On This Day – The Instrument of Surrender

Drury Lane

1663 The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, built by Thomas Killigrew, opened under a charter granted by Charles II.

Victory

1765 HMS Victory, the ship which became the flagship of British Admiral Horatio Nelson, was launched at Chatham. The ship is now preserved at Portsmouth.

Faultless to  Fault

1812 The birth of Robert Browning, English poet and one of the foremost Victorian poets.

The Elephant Man

1860 The birth of English freak showman Thomas Noakes, (later known as Tom Norman). In 1884, he took over management of Joseph Merrick, otherwise known as the ‘Elephant Man’ and exhibited him for a few weeks until police closed down the show. Over the next few years, Norman’s travelling exhibitions featured Eliza Jenkins, the ‘Skeleton Woman’, a ‘Balloon Headed Baby’ and a woman who bit off the heads of live rats—the ‘most gruesome’ act Norman claimed to have seen. Other acts included fleas, fat ladies, giants, dwarfs and retired white seamen, painted black and speaking in an invented language, billed ‘savage Zulus’.

Lusitania

1915 World War I – The Cunard liner Lusitania, bound for Liverpool, was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland with the loss of almost 1,200 lives. The loss of 128 US citizens brought the USA to the verge of war with Germany.

The Golden Era

1916 The birth of Huw Wheldon, former BBC broadcaster, and Controller of BBC1. In 1968 he became Director of BBC television, a position he held until compulsory retirement in 1975. The period of his administration came to be known as ‘the Golden Age of British Television’ and included programmes such as Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, Dad’s Army and Alistair Cooke’s America.

Suffrage

1928 The voting age for women in Britain was reduced from 30 to 21.

The Norway Debate

1940 The ‘Norway Debate’ began in the House of Commons. It led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and the formation of a widely-based National Government led by Winston Churchill which was to govern Britain until the end of World War II.

Six Years Later

1945 Germany signed an unconditional surrender in a small school in Rheims (France) when General Jodl, German Army Chief of Staff, signed his name on documents that formally ended six years of war in Europe.

Unilateral Independence

1965 White voters in the African colony of Rhodesia backed Prime Minister Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front which was demanding independence from the UK.

Glasgow Rangers

1997 Glasgow Rangers won their 9th successive Scottish League title – to equal the record held by their closest rivals, Celtic.

300 Years Later

1999 The first Scottish Parliament for 300 years was elected.

 

On This Day – Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day

2012 Mothering Sunday – Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family. Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers and home-made cards to their mothers. Mothering Sunday has been on the fourth Sunday in Lent since at least the 16th century. The fasting rules were relaxed on Mothering Sunday, in memory of the Bible story – ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’.

Edward the Martyr

978 Edward the Martyr, King of England and the eldest son of King Edgar, was murdered at Corfe Castle. The murder is thought to have been ordered by his stepmother Aelfryth, mother of Ethelred the Unready who was eager to see her son crowned.

The First Minister

1745 Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister, died.

Tolpuddle Martyrs 

1834 Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England were sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union. The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival is held in the village of Tolpuddle in the third weekend of July. Each year a wreath is laid at the grave of James Hammett, one of the martyrs.

No Peace in Our Time

1869 Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister was born. In 1938 he returned from Munich with the claim – ‘peace in our time’ but in less than a year Britain was at war with Germany. His appeasement policy towards Hitler led to his downfall in 1940, when he handed over to Churchill.

The Deadly Torrey Canyon

1967 The Torrey Canyon oil tanker, with a cargo of 100,000 gallons of crude oil, ran aground on rocks between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles and its cargo discharged into the sea. The RAF and the Royal Navy were called in to napalm bomb the slick in an attempt to reduce the risk of pollution. In the weeks that followed the accident, oil escaped and spread along the shores of the south coast of England and the Normandy coast of France. Worst hit were the Cornish beaches of Marazion and Prah Sands, where sludge was up to a foot deep.

Remember Mary Whitehouse?

1982 Moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse brought a charge of gross indecency against a National Theatre director under the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The play, Romans in Britain featured male rape scenes. The trial was halted after intervention by the Attorney-General.