On This Day

[Altobelli]

23 NOVEMBER

1248 Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile after the city capitulates

1499 The Pretender to the throne, Flemish impostor Perkin Warbeck, was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV.

1644 Areopagitica, a pamphlet by John Milton, decrying censorship, is published

1852 Britain's first four pillar boxes came into service on the Channel Island of Jersey. The idea came from English novelist Anthony Trollope who worked for the General Post Office in London before becoming a writer.

1863 Patent granted for a process of making color photographs

1867 The Manchester Martyrs (William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) were hanged in Manchester for killing a police officer whilst freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.

1869 In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched - one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving

1887 Boris Karloff, English actor famous for his roles in horror films, was born.

1889 The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco

1896 The first Royal Command Performance for the British Sovereign. The event was in the Red Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, before H.M. Queen Victoria.

1905 British Liberal Party leader Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman advocated Home Rule for Ireland, by instalments, in a controversial speech in Scotland.

1910 American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London after being found guilty of poisoning his wife and dismembering her body.

1915 ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’, the famous First World War song, was published, by Felix Powell and George Asaf, who were really two brothers from Wales.

1924 Edwin Hubble's scientific discovery that Andromeda is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, is first published

1936 Life magazine is reborn as a photo magazine and enjoys instant success

1942 Chinese steward Poon Lim begins 133 days arift after British ship SS Benlomond torpedoed by german U-boat and he is the sole survivor

1954 The birth of Ross Brawn, English motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal. He worked as the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari Formula One teams.

1959 French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals".

1962 British surgeon John Charnley developed a technique at Wrightington Hospital Lancashire that revolutionised hip replacement operations. He was later knighted for his efforts and his work became the standard procedure across the world.

1963 The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Ann Ford as his first female companion. It is the world's longest running science fiction drama.The producer, Sydney Newman, thought the Daleks, designed by Ray Cusick, were ‘bug-eyed monsters’ and totally wrong for the series. Roath Lock studios in the Porth Teigr area of Cardiff Bay is the home of Doctor Who and its spin-off, 'Class'.

1976 British comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II. There is a statue of Eric Morecambe on the promenade at Morecambe, Lancashire.

1976 Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment

1978 A Birmingham nightclub was ordered to open its doors to black and Chinese people.

1979 In Dublin, Thomas McMahon was found guilty of the murder of Lord Mountbatten, and given a life sentence.

1981 Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17, giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua

1984 Almost 1,000 passengers were trapped in smoke filled tunnels for three hours after a fire at Oxford Circus underground station.

1990 The death of the author Roald Dahl. He was born in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents). Roald Dahl Plass is a public plaza in the heart of Cardiff Bay. His 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

1992 The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada

1993 English artist Rachel Whiteread won both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year. She was the first woman to win Turner prize. and 2001 she became the third artist to provide a sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, an inverted 11 ton resin cast of the plinth itself.

2001 The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary

2005 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is elected president of Liberia, the first woman to lead an African country

2014 Veteran sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (aged 75) spoke of the 'warm and friendly' reception he received after claiming third place in his class of the singlehanded transatlantic Route du Rhum race, from St Malo in France to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. Sir Robin, a grandfather of five, was the first person ever to sail single-handed and non-stop, around the world, in 1969.

2016 Thomas Mair was found guilty of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox (16th June 2016). He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.

Famous Birthday's

Franklin Pierce
(1804 - 1869)



Billy the Kid
(1859 - 1881)

Harpo Marx
(1888 - 1964)

Lew Hoad
(1934 - 1994)

Alan Mullery
76th Birthday

Merv Hughes
56th Birthday

Miley Cyrus
25th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Hawley Harvey Crippen [Dr Crippen] Hanged at 48 in Pentonville
(1862 - 1910)

André Malraux
(1901 - 1976)



Roald Dahl
(1916 - 1990)

Mary Whitehouse
(1910 - 2001)

Larry Hagman
(1931 - 2012)



Andrew Sachs
(1930 - 2016)

Famous Weddings

1929 Academy Award-winning Shirley Booth marries comic actor Ed Gardner

1940 RAF pilot Guy Gibson (22) weds show dancer and actress Eve Moore in Penarth’s Anglican Church

1940 Film director David Lean (32) weds actress Kay Walsh (29)

1955 Physicist William Shockley (45) weds psychiatric nurse Emmy Lanning

1963 "12 Angry Men" director Sidney Lumet (39) weds Lena Horne's daughter Gail Jones

[Altobelli]

26 NOVEMBER

43 BC Second Triumvirate alliance of Roman leader Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony formed

1645 English Civil War - The third siege of Newark, which lasted from 26th November 1645 to 8th May 1646. Newark was important to both sides, as two important roads ran through the town - the Great North Way and Fosse Way. Newark castle was deliberately destroyed as a fortress in 1648.

1703 Henry Winstanley, the engineer who built the first Eddystone lighthouse, was among those who died when it was destroyed in the Great Storm that claimed 9000 lives and lasted from the 25th to the 27th November.

1778 British explorer Captain James Cook discovers Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii)

1789 1st national Thanksgiving in America

1805 The offficial opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.

1836 The death of John Loudon McAdam. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface, using controlled materials. Modern road construction still reflects McAdam's influence. He had extensive responsibilities in the north of England including the road from Penrith to Greta Bridge (A66), the road from Penrith to Cockermouth (also the A66) and the road from Penrith to Carlisle (A6). Whilst in the area he lived here - 1, Cockell House, Penrith

1864 Oxford professor Charles Dodgson presented a little girl called Alice Liddell with a handwritten manuscript of a story she had inspired him to write. It was called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Dodgson's tale was published in 1865 as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll'. Alice's shop in Oxford at 83, St. Aldates was the inspiration for a whole chapter in the Alice in Wonderland stories. Lewis Carroll was born at Daresbury and this is the site of the former parsonage where he was born. There is also a Lewis Carroll window in the parish church of All Saints in Daresbury.

1865 "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll is published in America

1867 Mrs. Lily Maxwell of Manchester became the first ever woman to vote in a British election, due to a mistake in the electoral register. She had to be escorted to the polling station by a bodyguard to protect her from those opposed to women’s suffrage.

1908 The birth of Lord Forte (Charles Forte), British business magnate and Chairman of Trusthouse Forte, one of the largest hotel and restaurant groups in the world.

1917 NHL forms with Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators & Quebec Bulldogs; National Hockey Association disbands

1922 Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon, Carter’s sponsor, became the first men to see inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun near Luxor since it was sealed 3,000 years previously. Having escaped detection by tomb robbers, it was complete with gold statues and a gold throne inlaid with gems.

1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hit a Woolworth's store on New Cross High Street in Lewisham and killed 168 shoppers.

1945 The release of the classic romantic film Brief Encounter, starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey. The film was partially shot at Carnforth railway station and buffet room.

1952 1st modern 3-D movie "Bwana Devil" premieres in Hollywood

1953 Peers backed the Government's proposals for commercial television.

1954 Donald Campbell's new Bluebird K7 (a turbo jet engined hydroplane) was handed over to him On This Day. Campbell set seven world water speed records in Bluebird K7 and it was in her that he was killed on Coniston Water on 4th January 1967 whilst attempting another water speed record, his target being 300 mph. He is buried in Coniston graveyard.

1968 The new Race Relations Act made it illegal to refuse housing, employment or public services to people because of their ethnic background.

1970 In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1mm) of rain fall in a minute, the heaviest rainfall ever on record

1983 The Brinks Mat security warehouse at London’s Heathrow Airport was robbed of £25 million worth of gold bars weighing three tons. The gang gained entry to the warehouse from an insider security guard called Anthony Black. The robbers expected to steal £3 million in cash, but when they arrived, they found the gold bullion, most of which was never recovered.

1987 Drawings of English bank notes by US artist James Boggs were declared works of art and not illegal replicas of UK currency by an Old Bailey jury.

1988 Mrs. Rita Lockett of Torquay, Devon, spent £10,000 to repeat her daughter’s wedding two months after the event, because she did not like the video. The couple went through the reception with all 200 wedding guests wearing the same outfits and having to listen to the same speeches, this time with a professional video crew on hand.

1992 It was announced that as from 1993 the Queen would make arrangements to pay income tax, the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s.

1998 Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland

2014 The Save the Children charity was criticised for giving former Prime Minister Tony Blair an award for his anti-poverty work in Africa. Critics said that his role in the Iraq war should disqualify him from receiving the honour.

Famous Birthday's

Albert B. Fall
(1861 - 1944)

Charles M. Schulz
(1922 - 2000)

Robert Goulet
(1933 - 2007)

Tina Turner
78th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Sojourner Truth
(1787 - 1883)

Philippe de Broca
(1933 - 2004)



Michael Bentine
(1922 - 1996)

Famous Weddings

1894 Russian emperor Nicholas II (26) weds Alexandra Feodorovna (22) at the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia

1924 Comic actor Charlie Chaplin (35) weds "The Kid" actress Lita Grey (16) in Mexico

1958 Model Bettie Page (35) weds Armond Walterson in Florida

1962 Singer Tina Turner (23) weds Ike Turner (31) in Tijuana, Mexico

1977 Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (53) weds businessman Arthur Hardwick Jr at the Sheraton Inn in Cheektowaga, New York

[Altobelli]

28 NOVEMBER

1520 Three ships under the command of explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European ships to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific

1582 In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence

1628 John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, was born.

1660 At Gresham College in Central London, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray founded what was later known as the Royal Society, an organization dedicated to promoting excellence in science.

1757 The birth of the poet William Blake. His work included a poem that began 'And did those feet in ancient time', which became the words for the anthem Jerusalem.

1814 The Times newspaper was, for the first time, printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer. It signalled the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1893 Women vote in a national election for the first time, in the New Zealand general election

1895 The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours

1905 The Irish political party Sinn Fein was founded by Arthur Griffith in Dublin.

1909 Sergei Rachmaninoff makes the debut performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3, considered one of the most technically challenging concertos in the standard classical repertoire

1914 World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading

1919 Nancy Astor became Britain's first woman MP, holding a safe Plymouth seat for the Conservative Party in a by-election caused by her husband's elevation to the peerage.

1935 The Miles quadruplets (Ann, Ernest, Michael and Paul) were born in Cambridgeshire and were the first British quads to survive infancy.

1943 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy

1967 All horse racing in Britain was suspended 'indefinitely' to help prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

1967 1st radio pulsars detected by British postgraduate Jocelyn Burnell and her supervisor Antony Hewish at Cambridge University

1968 The death of the children's author Enid Blyton. She wrote more than 800 books over 40 years including Noddy, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.

1971 An English farmer uncovered a major immigrant smuggling operation when he rammed a plane which had landed at a disused airfield on his farm in Kimbolton, 10 miles from Huntingdon. The pilot escaped but police officers arrived soon after the incident and detained the five occupants of the plane.

1990 Margaret Thatcher made her last speech outside 10 Downing Street following her resignation as Prime Minister.

1993 The Northern Ireland peace process and Prime Minister John Major's credibility were dealt a blow when secret government contacts with the IRA were publicly disclosed.

1997 MPs in the House of Commons approved a Private Member's Bill, introduced by Labour MP Michael Foster, to ban fox hunting.

1999 Eleven people were injured when a nude swordsman attacked churchgoers at St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church in London.

2002 Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with missiles

2006 A modern spy drama unfolded following the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London when traces of polonium-210 radiation were found at central London addresses.

2011 British company Captive Media announced details of its urinal mounted, urine-controlled games console for men. It called it the first 'hands-free' video gaming console of its kind, with games on offer including a skiing challenge, and a multiple choice pub quiz. A noted side effect was that the toilets became markedly cleaner, as a new premium was set on accuracy.

2013 A Newport man (James Howells) searched a landfill site in South Wales hoping to find a computer hard drive he threw away, worth over £4m. The drive contained 7,500 *******s, a virtual form of currency for use online. The drive was not found.

2013 The grand unveiling of TV's Coronation Street (Weatherfield) at its new home on Salford Quays, across the water from the BBC. In January 2014 the soap left its long established Quay Street site in Manchester city centre, which was sold for £26.5m.

2014 Jordan Winn was jailed for 13 months after he was caught driving at nearly 100mph in a 30mph zone. Winn blamed his Staffordshire bull terrier, who he said was in the footwell of his Volvo S60, for sitting on the accelerator pedal.

Famous Birthday's

William Blake
(1757 - 1827)

Henry Bacon
(1866 - 1924)

Berry Gordy
88th Birthday

Hugh McKenna, (rocker, Alex Harvey Band)
68th Birthday


Ed Harris
67th Birthday

Jeff Fahey
64th Birthday



Alessandro Altobelli
62nd Birthday

Martin Clunes
56th Birthday

Famous Deaths

James Naismith
(1861 - 1939)

Enrico Fermi
(1901 - 1954)

Jeffrey Dahmer
(1960 - 1994)

Jerry Edmonton, (Canadian drummer, Steppenwolf)
(1946 - 1993)



Leslie Nielsen
(1926 - 2010)

Famous Weddings

1582 Playwright & poet William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway

1936 Paleoanthropologist Raymond Arthur Dart (43) weds librarian Marjorie Gordon Frew

1938 Chinese politician Mao Zedong (44) weds Jiang Qing (24) in a small private ceremony

1962 Artist and peace activist Yoko Ono (30) weds film producer Anthony Cox

1986 NBC's Ahmad Rashad marriage proposal is accepted by Phylicia Ayers-Allen during halftime of Det Lions-NY Jets football game

50 Years Ago Album and Single # 1s

SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND - BEATLES.

LET THE HEARTACHES BEGIN - LONG JOHN BALDRY

[Altobelli]

03 DECEMBER

1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia

1775 First official US flag raised (Grand Union Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred

1795 Sir Rowland Hill, postal pioneer and founder of the 'Penny Post' was born.

1818 Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state

1820 Thomas Beecham, English manufacturer and inventor of Beecham's pills, was born. The Beecham's Building on Westfield Street in St. Helen's is the former headquarters of the pharmaceutical company

1836 Three people were killed at Great Corby, near Carlisle in Cumbria, in the first fatal railway derailment.

1854 Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences

1868 Gladstone became Prime Minister for the first time. He won office for three more terms.

1894 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, died, aged 45 on the island of Samoa.

1909 King Edward VII dissolved Parliament and taxes on alcohol, tobacco and cars were suspended as no budget had been passed. Edward was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and had a reputation as a 'playboy prince'. This statue of King Edward VII, was unveiled by his father King George V in 1912 during a visit to Huddersfield with Queen Mary.

1910 Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show

1926 In an episode as puzzling and intriguing as any in her many novels, Agatha Christie disappeared from her Surrey home and was discovered on the 14th December staying under an assumed name at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate. She said she had no recollection of how she came to be in Yorkshire.

1927 Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released

1936 The Royal Family cancelled all engagements as news broke of Edward VIII's determination to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson.

1944 Britain 'stood down' the Home Guard - formed in 1939 to defend Britain from invasion by Germany. They were officially disbanded in December 1945.

1948 The birth of John Michael 'Ozzy' Osbourne, English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. He rose to prominence as lead singer of the band Black Sabbath and became known as the 'Prince of Darkness'.

1961 The whole of south East England was plunged into darkness for two hours, due to an error by an electrician.

1963 The launch of Britain's second nuclear submarine, HMS Valiant.

1967 At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).

1976 An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley. He is shot twice, but will play a concert only two days later

1977 Wings started a nine week run at No.1 with Mull of Kintyre. It was the first single to sell over 2 million in the UK.

1979 In Cincinnati, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert

1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran

1984 British Telecom was privatised. The shares immediately made massive gains.

1984 Bhopal disaster: Union Carbide pesticide plant leak 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, kills 2,259 (official figure) - other estimates as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured

1988 Junior Health minister Edwina Currie provoked outrage by saying that most of Britain's egg production was infected with the salmonella bacteria.

1989 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over

1992 Two bombs exploded in the centre of Manchester injuring 65 people. Miraculously no-one was killed, but much of the city centre had to be rebuilt.

1992 A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague

1994 The Playstation was released in Japan

2007 Gillian Gibbons, a 54 year old teacher from Liverpool was released after eight days in custody and handed over to British officials in Sudan after being jailed for letting her class name a teddy bear Muhammad.

2009 The death of Richard Todd, British actor, immortalized in the film Dam Busters (1955) as Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC.

2012 St James's Palace announced that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting a baby. The baby, the couple's first, would be born third in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William.

2015 RAF Tornado jets carried out their first air strikes against 'so-called Islamic State' in Syria, hours after MPs had voted (397 votes to 223) in favour of UK action in Syria.

Famous Birthday's

George McClellan
(1826 - 1885)



Andy Williams
(1927 - 2012)

Mel Smith
(1952 - 2013)

Franz Klammer
64th Birthday

Ozzy Osbourne
69th Birthday

Eamonn Holmes
58th Birthday

Daryl Hannah
57th Birthday

Julianne Moore
57th Birthday



Frank Sinclair
46th Birthday

Daniel Bedingfield
38th Birthday

David Villa
36th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Diocletian
( - 311)

Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850 - 1894)

Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841 - 1919)

Cow Cow Davenport
(1894 - 1955)

Oswald Mosley
(1896 - 1980)



Jimmy Jewel
(1909 - 1995)

Famous Weddings

1931 Silent film actress Clara Bow (26) weds actor and politician Rex Bell (28) in Las Vegas

1940 Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus (27) weds pianist and mathematician Francine Faure (25) in Lyon, France

1984 Oldest groom - Harry Stevens, 103, weds Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin

1993 Baseball player Darryl Strawberry (31) weds Charisse Simon (26)

2005 NBC correspondent Hoda Kotb (41) weds New Orleans tennis coach Burzis Kanga in the Dominican Republic

[Altobelli]

07 DECEMBER

43 BC Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician is assassinated in Formiae

521 The birth of Saint Columba, the Irish Christian who made his missionary trip to Scotland in 563. Columba is credited as bringing a revival of Christianity to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. He died on the Scottish island of Iona and was buried in 597 AD by his monks in the abbey he had created there.

1545 The birth of Henry Stuart. He was the first cousin and second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the father of her son King James VI. He was murdered at Kirk o' Field in Edinburgh in 1567.

1703 The greatest windstorm "The Great Storm" ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die

1732 The first Covent Garden Opera House, then called the Theatre Royal, opened in London to an elite crowd, for a performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, a tribute to Gay, who had died three days previously.

1817 The death of William Bligh, rear-Admiral who was captain of the HMS Bounty at the time of the mutiny.

1869 American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri

1889 The first performance at the Savoy, London, of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 'The Gondoliers', their last real success. It ran for a very successful 554 performances, closing on 30th June 1891.

1909 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry

1940 The birth, in Liverpool, of the comedian Stan Boardman who broke into television via Opportunity Knocks and The Comedians.

1941 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people

1955 Clement Atlee resigned as leader of the opposition Labour Party, following months of speculation. Hours later he was made an Earl by the Queen; the first Labour leader to accept a hereditary peerage. Mr Attlee led his party for 20 years and had a seat in the House of Commons for 33 years. In 1942 he became deputy prime minister in the war cabinet under Sir Winston Churchill. During his six years as prime minister from 1945 to 1951 he oversaw sweeping changes to the welfare state, with the introduction of the National Health Service and the nationalisation of many key industries - the Bank of England, civil aviation, coal, telecommunications, transport, electricity, iron and steel.

1965 Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054

1968 Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandfather took out in 1823 from the University of Cincinnati

1979 Cabinet minister Lord Soames was named transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its progress into legal independence. In 1964, the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia Ian Smith had rejected British conditions for independence. Rhodesia became a British colony in 1923, and was dogged by violence and international alienation during its struggle for independence.

1979 Production of MG Midget sports cars came to an end. 73,899 of the last version were produced and the last 500 cars were painted black.

1982 In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States

1983 Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while they are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.

1983 A cat climbed to a height of 160ft up an industrial chimney, holding up the work of Lancashire's chief steeplejack and chimney demolisher Fred Dibnah.

1988 PLO delegation lead by Yasir Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time

1988 6.9 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia kills 25,000-50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless

1993 Protesters lost a 20 year fight to save a 250 year old chestnut tree in east London. Twenty protesters were arrested after they clashed with 200 police officers sent to ensure a court order to cut down the tree was enforced and that the planned motorway extension could go ahead.

1999 A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the file-sharing service Napster for copyright infringement

2001 The Taliban regime gave up its stronghold in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The fall of Kandahar came after the Afghan capital Kabul had been retaken in November. An ebullient Tony Blair, Prime MInister at the time, said - 'That regime is effectively now disintegrated. The terror camps can be shut down, and I think that is a fantastic thing.'

2012 Jacintha Saldhana, a nurse at King Edward VII hospital - London, who took a hoax call about the Duchess of Cambridge from two Australian radio presenters posing as the Queen, was found dead at her home after committing suicide

Famous Birthday's

Mário Soares
(1924 - 2017)

Ellen Burstyn
85th Birthday



Stan Boardman
80th Birthday

Johnny Bench
70th Birthday

Geoff Lawson
60th Birthday

Larry Bird
61st Birthday

Colin Hendry
52nd Birthday

John Terry
37th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Cicero
(106 BC - 43 BC)

1817 William Bligh (British naval officer of "Bounty") dies at 63

Thomas Nast
(1840 - 1902)



Harry Morgan
(1915 - 2011)

Billy Bremner
1942 - 1997)


Greg Lake
(1947 - 2016)

Famous Weddings

1646 Princess Louise Henriette (19) of Nassau marries Frederick Henry Elector of Brandenburg

1929 Nizari Imam Aga Khan III (52) weds Andrée Joséphine Carron in Aix-les-Bains, France

1940 Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo remarry in San Francisco (divorced 1939)

1996 Former Tennessee Republican Senator Howard Baker (71) weds retired Kansas GOP Senator Nancy Kassebaum (64) in Washington, D.C.



2003 Queen of hip-hop soul, Mary J. Blige (32) weds record producer Kendu Isaacs in Bergen County, New Jersey (JULY 2016 MARY J BLIGE FILES FOR DIVORCE)

[Altobelli]

12 DECEMBER

627 Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War



1724 The birth of Admiral Samuel Hood, first Viscount, British naval commander and a skilful tactician. He was known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars and he acted as a mentor to Horatio Nelson.

1787 Pennsylvania becomes 2nd state to ratify US constitution

1800 Washington, D.C., established as the capital of the United States of America


1889 Robert Browning, English poet, died. He was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. His grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.



1896 Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London. On the same day, in 1901, Marconi carried out the first transatlantic radio transmission from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St John’s, Newfoundland, a distance of 1800 miles.

1901 Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlantic radio signal, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada

1908 The start of the first Australian Rugby League tour of Britain. The seven-month tour was almost a disaster due to small gate-takings.

1901 Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlantic radio signal, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada

1925 Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rezā Shāh Pahlavi takes over

1939 HMS Duchess sank after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.

1946 UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr

1948 Britain introduced National Service for all men aged between 18 and 26. It extended the British conscription of World War II into peacetime.

1955 Christopher Cockerell patented his prototype of the hovercraft. He had tested his theories using a hair-dryer and tin cans and found his work to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research. Hovertravel is the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in Europe and it operates between Southsea, Portsmouth and Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

1961 Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel

1963 Frank Sinatra Jr returned after being kidnapped

1964 Shooting starts for "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage" (Menagerie)

1965 The Beatles' last concert in Great Britain (Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales)

1966 English sailor Francis Chichester arrived at Sydney in his ketch Gipsy Moth IV - half way in his bid to become the first man to sail solo around the world. On 28 May 1967, after 226 days, he arrived back in Plymouth and became the first person to achieve a true, solo, circumnavigation of the world from West to East via the great capes. The voyage was also a race against the clock as Chichester wanted to better the typical times achieved by the fastest fully crewed clipper ships during the heyday of commercial sail in the 19th century.

1975 The six-day Balcombe Street siege ended peacefully in London after four IRA gunmen freed their two hostages and gave themselves up to police.

1975 Sara Jane Moore pleds guilty to trying to kill US President Gerald Ford

1982 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC

1982 30,000 women formed a 9 mile human chain that encircled Greenham Common air base in Berkshire, in protest against the proposed siting of US Cruise missiles there.

1988 Britain’s worst rail crash for 20 years killed 35 and injured 113 people when a packed express train ran into the back of a stationary commuter train near Clapham Junction.

1988 The first satellite pictures were beamed to London's betting shops to allow them to watch the races live from many race courses.

1992 Princess Anne remarried and became Mrs. Timothy Laurence after a small family wedding in Scotland. She was previously married to Mark Phillips (1973).

2000 United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore

2001 Roy Whiting was found guilty of the abduction and murder of eight year old Sarah Payne, and sentenced to life in prison. The high profile case led to 'Sarah's Law', by allowing controlled access to the *** Offenders' Register, so that parents with young children could know if a child ***-offender was living in their area.

2001 Winona Ryder is arrested on shoplifting charges in Beverly Hills, California

2006 Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.

2012 Ofcom announced that Internet shopping was more popular in the UK than in any other major country, with an annual average spend of £1,083 a year, compared with the second highest (Australia) at £842.

2013 Blockbuster, the DVD and games rental chain that went into administration in January, announced that all the remaining 91 UK stores, employing 808 people, would have to close by 16th December.

2013 Daniel Severn, a 27 year old burglar who had 80 convictions for 32 court appearances was jailed for two years and four months. The court heard that Severn became trapped while trying to raid someone's house and ended up with his head resting on the toilet for an hour and a half, with one foot trapped in the window that he had used to gain entry. When he had tried to call for help he dropped his phone in the bath. Severn was told "It would be funny if it were not such a serious offence."

2013 Doctors in Derby and Nottingham analysing the Ian Fleming novels showed that James Bond drank the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day. They said that he was not the man to trust to deactivate a nuclear bomb and that his love of the bottle would have left him impotent and at death’s door. Excluding the 36 days that Bond was in prison, hospital or rehab, the spy downed 1,150 units of alcohol in 88 days, four times the recommended maximum intake for men in the UK.

2014 A 20 year study of the Darwin Awards (named after the naturalist Charles Darwin that reviewed the most foolish way people have died, found almost 90 per cent were 'won' by males.

2015 COP21 climate change summit in Paris reaches a deal between 195 countries to limit the rise in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels

Famous Birthday's

John Jay
(1745 - 1829)



Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, British admiral in the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars, born in Butleigh, England
(1724 - 1816)

Edvard Munch
(1863 - 1944)



Edward G Robinson
(1893 - 1973)

Sammy Davis, Sr
(1900 - 1988)

Frank Sinatra
(1915 - 1998)

Dionne Warwick
77th Birthday

Bill Nighy
68th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Robert Browning
(1812 - 1889)

John Thompson
(1845 - 1894)

Ike Turner
(1931 - 2007)

Peter Boyle
(1935 - 2006)

Famous Weddings

1957 Jerry Lee Lewis weds his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 13, while still married to his 1st wife Jane Mitcham

1991 Actor Richard Gere (42) weds supermodel Cindy Crawford (25) in Las Vegas

1998 TV personality Melissa Rivers (30) weds horse breeder John Endicott at The Plaza Hotel in New York City

2001 Actress Ashley Judd (33) weds race car driver Dario Franchetti (28) at Skibo Castle in Scotland

2008 Fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger (57) weds former model Dee Ocleppo in Greenwich, Connecticut

Famous Divorces

2014 Actor and comedian Nick Cannon (37) files for divorce from singer Mariah Carey (48) after 6 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

19 DECEMBER

1154 Henry II was crowned, at Westminster Abbey.

1606 English entrepreneurs set sail in the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery to establish a colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1776 Thomas Paine publishes his 1st "American Crisis" essay beginning"These are the times that try men's souls" (date disputed)



1783 William Pitt the Younger became the youngest British Prime Minister, at the age of 24 years, 6 months and 21 days.



1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is published, 6,000 copies sold

1848 Emily Brontë, English author of Wuthering Heights, died of tuberculosis at the tender age of 30. This commemorative plaque is in St Michael and All Angels church - Haworth. Emily is buried in the Bronte family vault in the church. Find out more about Haworth and the Brontës.

1851 The renowned artist, Joseph Turner, died. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner was also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting.



1900 General Horatio Kitchener offers protections to all Boers who will surrender and asks the Dutch community of Pretoria to convey this offer, leaders in the field refuse to surrender

1915 World War I: British, Australian and New Zealand troops began their withdrawal from Gallipoli after failing to defeat the Turks.

1924 The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was sold, in London.The Silver Ghost is considered the most valuable car in the world. In 2005 its insured value was placed at more than £22 million. By 2011 it was valued at almost £37 million.

1932 The BBC World Service began broadcasting, as the BBC Empire Service.

1941 Hitler takes complete command of German Army

1941 World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers sank the HMS Valiant (launched 1914) and HMS Queen Elizabeth (launched 1913) in Alexandria harbour.

1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi

1950 Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion

1958 1st radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message "to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere"

1960 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die)

1971 Stanley Kubrick's X-rated film "A Clockwork Orange" based on the book by Anthony Burgess and starring Malcolm McDowell premieres

1972 Ugandan leader General Idi Amin gave British workers an ultimatum; to accept reduced pay or be expelled.

1972 Frank O'Farrell lost his job as manger of Manchester United, following a 5–0 defeat to Crystal Palace. George Best, once again, announced his retirement, on the same day. Not a good week for United.

1975 Ron Wood joined The Rolling Stones

1978 Indira Gandhi ambushed in India

1979 "Kramer vs Kramer" directed by Robert Benton and starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep is released (Best Picture 1980)

1981 The 8 man crew of the Penlee Lifeboat all lost their lives attempting to rescue the crew of the coaster Union Star that was wrecked in violent seas off the coast of Cornwall.

1984 Britain and China signed an agreement in Beijing, in which Britain agreed to transfer full sovereignty of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

1991 Boris Yeltsin takes control of the Kremlin

1994 Rolls-Royce announces its future cars will feature V12 engine which will be produced by BMW

1997 Former Conservative party leader William Hague married his fiancée Ffion Jenkins at a ceremony in Westminster.

2003 Libyan leader Gaddafi agreed to allow weapons inspectors into Libya 'immediately and unconditionally' to oversee the elimination of its arsenal of chemical weapons.

2006 Steve Wright, was arrested, charged and remanded in custody, accused of murdering five prostitutes over a six week period. The bodies of all five women were found dumped in remote locations around Ipswich in Suffolk, sparking a massive police investigation.

2012 The verdict of accidental death of the 96 victims who died in the 1989 Hillsborough stadium football disaster was quashed in the High Court, clearing the way for a new inquest into the deaths. New medical evidence commissioned by the attorney general revealed that 58 victims "definitely or probably" had the capacity to survive beyond the 3.15pm cut-off point imposed by the original coroner. In a further 12 cases, the cause of death remained unclear. The Chair of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, Anne Williams (who died of cancer on 18th April 2013) and whose 15-year-old son Kevin died in the tragedy was at the hearing.

2012 UBS bank is fined $1.5 billion for its role in manipulating the Libor rate

2013 Michael Adebolajo (29) and Michael Adebowale (22) were found guilty of murdering soldier Lee Rigby outside Woolwich barracks in south-east London in May. Fusilier Rigby was struck with a car before hacked to death. Adebolajo had claimed he was a 'soldier of Allah' and the killing was an act of war. Adebolajo was given a whole-life term and Adebowale was jailed for a minimum of 45 years. This bronze plaque and drum commemorating Lee Rigby were unveiled on 29th March 2015 at the Middleton Memorial Gardens, in his home town of Middleton, Greater Manchester.

2013 Ornate plasterwork at the Apollo Theatre in London fell from the ceiling during a performance and after a flash flood thunderstorm. The collapse brought down a lighting rig and a section of balcony, trapping 2 people and injuring around 88, including 7 with serious injuries.

2014 The death (aged 70) of Mandy Rice-Davies, famous for her role in the 1960s 'Profumo affair' that almost toppled the British government in 1963.

2016 At least 48 people die after drinking bath lotion in Irkutsk, Siberia, thinking it contained alcohol

2016 Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead at an art gallery in Ankara by Turkish gunman

2016 Truck driven into a Christmas market in Berlin kills 12, injures 48

2016 US electoral collage votes 304 to 227 to nominate Donald Trump for President over the objections of seven faithless electors

Famous Birthday's

1902 Ralph Richardson, English actor (Anna Karenina, Doctor Zhivago), born in Cheltenham, England (d. 1983)

Leonid Brezhnev
(1906 - 1982)

1922 Eamonn Andrews, Irish-born television presenter (d. 1987)

1923 Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (d. 1990)

Edith Piaf
(1915 - 1963)

1941 Maurice White, singer-songwriter (Earth, Wind & Fire), born in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2016)



1943 Sam Kelly [Roger Michael Kelly], English actor ('Allo 'Allo!, Porridge), born in Manchester, England (d. 2014)

Robert Urich
(1946 - 2002)

Gary Cahill
32nd Birthday

Jake Gyllenhaal
37th Birthday

Ricky Ponting
43rd Birthday

Richard Hammond
48th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Emily Brontë
(1818 - 1848)

Robert A. Millikan
(1868 - 1953)

1993 Michael Clarke, drummer (Byrds), dies of liver failure at 49

1997 Jimmy Rogers, American blues musician (Muddy Waters' Band) dies at 73

James Bevel
(1936 - 2008)

Famous Weddings

1895 Poet Robert Frost (21) weds Elinor Miriam White in Lawrence, Massachusetts

1912 Author Colette (39) weds "Le Matin" newspaper editor Henri de Jouvenel

1919 Composer and songwriter Cole Porter (28) weds socialite Linda Lee Thomas (36)

1931 Propagandist Joseph Goebbels (34) weds Magda Ritschel (30) at Günther Quandt's farm in Mecklenburg, Germany

1975 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (45) weds Beverly Zile

Famous Divorces

1995 Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles & Diana to divorce