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On This Day 3rd February
1014 The death of Sweyn Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth and Viking king of Denmark, Norway and England. He was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day 1013, making him England's shortest-reigning king, with a reign of just 40 days. The Viking king ruled England from a fortification on the site of what is now Gainsborough's Old Hall (see ©BB picture) one of the best preserved medieval manor houses in England.

1399 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and father of King Henry IV, died.

1821 The birth, in Bristol, of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register.

1830 Birth of Lord Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquis of Salisbury and British Prime Minister.

1903 The birth of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, pioneering Scottish aviator. He was the eldest of four brothers who were to make military history by all being at the rank of Squadron Leader or above simultaneously at the outbreak of World War II. He was also the youngest Squadron Leader of his day and was chief pilot on the first flight over Mount Everest in 1933, making it the first detailed and scientific survey of the Himalaya region.

1928 The birth, in Liverpool of the singer Frankie Vaughan. He had than 80 recordings in his lifetime and was known as 'Mr. Moonlight' after one of his early hits.

1935 The first 'League of Ovaltineys' created by the manufacturer of the drink Ovaltine. It became a children's 'secret society', promoting high morals and consideration towards others. At the height of its popularity, there were over five million members and I was one of them! In 1975 the song 'We Are The Ovaltineys' came back to a new audience when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and also released as a single record.

1949 In Britain, 23 year old Margaret Roberts (Thatcher) was adopted as Tory candidate in Deptford, but she later failed to win the seat at the General Election.

1954 The Queen visited Australia, the first reigning monarch to do so.

1957 The Lovell Telescope (see ©BB picture) at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, moved for the first time. The distance moved was an inch (2.5cm)!

1960 Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his 'wind of change' speech to the South African parliament in Capetown. He talked of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.

1963 Britain's worst learner driver, Margaret Hunter, was fined for continuing to drive on after her instructor jumped out of the car shouting 'This is suicide.'

1988 Nurses across the UK took part in a day of industrial action to secure more money for themselves and the NHS.

1989 BT banned chatlines because of the 'chatline junkie problem'. The company had been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12 year old son landed her a chatline bill of £6000.

2012 The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne resigned after being charged over allegations that he handed penalty points for a speeding offence to his then wife, economist Vicky Pryce.

2012 England football captain John Terry was stripped of the captaincy for the second time amid growing concern over his pending race abuse trial.

2013 The cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste site reached £67.5bn with no sign of when the cost would stop rising, according to a report. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said that it was facing up to the challenges.

2015 The unauthorised biography 'Charles: Heart of a King' revealed that both Prince Charles and Princess Diana contemplated calling off their wedding, because each knew that their relationship was deeply flawed.

2017 The re-opening of the Tadcaster Bridge, which is believed to date from around 1700. The bridge collapsed on 29th December 2015 after flooding that followed Storm Eva. The loss of the bridge involved a 16 mile detour and loss of businesses in the town. This photograph (see ©BB picture) was taken just 5 days before the re-opening.

On This Day 4th February
211 The death in York, (formerly know as Eboracum), of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus whilst preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. He left the empire in the control of his two quarrelling sons.

1868 The birth of Constance Georgine Markievicz, Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. In December 1919, whilst in Holloway prison, she became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons. As a Sinn Féin MP who was in prison at the time, she never took her seat in the House of Commons.

1905 The birth, in Farnworth near Bolton, Lancashire of Hylda Baker, British comedienne, actress and music hall star. Her most famous role was in the comedy series 'Nearest and Dearest' with comedian Jimmy Jewel. They bickered on screen as part of the script, but the insults continued off screen. The two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend.

1911 Rolls-Royce commissioned their famous figurehead ‘The Spirit of Ecstasy’ (see ©BB picture) by Charles Sykes. He used Lord Montague’s mistress, Eleanor Thornton, as his model. 60 years later to the day, Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt due to a disastrous contract to supply aero engines to Lockheed. The British government came to its rescue.

1920 Norman Wisdom, actor & star of many comedy films, was born. In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and also Tirana in Albania where the population were devoted to him and referred to him as 'Pitkin'. He received an OBE in the same year and was knighted in 2000. He retired from acting at the age of 90 after his health deteriorated and died in October 2010.

1927 Malcolm Campbell reached 174.88 mph in Bluebird on Pendine Sands (see ©BB picture), a 7 mile stretch of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales in south Wales, to set a new land speed record. A year later in 1928 at Daytona Beach, Florida, he reached 206.35 mph. Four years and one day later, in 1931, he reached a record-breaking 245 mph, again at Daytona Beach.

1962 The first colour supplement in Britain was published by The Sunday Times.

1968 The world's largest hovercraft, weighing 165 tonnes, was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Hovertravel service from the mainland to the Isle of Wight (see ©BB picture) is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft service and is now the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in the Europe.

1974 The 'M62 coach bombing' when a Provisional IRA bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members. Twelve people (nine soldiers and three civilians, including children aged 5 and 2) were killed. This memorial to them (see ©BB picture) is at Hartshead Moor Services.

1975 Edward Heath withdrew from the Conservative party leadership after losing the first-round vote to Margaret Thatcher.

2002 Cancer Research UK was founded. It is the world's largest independent cancer research charity.

2008 The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme began to operate, with hefty fines for the owners of polluting vehicles.

2012 Fifty four year old Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty was found dead at his home in Skillington, Lincolnshire. The life-long Forest fan was estimated to have invested more than £100m of his personal fortune into the football club.

2012 The death, aged 110, of Florence Green, the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country.

2013 A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park in August 2012 was confirmed as that of English king Richard III. He was reintered at Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015 (see ©BB picture of the tomb) after experts from the University of Leicester said that DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

2014 A new international study showed that British workers have the shortest retirements in any major EU country, despite significant improvements in life expectancy.

2015 An online fund, launched by Katie Cutler after the mugging of a Tyneside pensioner, was halted with donations totally £330,000. Her 'Help Alan Barnes' online donation page was launched after the frail and visually disabled 67-year-old had been attacked outside his Gateshead home. Richard Gatiss (25) was later arrested and given a four-year prison sentence for assault.

On This Day 5th February
1782 The Spanish defeated British forces and captured the island of Minorca.

1788 The birth, in Bury, Lancashire, of Sir Robert Peel, the first commoner to become British Prime Minister, although he was hardly from humble beginnings, as his father was a cotton millionaire. This statue of Robert Peel (see  ©BB picture) is in Bury. Peel was the founder of the Metropolitan Police, first nicknamed ‘Peelers’, then ‘Bobbies’, after his name.

1811 The Regency Act was passed in Britain, allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father, King George III, was considered insane. He later became George IV.

1840 The birth of Scottish vet. John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tyre which he tested on his son's tricycle and patented in 1888. Two years after he was granted the patent, Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid, as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847.

1852 The embankment of the Bilberry reservoir in West Yorkshire collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme and into Holmfirth, the ©BB location for the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine. It caused 81 deaths and is recorded as the 23rd most serious, worldwide, in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides.

1881 The death of Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher and a satirical writer who was considered one of the most important social commentators of his time. He was born in this room (see ©BB picture) in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire.

1918 The SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77. She sank with the loss of 210 lives and was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

1920 Founding of the RAF Training College at Cranwell, in Lincolnshire.

1924 The BBC time signals, ('pips' from Greenwich Observatory) broadcast on the hour, were heard for the first time.

1953 Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain, 8 years after the 2nd World War had ended.

1954 Britain opened its first atomic power station, at Harwell.

1958 Parking meters first appeared on the streets, in London's exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935.

1967 A ban by the Musicians' Union, 'in the cause of decency', stopped The Rolling Stones' latest record Let's Spend the Night Together, from being performed on television.

1968 Another trawler from Hull sank off the coast of Iceland. Over a period of three weeks 60 fishermen lost their lives in Iceland's worst storms since 1925.

1982 The small, independent Laker Airlines, created by former British pilot Sir Freddy Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible, collapsed with debts of £270m.

1993 In the Antarctic, British explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud broke the record for longest unsupported polar march.

1996 Two British supermarket chains (Safeway and Sainsbury) became the first to stock genetically modified food when they sold GM tomato puree.

1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair, announced that veteran US entertainer Bob Hope, who was born in England, would receive an honorary knighthood.

2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drowned when a group of 35 cockle-pickers were trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. See  ©BB picture of Morecambe Bay at sunset.

2014 Overnight storms caused the loss of the sea wall and railway line at Dawlish, between Exeter and Cornwall. Around 30 residents had to be evacuated from their homes in the seaside town, while beach huts that once stood on the sea wall were destroyed. The line reopened on 4th April 2014, in time for the Easter holidays.

2016 The general release of "Dad's Army", based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Much of it was filmed in Bridlington Old Town (see  ©BB picture) and at North Landing, Flamborough See  ©BB picture

On This Day 6th February
1649 The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.

1665 The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. She bore Prince George of Denmark 17 children, but 16 died in infancy and the remaining child died when aged 12. Her desire for national unity led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.

1685 Charles II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died after several days of revelry with his concubines and his favourite mistresses. Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses, but as illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother to look after his mistresses and told his courtiers: 'I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.'

1783 Death of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the greatest English landscape gardener. His work lives on today throughout the great estates of England. He designed and assisted with many gardens, including Charlecote Park in Warwickshire (see  ©BB picture) and Wallington in Northumberland (see  ©BB picture).

1804 The death of Joseph Priestley (FRS) the 18th-century English theologian and chemist. Priestley is generally credited with the discovery of oxygen. He was born at Birstall, near Leeds. This statue (see  ©BB picture) of Priestley is in Leeds City Square.
1840 The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand.

1918 The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.

1931 Fred Trueman, Former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described him as the 'greatest living Yorkshireman', yet Trueman was omitted from numerous Test teams because he was frequently in conflict with the cricket establishment. This  ©BB statue of Fred (Freddie) Trueman is in the canal basin at Skipton, North Yorkshire, the town where he lived for many years.

1952 Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.

1958 Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured, but survived. Of the 44 passengers and crew on board, 8 United players were killed and there were 15 other fatalities, including 8 journalists.

1995 The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land.

1997 The Court of Appeal made an historic judgement in favour of Diane Blood to be allowed to be inseminated with her dead husband's sperm.

2005 Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10, making him the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not!

2015 26 year old Royal Marine, Andy Grant, woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You'll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording "You'll Never Walk" as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run, won two gold medals at the Invictus Games, abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.

2017 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. The Royal Mint is to mark the 65th anniversary of her accession with a range of specially designed Sapphire Jubilee commemorative coins, with the Royal Mail issuing a Sapphire Blue £5 stamp.

On This Day 7th February
1301 Edward of Caernarfon (later King Edward II) became the first Prince of Wales, a title traditionally given to the English royal heir. He was born at Caernarfon Castle (see  ©BB picture)

1478 The birth of Sir Thomas More, English statesman and Lord Chancellor. He was executed by Henry VIII for refusing to deny Papal authority. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

1812 Charles Dickens, English journalist and novelist was born. He is considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. He created characters such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield and amongst his other works were The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Bleak House and many, many more.

1837 The birth of Sir James Murray, Scottish lexicographer. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death.

1863 185 British sailors were killed when HMS Orpheus was wrecked off the coast of New Zealand.

1886 While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman, George Walker, found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.

1873 The birth, in County Down, of Thomas Andrews. Andrews was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic. He was travelling on board the Titanic during its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg on 14th April 1912 and was one of the 1,517 people who perished in the disaster. Titanic's engineers, who battled below decks to try and keep Titanic afloat are commemorated on this monument (see ©BB picture) in Southampton.

1937 Britain's first dive-bomber, the prototype B-24 Skua, made its maiden flight over Yorkshire, piloted by Dasher Blake.

1964 The Beatles pop group arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.

1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath announced a general election and appealed to the miners to suspend their planned strike.

1974 The island of Grenada, in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, gained independence from Britain.

1976 Joan Bazeley became the first woman to referee a men's football match and Diana Thorne became the first woman jockey to win under National Hunt Rules (on ‘Ben Ruler’ at Stratford).

1991 Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt, when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.

1992 The European Union was formed.

1994 It was reported that 13.1 million television viewers watched British boxer Chris Eubank beat German Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin. It was the most watched programme of the year.

2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur (born 8th July 1976) became the fastest person to sail solo around the world. Two months after her amazing feat she also became the youngest person to receive a damehood.

2006 The completion, in Cardiff Bay, of The Senedd (see  ©BB picture). It the main public building of the National Assembly, the main centre for democracy and devolution in Wales.

2015 Printing blocks from a typeface called 'Doves Type' were discovered in the River Thames. The font has not been used for nearly a century as the printing type blocks, used to print letters, were thrown into the river in 1917.

On This Day 8th February
1587 After 19 years imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. She had been implicated in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1601 Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I. The revolt was quickly crushed. Essex was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on Tower Green on 25th February 1601, becoming the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading.

1819 John Ruskin, English writer, artist and art critic, was born. He lived at Brantwood, (Coniston, Cumbria) from 1872 until his death in 1900. See  ©BB picture of Coniston Water from Brantwood. His watercolour of the view from St. Mary's Church in Kirkby Lonsdale was sold in 2012 for £217,250. In 1875, Ruskin described the panorama as ‘one of the loveliest views in England, therefore in the world’. You can view my less famous picture of Ruskin's View here - see  ©BB picture.

1836 The first London railway train ran from Spa Road to Deptford. There were fears that the 'great speed' of 16 miles an hour would break passengers' necks.

1855 The 'Devil's Footprints' mysteriously appeared in southern Devon when trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow. Estimates of the total distance covered by the prints ranged from 40 to 100 miles. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were allegedly travelled straight over, and the footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes with a diameter as small as 4 inches.

1886 A peaceful demonstration by unemployed people started in Trafalgar Square and turned into a riot with looting in Oxford Street and Pall Mall.

1952 Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith. Lords of the Council, numbering 150, representatives from the Commonwealth and officials from the City of London, including the Lord Mayor and other dignitaries witnessed the accession of the deceased king's eldest daughter.

1965 Health Minister Kenneth Robinson announced that cigarette advertisements were to be banned from British television.

1971 At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, a British plastics firm making educational toys was shown a board game which had been rejected by established companies. Invented by an Israeli telecommunications expert, Mordecai Meirowitz, the game, renamed ‘Mastermind’ by Invicta Plastics, sold over 55 million sets in some 80 countries, making it the most successful new game of the 70s. Whilst researching for this page we discovered that we had the original game, still unwrapped - see  ©BB picture.

1972 The Albert Hall management cancelled a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert because of the ‘obscene lyrics’ of one of their songs. Fans demonstrated outside the hall.

1973 Mohammed Shafiq became the first non-white P.C. to join the Lancashire Police.

1983 Shergar, the Aga Khan's Derby winner, was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million, which was never paid. The horse was never seen again.

1998 The death of the controversial politician, Enoch Powell, aged 85. He warned, in 1968, of the perils of high immigration with his 'Rivers of Blood' speech. See the transcript here on YouTube.

2012 The death, aged 74, of John Fairfax, British ocean rower and adventurer who, in 1969, became the first person to row solo (in 180 days) across the Atlantic Ocean. He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean (with Sylvia Cook) in 1971/2; with a row time of 361 days.

On This Day 9th February
1540 The first recorded horse racing meeting in Britain; held at the Roodeye Field, Chester. Chester Racecourse (see  ©BB picture) is, according to official records the oldest racecourse still in use in England and it is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile 1 furlong long.

1649 The funeral of the executed King Charles I. His personal dignity during his trial and execution had won him much sympathy and he was laid to rest at Windsor rather than Westminster Abbey to avoid the possibility of public disorder at his funeral.

1846 The birth, in Stafford, of Whitaker Wright, an exceptionally wealthy, but corrupt, English mining company owner. In1904 he was convicted of fraud and given a seven year prison sentence. He committed suicide immediately afterwards by swallowing cyanide in a court anteroom. The inquest also revealed that he had been carrying a revolver in his pocket, presumably as a backup.

1891 The birth, in Richmond, Surrey of actor Ronald Colman. He was nominated for four Academy awards and won the Award once and also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1947. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.

1942 World War Two: Soap rationing began in Britain.

1945 World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic �" HMS Venturer sank U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.

1964 Seventy three million Americans tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four youths from Liverpool (the Beatles) appear in America for the first time.

1966 The government announced that a £30M Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor would be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland. Minister for Technology Frank Cousins said the new reactors were 'the future'. Nuclear power generation at the site ended in 1994.

1972 The British Government declared a 'state of emergency' three months into a National Miners' Strike.

1979 Football club Nottingham Forest clinched Britain's first £1m transfer deal when England forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough's League and Cup winning side after eight seasons with Birmingham City.

1988 The House of Commons voted to allow experimental televising of selected debates.

1995 Dr. Michael Foale, originally from Lincolnshire, become the first British born American to walk in space. In April 1998 he was awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his subsequent four month mission (1997) to the Russian space station Mir.

1996 The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands, effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain.

2001 Lance Corporal Roberta Winterton became the first serving soldier to pose topless on Page Three of The Sun newspaper.

2002 The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, aged 71, died in her sleep after suffering a stroke and a heart attack. Her body was laid to rest at Kensington Palace in order for the Royal Family to pay their respects.

2006 The death of Freddie Laker, British airline entrepreneur. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the 'no-frills' airline business model that is now used worldwide with companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet.

2015 A tipper truck crash in Bath killed four people including Mitzi Rosanna Steady (aged 4). Her grandmother suffered life-changing injuries and three people in a car that was hit by the vehicle were killed. The truck driver, Philip Potter (19) had only qualified for his HGV licence five days before the tragedy. Mitzi's funeral was held at Bath Abbey on 23rd February.

2015 Seven straw houses went on sale at Shirehampton - Bristol, clad in brick to fit in with the surroundings. Declared to be safe from 'huffing and puffing' the prefabricated timber walls, filled with straw bales were said to be 90% cheaper in terms of heating costs than traditional brick houses.

On This Day 10th February
1306 In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn, his leading political rival, sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence. See  ©BB picture of the exterior of Greyfriars Church

1355 The St. Scholastica's Day Riots began in Oxford when University students clashed with townspeople in a three-day street battle, following a dispute about beer in The Swindlestock Tavern. 64 students were killed and 30 locals. The dispute was settled in favour of the university with a special charter. Annually thereafter, on 10th February, the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed. The penance ended in 1825 when the mayor refused to take part. See  ©BB picture of Oxford and its students, during more peaceful times!

1567 An explosion destroyed the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, (Lord Darnly) was found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.

1763 Following the Seven Years War, the Treaty of Paris was signed, with France ceding Canada to Britain.

1774 Andrew Baker demonstrated his practical diving suit in the River Thames.

1787 The birth of William Bradley, often known as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant. He was the tallest recorded British man, measuring 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m) tall. He was born at this house in Market Weighton (see ©BB picture) - East Riding of Yorkshire. See also close up of the plaque ( ©BB picture) on his birthplace. This full size, oak statue of him (see ©BB picture) is close to the house where he was born.

1824 The birth of Samuel Plimsoll, British politician and social reformer. He devised the Plimsoll Line, to thwart unscrupulous ship owners who regularly overloaded their 'coffin ships'. His safe loading line painted on the ships acted as a regulation for the weight that ships could safely carry. Rope sandals for sailors were also named after him.

1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, both aged 20, were married in St James' Palace, London.

1846 The birth of Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician. He was a well-known and popular figure who courted publicity and was widely known to the British public as 'Charlie B'. He was considered by many to be a personification of John Bull and was normally accompanied by his trademark, a bulldog.

1884 The birth of Frederick William Hawksworth, locomotive designer and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway.

1894 The birth of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who, as British Prime Minister after Eden’s resignation following the Suez crisis, claimed ‘You’ve never had it so good’ and warned South Africa that ‘the wind of change’ was blowing through the continent. He was nicknamed ‘Supermac’.

1906 Britain's first modern & largest battleship, HMS Dreadnought, was launched. It established the pattern of the turbine-powered, “all-big-gun” warship, a type that dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.

1988 Sir John Gielgud made theatrical history when, after an absence of ten years from the stage, he played the longest role ever for an actor of his age. Just weeks away from his 84th birthday he played Sydney Cockerell in The Best of Friends by Hugh Whitmore at the Apollo.

2005 Clarence House announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

2013 The Department for Transport announced that TV advertisements, which have been shown since the 60s, with characters such as Tufty the squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man would no longer be broadcast because of 're-prioritised' budgets.

2014 Jenny Jones from Bristol won bronze in the women’s snowboarding slopestyle event. Not only was it Britain’s first medal of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, but it was Britain's first ever medal on snow. Aged 33 she was also the oldest in the competition.

On This Day 11th February
1466www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII and mother of King Henry VIII. She died, on her birthday in 1503 aged 37. In the children's nursery rhyme, 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' Elizabeth is reportedly the queen in the parlour, while her husband, with a reputation for thrift, is the king counting his money.

1531www.beautifulbritain.co.ukHenry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.

1542www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCatherine Howard, the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII, was confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later. Henry learned that Catherine had had several affairs before their marriage and had Parliament declare it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. The night before her execution, Catherine spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block.

1800www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of William Henry Fox Talbot, English pioneer of photography. Talbot's technique involved the use of a photographic negative, from which multiple prints could be made. His photograph of the Oriel window at Lacock Abbey, is the earliest camera negative in existence. See the  ©BB picture of his famous picture of the window at Lacock Abbey, and my, (not quite so famous) digital picture, of the same window!

1895www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled, also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.

1908www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBirth of Sir Vivien Fuchs, English geologist and leader of the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition (1956-8).

1932www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth in Clay Cross, Derbyshire of Dennis Edward Skinner, former NUM leader and Labour Member of Parliament for Bolsover since 1970. He is known for never missing a Commons session, for his left-wing views and his acid tongue that has led to him being suspended from Parliament on at least ten occasions, usually for 'unparliamentary language' when attacking opponents.

1934www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of the racing driver John Surtees. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.

1956www.beautifulbritain.co.ukTwo British spies, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who had vanished in mysterious circumstances five years previously, re-appeared in the Soviet Union.

The death, by suicide, of the 30 year old, Boston born poet and novelist Sylvia Plath. She was married to fellow poet Ted Hughes. Hughes served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. Sylvia Plath is buried (see  ©BB picture) in the extension to Heptonstall graveyard, West Yorkshire

1971www.beautifulbritain.co.ukEighty-seven countries, including the UK, the United States and the USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty. It outlawed nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMargaret Thatcher won the Conservative Party Leadership and became the first woman leader of a British political party.

1976www.beautifulbritain.co.ukJohn Curry became the first Briton to win a gold medal for men’s figure skating.

1983www.beautifulbritain.co.ukPolice launched a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains. Civil servant Dennis Andrew Nilsen, 37, was later charged with 12 murders and sentenced to six life sentences.

1993www.beautifulbritain.co.ukQueen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales both volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax on their private income. The Queen also took over civil list payments to junior members of the royal family.

On This Day 13th February
1542www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCatherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.

1692www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe massacre of the MacDonalds at Glencoe, for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange. See  ©BB picture of Glencoe. The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen - Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achnacon, although the killing took place all over the glen as the fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed and another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned.

1938www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Oliver Reed, English actor. His films included Oliver, Women in Love and The Three Musketeers. His final role was as the elderly slave dealer Proximo in Gladiator, in which he played alongside Richard Harris, an actor whom Reed admired greatly.

1945www.beautifulbritain.co.uk1400 RAF and 450 US Airforce planes bombed Dresden in three waves over a 14-hour period, devastating one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Over a three-day period, 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiaries reduced much of the city to smouldering rubble and killed between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians.

1948www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Science Museum in London announced that it would return the Wright Brothers’ biplane, Kitty Hawk, the first to fly, to the Smithsonian Institution. It had been sent to England in 1928 by Orville Wright when he found that the Smithsonian had labelled another plane as the first capable of sustained flight.

1969www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAn announcement stated that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilized in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with Dr. P. Steptoe at Oldham General Hospital.

1974www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Robbie Williams, former member of the pop group Take That. After many disagreements, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career but he rejoined Take That in 2009 and left again in 2012. The group released a new album in November 2010 which became the second fastest selling album of all time in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish mineworkers' leaders agreed to accept the coal board's latest pay offer of up to 35%.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Ben Collins, British racing driver. On 1st September 2010 the BBC was refused a court injunction to prevent the revelation that 'Stig', Top Gear's 'tame racing driver' was, in fact Ben Collins. In future Top Gear programmes the team regularly referred to him as 'sacked Stig'.

1978www.beautifulbritain.co.ukTomorrow's World presenter Anna Ford was officially announced as ITN's first female newsreader.

1987www.beautifulbritain.co.ukLondon’s property boom resulted in a 5ft 6in x 11ft broom cupboard opposite Harrods being offered for sale at £36,500 - over £600 per square foot.

1988www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Canada. English ski-jumper and plasterer Eddie Edwards, became the surprise sensation of the Games. The fearless contestant came last, but won all the headlines and the nickname The Eagle. His life story was made into a film, Eddie the Eagle, in 2016

2001www.beautifulbritain.co.ukStephen Kelly, aged 33, went on trial in Glasgow for knowingly infecting a woman with the HIV virus in a case believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland. He was found guilty of 'culpable and reckless conduct' and was sentenced to five years in prison.

2015 PC Robert Brown, who joined the Metropolitan Police in the era of 'Dixon of Dock Green', retired after 47-years service. He was the country's longest serving policeman. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal at Buckingham Palace, one of the highest honours bestowed on police officers.

On This Day 14th February
The Feast Day of St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers. In fact there were fourteen Saint Valentines of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14th February nothing is known, except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome 'on this day'. The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Gretna Green, (see ©BB picture) historically the first village in Scotland, has been performing weddings since 1754. They originated from cross-border elopements stemming from differences between Scottish marriage laws and those in neighbouring countries.

1477www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMargery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk, addressed - Be my olde Valentine. It is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in the English language and was uncovered by the British Library. Read more on the BBC's website.

1556www.beautifulbritain.co.ukFormer Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was declared a heretic. He was tried for treason and heresy after Mary I, a Roman Catholic, came to the throne. Although he apparently reconciled himself with the Roman Catholic Church, on the day of his execution, on 21st March 1556, he dramatically withdrew earlier statements and was thus a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to others.

1779www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCaptain Cook, British explorer, navigator and cartographer, was stabbed to death on the beach at Kealakekua (Hawaii) by the Polynesian natives. Numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him, including this one at Whitby (see ©BB picture) where Cook served as a merchant navy apprentice.

1797www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Spanish fleet was defeated off Cape St. Vincent by Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson. Nelson was born here, see ©BB picture, at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk and subsequently became a British national hero.

1852www.beautifulbritain.co.ukLondon’s famous children’s hospital in Great Ormond Street accepted its first patient, three year-old Eliza Armstrong. It was the first hospital in the English speaking world providing in-patient beds specifically for children.

1922www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMarconi began regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex.

1945www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: Prague was bombed, probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.

1946www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Bank of England was nationalized by the Atlee government.

1963www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish politician Harold Wilson was elected leader of the Labour Party following the death of former leader Hugh Gaitskell.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of the writer, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, generally known as P.G. Wodehouse. His career lasted more than 70 years and included novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He wrote 15 plays and 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies, but is perhaps best remembered for his stories of the butler Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster.

1984www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the ice dance gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, gaining maximum points for artistic expression.

1989www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.

1995 Sizewell B nuclear processing plant in Suffolk, first synchronised with the national grid. It was the UK's only commercial pressurised water reactor (PWR) power station, with a single reactor.

2003www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.

2006www.beautifulbritain.co.ukChip and PIN was introduced. UK cardholders had to use their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to be sure that they could pay for goods.

2014 The death (aged 91) of former Preston and England footballer Sir Tom Finney. Finney scored 210 goals in 473 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England. He twice won the footballer of the year title, in 1953-54 and 1956-57. The Preston stadium is located on Sir Tom Finney Way and this statue (see ©BB picture) stands outside the ground, while inside, a stand was renamed in his honour in 1995.

On This Day 15th February
1849www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Sir Rickman John Godlee, an English surgeon. In 1884, at the Epileptic Hospital, Regent’s Park, he became one of the first to surgically remove a tumour of the brain.

1874www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth, in Ireland, of Sir Ernest Shackleton, British Antarctic explorer. He went on Scott’s original expedition in 1901-4 before leading his own in 1907, which got within a short distance of the South Pole.

1901www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWinston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time, as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.

1928www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAfter some 70 years of work, the 1st Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed.

1928www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of the statesman and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. During his time in office (1908 - 1916) Asquith attempted to introduce home rule in Ireland, provoking fierce opposition in Ulster and amongst the Conservative opposition. Civil war over the issue in Ireland was only averted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.

1929www.beautifulbritain.co.ukGraham Hill, British motor racing world champion, was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport �" the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.

1942 www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.

1952www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Queen's father, King George VI, was was laid to rest in St .George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

1955www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Government unveiled plans to construct 12 nuclear power stations in the following decade, at a cost of £300 million.

1971www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.

1978www.beautifulbritain.co.ukNew Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time, after 48 years of matches.

1981www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAn English Football League match was played on a Sunday for the first time.

1986www.beautifulbritain.co.ukEight police officers were injured in an outbreak of violence outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London. Similar mass protests had taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant since the start of a strike three weeks previously over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street.

2003www.beautifulbritain.co.ukProtests against the Iraq war occurred in over 600 cities worldwide. Estimates from 8,000,000 - 30,000,000 people took part, making it the largest peace demonstration ever.

2015 Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime, with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware, which lurked in the networks for months, gathering information and feeding it back to the gang. The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices, as they gathered the data they needed to steal.

On This Day 16th February
1646www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Battle of Torrington, in Devon. It was the last major battle of the first English Civil War and marked the end of the Royalist resistance in the west country.

1659www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe first British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker and is now in the archives of the National Westminster Bank.

1801www.beautifulbritain.co.ukPitt (the Younger) resigned as British Prime Minister when George III rejected his plans for the emancipation of Irish Catholics.

1923www.beautifulbritain.co.ukHoward Carter, having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months previously, lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.

1927www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of actress June Muriel Brown, MBE. She is best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.

1940www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: In a daring night raid, known as the Altmark incident, a boarding party from HMS Cossack successfully rescued 299 British prisoners of war from the Altmark, a 12,000 ton German tanker, in Norwegian waters. The Altmark was returning to Germany with the merchant sailors who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

1946www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of actor Ian Lavender. His best remembered role was as Private Frank Pike, the youngest member and 'stupid boy' of the platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. Lavender has a 'cameo role' in the 2016 film adaptation of the series and the actor Frank William takes the role of the Reverend Timothy Farthing. The Dad's Army went on general release in cinemas on 5th February 2016.

1950www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Peter Hain Labour Party politician. He served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and as both Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales under Brown.

1957www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDeath of the politician Leslie Hore-Belisha, minister of Transport who introduced the driving test, the Highway Code and the Belisha beacon used at zebra crossings.

1965www.beautifulbritain.co.ukA 2nd report from British Railways' Board chairman Dr. Richard Beeching outlined transport needs for the following 25 years. The report followed his 1st controversial review of the state of the railways, published in 1963 in which he said the system was uneconomic and under-used, and recommended that a quarter of the railway system should be shut down.

1972www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMany homes and businesses were without electricity for up to nine hours a day from this day. Miners, into the sixth week of their strike over pay, picketed power stations and all other sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.

1985www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMinistry of Defence assistant secretary Clive Ponting resigned from his post. He was charged with leaking two documents about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the 1982 Falklands War.

1989www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDr. Raymond Crockett, a Harley Street nephrologist, resigned as the director of the National Kidney Centre after revelations that kidneys had been purchased from impoverished Turks to be used in transplants for wealthy patients.

1990www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWives of Royal Navy seamen protested over a decision to allow WRENs (women sailors) to go to sea.

2005www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Kyoto Protocol that aimed to slow down global warming took effect, but the US and Australia refused to support it.

This Day In History Updated Daily Today Is February 17, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - February - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24


1967 - Beatle's Release Double A Side Single
1967 : The Beatles release the double A-sided single in the United States with Penny Lane ( Paul McCartney ) on one side and "Strawberry Fields Forever" ( John Lennon ) on the other side. Find More What happened in 1967

1992 - U.S.A. Jeffrey Dahmer
1992 : Jeffrey Dahmer, was sentenced today to 15 consecutive life sentences and will never be eligible for parole by a Wisconsin court, he had practiced necrophilia and cannibalism on 15 young men and boys. On November 28th 1994 he was murdered by a fellow inmate, who bludgeoned him to death with a metal bar.

17 Feb, 2003 - Chicago Nightclub Stampede
2003 : 21 people are killed in a stampede at the crowded "The Epitome" nightclub in Chicago.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1911 - U.S.A. Electric Start
1911 : The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac By GM. Up till this time and all cars needed to be started by cranking a starting handle which was hard work and caused multiple minor injuries when the car backfired during the starting process.

1911 - Italy Madame Butterfly
1911 : Puccini's opera 'Madame Butterfly' which tells the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly has its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

1925 - The New Yorker
1925 : The New Yorker is published for the first time. The New Yorker is a weekly magazine with a focus on the cultural life of New York City.

Back In Time Gifts
1933 - U.S.A. Blaine Act
1933 : After many years of prohibition in the United States the senate passed the Blaine Act which would signal the end of prohibition after many dry years.

1937 - U.S.A. James Curley
1937 : James Curley had been let out of jail after the fourth jury ballot had taken place. He was originally charged of killing eight men and seven women on the evening of December 5th Although he was acquitted of murder charges, he faced jail for another reason. He was charged of illegally entering this country (the United States).

1938 - U.S.A. Farming Controls
1938 : On this day, a future date has been set for voting on cotton and tobacco farming controls. The voting for this legislation has been set for March 12, tentatively. Over two million farmers were expected to participate in a referendum regarding farming control. The referendum (yes or no) question that was to be presented to farmers was the following: “Do you favor marketing quotas for cotton (or tobacco) in 1938?” This referendum was intended to stop too much crop from being produced. A two-thirds majority would be needed to pass this law.

1947 - Russia Voice Of America
1947 : With the start of the cold war following World War II America introduced the transmission of Voice Of America to the Russian People as part of it's propaganda campaign against Communism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

17 Feb, 1950 - British Spy
1950 : American businessman Robert A. Vogeler Jr’s assistant Edgar Sanders from Britain had pleaded guilty of espionage (spying activities) and sabotage. He was believed to be a spy for the British for about ten years (since 1940).

1956 - Canada St. Lawrence Seaway
1956 : With the construction of The St. Lawrence Seaway Continuing at an intense pace the Canadian Authorities are now facing the relocation of 6,500 people who lived in 1 town, 8 villages and 225 farms who live in the area where the Long Sault Dam will flood over 20,000 acres. They are committed to creating complete new villages for all these people as part of the project which when finished will be a truly great feat of construction and engineering expertise.

1965 - Gambia Independence
1965 : Gambia becomes the smallest sovereign state in Africa and the last of Britain's West African colonies to gain independence.

1972 - Germany Volkswagen Beetle
1972 : The 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle rolled out of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, surpassing the Ford Model T's previous production record to become the most heavily produced car in history, By by June 23rd, 1992 there had been over 21 million Beetles produced. The Beetle is the world's best selling car design, but the Toyota Corrola has sold more ( currently over 30 million cars ) since introduced in 1966 but with many major design changes.

1979 - China Invades Vietnam
1979 : As of the Vietnam War was not enough, the country of China had invaded Vietnam during this year, on this date. Tensions between these two countries had increased dramatically since the end of the Vietnam War. A major reason for the increased animosity between these two nations was because of the strengthening of the ties between Vietnam and the Soviet Union (China’s enemy at the time). The Invasion of Vietnam by China was in reaction to an invasion of Cambodia initiated by Vietnam. The worst and bloodiest of fighting occurred within the first nine days of this battle. However, these countries remained cold towards one another for ten years after this fierce battle. China invaded Vietnam with 90,000 troops supported by tanks, the invasion was short lived and China withdrew from Vietnam within 1 month.

1986 - U.S.A. Ann Tyler
1986 : The National Critics Book Circle Award was given to Ann Tyler. She had written a book The Accidental Tourist, for which the award she received was given. This book was about the death of the son of the main character, and of his divorce. It was later made into a movie.

1987 - England Asylum Seekers
1987 : A group of Tamils from Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Britain protest at Heathrow airport by removing their clothes as they are about to be deported, The group were taken to a detention centre. They were eventually deported after a lengthy high court case back to Sri Lanka.

Back In Time Gifts
17 Feb, 1993 - Haiti Ferry Disaster
1993 : The Neptune, a passenger ferry, had sunk after it had overturned . Approximately 900 people had drowned.

1995 - U.S.A. Colin Ferguson
1995 : Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Train murders.

2006 - Philippine Mud Slide
2006 : A massive mudslide buries the village of Guinsaugonin in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte including burying the local elementary school with nearly 250 children, only one of the children was rescued alive. The number of deaths in total in the village and surrounding area is estimated at 1,100.

2006 - Palestinian Authority Asked to Return U.S. Aid
2006 : Washington has asked the Palestinian Authority to return $50 million of American aid. The State Department has said that it is unhappy with the aid going to the Hamas-led government that refuses to recognize Israel. The State Department later said that Mahmoud Abbas' caretaker government have agreed to return the money, which was given for infrastructure projects in the light of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

2007 - Hillary Clinton Says Will Withdraw Troops from Iraq
2007 : Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a ninety-day deadline to start pulling American troops out of Iraq. Senator Clinton has been criticized by some members of her Party for supporting the war in 2002, and not renouncing her vote. 'Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in ninety days or Congress will revoke authorization for the war,' she said in the video that was on her campaign website. This is the second Democratic presidential hopeful to have called for a pull out of troops from Iraq following Barack Obama's call for U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq earlier in the week.

2007 - US Senate Blocks Vote on Iraqi Surge
2007 : The Senate has decided not to debate a resolution criticizing President Bush's troop surge in Iraq. The rare Saturday session followed a non-binding vote on the resolution in the House of Representatives. Seventeen Republicans had joined the majority Democrats to oppose the increase of 21,500 troops. Democrats needed the support of sixty of the one hundred senators to advance the same motion in the Senate, but they only managed to gain fifty-six votes in favor. Mr. Bush will still face a battle with Congress over funding for U.S. troops in Iraq.

2007 - Sylvester Stallone Held by Australian Customs
2007 : Customs officers in Sydney have freed actor Sylvester Stallone after holding him for several hours, and confiscating items from his staffs' suitcases. Officials have said that X-rays revealed banned products, but would not give any further details on them. Stallone dismissed his detention as 'a misunderstanding,' and said that the officers were 'doing a great job.' He was in Australia to promote Rocky Balboa.

2008 - Kosovo Declares independence
2008 : Kosovo's parliament has endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia. The Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, has promised a democracy that respects the rights of all ethnic communities, and the Serbian Prime Minister has denounced the United States for helping create a 'false state.' The Security Council was split on the issue, with Russia saying that there was no basis for changing a 1999 resolution that handed Kosovo to the U.N.
European Union foreign ministers have ended talks on Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia with member states being divided on their recognition of it. France said that it would recognize its independence, but several member states, led by Spain, were unhappy about the legal ramifications it held. President Bush has said that Kosovo's people were 'independent,' but stopped short of a formal recognition of the state. Russia backed Serbia in its refusal to recognize the secession.

2009 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Becomes Law
2009 : President Obama signs the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law in Denver, Colorado. The plan is aimed at saving or creating 3.5 million jobs, boosting consumer spending and rebuilding the economy's infrastructure. Republicans have said that its tax cuts are insufficient, and that the economy will be saddled with debt for years to come.

2010 - Recriminations for Fake French Wine Sold to America
2010 : A dozen French winemakers and traders have been found guilty of a scam to sell 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to a leading U.S. buyer. The judge in Carcassonne has said that the producers' and traders' actions had damaged the reputation of the Languedoc region of France. The guilty parties more than doubled their profits by falsely labeling the wine as a Pinot Noir, and selling it to the E & J Gallo winery. E & J Gallo, themselves, were not involved in the case, and some 13.5m litres of fake wine have been shipped to the United States. The French press have laughed at the Americans' inability to tell the difference between bouquets.

2011 - Tourist Boat Sinks in Vietnam
2011 : A boat carrying tourists across Halong Bay in Vietnam sank carrying over twenty-five passengers. Fifteen people were rescued while another twelve, including the tour guide, drowned.

2012 - Robbers Take Priceless Artifacts from Greek Museum
2012 : Thieves raided a Greek museum that showcased the history of the Olympics in the city of Olympia and stole dozens of priceless artifacts after overpowering the guard. Some officials have stated that recent cuts due to Greece's financial crisis have compromised the security of Museums and other places that showcase the historical treasures of the country.

2013 - Greece Attack on Gold Mine
2013 : Masked attackers raided the Hellas gold mine in Greece, dozens of people set fire to machinery and vehicles. The site had been a subject of protesters worried that it would damage the environment.

2014 - Saudi Arabia First Woman Newspaper Editor in Chief
2014 : The Saudi Gazette made Somayya Jibarti the newspaper's editor in chief, marking the first time a woman would hold such a position in the country. Her successor wrote about the decision to put her in charge and made sure to state that her position was granted solely on merit. The decision marked a huge moment for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.


Born This Day In History 17th February
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Patricia Routledge
Born: Katherine Patricia Routledge 17th February 1929, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England
Known For : Patricia Routledge is best known in Britain but if you watch PBS in the U.S. you will have seen and recognized her in a number of BBC series including as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances and the mystery drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. She is also a well respected West End Theatre and Broadway actress who has won a number of awards for her acting.
Barry Humphries
Born: 17th February 1934 Kew, Melbourne, Australia
Known For : Barry Humphries is best known for his role as the television alter ego Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. If you have never seen his character acting as Dame Edna, the chances are you will iether love him or hate him. Enjoy the video hope it tickles your fancy as the Brits say.

This Week In History 7
Taken From Our This Day In History From
February 12th to February 18th
1911 The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac
1912 Hsian-T'ung, the last emperor of China Forced To Abdicate
1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state of the union
1921 South Africa Independence
1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen Opened
1924 Calvin Coolidge Gives First Presidential Radio Address
1925 The New Yorker is published for the first time
1929 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre
1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th straight World Women's figure skating title in Montreal
1935 Bruno Hauptmann convicted of the Lindbergh baby murder
1937 Dust storms hit five states-in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico
1939 Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon
1942 World War II Singapore Surrenders To Japanese
1945 World War II Dresdon Bombing
1948 NASCAR holds its first race for modified stock cars on a 3.2 mile-course at Daytona Beach
1958 The first Trans Atlantic passenger jetliner service
1959 Fidel Castro sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.
1960 France becomes the worlds fourth atomic power
1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House shown on Television
1965 Canada adopts Maple Leaf For Canadian Flag
1965 Beeching Report on British Railways Closes 25%
1968 First 911 emergency telephone system in Haleyville, Ala
1971 England D Day introduces Decimal Currency
1972 British Miners Strike
1974 Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn Charged with treason
1975 British Coal Miners get 35% Pay Rise
1982 The world's largest oil rig ( The Ocean Ranger ) Sinks In North Atlantic
1989 Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer, sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences
2001 Dale Earnhardt died in a crash during the Daytona 500
2005 The Kyoto accord Comes Into Force
2005 Fox hunting with dogs becomes illegal in England and Wales
2007 Trolley Square Mall Shooting
2008 Shooting At Northern Illinois University
2008 Kosovo Declares independence

Born This Day In History 19th February
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Lee Marvin
Born: 19th February 1924, New York City, New York, U.S.
Died: August 29th 1987, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Known For : Lee Marvin was an American actor who achieved stardom in the 1960s and seventies winning an Academy Award for Best Actor in Cat Ballou playing opposite to Jane Fonda. His movies and his very unique voice are recognized instantly in the movies he was in including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, Paint Your Wagon, Shout at the Devil and the The Big Red One. Lee Marvin was also a decorated World War II hero winning the Purple Heart for his bravery in the marines as a Scout Sniper. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery where his headstone reads "Lee Marvin, PFC US Marine Corps, World War II". The video features his number 1 hit 1970 ( UK ) "Wandering Star" from the western musical Paint Your Wagon.

Smokey Robinson
Born: William Robinson, Jr. 19th February 1940 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Known For : Smokey Robinson is best known for his time with the Motown group Smokey Robinson & the Miracles who had a string of top 10 hits in the sixties and 1970s including "I Second That Emotion", "Baby, Baby Don't Cry" and "The Tears of a Clown". He was also the Motown Records vice president from 1961 to 1988. Following his success with the miracles he embarked on a solo career notching up a number of top 10 hits on both the US R&B and the US Billboard Hot 100 charts including "Cruisin'" ( 1979 ), "Being With You" ( 1981 ) and "Just to See Her" ( 1987 ) .




This Week In History 8
Taken From Our This Day In History From
February 19th to February 25th
1879 1st Woolworth 5 Cents Store Opened
1913 The Sixteenth Amendment, which paved the way for the United States adoption of income tax, was ratified
1933 Repeal of the 18th Amendment
1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066
1942 Voice of America goes on the air for the first time
1945 US Marines Land On Iwo Jimaa and Take Control
1947 Land Camera Demonstrated ( 1st Polaroid )
1954 Polio Vaccines Start in United States
1965 Great Britain Prospects For Oil and Gas in North Sea
1965 Malcolm X Assassinated
1966 Syria Military Coup
1967 The Tet offensive By North Vietnam Ends
1972 President Nixon visits the Great Wall of China
1986 The Soviet Union launches the world's biggest space station, Mir
1986 Britain and France Announce Channel Tunnel
1991 Allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces begins
1995 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
1997 Scottish scientists announce Cloned Sheep ( Dolly )
2004 Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling is charged
2008 Fidel Castro retires as President of Cuba
2009 Shares are their lowest for twelve years Dow Jones closes at 7,114.8
2010 Tiger Woods makes public apology
2010 2/3 of the worlds population using mobile phones

This Day In History Updated Daily Today Is February 25, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - February - - 26 - 27 - 28 - March - 1


1964 - Cassius Clay Becomes Champion
1964 : Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston when Liston retired at the end of the sixth round in Miami to become Heavyweight Champion of the World.

2004 - The Passion of the Christ
2004 : This was the opening day of The Passion of the Christ, a film directed by Mel Gibson. It was highly acclaimed by those who wanted to view the exact nature of what happened to Jesus on the cross. However, it was Rated R, and was not recommended for children. There was some criticism made of the film, suggesting that it was intended to indicate that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Also, some people thought it was a bit too graphic. Nevertheless, the first run of The Passion of the Christ was substantially more effective and successful than the edited, less-violent run. This film had impacted many lives in many ways, at a time when religiosity was considered to be very important in peoples’ lives. This increased awareness and hunger for knowledge of God and/or a force greater than man was brought for many reasons during this time. One of the most shocking perhaps was the event of September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center Tragedy, during which thousands of people were killed.

1948 - Czechoslovakia Communist Rule Established
1948 : The president (Eduard Benes) of Czechoslovakia allowed communist rule to be established in this country on this date. Eduard Benes was reported to have been under quit a bit of pressure at this time. During this year, the communist party had forced other parties out of political office, and the communists were the only party that existed in this country at this time. This newly-formed totalitarian government was very much supported by the Soviet government, until the year 1989.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1913 - US Federal Taxes Start
1913 : The Sixteenth Amendment, which paved the way for the United States adoption of income tax, was ratified.

25 Feb, 1919 - Oregon Imposes Gas Tax
1919 : Oregon became the first state to impose a 1 percent tax on gasoline.

1920 - Canada Sugar Trees
1920 : Sugar trees were found in British Columbia, and at this time the value of the sugar from this tree was $66.00 per pound. It was discovered as existing on Douglas Fir trees.

1920 - Australia League of Nations
1920 : Sir Joseph Cook, the Minister of the Australian Navy, defended Australia’s right to cast one vote in the League of Nations. A decision had not been made at this time one way or another. However, it was noted in the speech made by Cook that this country had lost more lives during the war than the Americans did . Consideration was still being made regarding this issue.

1921 - Republic of Georgia Bolshevistic Armies
1921 : On this day, it was reported that the capital of the Republic of Georgia was being seized by Bolshevistic (Russian) armies. The Greeks were headed to this location to pick up the Greek Merchants and Greek refugees now there. The Turkish army had voted to remain neutral. The capture of Georgia by Soviet Russian armies was in essence signified the near end of the Independence of the Republic of Georgia. This country did again regain their independence from the Soviet Union as of 1991 (declared on April 9, finalized on December 25th). Independence Day of Georgia is still celebrated on May 26th, however. This was the date of the original breaking away from Russia which occurred in 1918.

Back In Time Gifts
1930 - U.S.A. Prohibition Laws
1930 : With the continuing debate in congress between wets and drys over the prohibition laws , the enforcement in each state also continues to be dependent on the position of the politicians in that state. In states where the wets are in control the boats used to enforce prohibition could not catch a cold let alone a fast rum runners boat , and speakeasies are very rarely raided by law enforcement. In other states where the dry's are in control fast patrol boats and many raids occur.

1932 - U.S.A. Steers
1932 : A local Abilene, Texas basketball team known as the Steers was unable to make it to state. If they had, this would have been the second year in a row, but instead they were defeated 24 to 13 by the Breckenridge Buckaroos, another local Texas basketball team.

Back In Time Gifts
1949 - U.S.A. Robert Mitchum
1949 : Robert Mitchum is released from a Los Angeles prison farm at the end of his two-month sentence for marijuana possession

1972 - Great Britain Miners Strike
1972 : Miners accept a pay settlement after a seven-week strike. The strike had caused many companies to institute a three-day week when lack of coal to British power stations caused disruption to electricity supplies.

1982 - Great Britain Corporal Punishment
1982 : The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that beating school children against their parents' wishes is a violation of the Human Rights Convention. Britain was the last country in Western Europe to ban corporal punishment in state schools in 1986.

25 Feb, 1984 - Brazil Gas Line Explosion
1984 : A huge explosion caused by a Gas Pipeline close to the Shanty Town destroys the shanty town in Brazil, killing at least 500 people, mostly young children.

1986 - Philippines Ferdinand Marcos
1986 : President Ferdinand Marcos and his entourage are rescued and airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters. The new Philippines president is Corazon Aquino.

1991 - Saudi Arabia Iraqi Scud Missile
1991 : An Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War.

1992 - Azerbaijan Slaughter
1992 : Armenian forces slaughtered more than 600 Azerbaijani citizens, including nearly 200 women and children near Khojaly, Azerbaijan.

1994 - Israeli Occupied Territories Jewish settler kills 30
1994 : A Jewish settler kills 29 Palestinian worshipers and injures 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by survivors at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, West Bank after opening fire as people gathered for Friday morning prayers.

25 Feb, 2005 - U.S.A. Dennis Rader
2005 : Dennis Rader is arrested for the BTK ( Bind, Torture and Kill, ) serial killings that terrorized Wichita, Kan. (He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.)

2007 - U.S.A. Oscars
2007 : Some of the Main Oscars
Best Picture : The Departed
Best Documentary : An Inconvenient Truth
Best Actor Leading Role : Forest Whitaker ( The Last King Of Scotland )
Best Actress Leading Role : Helen Mirren ( The Queen )
Best Actor Supporting Role : Alan Arkin ( Little Miss Sunshine )
Best Actress Supporting Role : Jenifer Hudson ( Dreeam Girls )
The Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine


2008 - Muslim Scholars in India say Terrorism is un-Islamic
2008 : An influential group of Muslim theologians in India have denounced terrorism, saying it is against the teachings of Islam. Their thoughts were given at a meeting being held at an Islamic school. Scholars from around six thousand religious schools were attending the meeting.

2009 - Drugs traffickers arrested in the United States
2009 : Attorney-General Eric Holder has announced the arrest of more than seven hundred and fifty people on narcotics-related charges, and the seizure of more than twenty-tree tons of narcotics. This is part of the twenty-one month multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as 'Operation Xcellerator.' This number has included the fifty-two people detained in California, Minnesota and Maryland in raids targeting the powerful Sinaloa cartel. The twenty-one month operation involved U.S, Mexican and Canadian authorities. A 2008 justice department report found that Mexican traffickers were the biggest organised crime threat to the United States.

2011 - Four Amish Children Die in Storm
2011 : Four children died as an Amish family of nine traveled in a horse-drawn buggy through heavy storms in Kentucky. The buggy was overturned in a creek and four of the young children drowned. The family had been traveling to make a phone call.

2012 - New President of Yemen Takes Oath of Office
2012 : The new president of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi took the oath of office after being elected in a single-candidate poll a few days before. The election came after a deal was made after months long protest against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

2013 - UK Cardinal Resigns
2013 : Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Scottish Roman Catholic church in the United Kingdom, resigned over allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests during the 1980s. His resignation came just before he was to participate in electing the new Pope.

2014 - US Obama Shares Afghanistan Pull-Out
2014 : US president Barack Obama has shared with Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai that the United States has potential plans to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The message was relayed to Karzai as a warning and incentive for Afghanistan to sign a security agreement that the US would require before allowing any troops to say in the country for small operations and training.


Born This Day In History 25th February
Celebrating Birthdays Today
George Harrison
Born: 25th February 1955, Wavertree, Liverpool, England
Died: November 29th 2001, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Known For : Best known as a British singer/songwriter and a member of the Beatles. The Beatles were a worldwide phenomena in the pop music industry in the 1960s from 1960 to 1970 notching up number 1's through out the world. Due to their popularity the word Beatlemania was used to describe the hysteria that surrounded them where ever they performed. George was the lead guitarist for the group and wrote a few of the songs including "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Following the breakup of the Beatles he released the album All Things Must Pass which included the single "My Sweet Lord" which topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. He died in 2001 from cancer and because of his belief in Hinduism developed in the mid 1960s his ashes were scattered in the Ganges River by his close family in a private ceremony according to Hindu tradition. The video is a live performance of "My Sweet Lord".



This Week In History 9
Taken From Our This Day In History From
February 26th to March 4th
1902 Triple AAA Founded
1917 Czar Nicholas II Abdicates
1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park
1922 Egypt Gains Independence From Britain
1922 Nineteenth Amendment To The Constitution passed
1923 The first issue of the weekly periodical, "TIME" appeared on newsstands
1932 The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States
1933 The Original King Kong movie has its world premiere in New York
1935 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Luftwaffe
1936 The Hoover Dam ( Boulder Dam ) is completed
1938 Crude oil was found in Abilene, Texas
1938 Los Angeles Flood Begins
1941 Nashville, Tennessee becomes the home of the very first FM radio station
1949 First automatic street lights are installed in New Milford, Connecticut
1951 22nd amendment to the Constitution is ratified
1952 Communist Teachers Banned From Public Schools
1952 Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces Great Britain has developed its own atomic bomb.
1954 DNA Double Helix Discovered
1961 President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps
1965 Operation Rolling Thunder begins Vietnam
1965 Movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in the lead roles has its world premiere in New York.
1969 British / French joint project, Concorde, has it's maiden flight
1971 The radical left organization Weather Underground / Weatherman bomb the United States Capitol
1972 Buffalo Creek Valley Flooding
1975 Moorgate Underground Crash
1983 M*A*S*H Final Episode Shown In US
1986 Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister is shot dead
1991 Gulf War Ends
1991 Rodney King Beating In Los Angeles
1991 Kuwait City is liberated by Gulf War Allies
1993 Car Bomb World Trade Center
1993 Waco, Texas bloody gun battle
1995 Barings PLC, Britain's oldest investment banking firm, collapses
1997 New legislation banning most handguns in Britain went into effect
2005 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly a plane solo, non-stop around the globe without refuelling.
2005 Dennis Rader, accused of leading a double life as the BTK ( Bind, Torture and Kill, ) serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kan
2007 55 Tornadoes strike the southern United States
2008 Dmitry Medvedev wins the Russian presidential election
2008 A.I.G. executives convicted of fraud
2010 Earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude strikes Chile

This Day In History Updated Daily Today Is March 3, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - March - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9- 10


1991 - U.S.A. Police Brutality Captured On Film
1991 : On this day, it was evident that police brutality had occurred in Los Angeles, California in the middle of the night on This Day, 1991 This was proved, as it was recorded on video (although some of the audible sounds were not as noticeable as the actions). Three white police officers had proceeded to beat Rodney King beyond what was necessary to use force to control him. Moreover, these three officers had reported that the bruises, cuts, and/or scrapes they gave King were minor in nature. The beating by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department of Rodney King is captured on Video, the video then appeared on television news which angered many of the public especially those in the African American community who believed the police brutality was racially motivated. Four LAPD officers were later tried in a state court for the beating but were acquitted. The announcement of the acquittals sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

1952 - Communist Teachers Banned From Public Schools
1952 : As part of the paranoia concerning communism and the cold war the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York state law that prohibits communists from teaching in public schools.

1845 - Florida Becomes 27th State
1845 : In 1845 On This Day In History Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America.


Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1908 - Canada Tax Collector
1908 : It was reported that H.R. Patterson was appointed the new tax collector for Winnipeg, the capital city of Manitoba, Canada. This title was officially given to Patterson on the evening before it was made known by way of a local Canada newspaper.

1923 - U.S.A. Time Magazine
1923 : The first issue of the weekly periodical, "TIME" appeared on newsstands featuring Joseph Gurney Cannon, grand old man of Congress.

1925 - Quiet Period US Congress
1925 : Normally Congress would have quite a bit to do on the eve of the end of the current session. However, this time around it was different for both the House and the Senate. There was little for these branches of the U.S. government to debate on during this time.

1931 - U.S.A. The Star-Spangled Banner
1931 : After over a century, a poem written by Francis Scott Key was finally established as the U.S. National Anthem. The lyrics of this song were written on September 14, 1814, while Key observed the British invasion of Fort Mc Henry, a war zone located in Maryland, USA. “The Star-Spangled Banner” composition was inspired by a flag that remained standing, even after several hundred bombings occurred.

1931 - Minnie the Moocher
1931 : Cab Calloway makes music history when he records “Minnie the Moocher.” This is the first jazz album to sell one million copies and it continues to be a popular album today.

1968 - Puerto Rico Oil Tanker
1968 : A Liberian registered tanker snapped in two in Puerto Rico creating an oil slick four miles long and a mile wide.

1962 - U.S.A. Nuclear Testing
1962 : Russia had considered the United States’ decision to conduct nuclear testing a very aggressive move. Tass, the official Soviet news agency, was reported as having said that the United States was using the concept of nuclear testing as an excuse to carry out aggressive actions. However, Tass also stated U.S. President Kennedy’s promise that all action would be taken to reduce the amount of radioactivity that would enter the earth’s atmosphere. Atmospheric testing was expected to begin on Christmas Island of this same year (in June).

1963 - U.S.A. Occupational Schools Proposed
1963 : R.W. Bend had inspected government facilities and has determined that they do not need current demands. Bend had mentioned that a complete “occupational school” would be needed before all technical school supply needs would be met. An “occupational school” is one that would help prepare students unable to enter a technical college to be able to sharpen their skills before being admitted. R.W. Bend had declared that this type of school would further help those who are not as easily able to cope with a university entrance course.

1964 - Austria Airplane Crash
1964 : A British airplane crashed into Mt. Glungezer, which is located in Austria. Unfortunately, a total of 85 people had lost their lives as they were headed for Innsbruck while vacation traveling. The cause of the crash at this time was not yet determined. There was no immediate sign of technical failure, and the case was thought of to take many months to resolve.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1966 - England Colour Television Announced
1966 : The BBC is to begin broadcasting television programmes in colour from next year.

1972 - U.S.A. Interest Rate Increase
1972 : On this date in history, it was announced that consumer interest rates could dramatically increase. For instance, buyers as of this date may be required to pay 372 percent interest on a $10.00 loan.

1974 - France Airplane Crash
1974 : A Turkish Airlines DC10 crashes near Paris, en route to London, killing all 345 people on board.

1982 - England Barbican Centre
1982 : The Queen opens the Barbican Centre the largest arts centre in western Europe covering five-and-a-half acres of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II.

1985 - England Miners Strike
1985 : Miners' leaders vote to end the longest running industrial dispute in Britain History without a peace deal over proposed pit closures.

2002 - Switzerland Joins United Nations
2002 : After about 200 years Switzerland became no longer “Neutral”. They became officially a part of the UN upon voters’ approval.

2005 - U.S.A. Steve Fossett
2005 : Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly a plane solo, non-stop around the globe without refuelling. He landed his Virgin GlobalFlyer at 1950 GMT in Salina, Kansas, after a 67-hour journey. He is currently still missing since September 4th 2007 when contact with the light aircraft he was flying in the Sierra Nevada mountains was lost.

2007 - Cherokee Tribal History and Revocation
2007 : The Cherokee Nation of Native Americans have voted to revoke the tribal citizenship of descendants of the black slaves the Cherokees once owned. A total of 76.6% have voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to blood tribe members only. Supporters have said that only the Cherokees had the right to determine their own tribal members. Opponents said the amendment is racist and aimed at preventing those with African-American heritage from gaining tribal revenue and government funding. The Cherokee Nation has some 250,000 to 270,000 members, and is second only to the Navajo in size. The vote has followed from a ruling by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court last year which secured tribal citizenship for descendants of freedmen.

2008 - World Stock Markets Fall in Worries of Recession
2008 : Worldwide stock markets have fallen as investors worry about a possible U.S. recession. On Wall Street, the Dow Industrials recovered from early losses to close 7 points lower. Britain's F.T.S.E. 100 index has ended 1% lower at 5,818.6, while Germany's Dax dropped 0.9% and France's Cac fell 1%. Shares across Asia, excluding China's mainland market, were hit from the bleak U.S. economic predictions, and Tokyo's Nikkei index tumbled 4.5%. India's Sensex index has shed as much as 5%.

2009 - Sri Lankan Cricket Team Attacked
2009 : 12 gunmen fire on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on their way to play a match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed and 6 members of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. The gunmen were believed to be members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

2009 - Gordon Brown Meets President Obama
2009 : Barack Obama has said that the Anglo-American 'special relationship' is still intact while holding talks with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the White House. He told reporters that it was 'not just important to me' but 'important to the American people.' Their discussions were largely economically-oriented, and Brown is the first European leader to meet the President. Obama said that they shared 'spectacular wives and wonderful children in common.'

2009 - Russia to Cooperate with the United States on Iranian missiles
2009 : A reply to Barack Obama's written suggestion for blocking the development of Iranian missiles is given by Dmitry Medvedev. The U.S. had offered to suspend its plans for a missile defense shield if Moscow cooperates in its efforts to prevent Iran from developing a series of long-range missiles. Medvedev says that he had not received the trade-off.

2010 - US Planning for Cybersecurity
2010 : The White House has declassified some of its plans on how it will protect the nation's computer networks from cyberwarfare. The announcement was made by the 'cybersecurity tsar' Howard Schmidt, and has been aimed at a greater co-operation between academia, government and the private sector. "We have to fully recognize the importance cybersecurity has in our lives," Mr. Schmidt said.

2011 - Last Space Walk For Shuttle Discovery
2011 : The last space walk to be conducted from the space shuttle Discovery before its retirement was completed by two US astronauts. Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew spent six hours on their space walk completing tasks for the International Space Station.

2012 - Colombia Rebel Bomb Attack Kills Three
2012 : After a "rebel bomb attack" in the North-eastern part of Colombia, two soldiers and one boy were dead as a result of the explosion. Another three soldiers were also injured in the attack that took place near the town of Tame. Officials claimed that the left-wing rebel group Farc were responsible for the attack.

2013 - Malaysia Gun Battle Kills Police
2013 : Gunmen in the Malaysian state of Sabah killed at least five police in a gun battle.

2014 - Bahrain Bomb Kills Three Police
2014 : Three policemen were killed in a bomb blast in Daih, Bahrain while trying to break up rioting and anti-government protesters. After the explosion several opposition groups issued a statement saying that they "regretted" any casualties.


Born This Day In History 3rd March
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Henry Joseph Wood
Born: March 3rd 1869 London, England
Died: August 19th 1944 London, England
Known For : Sir Henry Joseph Wood was an English conductor and the creator of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, currently called the "BBC Proms". He was a student at the Royal Academy of Music conservatoire and the oldest degree-granting music school in Britain. The Proms are an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall. The object of the concerts in broad terms is to bring classical music to all and includes concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall and Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night. This webmaster has always wanted to attend the last "Night Of The Proms" but never managed it. The video below gives an idea of why it is nearly impossible to get tickets. Although the video I have included is very British centric during the 2009 Proms some of the composers featured included Haydn, Handel, Mendelssohn, Elgar . You do not need to be a Classical Musical aficionado to enjoy these concerts.

his Day In History Updated Daily Today Is March 12, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - March - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18


1933 - Roosevelt First Fireside Chat
1933 : President Roosevelt gives his first " fireside chat " radio broadcast just 8 days after his inauguration telling the American people to keep faith with their country and their banking system, and asking them to leave their money in the bank where it would be kept safe . His chats to the people through these "fireside chats " on this day and future days were made friendly and informative but keeping them easy to understand by all and many consider helped him win an unprecedented 4 terms of office serving his country for a total of 12 years and 39 days. This is his fireside chat about the fail of the banking system.

1930 - India March Against Tax On Salt
1930 : Mahatma Gandhi and his followers begin a 200 mile march to the salt beds of Jalalpur to campaign against British tax on salt beginning the fight for Indian independence from Great Britain. What must also be remembered is he was 61 years old at the time and marched over 200 miles in a peaceful march as a form of protest.

1894 - US Coca-Cola
1894 : Coca-Cola begins selling it's first bottles in 1894 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1912 - U.S.A. Girl Scouts of America Founded
1912 : Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Guides in the United States, she had lived in England with her first husband for many years and had been a Girl Guide leader while living in England. On March 12th, 1912 She gathered 18 girls together to register the first troop of American Girl Guides in Savannah, Georgia. The next years the name was changed to Girl Scouts of America the following year.


Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1922 - India Mahatma Gandhi Arrested
1922 : The British run government in India has arrested Mahatma Gandhi who has always preached passive resistance to British rule by telling his followers to not buy goods from Europe or work with the British administration machine, he has a massive following in India and many believe a civil uprising could follow his arrest.

1924 - U.S.A. Tire Preservation
1924 : Tips were printed in a local newspaper regarding the preservation of tires. The importance of rotating car (or other vehicle) tires was equated to the storing of shoes and then using them. The point made is that tires should be rotated on a regular basis in order that the wear and tear on them would be about equal. This advice also applied to the use of a spare tire, in order to ensure that an extra tire would always be in excellent to good working order when needed. Another point made was that the proper storage of a spare tire is as equally important as the proper storage of a pair of boots. For instance, if they are stored in a damp place they may function differently than when stored in a dry location.

1928 - U.S.A. St. Francis Dam Burst
1928 : Hundreds Reported Drowned When the St. Francis dam burst flooding into the San Francisquito Canyon in California. St. Francis Dam Collapse TimeLine

1938 - Austria Part of Third Reich
1938 : German has forcibly “recruited” Austria to support the Third Reich, the Nazi Germany army. This was the second attempt of Germany to coerce Austria to comply. Austria Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg had tried to fight against Germany’s attempt to make Austria part of Nazi Germany. During this resistance, the Austrian chancellor had met with Hitler personally-an action taken in hopes to restore Austria’s independence. In fact, on March 9th Schuschnigg had posed a referendum to the public to help determine Austria’s affiliation or autonomy. This action proved very unfruitful, and Schuschnigg was force to name members of his cabinet as part of the Nazi movement. Furthermore, Schuschnigg had resigned on the 11th of March, a day before Austria was seized by Germany.

1939 - U.S.A. Artie Shaw
1939 : Artie Shaw and his band record the single “Deep Purple.” It goes on to become one of the big band’s biggest hits.

1940 - Burma Disturbances
1940 : Disturbances at three newspaper journalist offices were caused by a crowd of 5,000 people. A large number of this huge crowd of people was members of Burma’s workers’ union and Burma’s peasants’ union.

1945 - Germany Anne Frank
1945 : Anne Frank, author of "The Diary of Anne Frank," died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from Typhus during a typhus epidemic that spread through the concentration camp.

1947 - The Truman Doctrine
1947 : Very soon after the war President Truman had decided that to use America to stop the spread of communism around the world telling congress the country must intervene wherever necessary throughout the world to prevent the subjection of free people to Communist inspired totalitarian regimes at the expense of their national integrity.
One of the first requests to provide this support around the world to stop the spread of communism was to give $400 million in aid to bolster the hard-pressed Greek and Turkish governments against Communist pressure. This is also known as the beginning of "The Truman Doctrine" and the beginning of the battle to stop the spread of communism.

1956 - Spain Stand Against Communism
1956 : A call for unity has spread among the European nations. Countries such as Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain, Brussels, Belgium, and Sweden, along with nations such as the United States, France and Italy gathered together to band against the communists. One organization responsible for this strong stand against the Reds (communists) is/was NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

1959 - U.S.A. Hawaii
1959 : Congressional approval to admit Hawaii as the 50th state in the U.S.

1964 - U.S.A. James Hoffa
1964 : The president of the powerful American Teamsters union James Hoffa is found guilty and sentenced to eight years on bribery charges. He had been on trial 4 times earlier but had not been found guilty. He appealed against the convictions and in 1966 while still going through the appeal process he was re-elected president of the lorry drivers' union in July 1966 - despite two prison sentences totaling 13 years hanging over him. He vanished in mysterious circumstances in 1975 and has never been seen since, his body has still not been found no one has been charged.

1969 - England George Harrison
1969 : The police search former Beatles George Harrison’s home for illegal drugs. This was a year after John Lennon had been searched for hash (substance derived from marijuana).

1969 - England Paul McCartney
1969 : Beatle Paul McCartney Marries American Linda Eastman in London.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1972 - Vietnam Australia Withdraws
1972 : Australia withdraws from Vietnam following other countries withdrawal and US commitment to leave Vietnam.

1972 - Cambodia Son Ngoc Thanh
1972 : Many people may have considered it just the right time for a new leader to take over as prime minister. Son Ngoc Thanh had just accepted this position, after Cambodia had went four days without a ruler. Thanh had served his country in the past as well-during World War II.

1980 - U.S.A. The Killer Clown
1980 : A jury finds John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( also known as The Killer Clown ) guilty of the murders of 33 boys and young men, he had admitted the murders but he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He had started his murders in 1972 and continued till 1978 when he was caught, 27 were found in a crawl space under the floor of his house and others were found in nearby rivers. The sentence was 21 consecutive life sentences and 12 death sentences. On May 10th, 1994, Gacy was executed at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois, by lethal injection.

1984 - England Miners Strike
1984 : Britain's miners have stopped work in protest against job losses with more than half the country's mineworkers now on strike. The miners are striking because of the announcement by the Chairman of the Coal Board Ian MacGregor that 20 uneconomic pits would close, putting 20,000 miners out of work. The miners' strike lasted a year and was one of the longest and possibly most damaging industrial disputes ever seen in the United Kingdom.

1986 - U.S.A. Les Miserables
1986 : Following it's success in London's West End Les Miserables opens at the Broadway Theater running till it closed on May 18, 2003. In 2006 it was revived and is again on Broadway showing at the Broadhurst Theatre.

1988 - Switzerland Avalanche
1988 : On 12th in 1988, a report was made regarding a narrow avalanche escape made by Prince Charles. He was skiing at a resort at the time the avalanche disaster took place. Charles barely escaped being buried by huge masses of snow. Moreover, he managed to help dig out the body of a friend Major Hugh Lindsey, former aid to Queen Elizabeth Despite the heroic royal rescue of Lindsey, he was unfortunately declared dead on arrival at a local Swiss hospital. Prince Charles’ wife Diana and the Duchess of York were also in Switzerland at the time, but they were not skiing during the avalanche occurrence. Therefore, they were not as much at risk.

1990 - Germany Ticket Machines
1990 : Germany was considered to be a little behind in the implementation of computerized ticket purchase machines at this time. If this plan is approved by ticket outfits and concert halls, it was expected that this new ticket-selling service would be up and running within two years. Advantages and disadvantages of this new ticket purchasing system were expressed. The biggest pro of a computerized ticket system is that it is more convenient for buyers. One of the disadvantages is that competing performance halls can find out how well or how poorly competitors’ tickets are selling.

1993 - India Bombay Bombing
1993 : A series of 13 bombs are exploded in Bombay's financial district including the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices and government offices, banks, cinemas, bazaars, two hospitals, a university and several hotels, leaving over 200 dead and 1,000 injured. The bombs were thought to be in retaliation for anti-Muslim riots earlier in the year and were part of the ongoing Hindu-Muslim fighting which is still continuing today.

1994 - UK Church of England Women Priests
1994 : The ordination of women as priests The Church of England begins.

2002 - U.S.A. Andrea Yates
2002 : Andrea Yates, a 37-year-old housewife who drowned her five children in the bathtub of her Texas home in June, 2001 is found guilty.

2003 - U.S.A. Elizabeth Smart Found
2003 : A miracle had taken place. A 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart was found in Utah nine months after being kidnapped from her home. Her abductors (employee who worked at the Smart’s home, and his wife) were captured as well, and were charged of kidnapping, burglary, and sexual assault.

2006 - U.S.A. C.I.A. identities uncovered
2006 : The Chicago Tribune has compiled a list of 2,653 C.I.A. employees by searching the Internet. The newspaper states that Washington was uncertain of whether the Bush Administration had revealed the names of covert C.I.A. operatives to the press, and asserts that getting this sort of information is not so very difficult. Today's Chicago Tribune reports that it had found the names by searching commercial databases on the Internet. The Tribune's deputy managing editor for news has edited the story, and says that the paper was surprised by how much it could learn from its online sources (including supposedly undercover operatives' names). He said that: We were able to get identities, internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret C.I.A. facilities around the United States. It has not published the names at the C.I.A's request. A C.I.A. spokeswoman has admitted that this will force the Agency to change its methods of protecting information.

2009 - The shoe-hurling Iraqi has been jailed
2009 : The Iraqi journalist that threw his shoes at President Bush has been jailed for three years. Muntadar al-Zaidi told the court that his actions were 'just like any Iraqi' against the leader of an occupying force. Shoe hurling is a grave insult in Arab culture. Al-Zaidi has been hailed as a hero in the Arab world.

2010 - Karl Rove says that he approved of waterboarding
2010 : President Bush's top political adviser has said he approved of the controversial techniques such as waterboarding. Known as the former president's 'brain,' Rove, said he did not believe that this form of interrogation amounted to torture. In an interview with BBC TV, he has claimed that waterboarding has helped prevent further terrorist attacks. 'I'm proud that we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists and gave us valuable information that allowed us to foil plots,' he said.

2012 - Robbers Attack Gold Market in Baghdad
2012 : Armed robbers killed at least nine people in an attack on a gold market in Baghdad. At least another fourteen people were injured from the robbery. Police stated that two cars full of gunmen attacked in the Ur district of the city where many jewelry shops were located in a mainly Shia area of the city. One of the men involved was arrested after the incident, but many of the others managed to escape.

2013 - Vatican City Cardinals Begin Pope Vote
2013 : 115 Cardinals of the Roman Catholic church entered the Sistine Chapel to begin voting on a new Pope after Pope Benedict XVI stepped down from the position. A day later the Cardinals chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio as the new Pope who took the name Pope Francis. Pope Francis is the first Pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit pope.

2014 - US President Meets Ukrainian Prime Minister
2014 : US President Barack Obama met with Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and pledged to back Ukraine in its dispute with Russia.


Born This Day In History 12th March
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Liza Minnelli
Born: 12th March 1946, Hollywood, California, United States
Known For : Liza Minnelli is an American actress and singer whose parents were the late great Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli. She has established herself over the years coming out from her parents shadow, her movies include Lucky Lady, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, A Matter of Time and New York, New York. She has won a number of awards in her own right including three Tony Awards, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globes and a winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Cabaret.



This Week In History 11
Taken From Our This Day In History From
March 12th to March 18th
1912 Girl Scouts of America Founded
1917 Czar Nicholas II, ruler of Russia since 1894, is forced to abdicate
1919 The American Legion has it's first meeting
1925 The Butler Act becomes law
1925 Tri-state tornados strikes Missouri, Illinois and Indiana
1928 St. Francis dam burst flooding into the San Francisquito Canyon in California
1930 Mahatma Gandhi and his followers begin March Against Tax On Salt
1931 Nevada Legalizes Gambling
1933 President Roosevelt gives his first " fireside chat " radio broadcast
1936 Work on the Boulder Dam is completed
1938 German has forcibly “recruited” Austria to support the Third Reich
1938 Jews Not Allowed To Vote In Germany
1940 Hitler and Mussolini meet and agree to fight together in war against France and Britain
1945 Anne Frank, died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from Typhus
1949 The first car with a Porsche badge ( Porsche 356 ) is shown at International Automobile Show in Geneva
1956 The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway
1964 Actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton marry for the first time
1965 Soviet cosmonaut known as Lt. Col. Alexei Leonov Becomes First Man to walk in space
1967 The tanker "Torrey Canyon" runs aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles
1969 Golda Meir becomes first female Prime Minister of Israel
1969 The Love Bug, a popular Disney movie, was released
1970 Voting Age Reduced to 18 in UK
1974 Middle East Oil Embargo Ends
1978 The Amoco Cadiz wrecks off the coast of Portsall, France
1980 John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( also known as The Killer Clown ) found guilty of the murders of 33 boys and young men
1996 Dunblane Massacre in kindergarten in Scotland
1998 The Movie Titanic surpassed Star Wars to become the highest grossing film in North American box offices.
1998 Rwanda began mass trials for the country's 1994 genocide of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers
2001 The Eden Project opens in England It is the worlds largest greenhouse
2003 Elizabeth Smart Found Alive and well
2005 Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. (She died 13 days later).
2005 Scott Peterson is sent to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson.
2010 Drug Gangs Fighting increases over Territory in Mexico

his Day In History Updated Daily Today Is March 19, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - March - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25


1987 - U.S.A. Televangelist Jim Bakker
1987 : Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization and hands over control to Jerry Falwell. The PTL ministry had average viewers numbering over twelve million, amid the scandal involving a former church secretary, Jessica Hahn who was paid $279,000 from PTL funds to keep secret her allegation that he had raped her. During the earlier period the PTL ministry organization had raised millions to build Heritage USA a Christian theme park, water park and residential complex which between 1978, and 1986 was one of the top vacation destinations in the country . Following the scandal and large losses "Heritage USA" was forced to close.
In 1989, after a five week trial in Charlotte, the jury found Jim Bakker guilty on a number of accounting fraud and conspiracy charges, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine. He was released on Parole in 1993 after serving 5 years and in 1992 Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker were divorced.

1964 - England New Towns Needed
1964 : A study, estimates the country's population will increase by three million by the early 1980s and highlights the need for expansion of existing cities and the creation of three new towns in the South East. The three "new towns" that were created were:
Milton Keynes formally designated as a new town on 23 January 1967 Current Population estimate 184,506.
Milton Keynes was one of the first towns / cities built in the UK that had a grid road system similar to cities in the US ( straight roads North / South and East / West )
Both Havant and Basingstoke did exist prior to 1964 but the number of houses and people living in the area significantly increased over the next two decades as green belt land was released for building.

2001 - U.S.A. California Rolling Blackouts
2001 : California officials order the first of a further two days of rolling blackouts.
Rolling blackouts had began on
June 14th, 2000 due to a heatwave
January 17-18, 2001
March 19-20, 2001
May 7-8, 2001
The California electricity crisis which included extremely high prices and Rolling blackouts was a direct result from the manipulation of energy of a partially deregulated California energy system by companies like Enron and Reliant Energy.


Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1982 - England Falkland Islands
1982 : 50 Argentines land at Leith Harbour, on South Georgia a British colony of the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic and planted their nation's flag. Argentina invades the Falkland Islands on April 2nd and British Marines are deployed to regain the Island on April 25th

1916 - U.S.A. First Use Of Air Combat
1916 : The first use of air combat by the US when Eight Curtiss "Jenny" planes of the First Aero Squadron are used in support for the 7,000 U.S. troops who invaded Mexico to capture Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

1918 - U.S.A. Daylight Saving Time
1918 : The US Congress approves daylight-saving time. Germany started the use of DST in 1916 and other countries followed suit. Daylight saving time or British summer time is the practice of adjusting clocks forward one hour near the start of spring so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less, and adjusting them backwards in the Autumn by 1 hour. It is not used universally world wide but is common in Europe and North America.

1920 - U.S.A. Treaty of Versailles
1920 : The senate voted to refused to ratify the treaty of Versailles that would end the nations war status.

1921 - Argentina Wheat Export Tax
1921 : It was revealed that Buenos Aires would not add on a new wheat export tax. It was said that uncertainty of this decision had cause the wheat industry to be unstable for a period of time.

1931 - U.S.A. Gambling
1931 : The Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling hoping to bring much needed money to the state in the worst of the depression years.

1932 - Australia Sydney Harbor Bridge Opens
1932 : The Sydney Harbour Bridge the fourth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world across Sydney Harbour officially opened. The bridge was designed to carry road traffic, railway traffic and a footpath on each side.

1938 - Spain Civil War
1938 : Cabinet members were divided on the issue of whether or not the civil war should end. Fierce fighting occurred while the cabinet convened at the capital building. A fourth of the population of Barcelona had fled into the mountains and set up camp to hide from bombings.

1941 - U.S.A. Jimmy Dorsey
1941 : Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra record the hits "Green Eyes" and "Maria Elena." The album hit the Billboard charts two months later and spent 17 weeks on it, peaking at #1 in mid-June. Both songs eventually hit #1, making the album a major hit.

1945 - Japan USS Carrier Franklin
1945 : Japanese aircraft attack the USS carrier Franklin off Japan, killing about 724 of the crew. The ship did not sink and managed to limp back to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

1948 - Germany Communist Demonstrators
1948 : About 70,000 demonstrators crowded the streets of Berlin. About half of them were supporters of the Communist Party, while others were supporters of the Anti-Communist movement. This event was coordinated by the “Communist-Controlled Socialist Unity Party.” All other political groups of Berlin had boycotted this event.

1953 - U.S.A. Academy Awards
1953 : The Academy Awards was televised for the first time with Bob Hope as the host.

1955 - U.S.A. Billy Graham
1955 : President Eisenhower and his wife had met Reverend Billy Graham in person. They exchanged cordial greetings and chatted with him after services, which took place at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington.

1967 - England Sexism By Judge
1967 : Twelve women were responsible for deciding the verdict of a theft trial. They had determined in 38 minutes that the defendant was guilty. A judge was astounded, and complimented them-saying they were women, but “equal to a jury of 12 gentlemen in arriving at the truth of the matter.”

1970 - Germany Leaders Meet for First Time
1970 : The leaders of East Germany and West Germany meet for the first time since the country was divided in 1949 following the end of the second world war.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1971 - Turkey Nihat Erim
1971 : Nihat Erim had his work cut out for him as Turkey’s new premier (prime minister). Erim was called upon by President Cevdet Sunay to form a new Turkish government, which was in total crisis. Before Erim became premier of Turkey, he was the head of a conservative group that belonged to the Republicans People Party. His current order of business as prime minister was to form a governmental structure which would satisfy the major political parties of the country. Erim also was responsible for making sure that the new governmental set-up would satisfy military commanders threatening a takeover.

1971 - Peru Earthquake
1971 : An earthquake sets off a landslide, flood and avalanche that result in the destruction of the town of Chungar, Peru, and the death of most of the towns people.

1976 - England Princess Margaret
1976 : Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth, announced that she and her husband, Lord Snowdon, were separating after 16 years of marriage, they have two children 14-year-old Viscount David Linley and 11-year-old Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones.

1981 - U.S.A. Richard E. Burke
1981 : Richard E. Burke, an aid to Senator Edward M. Kennedy admitted that a series of death threats he claimed were not true. About a month prior to this date, Burke had told Secret Service men as well as the Washington D.C. police and FBI that he was almost hit with a bullet while leaving his house. Additionally, Burke claimed that a burglar carrying a butcher knife entered his home. This intruder was said to have narrowly escaped after being stopped by a security alarm. Burke resigned as of this date ( 1981). His major reason for stepping down from his position was because the activities of the most recent campaign had stressed him out. Furthermore, the reorganization of the office had affected him negatively. Soon after this, action was to be taken to determine if Burke would be charged of giving false information to officers.

1990 - Germany Unification
1990 : Unification was a hot topic driving free elections in Germany. The Alliance for Germany Party and the Social Democrats won a majority of the seats in the German Parliament. The above-mentioned parties managed to win more of the votes than the other major party-the Communist Party (renamed The Party of Democratic Socialism). Only one major party along with a group of about 20 smaller parties received less votes than the formerly-named Communist ticket.

1992 - England Duke and Duchess of York Separate
1992 : The Duke and Duchess of York have announced they are to separate, they have been married since July 1986 and have two children Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie who are fifth and sixth in line to the British throne.

1995 - U.S.A. Michael Jordan
1995 : Michael Jordan goes back to play for the Chicago Bulls after deciding to come out of retirement.

2002 - Jerusalem Yasser Arafat
2002 : Palestinian Ruler Yasser Arafat had offered very attractive incentives towards cease-fire in the Middle East. Part of an incentive offered by Arafat was that Vice-President Dick Cheney from the United States would meet with Palestinian leader upon the establishing of a truce. This meeting scheduled was intended to provide Arafat’s with the highest-level governmental contact from the United States to date. Furthermore, Israel offered to lift a travel ban on Arafat before the upcoming Arab summit. This travel ban had lasted three months, and had confined Arafat to Palestinian areas.

2003 - U.S.A. Iraq Invasion
2003 : President George W. Bush addresses the nation via live television and announces that Operation Iraqi Freedom has begun to rid Iraq of tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein and eliminate Iraq's ability to develop weapons of mass destruction. The American led coalition launched began with the launch of U.S. cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein near Baghdad.

2006 - Iraq Civil War
2006 : Iyad Allawi has said that Iraq is in the middle of a civil war. His television interview said that they had not reached to 'the point of no return,' but if the country fell apart, then sectarianism would spread across the region. The U.S. has repeatedly denied Iraq is having a civil war, but Allawi suggests that there is no other way to describing the sectarian violence that is taking place. 'If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is,' he said. President Bush has said that Iraq had not descended into civil war, and urged the nation's leaders to confront the sectarian violence that was taking place. Mr. Bush said Iraqis had 'had a chance to fall apart and they didn't.'

2006 - U.S.A. Dallas Cast Reunited
2006 : A number of cast members from the soap opera Dallas have reunited to receive a prize at the TV Land awards ceremony in California. Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing, Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby, and Linda Gray, who was Sue Ellen, attended, along with Charlene Tilton, Steve Kanaly, Susan Howard, Sheree Wilson, Ken Kercheval and Mary Crosby.

2008 - Cuba Fidel Castro steps down
2008 : The Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stepped down, forty-nine years after taking power in an armed revolution. This has ended the Cold War fracas that has made him an icon to leftists, and a tyrant to his foes. Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery, said he would not be seeking a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets again. His retirement has raised expectations for a post-communist system of government, and calls by the United States for democracy.

2009 - Nazi guard is deported from Wisconsin
2009 : The U.S. has deported a former S.S. man to Austria. It says that Josias Kumpf was involved in the killing of some eight thousand Jews, that were shot in a single day and buried in pits. Kumpf, 83, left Austria in 1956, settled in Wisconsin and became a U.S. citizen in 1964. The Justice Department had started the process of stripping him of his citizenship in 2003. On confirming the deportation, Vienna has said he would not be prosecuted in Austria, where the statute of limitations had expired. 'We repeatedly indicated it to the United States,' a Justice Ministry spokeswoman told reporters.

2010 - The Pope’s letter to the people of Ireland
2010 : The Pope has sent a special pastoral letter to Irish Catholics on the issue of child sex abuse within the Church. In the Vatican document, Pope Benedict has issued a heartfelt apology to the people of Ireland and to thousands of victims of sexual abuse in past decades by the country's Roman Catholic priests. He has rebuked Irish bishops for 'grave errors of judgement' on the problem, and 'I can only share in the dismay and sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts."

2011 - Western Forces Enact No-Fly Zone on Libya
2011 : Planes from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States opened fire on Libyan forces after the United Nations authorizes a no-fly zone over Libya. The resolution called for any necessary measures to stop Libya's leader Gaddafi from harming civilians, short of an occupation of the country. French planes fired the first shots in the country, with planes from the UK and US firing shots soon after.

2012 - Gunman Attacks Jewish School in Toulouse, France
2012 : A gunman killed four people after attacking a Jewish school in the southern city of Toulouse in France. Of the four victims, one was a teacher, while the other three were students. The same kind of gun that was used in the attack was used in two separate attacks in the area that killed three soldiers the previous week. Authorities began searching for the killer who turned out to be a twenty-three year old man named Mohammed Merah. The hunt resulted in a thirty-two hour siege that ended when a sniper shot and killed Merah on March 22nd. Before his death, the killer had claimed that he committed the murders to avenge Palestinian children and protest against French military intervention.

2013 - Guatemala Ex-Military Leader on Trial
2013 : The trial against ex-military leader Efrain Rios Montt began in Guatemala. Montt was accused of genocide in the country against indigenous people during the 1980s.

2014 - Belgium World War I Bomb Explodes
2014 : A World War I weapon buried in Ypres, Belgium exploded, killing two and injuring two others. The two dead were workers trying to dig up the buried weapon. The city of Ypres was heavily attacked during World War I and saw several battles so it is not uncommon to find old weapons buried in the area.


Born This Day In History 19th March
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Bruce Willis
Born: Walter Bruce Willis, March 19th, 1955, Idar-Oberstein, West Germany
Known For : Best Known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series. He as an American actor and producer born in Germany to an American soldier based in West Germany and a Kassel-born German wife. He has starred in 100's of movies during his career including In Country, Pulp Fiction, Death Becomes Her, Sin City, 12 Monkeys, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense and four Die Hard Movies. He has also been nominated and won a number of Awards including an Emmy in the TV Series Moonlighting. He is currently married to Emma Heming but was married to Demi Moore from 1987 to 2000 who is now married to Ashton Kutcher.



This Week In History 11
Taken From Our This Day In History From
March 12th to March 18th
1912 Girl Scouts of America Founded
1917 Czar Nicholas II, ruler of Russia since 1894, is forced to abdicate
1919 The American Legion has it's first meeting
1925 The Butler Act becomes law
1925 Tri-state tornados strikes Missouri, Illinois and Indiana
1928 St. Francis dam burst flooding into the San Francisquito Canyon in California
1930 Mahatma Gandhi and his followers begin March Against Tax On Salt
1931 Nevada Legalizes Gambling
1933 President Roosevelt gives his first " fireside chat " radio broadcast
1936 Work on the Boulder Dam is completed
1938 German has forcibly “recruited” Austria to support the Third Reich
1938 Jews Not Allowed To Vote In Germany
1940 Hitler and Mussolini meet and agree to fight together in war against France and Britain
1945 Anne Frank, died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from Typhus
1949 The first car with a Porsche badge ( Porsche 356 ) is shown at International Automobile Show in Geneva
1956 The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway
1964 Actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton marry for the first time
1965 Soviet cosmonaut known as Lt. Col. Alexei Leonov Becomes First Man to walk in space
1967 The tanker "Torrey Canyon" runs aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles
1969 Golda Meir becomes first female Prime Minister of Israel
1969 The Love Bug, a popular Disney movie, was released
1970 Voting Age Reduced to 18 in UK
1974 Middle East Oil Embargo Ends
1978 The Amoco Cadiz wrecks off the coast of Portsall, France
1980 John Wayne Gacy Jr. ( also known as The Killer Clown ) found guilty of the murders of 33 boys and young men
1996 Dunblane Massacre in kindergarten in Scotland
1998 The Movie Titanic surpassed Star Wars to become the highest grossing film in North American box offices.
1998 Rwanda began mass trials for the country's 1994 genocide of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers
2001 The Eden Project opens in England It is the worlds largest greenhouse
2003 Elizabeth Smart Found Alive and well
2005 Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. (She died 13 days later).
2005 Scott Peterson is sent to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson.
2010 Drug Gangs Fighting increases over Territory in Mexico