson, from Cumbria become the oldest graduate in the UK after receiving an Arts degree from the Open University. He began studying when his wife, Rae, passed away in 2009 and has vowed to continue studying by signing up to a religious module with the university.

Famous Birthday's

Rutherford B. Hayes
(1822 - 1893)

Charlton Heston
(1923 - 2008)

Anne Rice
76th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606 - 1669)

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi
(1834 - 1904)

Janis Joplin
(1943 - 1970)

Famous Weddings

1539 King Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, his 4th wife

1767 Prince Willem V marries Prussian princess Wilhelmina

1795 "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" poet Samuel Coleridge (22) marries Sarah Fricker

1795 Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (22) weds Sara Fricker in Bristol, England

1802 English romantic poet William Wordsworth (32) marries childhood friend Mary Hutchinson

Famous Divorces

2016 Singer Gwen Stefani and musician Gavin Rossdale divorce after 13 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

05 OCTOBER

1582 Gregorian calendar introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries

1789 French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris

1796 Spain declared war on Britain in the Napoleonic Wars.

1813 Battle of Thames in Canada; Americans defeat British

1864 Most of Calcutta destroyed by cyclone, approx 60,000 die

1895 The first individual time trial for racing cyclists was held on a 50 mile course north of London.

1917 Sir Arthur Lee donated Chequers in Buckinghamshire to the nation as a permanent country retreat for British Prime Ministers.

1922 Yankees and Giants play an infamous 3-3 tied World Series game

1927 At its conference in Blackpool, the Labour Party voted to nationalise the coal industry.

1930 The British airship R101 crashed at the edge of a wood near Beauvais in France en route to India on its maiden voyage, killing 48 of the 54 passengers, including the British Air Minister Lord Thompson who may well have contributed to the disaster. He brought luggage on board equivalent to the weight of about 24 people, and the crash of the 777 foot craft was thought to be a result of overloading.

1933 Gordon Richards, English champion jockey, rode his 12th consecutive win in 3 days.

1936 The start of the 'Jarrow March' - around 200 unemployed shipyard workers from Jarrow in north east England began walking to London to protest about the lack of jobs. The protestors arrived on 31st October. This Bronze sculpture. The Spirit of Jarrow by Graham Ibbeson was unveiled in Jarrow Town Centre in 2001 as a memorial to the 1936 Jarrow March. Only men participated in the historic march, apart from Jarrow's female MP, Ellen Wilkinson.

1947 Harry Truman makes the 1st Presidential address televised from the White House

1958 Cliff Richard & The Shadows played their first gig together (Victoria Hall, Hanley).

1962 In Britain, an emerging pop group, 'The Beatles' released their first hit record 'Love Me Do'.

1962 Dr. No, the first James Bond film, was released. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name it starred Sean Connery as the secret agent 007. The film was produced with a low budget, the first of a successful series of 22 Bond films. A 23rd - 'Skyfall', with Daniel Craig as James Bond was premiered in London on 23rd October 2012, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the series.

1967 For the first time in Britain, a court in Brighton accepted a 'majority verdict' from a jury instead of the usual 'unanimous verdict' required previously.

1968 Police baton charged civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland – considered to mark the beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

1969 The first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC. In all, 45 episodes were created over four series, from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. The series' theme song was the first segment of John Philip Sousa's The Liberty Bell, chosen because it was in the public domain and was free to use without charge.

1974 IRA bombs killed 5 and injured 65 in two public houses in Guildford, Surrey, England.

1975 The birth, in Reading, Berkshire of Kate Winslet, English actress and the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations. She achieved worldwide recognition for her leading role in Titanic (1997), the highest grossing film at the time.

1978 Over 30 major nations ratify the Environmental Modification Convention which prohibits weather warfare that has widespread, long-lasting or severe effects

1984 Police and Customs in Es*** seized Britain's biggest ever haul of cannabis made in a single raid, (4.3 tons), with an estimated street value of almost £11 million.

1984 Leonard Rossiter, actor, (Rising Damp, and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin) died at the age of 57 from a heart attack.

1999 The Ladbroke Grove rail crash in West London, (also known as the Paddington train crash) killed 31 people and injured more than 520 when two trains collided after one driver passed signals that were showing red.

2015 The government imposed a new law in England, which required that all supermarkets (or large businesses employing 250 or more full-time equivalent employees in total) must levy a charge of 5p per 'single-use' plastic carrier bag used by customers, including plastic bags used for deliveries.


Famous Birthday's

Chester A. Arthur
(1829 - 1886)

Robert H. Goddard
(1882 - 1945)

Ray Kroc
(1902 - 1984)

Famous Deaths

Rodney Dangerfield
(1921 - 2004)

Fred Shuttlesworth
(1922 - 2011)

Steve Jobs
(1955 - 2011)

Famous Weddings

1937 Two-time Oscar winner actor Anthony Quinn (22) weds actress Katherine de Mille (26)

1945 Actress Janet Leigh (18) weds Stanley Reames at Morris Chapel in Stockton, California

1968 "The Dirty Dozen" actor Charles Bronson (46) weds Jill Ireland

1971 Television producer Lorne Michaels (26) weds comedy writer Rosie Shuster (21)

1981 "The Hollywood Knights" actress Michelle Pfeiffer (23) weds actor Peter Horton (28) in Santa Monica

Famous Divorces

1991 Director Martin Scorsese (48) divorces producer Barbara De Fina (41) after 6 years of marriage

2007 Actress Reese Witherspoon (30) divorces actor Ryan Phillippe (32) due to irreconcilable differences after 7 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

06 OCTOBER

1536 William Tyndale, English religious reformer and translator of the Bible's New Testament, was strangled and burned at the stake, for heresy.

1769 English explorer Captain James Cook, aboard the Endeavour, discovered New Zealand.

1829 Locomotive trials began at Rainhill near Liverpool to find an engine for use on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. On trial were Cycloped, Perseverance, Sans Pareil Novelty and the winner, Rocket, designed by George and Robert Stephenson and built by Robert Stephenson and Company. A replica of the Rocket is at York's railway museum.

1854 The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead started shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured in a series of fires and an explosion. The initial fire started in a mill and large quantities of oil in the premises added fuel to the fire. The explosion, which could be heard 10 miles away, was thought to be the result of storing 2800 tons of sulphur and 128 tons of nitrate of soda in one of the warehouses.

1891 William Henry Smith, (WHSmith) English newsagent, bookseller and statesman died.

1892 Alfred Tennyson, England's 'Poet Laureate', died.

1895 Conductor Sir Henry Wood instituted the Promenade Concerts; known worldwide as 'The Proms', at the Queen's Hall in London.

1910 The birth of Barbara Castle who rose to become one of the most important Labour Party politicians of the twentieth century. She is, to date, the only woman to have held the office of First Secretary of State.

1917 Battle of Passchendaele: Canadian troops capture the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres, after 250,000 casualties on both sides

1939 Hitler announces plans to regulate Jewish problem, also Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.

1948 The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 100,000 in the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

1948 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil skull of Proconsul africanus, an ancestor of apes and humans on Rusinga Island, Kenya

1951 Joseph Stalin proclaims the Soviet Union has the atomic bomb

1953 Naval and military forces were sent to British Guiana in response to what the UK Government said was a threat to the administration of the British colony.

1956 Dr Albert Sabin discovers oral polio vaccine

1968 The first three places in the US Grand Prix were taken by British drivers: Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees.

1978 Ann Dadds became London Underground's first woman Tube driver.

1985 Metropolitan police officer, PC Keith Blakelock, was hacked to death by up to 40 rioters on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, North London against a backdrop of unrest between the police and local black communities. Blakelock and nine other constables were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for bravery and Sergeant David Pengelly, who fought to save Blakelock and another officer who came under attack, received the George Medal. The murder remains unresolved but investigations continue.

1997 British astronaut, Michael Foale, returned safely to earth aboard the space shuttle 'Atlantis' after four and a half months on 'MIR', the Russian space station. The touchdown was Atlantis’ final mission before she was taken out of service for another 'Orbiter Modification Down Period'. Atlantis did not fly again until May 2000 when she made her first trip to the International Space Station.

2013 Expenses documents showed that former cabinet minister Liam Fox successfully claimed 3p of taxpayers' money for a car journey of about 100 metres. The ex-defence secretary made another 15 claims of under £1 for car travel approved in 2012-13.

Famous Birthday's

George Westinghouse
(1846 - 1914)

Helen Wills Moody
(1905 - 1998)

Thor Heyerdahl
(1914 - 2002)

Famous Deaths

Walter Hagen
(1892 - 1969)

Anwar Sadat
(1918 - 1981)

Bette Davis
(1908 - 1989)

Famous Weddings

1936 Diana Mitford marries Oswald Mosley in the house of Joseph Goebbels with Adolf Hitler as a guest

1953 MLB baseball player Hank Aaron (19) weds Barbara Lucas

1956 South African politician "Kobie" Coetsee marries Helena E Malan

1956 Tennis player champ Ken Rosewall (21) weds Wilma McIver at St John's Church of England Cathedral in Brisbane, Australia

1977 Professional boxer George Foreman (28) weds Cynthia Lewis

Famous Divorces

1980 Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman (43) divorces actress Anne Byrne (37) after 11 years of marriage

2006 "Friends" actor Matt LeBlanc (39) divorces former model Melissa McKnight (41) due to irreconcilable differences after 3 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

07 OCTOBER

1571 Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of southern European nations destroys Ottoman fleet in significant loss off Western Greece

1737 40 foot waves sink 20,000 small craft and kill 300,000 near Bengal, India

1763 George III of Great Britain issues Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement

1765 Delegates from nine of the American colonies protested against the British Stamp Act, which raised a direct tax on the colonies.

1806 The first carbon paper was patented by its English inventor, Ralph Wedgwood.

1918 www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of Hubert Parry, English composer. As a composer he is best known for the choral song 'Jerusalem', based on Blake's poem that begins with the lines - 'And did those feet in ancient time. Walk upon England's mountains green.' The term 'dark Satanic Mills', referenced in the poem, is interpreted as referring to the early Industrial Revolution that destroyed nature and human relationships. The family's country house was two miles west of Gloucester. This memorial to Hubert Parry is in Gloucester Cathedral.

1919 KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, established (oldest existing airline)

1920 The first women were admitted to study for full degrees at Oxford University

1922 The first royal broadcast was made, by the Prince of Wales, on 2LO, 11 days before it changed its named to the BBC.

1946 The BBC presented its first edition of Woman's Hour, a daily programme of music, advice and entertainment for those in the home. The programme included an item on how to de-slime your flannels (!) and also broadcast the first episode of the thriller serial 'Dick Barton, Special Agent'.

1957 Jayne Torvill, English ice skater, was born. With fellow skater Christopher Dean, they won a gold medal at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. The 1984 Winter Olympics led to world fame when they performed to the music of Maurice Ravel's Boléro and received twelve perfect 6.0 marks, one of five occasions when they were awarded all perfect scores for artistic impression.

1959 Three hundred people were rescued after being cut off by a blaze on Southend's pier, (the world's longest pleasure pier on England's south-east coast).

1959 The birth of Simon Cowell, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol. He is also the owner of the television production and music publishing house Syco.

1966 The Rolling Stones made their last appearance on ITV's 'Ready Steady Go'.

1977 Ninety sets of Swedish identical twins travelled to Felixstowe for a brief shopping trip!

1977 The Winter Gardens at Morecambe in Lancashire became a listed building. Originally built as the Victoria Pavilion Theatre in 1897, the theatre closed to the public in the same year that it was listed. A campaign for its restoration has been ongoing since 1986. It still has a fine interior, in spite of the length of closure. Photo from March 2017.

1983 Plans to abolish the Greater London Council (GLC) were announced.

1986 A new British newspaper, The Independent, was published.

1992 The first Braille cash dispenser was installed, by the Northern Rock Building Society in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

1996 Two IRA car bombs exploded at a British military base in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, injuring 21 soldiers and 10 civilians.

2001 The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground

2004 The death of Kenneth Bigley, an English civil engineer who was kidnapped in Baghdad on 16th September 2004, along with his colleagues Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, both U.S. citizens. All were subsequently beheaded despite the attempted intervention of the Muslim Council of Britain and the indirect intervention of the British government.


2008 UK banking shares plunged on fears that more financial institutions would need government assistance to stay solvent. HBOS shares dropped 42% and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) fell 39%.

2013 Buckingham Palace held its first official football match to mark the Football Association's 150th anniversary. The competitive fixture was the idea of FA president Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. London side Civil Service FC, the only surviving team of 11 that formed the FA on 26th October 1863, lost 2-1 against Polytechnic FC, set up in 1875. At half-time, palace footmen and women - wearing waistcoats and tail-coats - carried water, orange slices and chocolate bars on silver-plated platters onto the pitch for the players.

2013 The Scout Association announced an alternative version of its membership promise for young people who do not believe in God. As from January 2014, instead of vowing "to do my duty to God", scouts would be able to promise to "uphold our scout values"; with the new promise exisitng alongside the core scout promise, which has remained unchanged for 106 years.

Famous Birthday's

Heinrich Himmler
(1900 - 1945)

Vladimir Putin
65th Birthday

Simon Cowell
58th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Edgar Allan Poe
(1809 - 1849)

Willis Carrier
(1876 - 1950)

Leo Durocher
(1906 - 1991)

Famous Weddings

1776 Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.

1914 44th US Ambassador to the United Kingdom Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (26) weds John F. Fitzgerald's mother, Rose Fitzgerald (24)

1965 Actress and comedian Phyllis Diller (48) weds actor Warde Donovan

1978 Country singer Merle Haggard (41) weds his backup singer Leona Williams (35)

1989 Radio talk show host Larry King weds Julie Alexander

Famous Divorces

1988 Robin Givens files for divorce after 8-month marriage to Mike Tyson

2004 Actress Andie MacDowell (46) divorces businessman Rhett Hartzog (45) after nearly three years of marriage

[Altobelli]

08 OCTOBER

1200 Isabella of Angoulême (in western France) was crowned Queen consort of England as the second wife of King John until John's death in 1216. She had five children by the king including his heir, later Henry III. In 1220 she remarried and had a further nine children.

1480 Great standing on the Ugra river, standoff between forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and Ivan III Grand Prince of all Rus, Tataro-Mongols retreat, leds to disintegration of the Horde

1744 The birth of Henry Duncan, a minister of the Church of Scotland who founded the world's first commercial savings bank, paying interest on its investors' modest savings. This statue of him is at Dumfries.

1806 Napoleonic Wars: British forces laid siege to the port of Boulogne by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve. His effective rockets were made up of an iron case containing black powder for propulsion and a conical warhead.

1856 The Second Opium War or second Anglo-Chinese War: begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River

1862 Otto von Bismarck becomes Chancellor of the German Empire

1908 The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book, was published. It has never been out of print in its entire history.

1915 The Battle of Loos, one of the fiercest of World War I, ended with virtually no gains for either side. Almost 430,000 French, British and Germans were killed. The British used poison gas for the first time in the battle.

1917 Leon Trotsky named chairman of the Petrograd Soviet as Bolsheviks gain control

1928 The birth of the actor Bill Maynard. He appeared with comedians Terry Scott and Ronnie Barker, played in some of the Carry On films and for 9 years he was the old rogue Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the popular and long-running television series Heartbeat.

1929 Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, was born.

1952 112 people were killed and 340 injured when two express trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone, in NW London, and a third train ran into the wreckage. The driver of the Perth train had passed a caution signal and two danger signals before colliding with the local train, which accelerated the introduction of a system that warned drivers that they had passed an adverse signal.

1965 London's Post Office Tower, once Britain's tallest building, opened. Prime Minister Harold Wilson made the first telephone call.

1967 A motorist in Somerset becomes the first person to be breathalysed in Britain.

1967 Clement Atlee died, aged 84. As Prime Minister he introduced radical reforms of the social welfare system and introduced the National Health Service.

1973 London Broadcasting Company, Britain's first legal commercial radio station, began transmitting.

1980 British Leyland launched the Mini Metro.

1987 The coroner's inquest into the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise returned verdicts of unlawful killing. The ferry disaster, in March, killed 187 people.

1990 Hectic trading in the City marked Britain's first day as a full member of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System.

1994 The Sunday Times alleged that Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, had received £12 million commission from a £20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, negotiated whilst she was Prime Minister.

1999 A survey for the UK's National Farmer's Union discovered that pop music increased egg production in chickens!

2001 U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

2014 Motorist Jonathan Weekes (48, of Tredegar) put a blue flashing light on top of his Vauxhall Insignia and pretended to be a policeman. Unfortunately for him he pulled over a real police officer for speeding, saying 'If you had been going any faster I would have booked you.' When rumbled, Weekes drove off without any headlights on and overtook several cars at speed on narrow streets. He was given a 12-month community order after he admitted acting falsely, by suggesting that he was a police officer. In court he also admitted driving without due care and attention, was banned from driving for six months and told to pay £85 costs and a £60 surcharge.

Famous Birthday's

Juan Perón
(1895 - 1974)

Matt Damon
47th Birthday

Bruno Mars
32nd Birthday

Famous Deaths

John Hancock
(1737 - 1793)

Franklin Pierce
(1804 - 1869)

Clement Attlee
(1883 - 1967)

Famous Weddings

1824 Salt Lake City founder Brigham Young (23) weds first wife Miriam Angeline Works (18) in Port Byron, New York

1842 Princess Sophia weds her cousin duke Charles Saksen-Weimar-Eisenach

1846 Prime Minister of Canada Charles Tupper (25) weds Frances Amelia Morse (20) in Amherst, Nova Scotia

1934 South Korean President Syngman Rhee (59) weds Francesca Donner (34)

1935 Ozzie Nelson marries Harriet Hilliard (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett)

Famous Divorces

2010 Musician Ben Harper (40) divorces actress Laura Dern (43) due to irreconcilable differences after 5 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

09 OCTOBER

768 Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I are crowned Kings of The Franks

1000 Leif Ericson discovers "Vinland" (possibly L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada) reputedly becoming first European to reach North America

1446 The Hangul alphabet is published in Korea

1470 Henry VI of England was restored to the throne after being deposed in 1461. Six months later he was deposed again and then murdered in the Tower of London.

1779 The first 'Luddite' riots broke out in a lace factory in Loughborough as workers protested against labour-saving machinery which was likely to make them redundant. Similar riots begin at a spinning cotton factory in Manchester.

1799 The sinking of HMS Lutine off the coast of Holland, with the loss of 240 men. The ship's bell was salvaged from the wreck and was later presented to shipping insurers Lloyds of London. The Lutine Bell has been rung ever since to mark a marine disaster.

1831 Ioannis Kapodistrias, first Head of State of modern Greece, assassinated in Nafplion

1897 Henry Stumey set off in his 4.5hp Daimler from Land's End, and became the first person to drive to John o' Groats. His 929 mile journey took him 10 days.

1913 The Glasgow built steamship SS Volturno caught fire in mid-Atlantic. Eleven ships came to her aid and rescued 520 passengers and crewmen but 130, most of them women and children, died in the incident, in unsuccessfully launched lifeboats.

1940 The birth of John Lennon, rock singer, songwriter and a founder member of The Beatles.

1941 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program - beginning of the Manhattan project

1944 The birth of John Entwistle, (nicknamed The Ox) and bassist with The Who.

1948 English football legend Billy Wright first captained the England international team (aged 24), against Northern Ireland.

1955 Three armed men raided a Turkish bath in London, but the well heeled customers were wearing very little clothing, and the robbers' total haul was only £7.

1955 Steve Ovett, English athlete, was born.

1959 The Conservatives, under Harold Macmillan, (Supermac) won a third consecutive general election.

1961 Britain's youngest ever Conservative MP, Margaret Thatcher, was given her first governmental job.

1962 Uganda proclaimed its independence from Britain.

1968 Prime Minister Harold Wilson met Rhodesian premier Ian Smith aboard HMS Fearless in Gibraltar to discuss Rhodesia's decision to declare UDI -a Universal Declaration of Independence.

1976 The listing of the art-deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe, Lancashire. The hotel was built in 1933, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). In its heyday it was 'the place' to stay and quickly attracted the wealthy middle classes. From 1988 the hotel stood derelict, but after major refurbishment the Midland re-opened its doors to the public in the summer of 2008.

1986 The musical The Phantom of the Opera had its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

1988 The death of the footballer Jackie Milburn (full name John Edward Thompson Milburn). By the time Milburn left Newcastle in 1957, he had become the highest goalscorer in Newcastle United's history. He remained so until he was surpassed by Alan Shearer in February 2006.

1991 The first Sumo wrestling tournament ever held off Japanese soil in the sport's 1500 year history began 'on this day' , at the Royal Albert Hall.

1997 The campaign to ban landmines, a cause made popular by Diana, Princess of Wales was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1999www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe new Scottish Parliament building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 and the Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) held their first debate in the new building on 7th September 2004.

2006 North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device.

2010 A ticket bought in the UK won a new record of £113m on the Euromillions lottery draw, making the anonymous winner the UK’s 589th richest person.

2013 Environment Secretary Owen Paterson claimed that "badgers moved the goalposts" when asked why marksmen failed to reach their badger cull target in the counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset.

2013 The Royal Mail share-offering for private investors was seven times over-subscribed, with 700,000 applications in total. Labour claimed that the shares were being sold too cheaply. Two days later the shares rose 38% to 455p in their first day of conditional dealings on the London Stock Exchange.

2014 A report rom the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish had declined on average by 52 per cent in the last 40 years. Almost the entire decline was down to human activity, through habitat loss, deforestation, climate change, over-fishing and hunting.


Famous Birthday's

Joe Pepitone
77th Birthday

John Lennon
(1940 - 1980)

David Cameron
51st Birthday

John Entwistle
(1944 - 2002)

Famous Deaths

Benjamin Banneker
(1731 - 1806)

Che Guevara
(1928 - 1967)

Oskar Schindler
(1908 - 1974)

Famous Weddings

1514 King Louis XII of France marries Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII (sister of Henry VIII)

1901 Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr (27) weds Abby Aldrich in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island

1916 Heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey (21) weds Maxine Gates in Farmington, Utah

1944 Nizari Imam Aga Khan III (67) weds 1930 Miss France Yvonne Blanche Labrousse (38) in Geneva, Switzerland

1962 French singer Edith Piaf (46) marries French Greek actor Théo Sarapo (26)

Famous Divorces

1973 Elvis & Priscilla Presley divorce after 6 years

1980 Princess Caroline of Monaco divorces Philippe Junot