On This Day – The Long And Winding Road

Royal Wedding

1625 King Charles I of England married Henrietta Maria of France.

The Great Plague

1665 The Great Plague began to take hold, as the official death toll reached 112.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Arnold

1795 Dr. Thomas Arnold, English educationalist and reformer of the Public School system whilst he was headmaster of Rugby School, was born.

Train Driver’s Assistant

1842 Queen Victoria travelled by train for the first time, from Slough (near Windsor Castle) to Paddington, accompanied by Prince Albert. A special coach had been built earlier, but the Queen had been reluctant to try this new form of travel. On her first journey, the engine driver was assisted by the great civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Clean Up Britain

1910 Birth of Mary Whitehouse, English co-founder of the ‘Clean up TV campaign’ and Honorary General Secretary of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association.

Gotha G Bombers

1917 The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths, including 46 children, with a further 432 people injured.

Hanging Up The Boots

1931 Jesse Boot, (Boots – the chemist) English pharmacist, drug manufacturer, and philanthropist died.

Desert War

1942 British forces lost 230 tanks in desert fighting.

Doodlebugs Have Landed

1944 World War II: the first German V1 flying bomb, or ‘doodlebug’ landed in Britain – killing three people in a house in the coastal city of Southampton. Only four of the eleven bombs hit their targets.

Royal National Theatre

1951 Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) laid the foundation stone for what was to become the Royal National Theatre

The Long and Winding Road

1970 ‘The Long and Winding Road’ became the Beatles’ last Number 1 single. The released version of the song was very successful, but the post-production modifications to the song by producer Phil Spector angered McCartney to the point that when he made his case in court for breaking up The Beatles as a legal entity, McCartney cited the treatment of ‘The Long and Winding Road’ as one of six reasons for doing so.

The Maiden Speech

1974 Prince Charles made his maiden speech in House of Lords. It was the first such royal speech in 90 years.

Don’t Give a Monkey’s

1996 French and British researchers injected material from cows suffering from BSE into the brains of macaque monkeys and found the same disease patterns as in patients suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Princess Royal

1987 Princess Anne was given the title Princess Royal.

 

On This Day – Mrs. Fry, No Relation, and the Mad Cow

Royal Capers

1471 Henry VI, King of England, was murdered in the Tower of London where he had been imprisoned by Edward IV, who then resumed the throne.

Derby Grammar School

1554 A royal Charter was granted to Derby School as a grammar school for boys, by Queen Mary I, in return for a payment of £260 13s 4d, ‘for the instruction and education of boys and youths in the said town of Derby for ever to be maintained by the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the same town.’

Wasn’t She the One Who Brought Tea With Her?

1662 England’s Charles II married Catherine de Braganza, daughter of John IV of Portugal.

Happy Birthday, Your Grace

1736 Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgwater, and builder of Britain’s first canal was born.

Happy Birthday, Mrs Fry

1780 The birth of Elizabeth Fry, English Quaker and prison reformer who visited Newgate Prison, London in 1813 where over 300 women and their children were living in filthy, overcrowded conditions. From this time, she devoted herself to improving conditions, providing hostels for the homeless and establishing various charitable organizations to help the poor.

The Manchester Ship Canal

1894 The official opening, by Queen Victoria, of the Manchester Ship Canal. At its opening it was the largest river navigation canal in the world. Its designer, Sir Edward Leader Williams, was later knighted

Solo Flight

1932 American Amelia Earhart landed in Derry, Ireland, after taking off from Newfoundland the previous day. It was the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot.

Global Wheat Shortage

1946 A world wheat shortage led to bread rationing in Britain.

Automated Phone Calls

1958 Announcement was made that automated telephone connection, making calls easier and cheaper, would be introduced in December.

Cassius Clay

1966 American boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) ended the hopes of British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper winning the world heavyweight titles when the bout was stopped in Round 6 because of a severe cut above Cooper’s eye.

John Major and the Mad Cow 

1996 After the failure of EU representatives to take steps to ease the ban on British beef, John Major announced that the British government would adopt a policy of non co-operation with the EU.