Today in history

29 th November1887

     The Pnonograph ,Start of modern music :
                                                                
On the 29th of November 1877, Thomas Edison, an American inventor and businessman, demonstrated his phonograph for the first time. It is difficult for us to imagine the kind of stir it caused as we have become so used to listening to music in practically every sphere of our everyday life that we take it for granted; we hear music at home, walking down the street, in shops and supermarkets, pubs and nightclubs or even public toilets! There have been also so many inventions since Edison that we have come to the point where we can be hardly surprised anymore.




https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71733/edison-showed-phonograph-138-years-ago-today

30 th November 1934

    The Flying Scotsman breaks the "ton" barrier :
                                                                       Train technology shaped the twentieth century and seems poised to help shape the 21st, but it’s hard to imagine another locomotive will reach the iconic status of the Flying Scotsman.

The LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman has set records and travelled the world. It all began on this day in 1934. Then, the “Flying Scotsman” became the first steam locomotive to be officially recorded reaching 100 mph, during the 393-mile trip for London and Edinbugh.  The British rail industry in the 1920s and 1930s was [url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=ndcCwCO5n2oC&lpg=PA43&ots=7sxArswGbR&dq=lner railway line]competing[/url] with new roadways for passengers, meaning that keeping up a reputation for speed and efficiency was extremely important.






https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/flying-scotsman-made-train-history-when-speedometer-hit-100-180961257/

1 st December 1990

   Channel tunnel construction :
                                              Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.  On 1 December 1990, Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette broke through the service tunnel with the media watching


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel

2 nd December 1982

    The first artificial heart , Barney takes one for the team :
                                                                                        A Seattle dentist named Barney Clark becomes the first human recipient of a permanent artificial heart. He survives the heart, and the accompanying media circus, for 112 days.




                      
1



https://www.wired.com/2009/12/dayintech-1202jarvikheart/

3 rd December 1992

    The first text message was .... Merry Christmas . :
                                                                    On Thursday 3rd December 1992 Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old technician, made history by wishing a colleague "Merry Christmas." The 15 characters of that casual greeting made up the first ever text message sent to a mobile phone. “I had no idea just how popular texting would become and that this would give rise to emojis and messaging apps used by millions” Neil says. “With hindsight, it’s clear to see that the Christmas message I sent was a pivotal moment in mobile history.”




https://www.technicians.org.uk/news/quick-reads/tbt-neil-papworth-the-technician-who-sent-the-1st-text

4 th december 1872

    The Mary Celeste mystery :
                                           Mary Celeste  (often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste) was an American merchant brigantine discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition under partial sail and with her lifeboat missing. The last entry in her log was dated ten days earlier. She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7 and was still amply provisioned when found. Her cargo of denatured alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen or heard from again.



https://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/blogs/article/5-theories-what-happened-mary-celeste/

5 th December 1952

   The great smog of London :
                                            Beginning of the Great Smog in London. A cold fog combines with air pollution and brings the city to a standstill for four days. Later, a Ministry of Health report estimates 4,000 fatalities as a result of it .
 The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected the British capital in early December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday 5 December to Tuesday 9 December 1952, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed .



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London











                       

6 th December 1897


     Taxi !!! :
                 

EC 6: On this Day in 1897 London Becomes 1st City to Introduce Licensed Taxi Cabs

       
The term ‘taxicab’ was first used in the late 1800s when the single horse-drawn Hansom cab invented in 1834 by architect Joseph Hansom was refined and redesigned by John Chapman to include a mechanized taximeter to measure journey fares. Although first used in London and other UK cities, it’s patent was quickly adopted by other European capitals and later the United States.



http://wcsa.world/news/world-almanac-event-academy/wcsa-on-this-day-december-06-2018-london-becomes-1st-city-to-introduce-licensed-taxi-cabs-in-1897

7 th December 1941

   World War 11 , attack on Pearl Harbour :
                                                              The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States (a neutral country at the time) against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 08:00, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' formal entry into World War II the next day.




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

8 th December 1980
                          


            The murder of John Lennon :
                                                     On the evening of 8 December 1980, English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot dead in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. He was 40 years old. He was killed by Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who had travelled from Hawaii. Chapman said he was angered by Lennon's lifestyle and public statements, especially his much-publicised remark about the Beatles being "more popular than Jesus" and the lyrics of his later songs "God" and "Imagine". Chapman also said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye.




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_John_Lennon

9 th December 1868



        Traffic lights :
                            The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.



https://londonist.com/london/history/here-s-what-the-world-s-first-traffic-lights-in-westminster-looked-like

10 th December 1941

     World war 11 :
                           The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.
          The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a naval engagement in World War II, as part of the war in the Pacific, that took place on 10 December 1941 in the South China Sea off the east coast of the British colony of Malaya (present-day Malaysia), 70 miles (61 nautical miles; 110 kilometres) east of Kuantan, Pahang. The Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. 



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_Prince_of_Wales_and_Repulse

 

11 th December 2005

   The Buncefield fire :
                                The Buncefield fire was a major fire at an oil storage facility on 11 December 2005 at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal,located near the M1 motorway, Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, England. The terminal was the fifth largest oil-products storage depot in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of about 60 million Imperial gallons (273 million litres) of fuel.
The first and largest explosion occurred at 06:01 UTC near tank 912, which led to further explosions which eventually overwhelmed 20 large storage tanks.The emergency services announced a major emergency at 06:08 and a firefighting effort began. The cause of the explosion was a fuel-air explosion in a vapour cloud of evaporated leaking fuel. The British Geological Survey monitored the event, which measured 2.4 on the Richter scale.News reports described the incident as the biggest of its kind in peacetime Europe and certainly the biggest such explosion in the United Kingdom since the 1974 Flixborough disaster.The flames had been extinguished by the afternoon of 13 December 2005. However, one storage tank re-ignited that evening, which firefighters left to burn rather than attempting to extinguish it again.




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncefield_fire

11 th December  1988



   The Clapham Junction rail crash :
                                                 On the morning of 12 December 1988, a crowded passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. A total of 35 people died in the collision, while 484 were injured.
The collision was the result of a signal failure caused by a wiring fault. New wiring had been installed, but the old wiring had been left in place and not adequately secured. An independent inquiry chaired by Anthony Hidden, QC found that the signalling technician responsible had not been told that his working practices were wrong, and his work had not been inspected by an independent person. He had also performed the work during his 13th consecutive seven-day workweek. Hidden was critical of the health and safety culture within British Rail at the time, and his recommendations included ensuring that work was independently inspected and that a senior project manager be made responsible for all aspects of any major, safety-critical project such as re-signalling work





https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Junction_rail_crash

13 th December 1577

   Francis Drake sets off on his famous circumnavigation
                                                              of the globe:
                                                                                Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
Drake was noted in his life for one daring feat after another; his greatest was his circumnavigation of the earth, the first after Magellan's. He sailed from Plymouth on Dec. 13, 1577. The squadron consisted of five vessels, the two larger ships being the Pelican, Drake's own ship, renamed Golden Hind on the voyage, on August 20, 1578; and the Elizabeth, commanded by John Winter. Three smaller vessels were the Marigold, Swan, and Benedict. Only one ship, the Golden Hind, made the complete voyage, returning on Sept. 26, 1580, "very richly fraught with gold, silver, pearls and precious stones"





https://goldenhind.co.uk/the-circumnavigation.html

14 th December 1911
  
            The treacherous race to the South Pole :
                                                                      
[size=10][size=10]Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his companions saluting the Norwegian flag at the South Pole on 16 December 1911. Photograph:EPA[/size][/size]


On 14 December 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first people to reach the South Pole. They beat Captain Robert Falcon Scott's British expedition by over a month. One hundred years later and anniversary celebrations included Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, unveiling an ice sculpture of the man at the south pole's Amundsen-Scott scientific base



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedition

15 th December 1970

    The space race :
                           Venera 7 (Russian: Венера-7, meaning Venus 7) was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_7

16 th December 1937


   Escape from Alcatraz , Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe ,
   did they escape or did they die :
                                                 Theodore "Ted" Cole (born April 6, 1913; missing since December 16, 1937) and Ralph Roe (born February 5, 1906; missing since December 16, 1937) took part in the second documented escape attempt from Alcatraz, in 1937. Although officials were quick to conclude they died in the attempt, their remains were never found and their fate remains unknown, making the incident the first to challenge Alcatraz's reputation as an "escape-proof" prison .





https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Cole_and_Ralph_Roe

17 th December 1983

      The Harrods Bombing :
                                        Provisional IRA members detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.
         The Harrods bombing refers to the car bomb that exploded outside Harrods department store in central London on Saturday 17 December 1983. Members of the Provisional IRA planted the time bomb and sent a warning 37 minutes before it exploded, but the area was not evacuated. The blast killed three police officers and three civilians, injured 90 people, and caused much damage. The IRA Army Council claimed it had not authorised the attack and expressed regret for the civilian casualties. After the bombing, the IRA shifted its emphasis towards attacks on military targets on the mainland.




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods_bombing

18 th December 2015 :
                                

   The end of coal mining , Kellingley colliery closure :
                                                                              Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closes.
Kellingley Colliery closed on 18 December 2015, marking the end of deep mining in the United Kingdom. UK Coal had first proposed its extension by three years, alongside a similar extension to the life of Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire, which closed in July 2015, but business minister Matthew Hancock argued that the £338 million said to be required for this plan "does not represent value for money".
With the closure of Kellingley, the company made 450 miners redundant. Energy minister, Andrea Leadsom, said all miners at Kellingley would receive from UK Coal "the same severance package as miners at Thoresby".
The shafts of the Colliery will be emptied of cables and ropes and then filled with a concrete block about 10 metres deep. Demolition then starts on the surface buildings and the site will be levelled out before ownership is transferred to Harworth Estates for future redevelopment




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellingley_Colliery

19 th December 1981

   The Penlee lifeboat disaster :
                                            The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall. The lifeboat Solomon Browne, based at the Penlee Lifeboat Station near Mousehole, went to the aid of the vessel Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas. After the lifeboat had rescued four people, both vessels were lost with all hands; in all, sixteen people died including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.




https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penlee_lifeboat_disaster

20 th December 2007


    The United Kingdom's oldest monarch :
                                         Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days.


https://www.english-online.at/people/qe2/queen-elizabeth-britains-oldest-monarch.htm

21 st December 1988


       Flight 103 , The Lockerbie plane bombing :
                                                                     A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur in British soil.
 Pan Am Flight 103 was flying from Frankfurt to Detroit via London and New York while over the Scottish town of Lockerbie a bomb was detonated aboard the plane called Clipper Maid of the Seas.
All 259 passengers, including 35 Syracuse University students returning home for the holidays, were either be killed in the explosion or falling to earth.
Eleven of the town’s residents on the ground were also killed by falling debris, bringing the death toll to 270.

Adding to the horror, bodies of the passengers were left strewn around the town and its surrounding countryside.







https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103

22 nd December 1965



      United Kingdom speed limits :
                                                  In the United Kingdom, a 70 mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time.




https://uk.news.yahoo.com/on-this-day--70mph-speed-limit-imposed-on-motorways-164136359.html

23 rd December 1972



   The Andes flight disaster miracle :
                                                   The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, surviving by cannibalism.
                 


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Sometimes it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. But when it comes to survival, you don’t have to look very far. There is an incredible history of true survival stories with hundreds, if not thousands of  lessons that can be learned from them.

True Survival Stories: The Miracle In The Andes

This is the first in our series of true survival stories and I need to caution you, it’s not an easy read and some may not be able to stomach it.
What would you do if you suddenly found yourself stranded in the mountains, thousands of miles from home… with no supplies for 72 days? Would you wait for help? Would you try to make the climb down the mountain yourself? How far would you be willing to go to survive?
Sound far fetched?  Unfortunately, it’s not. That exact scenario happened exactly 44 years ago… and it’s much worse than you may think… It’s a true story of survival that exposes the lengths to which some people will go to survive just one more day.

Flight 571

 With almost no rations and no hope of survival, they stuck together and saved themselves. The choices they made were not easy, but they used everything they could to stay alive.  In the afternoon hours, while navigating a low pass in the mountains, a combination of simple miscalculations and mother nature’s unpredictability turned what should have been an easy flight, into 72 days in hell. [/size]


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cannibalism-andes-plane-crash-1972-survivors-terrible-decision-stay-alive-a6895781.html