On This Day

[Altobelli]

28 DECEMBER

1065 Westminster Abbey was consecrated. Its founder Edward the Confessor could not attend due to illness. He died on 5th January l066 and was buried in a shrine before the High Altar in his new church.

1612 First observation of Neptune - Galileo observes and records a "fixed star" without realising it is a planet

1694 Mary II, joint sovereign of England, Scotland and Ireland, died from smallpox, leaving William III to reign alone.

1734 The death of Robert Roy MacGregor, usually known simply as Rob Roy, the famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century. He is buried in Balquhidder churchyard - see picture.

1767 King Taksin crowned King of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as his capital

1836 Spain recognizes independence of Mexico

1860 Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad

1879 The Tay railway bridge collapsed whilst the Edinburgh to Dundee train was crossing. The original crossing was the longest railway bridge in the world but during the storm the wind was said to have blown the iron girders in the central section away 'like matchwood. The engine and carriages plummeted into the icy river below killing 59 people. In 1979 British Rail commissioned a special train to take people across the new bridge at the exact time of the original accident ....... 19:15 GMT. On 28th December 2013 granite memorials to commemorate the disaster were unveiled on both sides of the river.

1904 The first weather reports relayed by wireless telegraphy were published in London.

1908 Earthquake strikes Messina, Italy, killing nearly 80,000

1918 Constance Markievicz, Irish Sinn Féin politician and suffragette, whilst detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the House of Commons.

1932 Roy Hattersley, Labour MP & former Labour deputy leader, was born.

1934 The first Test Match for women’s cricket was between Australia and England and was held at Brisbane. England beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series, with the final match drawn.

1934 Dame Maggie Smith, British actress was born. She made her stage debut in 1952 and has won numerous awards for acting, both for the stage and for film, including five BAFTA Awards, plus the BAFTA Fellowship Award. She currently stars in the drama, Downton Abbey as Violet Crawley, the Dowager-Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.

1943 The birth of Richard Whiteley. He was best known for his twenty three years as host of the game show Countdown. At the time of his death in 2005 Whiteley was believed to have clocked more hours on British television screens than anyone else alive.

1943 All Kalmyk inhabitants of the Republic of Kalmukkie deported by the Soviet Union to Central Asia and Siberia. Many die en route.

1950 Derbyshire's Peak District became Britain’s first National Park.

1957 The Stanley abattoir in Liverpool (one of Britain's largest) closed down after foot and mouth disease was found in cattle.

1963 'That Was The Week That Was', television’s first satirical show, was broadcast for the last time. It was taken off air while still commanding huge audiences because 1964 was to be election year and it was felt that the show could influence voters.

1968 100,000 attend Miami Pop Festival

1968 Beatles' "White Album" goes #1 & stays #1 for 9 weeks

1968 Israeli assault on Beirut Airport

1971 Hashish now falls under the Dutch Opium Law (Opiumwet)

1972 Kim Il-song becomes president of North Korea

1972 Martin Bormann's skeleton is found in Berlin (Hitlers deputy)

1974 6.3 earthquake strikes Pakistan: 5200 killed

1975 Earthquake in Pakistan, 4,000 die


1975 Gary Cosier scores 109 v West Indies at MCG on Test Cricket debut

1980 A shake-up of broadcasting franchises paved the way for the launch of breakfast TV. The Independent Broadcasting Authority announced that the breakfast contract would go to TV-am and would launch in 1983.


1983 Gavaskar achieves his 30th century, beating Bradman's record of 29

1993 Customs officials at Felixstowe seized £70m of Colombian cocaine thought to be linked to the Mafia.

2003 The British Government announced plans to tighten airline security by allowing armed guards on some British flights to the USA.

2012 Vladimir Putin signs into law a ban on US adoption of Russian children

2015 Japan and South Korea reach agreement over WWII "comfort women", Japan apologies and pays 1bn yen compensation


Famous Birthday's

Woodrow Wilson
(1856 - 1924)



1872 PÃ*o Baroja y Nessi, Spanish Basque writer, author of over 100 novels (The Struggle for Life, Zalacain the Adventurer), born in San Sebastián, Basque Country (d. 1956)

1943 Richard Whiteley, British television presenter (d. 2005)

Nigel Kennedy
61st Birthday

Terry Butcher
59th Birthday

1945 Dwight Bement, rocker (Gary Puckett & Union Gap-Young Girl)
72nd Birthday

Roy Hattersley
85th Birthday

Maggie Smith
83rd Birthday

Denzel Washington
63rd Birthday

Famous Deaths


Rob Roy
( - 1734)

Ante Pavelić
(1889 - 1959)

1983 Dennis Wilson, drummer/singer (Beach Boys), drowns at 39

Susan Sontag
(1933 - 2004)

2010 Agathe von Trapp, Austrian-born American singer (oldest von Trapp child), dies at 97

2015 Lemmy [Ian Kilmister], British heavy metal musician (Motörhead), dies from terminal illness at 70

2016 Debbie Reynolds, American actress (Kathy Selden-Singin' in the Rain, The Unsinkable Molly Brown), dies of a stroke at 84 one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher also passed away

Famous Weddings

1936 British best-selling romantic author Barbara Cartland (35) marries 2nd husband Hugh McCorquodale

1936 Football player Bronko Nagurski (28) weds childhood sweetheart Eileen Kane in International Falls, Minnesota

1950 Author John Steinbeck (48) weds actress Elaine Anderson (36)

1956 Actress Elizabeth Montgomery (23) weds actor Gig Young (43)

1956 Singer Patti Page (29) weds choreographer Charles O'Curran in Las Vegas, Nevada

Famous Divorces

1942 Actress Janet Leigh (14) divorces childhood sweetheart John Kenneth Carlisle (18) 4 months after getting married

2010 Film and record company executive Justin Siegel (23) divorces actress-singer Emmy Rossum due to irreconcilable differences after a year-and-a-half of marriage

2012 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (82) divorces Lois Driggs Cannon due to irreconcilable differences after 23 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

29 DECEMBER

1170 Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Ã* Becket, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights, believing they were acting on direct orders from King Henry II. The disgraced knights and their families did a number of penances, one of which was to build a Chantry chapel in the centre of Watchet and the building of St Decuman’s Church, which Richard Brito and Reginald FitzUrse then gave to Wells Cathedral. Their families went on to give land to atone for their relations’ evil deed.

1675 Parliament ordered the closing of all coffee houses on the basis that they were centres of malicious gossip about the Government.

1766 Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof clothing (i.e. the Macintosh or simply Mac), was born, in Glasgow. For his various chemical discoveries he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1823.

1809 The birth, in Liverpool, of William (Ewart) Gladstone, four times British Prime Minister. His first election in 1868 allowed him to carry out major reforms. He was elected once more in 1880 and then again in 1866. When his Home Rule Bill was defeated, he resigned, but became Prime Minister, for a fourth term, in 1892. He resigned again two years later, this time when his Home Rule Bill was rejected by the Lords. He died of cancer on 19th May 1898 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

1812 Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell at St. Oswald's Church in Guiseley, West Yorkshire. A copy of their marriage certificate is to the left of the altar rail in the church. Their four children Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born at this house in Thornton, West Yorkshire.

1835 The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States

1845 Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union

1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants

1860 HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing iron-clad warship, was launched. She froze to the slipway when she was launched during London's coldest winter for 50 years and six tugs were required to haul her into the river. In later years Warrior was saved from being scrapped by the efforts of the Maritime Trust. The restoration took 8 years. Today, the ship is used as a venue for special events, and can be privately hired as a wedding venue.

1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, SD

1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)

1895 The beginning of the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal in South Africa. It was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (known as Uitlanders) but no uprising took place, yet it was an inciting factor in the 2nd Boer War.

1903 French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad & Ubangi-Shari

1918 The Sunday Express was published for the first time.

1928 The birth, in Oldham, of actor Bernard Cribbins, OBE. He has a career spanning over half a century and came to prominence in films in the 1960s. He was also a regular performer on Jackanory on BBC TV between 1966 and 1991. He was Wilfred Mott, companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who and he currently stars as Jack in the series Old Jack's Boat, set in Staithes and broadcast on the CBeebies TV channel.

1930 Fred P Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam in the Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minnesota, to New Orleans

1933 New York Yankees refuses to release Babe Ruth to manage the Cincinnati Reds

1938 The birth, in Bingley, of Harvey Smith, controversial English showjumper. He competed in two Summer Olympics. His best Olympic finish was fourth, in the individual show jumping event at Munich in 1972.

1940 London suffered its most devastating air raid when Germans firebombed the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but fire fighters showed a valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul's Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to symbolize the capital's unconquerable spirit during the Battle of Britain.

1955 Barbra Streisand's 1st recording "You'll Never Know" at age 13

1975 New legislation introducing a woman's right to equal pay and status in the workplace, and in society, came into force in the UK.

1982 Bob Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica

1986 Lord Stockton, the former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, died aged 92.

1993 Courtney Love sues doctors for leaking news of her methadone treatment

1997 British journalist Dawn Alford, of the Daily Mirror, who claimed a Cabinet Minister's son had sold her drugs, was arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis, hoisted (as the saying goes) by her own petard!

1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu

2012 Tony Greig, the 66 year old former England Test cricket captain turned commentator died after suffering a heart attack in Sydney. Greig scored 3,599 runs at an average of 40.43, took 141 Test wickets and was named one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1975.

2012 Bradley Wiggins, who won the Tour de France and an Olympic gold, was knighted in the New Year Honours list. Paralympic cyclist Sarah Storey, born in Disley became a dame after taking four gold medals. The most decorated sailor in Olympic history, Ben Ainslie, was also knighted. In all, 78 awards were linked to the 2012 Olympics or Paralympics.

2013 A painting bought for £400 and featured on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow was revealed to be a Van Dyck portrait worth about £400,000. Father Jamie, who runs a retreat house in Whaley Bridge, on the edge of the Peak District, said that he was planning to sell the piece by the 17th Century Flemish artist to buy new church bells.

2014 Christopher Hooson (33) who stole an Android tablet from a Whitley Bay charity shop, only to try and donate it to them eight days later as it did not work, was recognized by staff from his CCTV images. He was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

2016 US President Barack Obama retaliates against Russia for hacking American computer systems and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election by ejecting 35 Russian spies and imposing sanctions


Famous Birthday's

Charles Goodyear
(1800 - 1860)

Andrew Johnson
(1808 - 1875)

1809 William Ewart Gladstone, British statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Liberal: 1868-74, 1880-86, 1892-94), born in Liverpool, England (d. 1898)

1920 Syd Dernley, British hangman (1949-54), born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire (d. 1994)

Mary Tyler Moore
(1936 - 2017)

1947 Cozy Powell, England, rock drummer (Jeff Beck Group, Whitesnake, ELP) (d. 1998)

Bernard Cribbins
89th Birthday

Jon Voight
79th Birthday

Ray Thomas, England, rock vocalist (Moody Blues-Nights in White Satin)
76th Birthday

Marianne Faithfull
71st Birthday

Yvonne Elliman
66th Birthday

Aled Jones
47th Birthday

Jude Law
45th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Thomas Becket
(1117 - 1170)



1916 Grigori Rasputin, Russian faith healer/intriguer, murdered at 45

Harold Macmillan
(1894 - 1986)

1995 Lita Grey, second wife of Charlie Chaplin, dies of cancer at 87

2003 Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (b. 1928)

2012 Tony Greig, English cricket captain, all-rounder (1972-77) and commentator, dies from a heart attack at 66

Famous Weddings

1954 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (24) weds Joan Archer

1957 "Steve and Eydie" singer duo Steve Lawrence (22) weds Eydie Gorme (29) at the home of Beldon Katleman in Las Vegas

1984 MLB player Paul O'Neill (21) weds his childhood sweetheart Nevalee Davis in Columbus, Ohio

1984 MLB player Mark McGwire (21) weds Kathlene Hughes

1990 Olympic gymnist Mary Lou Retton weds Shannon Kelley

Famous Divorces

2003 Retired NFL quarterback John Elway (43) divorces first wife Janet Buchan after 18 years of marriage

2006 One Tree Hill actress Sophia Bush (24) divorces actor Chad Michael Murray (25) for the reason of fraud after 5 months of marriage

2006 NBA basketball star Michael Jordan (43) divorces Juanita Vanoy (47) due to irreconcilable differences after 17 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

30 DECEMBER

1460 The Wars of the Roses: The defeat and death of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and claimant to the English throne, at the Battle of Wakefield.

1703 Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die

1850 The birth of John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. He invented the horizontal seismograph that enabled him to detect different types of earthquake waves, and estimate their velocities. Along with two other British scientists he founded the Seismological Society of Japan.

1851 The artist JMW Turner, who died on 19th December was buried, at his own request, in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, next to Sir Joshua Reynolds, the English portrait artist.

1865 Author Rudyard Kipling was born, in India, but was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. His best known fictional works are Jungle Book and Just So Stories. He celebrated British imperialism with tales and poems of British soldiers in India and in 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1879 The first performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, 'The Pirates of Penzance', at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, Devon.

1887 A petition, signed by more than 1 million women in Britain, was sent to Queen Victoria calling for public houses to be closed on Sundays.

1896 Filipino nationalist José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila by the Spanish

1906 The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan

1918 John E Hoover decides to be called J. Edgar Hoover

1919 Lincoln's Inn, one of four 'Inns of Court' in London to which barristers belong and where they are called to the Bar, admitted its first female students.

1922 Creation of the USSR formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre, Soviet Union organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR & Transcaucasian SSR

1924 Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at meeting of the American Astronomical Society

1932 The completion of the electrification of the London to Brighton railway line.

1932 Bradman out for a duck v England at cricket MCG

1937 Gordon Banks, English goal keeper, was born, in Sheffield. The International Federation of Football History & Statistics named Banks the second best goalkeeper of the 20th century, after the Russian Lev Yashin. On 22nd October 1972 Banks lost the sight in his right eye in a motoring accident and announced his retirement in August 1973. He was a member of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. His consistent performances in goal led to the re-wording of a common English phrase to 'As safe as the Banks of England.'

1939 Bradman scores 267 SA v Vic, world record 34th double cricket century

1942 The birth of Guy Edwards, former racing driver. He is most renowned for being one of the drivers who saved Niki Lauda from his burning car during the 1976 German Grand Prix. Edwards was later awarded a Queen's Gallantry Medal for his bravery.

1946 Football league players threatened to strike over the proposed maximum wage of £11 a week.

1950 Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia become Independent states within the French Union

1954 British athlete Chris Chataway became the first winner of the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award.

1956 The last passenger train service ran on the Liverpool Overhead Railway. It had been in operation for 63 years.

1968 -48°F (-44°C), Mazama & Winthrop, Washington (state record)

1974 Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought)

1979 Rock group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer break up

1986 According to new plans by the government, more than 200 canaries would be 'phased out' of Britain's mining pits. New electronic devices would replace canaries as detectors of harmful gasses, because they were said to be cheaper in the long run and more effective.

1987 Premier Mugabe elected President of Zimbabwe

1988 Former Soviet President Brezhnev's son-in-law sentenced to 12-yr (bribery)

1988 Mercedes-Benz pays $20.2-M fine failed to meet '86 government fuel standard

1995 Lowest ever UK temperature recorded of -27.2°C iat Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands, equaling the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982

2013 Forestry Commission figures showed that more than five million trees had been felled in Scotland since Alex Salmond came to power in 2007, to make way for wind farm developments, with fewer than 1.6 million planted to replace them. Findings showed that there were almost as many wind turbines north of the Border as in all the rest of the UK. You cannot appreciate their enormity until you see the sections being transported by road!

2014 Tommie Rose, a 15year old schoolboy, who made £14,000 from his school tuck-shop to pay future university fees for a business studies degree was threatened with suspension, as his shop breached the school's healthy-eating guidelines.

Famous Birthday's

Titus
(39 - 81)

1865 Rudyard Kipling, English author (Jungle Book, Gunga Din-Nobel 1907), born in Bombay, British India (d. 1936)

1945 Davy Jones, singer (Monkees-Last Train to Clarksville), born in Manchester, England (d. 2012)




Gordon Banks
80th Birthday

1947 Jeff Lynne, rocker (ELO-Telephone Line, Travelling Wilburys)
70th Birthday

1959 Tracey Ullman, Slough England, singer/actress (Tracey Ullman Show)
58th Birthday

Tiger Woods
42nd Birthday

LeBron James
33rd Birthday

Famous Deaths

Vincent Massey
(1887 - 1967)



Sonny Liston
(1932 - 1970)



Saddam Hussein
(1937 - 2006)

Famous Weddings

1816 English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (24) marries 2nd wife writer "Frankenstein" Mary Godwin (19) and daughter of early feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft

1852 Future US President Rutherford B. Hayes (30) weds teetotaler and abolitionist Lucy Webb (21)

1857 Confederate army cavalry battalion commander John S. Mosby (24) weds Pauline Clarke in Nashville

1879 Composer John Philip Sousa (25) weds Jane van Middlesworth Bellis

1896 Filipino Nationalist Jose Rizal (35) weds girlfriend Josephine Bracken (20) before his execution in Fort Santiago, Manila

Famous Divorces

1955 Actor Gregory Peck (39) divorces real estate broker Greta Kukkonen (44) after 13 years of marriage

[Altobelli]

31 December

31st December - (New Year’s Eve, and Hogmanay in Scotland)

406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia

1384 The death of John Wycliffe, the first translator of the Bible into the English language. He was rector of St. Mary's Church, Lutterworth for the 10 years prior to his death. This monument to him is in the church.

1695 The window tax was imposed in Britain. It resulted in many being bricked up, evidence which remains to this day. An example is here at the house in Market Weighton where William Bradley, the world's tallest Englishman was born -. The story goes that Bradley, a typicaly frugal Yorkshireman, did not want to pay extra window tax, so he had the windows painted on the outside of the building. As for the house, it was specially built for Bradley, with extra high rooms and doorways.

1720 The birth, in Rome, of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart), also known as the ‘Young Pretender’. He landed in Scotland, with his followers, in 1745, capturing Edinburgh and setting up court at the Palace of Holyrood. His decision to march on London brought him head on with an army led by the Duke of Cumberland, and defeat at Culloden.

1738 The birth of Charles Cornwallis, the British soldier whose surrender to George Washington (1781) ended the War of Independence.

1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation motion (wobble)

1759 Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and started brewing Guinness at the St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin. Ten years later Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to Britain.

1775 Battle of Quebec in American Revolutionary War; Americans defeated trying to take British stronghold

1781 Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens

1783 Import of African slaves banned by all of the Northern US states

1857 Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada

1861 22,990mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in India in 1861, a world record

1890 Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot

1892 The first hostel for homeless men, Rowton House, opened in Bond Street, Vauxhall. There was strict discipline, with rules against cooking, card playing, etc.

1897 Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)

1904 First New Year's Eve celebration held in Times Square (then Longacre Square), in New York City

1911 Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize

1923 The chimes of Big Ben were broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.

1937 Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor, was born. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he received the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for services to the arts.

1938 Dutch national debt hits ƒ3,986,629,805.70

1939 Dutch national debt hits ƒ4,218,553,180.99

1942 Football manager Alex Ferguson was born, in Glasgow. With 25 years as manager of Manchester United, he was the longest serving manager in their history and also the longest serving of all the current League managers. He stepped down as manager of Manchester United on 8th May 2013 after 27 seasons. Under his leadership the team won 38 trophies, including 13 league titles, two Champions Leagues, five FA Cups and four League Cups.

1948 Malcolm Campbell, British racing driver, died, after a series of strokes. He was one of the few land speed record holders of his era to die of natural causes. Campbell broke nine land speed records between 1924 and 1935. He set his final land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on 3rd September 1935, becoming the first person to drive an automobile at more than 300mph.

1955 The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.

1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country

1960 The British coin, the farthing, in use in Britain since the 13th Century, ceased to be legal tender at midnight.

1961 Beach Boys play their debut gig under that name

1964 Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record, (at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia, 276.33 mph), the only man to break both land and water speed records in the same year. He remains the world's most prolific breaker of water speed records.

1970 Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to disolve The Beatles

1973 The three-day week began in Britain as a result of power strikes. It led to the downfall of Prime Minister Edward Heath and his government.

1973 Johan Cruyff chosen European Football Player of theYear

1974 Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac

1977 Ted Bundy escapes from jail in Colorado

1984 Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash

1987 A total of 31 people received New Year's Honours for helping to save an estimated 350 passengers when the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized, near Bruges, on 6th March, claiming 193 lives. The George Medal, one of the highest civilian awards for gallantry, was awarded to head waiter Michael Skippen who died trying to get passengers to safety.

1999 Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as acting President

2014 Neil Brittlebank (from Redditch) and Kevin Beresford (from East Ardsley in Yorkshire) won the dubious honour of being two of the dullest men of the year, as awarded by the Dull Men's Club. Mr Beresford produces books and calendars about roundabouts, while Mr Brittlebank, collects bricks.

2014 Same *** marriage came into effect in Scotland earlier in December and the first weddings were held at 00:01 on Hogmanay. (Note:- Following the usual 15-day notice period for marriages, Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) was the first day that same-*** weddings could take place.)

2014 The death (aged 99) of Arthur Valerian Wellesley, the 8th Duke of Wellington, whose ancestor won the Battle of Waterloo. His death came a day before the bicentenary year of the Battle of Waterloo.

Famous Birthday's

Jacques Cartier
(1491 - 1557)

George Marshall
(1880 - 1959)

1892 Jason Robards Sr, American actor (Acapulco, Isle of the Dead), born in Hillsdale, Michigan (d. 1963)

1929 Peter May, English cricketer (dashing batsman of 50's), born in Reading (d. 1994)



John Denver
(1943 - 1997)



1948 Donna Summer, singer (Love to Love You Baby, On the Radio), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2012)

Anthony Hopkins
80th Birthday

Alex Ferguson
76th Birthday

Andy Summers, English rock guitarist (Police-Roxanne), born in Blackpool, Lancashire
75th Birthday

Ben Kingsley
74th Birthday

Alex Salmond
63rd Birthday

Val Kilmer
58th Birthday

Heather McCartney, British artist and daughter of Paul McCartney
55th Birthday

Donald Trump Jr., American businessman and son of Donald Trump and Ivana Trump, born in NYC, New York
40th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Commodus
(161 - 192)

Roberto Clemente
(1934 - 1972)

1948 Malcolm Campbell, English race driver, dies at 63



Natalie Cole
(1950 - 2015)

Famous Weddings

1910 Editor Maxwell Perkins (26) weds Louise Saunders at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in North Plainfield, New Jersey

1940 Actress Bette Davis (32) weds New England innkeeper Arthur Farnsworth at 15,000-acre ranch in Lake Montezuma, Arizona

1950 Heavyweight boxing champ Rocky Marciano (27) weds Barbara Cousins in Brockton

1955 Actor Gregory Peck (39) weds philanthropist Veronique Passani (23)

1973 MLB executive Tony La Russa (29) weds Elaine Coker



My 62nd Birthday

[chalky_ncfc]

Here's a fact about today for you Altobelli

Today is the only day when all the children in the world was born in the 21st century and all of the adults was born in the 20th century

[Altobelli]

Nice Fact, Thank You Chalky

[Altobelli]

01 JANUARY

1660 Samuel Pepys began writing the Diary which he kept for nine years, writing in an early form of shorthand.

1772 The London Credit Exchange Company issued the first traveller’s cheques, accepted in 90 cities and guaranteed against theft.

1781 The first all-iron bridge in the world, Iron Bridge in Shropshire was opened to traffic. The bridge was built by Abraham Darby III, from a design by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard.

1833 Britain claimed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands

1894 The opening of the Manchester Ship Canal linking Manchester to the River Mersey. Queen Victoria later formally opened the canal, on 21st May 1894. After the dockyards closed in 1982, Manchester Docks was transformed into Salford Quays, now the home to the Lowry theatre , retail outlets, the Imperial War Museum North and Media City UK, home to the BBC and ITV studios.

1923 Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMSR.

1948 British railways are nationalised to form British Rail.

1951 The first episode of the BBC’s radio serial The Archers - farming folk of Ambridge. It is the world's longest running radio 'soap'. By 18th December 2011 it had reached 16,600 episodes.

1960 Johnny Cash plays first of many free concerts behind bars

1962 The Beatles had an audition for Decca Records, who turned them down and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.

1964 Jimmy Savile presented the very first Top of the Pops, the longest running music show in the world. He also co-hosted the last, on 30th July 2006. After Savile's death in October 2012, numerous allegations were made that he had ***ually abused hundreds of young people, dating back to 1958. Police also confirmed that Savile had been questioned over allegations of child *** abuse in 2007. His gravestone at Scarborough was removed at the request of Savile's family and plaques and statues of him in other locations were removed to prevent further defacement.



1965 Stanley Matthews was knighted, the first professional footballer to receive this honour.

1973 The UK became a fully-fledged member of the European Economic Community.

1985 Michael Harrison, the son of former Vodafone chairman Sir Ernest Harrison, made the first ever mobile phone call in Britain. He called his father from London's Parliament Square on the newly-launched Vodafone network using an 11lb (5kg) Transportable Vodafone VT1, which boasted around 30 minutes of talk time. A few days later, a crowd gathered at St Katherine's Dock in London to watch comedian Ernie Wise make the first public mobile phone call using the same device. All were far from portable and cost around £2,000 - equivalent to roughly £5,000 today.

1995 Fred West, the 53 year old Gloucestershire builder charged with 12 murders, was found dead in his prison cell.

2009 61 die in nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand.

2014 Right wing newspapers gathered at airports to interrogate an expected influx of millions of unemployed Romanians and Bulgarians after transitional controls were lifted. They were greeted by two new entrants, both of whom already had jobs.

Famous Birthday's

Paul Revere
(1735 - 1818)

1879 E. M. Forster, English writer and novelist (Howards End, Passage to India), born in Marylebone, Middle*** (d. 1970)

J. Edgar Hoover
(1895 - 1972)

Hank Greenberg
(1911 - 1986)



1912 Kim Philby, British spy and Soviet mole who was a member of the "Cambridge Five", born in Ambala, Punjab, India (d. 1988)



1919 J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, American novelist (Catcher in the Rye), born in NYC, New York (d. 2010)

Jack Wilshere
25th Birthday

Famous Deaths



Hank Williams
(1923 - 1953)

1949 Malcolm Campbell, English cyclist (world speed-record), dies at 63

Grace Hopper
(1906 - 1992)

Cesar Romero
(1907 - 1994)

2013 Patti Page [Clara Ann Fowler], American pop singer, dies at 85


Famous Weddings

414 King Ataulf of Narbonne marries emperor Honorius sister Galle Placidia

1772 US founding father Thomas Jefferson (30) marries Martha Wayles Skelton (23)

1811 Writer James Fenimore Cooper (21) weds Susan Augusta de Lancey in Mamaroneck, New York

1824 US President James Knox Polk (28) weds Sarah Childress (20) in Murfreesboro

1888 55th UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George (25) weds first wife Margaret Owen

[Altobelli]

02 DECEMBER

1839 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)



1879 1st Test match hat-trick, Fred Spofforth at the MCG

1890 Record 19.2 feet alligator shot in Louisiana by American businessman Edward Avery McIlhenny

1903 US President Theodore Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black

1938David Bailey, English photographer, was born. Along with photographers Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, he captured and helped create the 'Swinging London' of the 1960s.

1969 Australian Rupert Murdoch beat off a rival bid to win control of the News of the World, his first Fleet Street newspaper.

1971 Sixty six spectators were crushed to death and more than 200 others injured at the Ibrox football ground in Glasgow at the end of a Rangers v Celtic derby. The official inquiry into the disaster concluded that someone, possibly a child being carried on his father's shoulders, fell whilst exiting the ground, causing a massive chain reaction pile up of people. It was the second major loss of life at the Ibrox, the previous one being in 1902 when 25 people died and 517 were injured when a Stand collapsed after heavy rain. A statue of John Greig, who spent his career with Rangers, as a player, manager and director commemorates those killed in the 1971 tragedy.

1979 Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen begins

1982 Erica Rowe became the first sports 'streaker' when she ran across the Twickenham ground at the England v Australia rugby match waving her bra in the air. She was arrested, with policemen covering her 40" breasts with their woefully undersized helmets.

1987 The publishers of Enid Blyton's Noddy books bowed to pressure groups and agreed to expunge racism by changing the golliwog characters to gnomes.

2013 Thieves in Manchester dug a 100ft (30m) long 4ft high tunnel directly under a cash machine, using machinery to cut through concrete. They escaped with only £6,000 because the machine had not been re-filled after the New Year bank holiday. A similar plot was foiled in the same area in 2007, and police believe it may have been carried out by the same gang.

Famous Birthday's

James Wolfe
(1727 - 1759)

Isaac Asimov
(1920 - 1992)

1936 Roger Miller, country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me), born in Fort Worth, Texas (d. 1992)

Tommy Morrison
(1969 - 2013)

Cuba Gooding Jr, actor (Boyz N the Hood, Glaadiator, Few Good Men)
50th Birthday

Famous Deaths

James Longstreet
(1821 - 1904)

Emil Jannings
(1884 - 1950)

Erroll Garner
(1923 - 1977)

1983 Dick Emery, actor (Yellow Submarine, Loot, Baby Love), dies at 65


1998 Frank Muir, English writer, raconteur (b. 1920)

2009 Jett Travolta, son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston, dies of a seizure at 16



2011 Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (b. 1946)

Famous Weddings

1815 Leading Romantic poet Lord Byron (27) marries Anne Isabella Milbanke (22) by special licence, at Seaham Hall in County Durham

1845 Explorer and medical missionary David Livingstone (31) weds Mary Moffat

1890 Physicist J. J. Thomson (33) weds Rose Elisabeth Paget

1928 Photographer Ansel Adams (25) weds Virginia Best in Yosemite Valley

1937 Theoretical Physicist Paul Dirac (34) weds Margit Wigner

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03 JANUARY

1496 Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1842 Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine leave Liverpool, England for America on board the RMS Britannia

1911Police, with the army in attendance, stormed a house in London's East End where it was thought a gang of wanted anarchists were hiding. Newspapers dubbed the incident 'The Siege of Sidney Street'. When the fugitives shot at police, the Scots Guards were summoned from the Tower of London, and Winston Churchill, who was then Home Secretary, arrived on the scene to find the house in flames. No firefighters were sent in to put out the blaze, and the house eventually collapsed, burning the anarchists to death.

1925 Benito Mussolini dissolves Italian parliament/becomes dictator



1942 The birth, in Gorton, Manchester of actor John Thaw, who starred in the TV dramas The Sweeney, Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC. A heavy drinker, and a smoker from the age of 12, Thaw was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in June 2001. In early January 2002 he was told that the cancer had spread and he died on 21st February 2002, seven weeks after his 60th birthday.

1946 William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was hanged for treason, in London. The Irishman had broadcast propaganda from Nazi Germany during the Second World War to both Britain and the United States. The broadcasts started on 18th September 1939 and continued until 30th April 1945, when Hamburg was overrun by the British Army.

1958 Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland

1961 The production of the millionth Morris Minor, designed by the Greek born Sir Alec Issigonis. He considered the Morris Minor to be a vehicle that combined many of the luxuries and conveniences of a good motor car, but at a price suitable for the working classes.

1967 Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion

1969 John Lennon's "2 Virgins" album declared ****ographic in NJ

2013 Data released by the Met. Office showed that the previous 12 months had been the second wettest on record in the UK, with England recording its wettest year ever since records began in 1910.

2015 A 51,000 tonne car carrier ship (Hoegh Osaka) became stranded on Bramble Bank in the Solent between Southampton and the Isle of Wight. The ship was carrying 1,200 Jaguar sports cars, Land Rover 4x4s, 65 BMW Minis, 105 JCB diggers and a single Rolls-Royce Wraith – worth an estimated £260,000 – all destined for the Middle East. The vessel was eventually righted and towed to Southampton on 22nd January

Famous Birthday's

1883 Clement Attlee, British Prime Minister (L-1945-51), born in Putney, London (d. 1967)



J. R. R. Tolkien
(1892 - 1973)



1905 Ray Milland, Welsh actor (Lost Weekend-Academy Award 1945), born in Neath, Wales (d. 1986)



1909 Victor Borge [Borge Rosenbaum], Danish-American comedian and pianist, born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 2000)

1936 David Vine, British sport commentator (d. 2009)

1942 John Thaw, British actor (d. 2002)

1945 Stephen Stills, songwriter/guitarist (Cosby Stills & Nash), born in Dallas, Texas
73rd Birthday

1946 John Paul Jones [John Baldwin], English rock bassist and songwriter (Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven), born in Sidcup London
72nd Birthday

Mel Gibson
62nd Birthday

Michael Schumacher
49th Birthday

Famous Deaths

1903 Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)

Jack Ruby
(1911 - 1967)

Joy Adamson
(1910 - 1980)

Edward W. Brooke
(1919 - 2015)

1946 William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), hanged in Britain for treason

Famous Weddings

1783 US Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall (27) weds Mary Willis Ambler in Hanover County, Virginia

1923 German politician Hermann Goering (30) weds Carin Hulda (34)

1939 MLB catcher Roy Campanella (18) weds Bernice Ray

1986 British golfer Nick Faldo (28) weds manager's secretary Gill Bennett

1987 Singer/Miss America Vanessa Williams marries Ramon T Hervey in NYC

Famous Divorces

1990 Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (41) divorces singer/dancer Sarah Brightman (29) after almost 7 years of marriage.

50 Years Ago Album & Single # 1s

No Changes


SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND - BEATLES

HELLO GOODBYE - BEATLES











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[Altobelli]

04 JANUARY

1642 Under the orders of King Charles I, armed soldiers entered Parliament. The English Civil War started shortly afterwards.

1813 Birth of Sir Isaac Pitman, English inventor of the first major shorthand system. Pitman founded a company called Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, which became one of the world's leading educational publishers and training businesses. In 1837-38 he became a teetotaller and vegetarian, practices to which he attributed his health and his ability to work long hours.

1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government

1890 The Daily Graphic was launched; the first daily illustrated paper. It merged with the Daily Sketch in 1926. .

1932 Gandhi was arrested and his National Congress of India declared illegal by the British administration. The warrant for Gandhi's arrest merely said that he was being arrested 'for good and sufficient reasons.'

1958 Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole

1967 Donald Campbell, 46 year old son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, died in his attempt to break his own world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District. This plaque is in the village of Coniston. His boat, Bluebird K7, somersaulted at high speed, and Campbell died instantly and is buried in Coniston graveyard. The wreckage of Campbell's craft was recovered by the Bluebird Project between October 2000, when the first sections were raised, and June 2001 when Campbell's body was recovered. It is intended to return a rebuilt Bluebird to Coniston before permanently housing her at the nearly Ruskin museum.

1990 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan

2017 The last ABC cinema closed its doors. The Bournemouth cinema (which opened in June 1937) had only kept its name by a quirk of positioning in the town. It closed with a final screening of 'Back to the Future', which was chosen by its audience.

Famous Birthday's



Louis Braille
(1809 - 1852)



1930 Iain Cuthbertson, British actor (Guilty, Scandal, Rep, Danger UX (d. 2009)

Don Shula
88th Birthday

Rick Stein
71st Birthday

Mick Mills
69th Birthday

James Milner
32nd Birthday



Floyd Patterson
(1935 - 2006)

Famous Deaths

Albert Camus
(1913 - 1960)

Erwin Schrödinger
(1887 - 1961)



T. S. EliotT.
(1888 - 1965)

1986 Phil Lynott, Irish rock musician (Thin Lizzy), dies of an overdose at 36

2011 Gerry Rafferty, British musician and songwriter (b. 1947)

Famous Weddings

1827 Naturalist and entomologist Thomas Say (39) secretly weds natural science illustrator Lucy Way Sistare (26)

1926 Composer Irving Berlin (37) weds heiress Ellin Mackay in a simple civil ceremony

1997 Czech Republic's first president Vaclav Havel (60) weds Czech actress Dagmar Havlova (43) in Prague, Czech Republic

1997 "Smothers Brothers" actor-singer Dick Smothers (58) weds Denby Franklin (47) in Las Vegas

2012 Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry (66) weds PR executive Amanda Sheppard (29) in Turks and Caicos Island

Famous Divorces

2004 Britney Spears has her surprise marriage annulled less than 55 hours after tying the knot with childhood friend Jason Alexander at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas

2008 Australian pop diva Natalie Imbruglia (32) and "Silverchair" frontman Daniel Johns (28) announce their divorce stating "we have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together"