On This Day – Seven Islands of Bombay and Two Singles to Moscow

Seven Islands of Bombay

1661 A marriage contract was signed between Charles II of England and Portuguese Catherine of Braganza. Catherine’s dowry secured to England Tangier, the Seven islands of Bombay, trading privileges and two million Portuguese crowns (about £300,000).

What William Penn Penned

1683 William Penn, the English Quaker, signed a treaty with the Indian chiefs of the Lenni Lenade Tribe in an attempt to ensure peace in his new American colony, Pennsylvania.

Foundations of the Raj

1757 British troops, commanded by Robert Clive, won the Battle of Plassey in Bengal – laying the foundations of the British Empire in India.

Happy Birthday, Duke of Windsor

1894 Birth of Edward, Duke of Windsor who was King Edward VIII from 20th January to 10th December 1936 before abdicating to marry twice-divorced Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson.

IRA

1939 The Government of Eire declared membership of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) to be illegal.

Musical Bullets

1940 The BBC’s Music While You Work programme was first broadcast on radio to brighten up the lives of munitions workers doing boring factory jobs.

Of All I Survey

1940 World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveyed newly defeated Paris in German occupied France.

The Accident

1942 Germany’s latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, was captured intact when it mistakenly landed at RAF Pembrey in Wales.

Two Singles to Moscow

1951 Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, missing diplomats, fled to the USSR as Russian spies before the British authorities had the opportunity to arrest them for spying. They ‘surfaced’ in Moscow in 1956.

The Return of Great Britain

1970 The world’s first all-metal liner, Brunel’s ‘Great Britain’ returned to Bristol from the Falkland Islands where it had lain rusting since 1886.

Flight 182

1985 A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brought down a Boeing 747 off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 people aboard.

The Brighton Bomb

1986 Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, found guilty of planting the bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference in 1983, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years.

For Sale or Scrap

1994 It was announced that the Royal Yacht Britannia would be sold or scrapped.

Under Age 

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales apologized for taking her two sons, Princes William and Harry, to see the 15 certificated film The Devil’s Own, about an IRA assassin.

 

 

On This Day – The Diary of a Young Girl and the Iron Lady

The Man Who Would be King

1513 Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.

The Iron Lady

1821 The first iron steamship, Aaron Manby, named after the proprietor of the Staffordshire ironworks at which she had been made, was completed. She weighed 116 tons and after trials on the River Thames made her maiden voyage across the Channel.

Footie on TV

1938 The FA Cup was televised on British TV in its entirety, for the first time. The TV audience was estimated as 10,000. Preston played Huddersfield Town and Preston won in the last minute of extra time.

War Games

1943 The body of a mystery man (planted with false invasion plans) was used by Britain to fool Nazi Germany into defending the ‘wrong’ regions of the Mediterranean, aiding a successful invasion of Sicily.

Grade II Listed

1944 The first of 500,000 prefab homes went on show in London. They were designed for demobilised servicemen and bombed-out families and consisted of 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and toilet and kitchen on one floor. They covered an area of 616 sq ft and were built by the motor industry.

The End of An Affair

1945 Nazi leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Before beginning his assault on Europe, Hitler had assured his followers that the Third Reich would last for 1,000 years. His mistress, Eva Braun, whom he’d married the day before, died alongside him after taking a cyanide pill.

Dirty Den

1947 The birth of Leslie Grantham, English actor best known for his role as “Dirty” Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders.

Land Rover in Amsterdam

1948 The Land Rover was introduced at the Amsterdam Motor Show.

The Diary of A Young Girl

1952 The British public got the chance to read ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’, written by Anne Frank who hid from the Nazis in Holland during the war.

The Sacking

1974 England’s football manager Sir Alf Ramsey, manager of the England team which won the World Cup in 1966 was sacked, after 11 years as manager.

The Siege

1980 Armed terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London taking 20 hostages and threatening to blow up the building.

Three Nail Bombs

1999 Two people were killed and at least 30 injured in the third nail-bomb attack in London in two weeks. The bomb went off in a public house in the heart of London’s gay community.

More Met Office Capers

2009 The Met. Office forecasted ‘odds on for a barbecue summer’, with no repeat of the washouts of the previous two years but ….. average rainfall for the summer was up 40%.