Today in history

30 th March 1944

  world war 11 , the bombing of Nuremberg :
                                                                 Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of the war.




      




 

                                                               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Nuremberg_in_World_War_II

30 th March 1990

   Poll tax demonstrations :
                                        Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

      

Poll tax riots - 31 years after violence shook London

[size=13][size=13] [/size] [/size] By Andrew McFarlane and Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News [size] Thirty one years ago a protest against what had been dubbed the poll tax erupted in violence and led to rioting that could be heard in nearby Downing Street. Some of those who were there remember the day's events. The rioting in central London on 31 March, 1990, was not the first demonstration against the so-called poll tax to end in violence. In the weeks beforehand a number of protests around the country had culminated in violent skirmishes. [/size] POLL TAX RIOTS IN PICTURES Eleven key images from the day [size] But the riot that turned London's Trafalgar Square, a top tourism spot, into a battleground between police and protesters came to be seen by many as the fatal blow for the government's community charge. A central policy of the Conservative Party's winning 1987 general election manifesto, the charge, which replaced the old rates system, was levied on individuals rather than properties. It was supposed to increase accountability. But its introduction met with fierce resistance among some sections of the public. In the London poll tax riots, up to 3,000 demonstrators turned on police, attacking them with bricks, bottles and scaffolding poles, and 340 were arrested. Of 113 people injured, 45 were police. By the end of the year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had been forced to step down. She was replaced by John Major who scrapped the charge in favour of the council tax that continues today. INSP DICK TANNER, MOUNTED BRANCH Insp Tanner was in charge of the 20-strong team of mounted officers whose charge across Trafalgar Square under a hail of missiles became one of the most replayed incidents of the riot. The officer, now retired, recalls following a mass of demonstrators into the square: [/size] Richard Tanner said it was the longest day of his police career [size] "There was an angry noise. You could sense the tension. A building was on fire and officers on the ground were trying to sort out scuffles, linking arms and looking frightened. "It was not a good situation." The order came to clear the Northumberland Avenue side of the square to allow fire crews access to the burning building. "We weren't cantering all-out, we were trying to push the crowd away," says the 54-year-old, now a web manager from Ashford, Kent. However, one horse turned sideways and knocked over a demonstrator. TV footage showed her being picked up by fellow protesters and reports suggested she was shocked but not badly harmed. "We tried to trace her afterwards but never managed," says Mr Tanner. As the officers advanced, they were pelted with bricks. One injured Mr Tanner's hand, another tore a chunk from the flank of his horse, Keswick. "I couldn't shake hands for about six months," he recalls, adding that other officers suffered psychologically afterwards. For six hours after the crowds had dispersed from Trafalgar Square, mounted police "chased incidents" around central London. "We were exhausted by the end. None of us had ever seen or experienced anything like it," he adds.[/size]

                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_riots

1 st April 1918

  Formation of the Royal Air Force :
                                                   The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.




         On 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force was formed from the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) – run by the British Army and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) – operated by the Royal Navy. The new combined independent force was controlled by the newly formed government-controlled Air Ministry. The merging of the RFC and RNAS was first mooted in the summer of 1917 following the Gotha bomber raids on London. The Air Force Bill, which included the creation of the Air Ministry, received the Royal Assent on 29 November 1917.


      ‘Today the Royal Air Force, of which you are the Minister in charge, comes into existence as the third arm of the defences of the Empire. As General-in-Chief I congratulate you on its birth and I trust that it may enjoy a vigorous and successful life.’
GEORGE RI
Telegram sent from King George V to Lord Rothermere, 1 April 1918
 
    The payscales for officers varied from £,2500 a year for a general down to £250 for a lieutenant. The regulations are wide ranging, including a list of separation allowances for wives and children. Privates were expected to support their wives with 12s6d a week while warrant officers 1^st class (who presumably had more expensive wives) were allowed 23s a week. The regulations allowed for up to seven children, at which point the allowances for privates and 1^st class warrant officers were almost equal, at 40s and 42s6d, respectively.
  
     
A photo of RFC personnel with a de Havilland bomber and a Nieuport fighter. (The Aeroplane April 1918)
 

  Not everyone liked the new uniform. The Aeroplane was particularly outspoken on the subject, with references in its 3 April 1918 edition to ‘that fearsome RAF uniform’ and ‘The horrible hat’.  ‘The RAF uniform is not so beautiful a thing that it cannot be improved,’ the paper wrote in 27 March 1918, reporting on the appearance of an officer dressed in the new khaki uniform. ‘Whether he complied with King’s Regulations in wearing the uniform of a Force which does not as yet legally exist is a matter on which one hesitates to express an opinion. His tunic was evidently made by a good tailor and not a costumier but the omelette cap, the lack of a Sam Browne, the funereal cap-band, and the curious gilt antennae on each side of the cap badge – reminding one of the horns of a golden cockchafer – spoilt what would otherwise have been a fine soldierly figure.’

Brass beetle

The RAF cap badge came in for some early criticism.
The Aeroplane seems to have taken a particular dislike to the RAF cap badge. In another issue it comments: ‘The cap badge is an atrocity. Why have all that gold lace stuff? It looks gaudy when new, and unutterably shabby when old. Its design is too appalling for words. Why cram a bird and a crown and two things below onto one badge? They look like the antennae a brass beetle. The pilots call them bananas.’
However, despite its criticisms of the new uniform, The Aeroplane wished the new Service well, concluding: ‘The RAF is going to be a very fine show when it settles down to its work.’
  

             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Royal_Air_Force

2 nd April 2015

  The Hatton garden safe deposit Heist :
                                                         Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area in what has been called the "largest burglary in English legal history.


     
Police have revealed how thieves entered a highly secure central London safe deposit box firm and stole an estimated £200 million worth of jewels over the Easter Weekend.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson described the “chaotic” scenes that greeted officers when they entered the vault of Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd on Tuesday, discovering scores of the empty boxes “strewn” over the floor.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Johnson of the Flying Squad, which is heading the investigation into the theft, told reporters that forensic experts found no sign of forced entry on the outside of the building, which houses a number of other businesses and has a communal entrance.


Detective Chief Inspector Paul Johnson of the Flying Squad talks to the press outside

 (PA)

On entering the building the thieves – as suspected – disabled the communal lift on the second floor and then used the vacant shaft to climb down to the basement.
Once underground, they forced open heavy shutter doors to the basement and made their way to the vault.

  The Met spokesperson said the unidentified thieves used a heavy duty Hilti DD350 drill to bore holes in the two-metre thick re-enforced concrete wall of the vault.
A local jeweller said yesterday residents had been prepared for the sound of drilling after many received a letter informing them of works related to the Crossrail project.

    
The hole drilled through the concrete wall of the vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. Photograph: Met police

   The vault floor was covered in debris and strewn with discarded deposit boxes. Photograph: Met police
A diamond-tipped drill bit on a Hilti DD350 was used and police say the gang left behind various tools, including drills, as well as crowbars and angle-grinders probably used to force the boxes open.
According to police, the gang drilled through a thick concrete wall before rifling through 72 secure boxes believed to contain cash, jewels and other valuables. Officers are trying to find out why only 72 of 999 boxes were opened.
The images show the scene officers found when they arrived after the raid over the Easter weekend: the floor was covered in debris and strewn with discarded deposit boxes and power tools.
After studying CCTV footage and clues, detectives believe between four and six people broke into the vault. The Met said they first entered at about 9.20pm on 2 April and stayed until 8.05am the next morning, Good Friday. An alarm went off at 12.21am on 3 April, about three hours after the gang had left .

                         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary

3 rd April 1888

  The Whitechapel murders ( Jack the ripper )
                                                                  The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.

During the era in which the Ripper was active, there were 11 murders committed in London's East End. These murders took place between April 3, 1888 and February 13th, 1891. These murders were collectively known as the “Whitechapel Murders”, being labeled as such by a London Metropolitan Police Service investigation.


The first victim in the series of Whitechapel Murders was a prostitute by the name of Emma Elizabeth Smith. Smith was attacked and raped on Osbourn Street in Whitechapel on April 3, 1888. During the assault, her attackers beat and raped her, then violently inserted a blunt object into her vagina, causing an injury which would take her life the following day. After the assault, the men
emptied her purse and fled – leaving her to die on the street. Before she slipped into a coma and died the next day at a London hospital, Smith told authorities that two or three men, one of them a teenager, were responsible for her attack.
 
             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_murders

4 th April 1968

   Martin Luther King jr assassination :
                                                       Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

     
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Event
April 4, 1968

At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage in over 100 American cities. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. During King’s funeral a tape recording was played in which King spoke of how he wanted to be remembered after his death: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others” (King, “Drum Major Instinct,” 85).

King had arrived in Tennessee on Wednesday, 3 April, to prepare for a march the following Monday on behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers. As he prepared to leave the Lorraine Motel for a dinner at the home of Memphis minister Samuel “Billy” Kyles, King stepped out onto the balcony of room 306 to speak with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) colleagues standing in the parking area below. An assassin fired a single shot that caused severe wounds to the lower right side of his face. SCLC aides rushed to him, and Ralph Abernathy cradled King’s head. Others on the balcony pointed across the street toward the rear of a boarding house on South Main Street where the shot seemed to have originated. An ambulance rushed King to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:05 P.M.

President Lyndon B. Johnson called for a national day of mourning to be observed on 7 April. In the following days, public libraries, museums, schools, and businesses were closed, and the Academy Awards ceremony and numerous sporting events were postponed. On 8 April King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and other family members joined thousands of participants in a march in Memphis honoring King and supporting the sanitation workers. King’s funeral service was held the following day in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was attended by many of the nation’s political and civil rights leaders, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Ralph Bunche. Morehouse College President Benjamin Mays delivered the eulogy, predicting that King “would probably say that, if death had to come, I am sure there was no greater cause to die for than fighting to get a just wage for garbage collectors” (Mays, 9 April 1968). Over 100,000 mourners followed two mules pulling King’s coffin through the streets of Atlanta.

                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr. 


   Sorry we have no photographic back up folks , the P.C im on seems to be
   not wanting to post photo's

5 th April 1904

   First R.L international match :
                                              – The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh and Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.

    he first rugby league international was played between England and Other Nationalities at Central Park on 5 April 1904, Other Nationalities won 9-3 in the experimental Loose forward-less 12-a-side game, with Wigan players David "Dai" Harris, and Eli Davies in the Other Nationalities team.

                        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_(Wigan)


       5 th April 1902

    Ibrox Park disaster :
                               A stand box collapses at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 500 supporters during an international association football match between Scotland and England



    51 minutes into the match, at about quarter-past-four, the back of the stand collapsed. There was nothing underneath it other than the girders that had been supporting the wooden slats, meaning that those standing in that area simply fell though the floor from a height of about twelve metres or forty feet.

Hundreds and hundreds of people fell, with twenty-five people losing their lives. Another 517 people were injured, some very seriously. The match was brought to a halt but it was feared that abandoning it would see supporters rush to the exits thereby slowing down the rescue work; especially as most supporters didn’t even realise what had happened, with some even moving into the now abandoned area completely unaware that it could collapse again. For that reason the game was, incredibly, allowed to continue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1902_Ibrox_disaster

6 th April1909


  Race to the North Pole :
                                     Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary's claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability .

   

Robert Peary: The North Pole at last! - But was he the first to get there? And who was Matthew Henson, the black American who accompanied him?

The Pole at last!!! The prize of 3 centuries, my dream & ambition for 28 years. Mine at last.
  ( from the journal of Robert Peary )


Robert Peary and long-time associate Matthew Henson claimed to have been the first persons to reach the North Pole on this day, 112 years ago. They were accompanied by four Inuit men, the rest of the crew having retreated. Although Peary is usually credited with the accomplishment, there have been many doubters and sceptics. The veracity of his claim has been widely debated and Peary himself remains a controversial figure, often criticized for his treatment of the Inuit.

The US explorer Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 with two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, but he was unable to produce convincing proof and his claim is not widely accepted.[8][9]

The conquest of the North Pole was for many years credited to US Navy engineer Robert Peary, who claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, Ootah, Seeglo, Egingwah, and Ooqueah. However, Peary's claim remains highly disputed and controversial. Those who accompanied Peary on the final stage of the journey were not trained in [Western] navigation, and thus could not independently confirm his navigational work, which some claim to have been particularly sloppy as he approached the Pole.

The distances and speeds that Peary claimed to have achieved once the last support party turned back seem incredible to many people, almost three times that which he had accomplished up to that point. Peary's account of a journey to the Pole and back while traveling along the direct line – the only strategy that is consistent with the time constraints that he was facing – is contradicted by Henson's account of tortuous detours to avoid pressure ridges and open leads.

https://www.joanne16.com/2011/04/wednesday-april-6-2010-pole-at-last.html

7 th April 1976

     John Stonehouse :
                              Member of Parliament and suspected spy John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party (UK) after being arrested for faking his own death.



              MP John Stonehouse was the real life Reggie Perrin
Forty four ago the MP John Stonehouse was arrested on the other side of the world after faking his own death to begin a new life with his mistress.

At first the heap of clothes by the water’s edge on a Miami beach appeared to indicate a personal tragedy, perhaps a suicide, a drowning or even a killing by sharks.

Florida police quickly discovered that the abandoned garments belonged to the colourful, charismatic Labour ex-Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse, who had once been tipped as a future party leader.

When the news of Stonehouse’s ostensible death was announced in November 1974, despite the absence of a body, there was a profound sense of shock around Westminster.

A minute’s silence was held in the chamber of the House of Commons and a string of flattering obituaries appeared in the press.

But the MP’s disappearance was nothing like what it seemed.

Under suspicion because of his dodgy, debt-riddled business dealings and his treacherous links to the Soviet bloc, Stonehouse had actually faked his own death, then fled to Australia where he planned to start a new life with his mistress and former Commons secretary Sheila Buckley.

However the attempt to escape his debts, his past and his marriage did not last long.

On Christmas Eve, just 34 days after he had apparently died, he and Buckley were arrested in Melbourne, the police having been tipped off by shrewd bank staff who noticed that Stonehouse was using two different names to deposit large amounts of cash.

Initially the Melbourne police thought they were on the trail of Lord Lucan, the suave aristocrat who had vanished without a trace also in November that year after allegedly murdering the family nanny.

Indeed Lucan and Stonehouse had some superficial similarities, including their polished manners and dark good looks.

The Lucan connection was just another dramatic element in this extraordinary saga.

The 1970s were full of bizarre political scandals, such as the trial of Jeremy Thorpe for conspiracy to murder.

But few were more sensational than the downfall of Stonehouse. It had all the ingredients of a gripping drama, from epic greed to dangerous adultery, from corruption in the developing world to espionage in Communist Eastern Europe.

It  44 years ago since Stonehouse was arrested in Melbourne.

His reemergence sparked a firestorm of media interest.

The Daily Express put no fewer than 22 reporters on the story, including the paper’s cricket correspondent, while the News Of The World offered him £15,000 for his story.

Public fascination was further stoked a few months later with the publication of the novel The Death Of Reggie Perrin by David Nobbs, later turned into a hugely popular comedy series starring Leonard Rossiter.

The fictional Perrin, just like Stonehouse, was eager to start a new life under a different identity.

He faked his own demise by leaving his clothes on a beach.

It is a myth, however, that Stonehouse was the inspiration for this comic creation.

In fact Nobbs had completed the manuscript five months before the MP’s disappearance.

In the comedy Reggie Perrin simply wanted to be free of his mundane existence as a middle manager in the dessert industry, whereas the motivation for Stonehouse was much darker.

He was trying to evade the consequences of his corrupt, disloyal and criminal behaviour.

At the root of Stonehouse’s ruin lay his obsession with power and wealth.

Not one to be overburdened by modesty, he told friends his two ambitions in life were to become a millionaire and be prime minister.

On Wednesday 7 Th April 1976  Controversial MP John Stonehouse resigns from the Labour Party, leaving James Callaghan's government in a minority of one.

                                   http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/7/newsid_4357000/4357365.stm

8 th March 1820

                Venus De Milo discovery :
                                                     The Venus de Milo , one of the world's most famous statues is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos .

     
Two hundred and twenty one years ago today, on the April 8th 1820, the statue of Venus de Milo was discovered by a farmer called Yorgos Kentrotas, inside a buried niche in the ancient city ruins, on the island of Milos (currently Tripiti) in the Aegean Sea. The wonderful marble sculpture was created by one of ancient Greece’s finest sculptors, Alexandros of Antioch, between 130 and 100 BCE. It appears to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the Romans).

Upon discovery it was found broken in sections and later reconstructed in France without her missing limbs. Interestingly, debate has surrounded the positioning or placement of her arms. What was she doing and holding in her hands for instance are questions we have asked for centuries since her discovery. Of course, we will never know for sure in spite of some absurd and other more credible theories. Even so, it doesn’t stop us from admiring the goddess’ allure. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones arguably best sums up my fascination with her, describing the Venus de Milo, as “perfect but imperfect, beautiful but broken – the body as a ruin.”

   It was the morning of April 8, 1820 when a Milos island farmer named Giorgos (or Theodoros) Kentrotas was digging in ancient ruins in his field to get some stones he needed.
Yet, instead of stones Kentrotas found a statue that turned out to be one of the most famous statues in the world — the Venus de Milo, or Aphrodite of Milos.
Nearby in the same area, French naval officers were conducting excavations for ancient artifacts. When the pickax of the Greek farmer hit something unusual and dug out a piece of a marble statue, two French navy sailors who were participating in the excavations took notice.
Kentrotas sensed that his discovery was valuable and tried to cover the marble statue piece with dirt again, fearing that the French would grab it or would require to buy it cheap.
However, the French were not fooled by the farmer and gathered around his digging spot and urged him to dig further. Kentrotas complied and kept digging until the entire sculpture was revealed.
The fragments of the sculpture were moved to Kentrotas’ sheepfold, while the French had already begun to communicate with consuls and ambassadors of their homelands of Constantinople and Smyrna.
Olivier Voutier: The French naval officer who discovered Nevus de Milo
Olivier Voutier was the French naval officer who was heading the excavations for antiquities on  Milos. He had studied archaeology, so when he saw the findings, he informed his compatriots that he did not have enough money to buy the statue.
Along with the Venus de Milo, the French discovered two dedication plaques and a base plinth with an inscription of the name of the sculptor.
The missing arms of the statue were not found however, and Voutier’s sketch shows Venus without arms.
After the discovery, the French started negotiating the buying price for the statue. The initial price offered was 400 piasters, known in Greece at the time as grosi (γρόσι); the currency used by the Ottoman Empire until 1844.
However, negotiations became complicated as other parties got involved in the negotiations, making Kentrotas’ opinion secondary. The Ottomans and French Admiral Jules Dumont d’Urville entered the negotiations, which resulted in the delay of the transfer of the statue to France.
Finally, the French won and the pieces of Aphrodite of Milos were safely put on the ship to be transferred to France. Its copy has been displayed at the Louvre Museum ever since.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo

Venus de Milo

9 th April 1860

    History of voice recording :
                                           On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.

        The Phonautograph
Sound recording before Edison
The history of sound recording was once thought to begin with Thomas Alva Edison’s phonograph of 1877. As with many of his inventions, Edison sketched out the idea, and gave it to his engineer, John Kruesi. Tests and improvements occupied most of the year, and the patent was finally filed in December. Legend has it that the first recording was of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” recited by Edison himself. Although Edison made later recordings of the same text, until quite recently we knew of no surviving recordings of any sound using the Edison system until more than a decade later, with the 1888 recordings of the Handel Festival at London’s Crystal Palace.
And yet, it turns out, there are actually sound recording which do survive from nearly 20 years earlier than Edison’s invention. These were made using the Phonautograph ( above) invented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. His device was not intended to permit the playback of sound; instead, using a sound-sensitive cone which etched its trace on paper coated with a fine layer of charcoal dust, the aim was to produce a visual record of sound. It was only in the twenty-first century that these visual traces were, with the aid of computer models, rendered back into audible sound, and even then there were glitches. The 1860 record of “Claire de Lune,” thought at first to be have been sung by a woman, turned out to have been recorded at a much lower pitch, and sung by Scott himself! He tested his device extensively tested over a period of years, and rumors have circulated circulate as to recordings of famous persons — Abraham Lincoln among them — having recorded a “phonautogram” That would indeed be a find.
The recovered Scott phonautograms are hosted at FirstSounds.org, which recently unveiled another, equally remarkable find. Although none of Edison’s earliest cylinders, which used tinfoil-coated paraffin, were in playable condition, in at least one case, the grooved tin covering, cracked and flattened and placed in a frame, still existed. But how to recover any sounds from it? Computer technology came to the rescue again, enabling a high-resolution 3-D model of the cracked tin surface, which could then be ‘virtually’ restored to its cylindrical shape, and “played” with a software needle.
The results are astonishing: made in 1881, the recording pushed the audible history of Edison’s machine back by seven years. The recording includes some lines from Hamlet (“there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy”) and a sort of peculiar, almost Dada-esque statement: “I am a Graphaphone, and my mother was a Phonograph.” And yet, even more than these, the recording’s most peculiar feature is a voiced trill, like the call of some exotic bird. Why is it there? My personal theory is that it was a kind of test tone; early recordists must have stumbled upon the fact that the Edison system was more responsive in the higher frequencies, and that the numerous sequential plosives of a trill translated particularly well onto a tinfoil-coated wax surface.
Since this flattened foil was recovered, a second, made in 1878 in St. Louis, has surfaced, and reclaimed the crown of the earliest Edison recording. This one turns out to be quite a bit longer, with its contents forming a sort of greatest hits of phonographic demonstration: it opens with a solo on a brass instrument, followed by a recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (the voice is probably not Edison’s), followed by some laughter, then “Old Mother Hubbard,” and then again by laughter and more speaking. Like the trilling on the 1881 recording, the laughter comes across more clearly than the speech.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonautograph

10th april 1912

     R.M.S Titanic :
                         RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her ill fated maiden and only voyage.


              10 April 1912: the Titanic sets sail on its doomed maiden voyage
On this day in 1912 the White Star line's 'unsinkable' liner, the RMS Titanic, left Southampton on its doomed maiden voyage.

The RMS Titanic was thought to be 'unsinkable'

The time from the start of the 20th century to the outbreak of World War II was the "golden age" of ocean liners. One of the most popular routes was the transatlantic crossing, for which shipping companies built ever more luxurious vessels. The best-known was the RMS Titanic. It was commissioned by White Star Lines in September 1908 and took two and a half years for Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff to finish. It was deemed "unsinkable".



Video footage of the Ship at Southampton . \/ \/ \/ \/

http://www.netnewsledger.com/2019/04/10/rms-titanic-leaves-southhampton-on-maiden-voyage-april-10-1912/

It began its maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. Before it had left Southampton harbour, it narrowly missed another ship, the SS New York. After stopping at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland it sailed out into the Atlantic to begin the main leg of its journey to New York.

But on the night of14 April, after ignoring repeated warnings, the Titanic hit an iceberg. The impact ripped a hole in the hull (partly due to poor-quality rivets), letting in water.It took less than three hours for the ship to sink.

Rescue attempts were hindered by a delayed response from the captain and one nearby ship not responding to distress calls. Due to outdated regulations, there were only enough lifeboat spaces for around half the crew and passengers. As a result, between 1,490 and 1,635 people died. The convention of "women and children first" was taken seriously more third-class women passengers survived (46%) than first-class men (32.6%).

The disaster led to many safety improvements, including an increase in the number of lifeboats.

11 th April 1981

  The Brixton riots :
                            A massive riot in Brixton, south London results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.


              When Brixton went up in flames
On 11 April 1981, tension between the police and youths led to Brixton being set aflame. Observer reporter Patrick Bishop recalls how he and photographer Neil Libbert covered a riot that marked a summer of discontent and changed the way that the country was policed
brixton 1981 riot spark :

Ican still recall, with almost psychedelic clarity, the moment that it started – a brick arcing through the air, the crunch of an imploding police van windscreen and the glitter of flying glass in the afternoon sunshine. Shortly after, Brixton was ablaze as roaming mobs vented years of pent-up anger.

I'd arrived with Neil Libbert that Saturday morning, sent down from the Observer's newsroom, then in St Andrew's Hill, Blackfriars. There had been trouble the night before and the area was awash with policemen and vehicles, all part of Operation Swamp, launched by the Met to show who was boss of the shabby streets. They were watched by groups of sullen youths, most, but not all black, gathered at street corners.

The ingredients for an explosion were there and just after 4.30pm it happened. Neil and I were standing in Atlantic Road, near an off-licence, when two very young-looking cops, dressed in jeans and bomber jackets, grabbed a young black man for no obvious reason and announced, in best Sweeney style: "You're nicked." As Neil snapped away with his Leica, they bundled the young man towards a police Transit van. It was, as Neil remarked later, "an extraordinarily provocative and stupid thing to do".


The watching crowd burst into furious life. Missiles flew, glass shattered and the violence rippled outwards like an underwater earthquake to Railton Road, Acre Lane and Brixton Road. Soon, police vehicles were overturned and torched and fire brigade tenders were pelted with paving stones, bricks and iron bars.

The police seemed surprised by the turn of events. It was some time before riot gear was issued but even then they were repeatedly beaten back by mobs drunk on anarchy and, as the evening wore on, looted liquor. Until late into the night, misrule reigned. Men and women swarmed through smashed shop windows, emerging laden with clothes, radios and televisions. The Windsor Castle pub was an early target. The fire took hold in minutes, bathing the mob in flickering red light as they capered outside, swigging the stolen stock.

The rioters – in the beginning at least – seemed as full of glee as anger and there were several touches of black comedy. At one point, I saw someone climb into the driver's cab of a number 37 bus abandoned in Railton Road. Both decks immediately filled up with rioters. Is it my imagination or did someone ding the bell as it set off towards the phalanx of policemen with only plastic shields to protect them, stretched across the end of the road? I certainly remember the look of stark terror on the officers' faces as it lurched towards them before mercifully rolling to a halt, blocked by an overturned car.

There were hardly any reporters around at the outset and the rioters did not seem bothered by our presence. Later that changed. Shortly after the bus incident, I was shoved against a wall, mauled and kicked, while snarling faces screamed that I was an undercover cop. I was rescued by an older man who checked my press card and sent me on my way.


Deadline was approaching and I had to find somewhere to file. Mobile phones had not yet been invented and the phone boxes were all trashed. Just as I was getting desperate, I came across the offices of some far-left group – the SWP perhaps. I knocked on the door and was admitted. They grudgingly allowed me to use their phone. My dictation was constantly interrupted by a stream of criticisms of the "bourgeois" slant of my report.

To the public-school lefties monitoring my words, it must have seemed that the revolution had finally arrived. It certainly felt to me like the start of something big and, indeed, that summer was long and hot with riots in Handsworth, Southall and Toxteth. But the crisis was averted. The police took a battering that day. Nearly 300 were injured and it was a miracle no officer was killed. When the Scarman report appeared that November, though, it was the police who bore the brunt of the criticism, forcing a strategic change in their relationship with the public that endures to this day.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Brixton_riot

12 April 1961

   The first man in space ( and the mystery man behind it ) :
                                                                                      Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, Vostok 1.

     
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, “Flight is proceeding normally; I am well.”

After his historic feat was announced, the attractive and unassuming Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him across the Soviet Union and streets renamed in his honor.

The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth, a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7. By that time, the Soviet Union had already made another leap ahead in the “space race” with the August 1961 flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov in Vostok 2. Titov made 17 orbits and spent more than 25 hours in space.


To Soviet propagandists, the Soviet conquest of space was evidence of the supremacy of communism over capitalism. However, to those who worked on the Vostok program and earlier on Sputnik (which launched the first satellite into space in 1957), the successes were attributable chiefly to the brilliance of one man: Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Because of his controversial past, Chief Designer Korolev was unknown in the West and to all but insiders in the USSR until his death in 1966.

Born in the Ukraine in 1906, Korolev was part of a scientific team that launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. In 1938, his military sponsor fell prey to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s purges, and Korolev and his colleagues were also put on trial. Convicted of treason and sabotage, Korolev was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. The Soviet authorities came to fear German rocket advances, however, and after only a year Korolev was put in charge of a prison design bureau and ordered to continue his rocketry work.

In 1945, Korolev was sent to Germany to learn about the V-2 rocket, which had been used to devastating effect by the Nazis against the British. The Americans had captured the rocket’s designer, Wernher von Braun, who later became head of the U.S. space program, but the Soviets acquired a fair amount of V-2 resources, including rockets, launch facilities, blueprints, and a few German V-2 technicians. By employing this technology and his own considerable engineering talents, by 1954 Korolev had built a rocket that could carry a five-ton nuclear warhead and in 1957 launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile.

That year, Korolev’s plan to launch a satellite into space was approved, and on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was fired into Earth’s orbit. It was the first Soviet victory of the space race, and Korolev, still technically a prisoner, was officially rehabilitated. The Soviet space program under Korolev would go on to numerous space firsts in the late 1950s and early ’60s: first animal in orbit, first large scientific satellite, first man, first woman, first three men, first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon. Throughout this time, Korolev remained anonymous, known only as the “Chief Designer.” His dream of sending cosmonauts to the moon eventually ended in failure, primarily because the Soviet lunar program received just one-tenth the funding allocated to America’s successful Apollo lunar landing program.

Korolev died in 1966. Upon his death, his identity was finally revealed to the world, and he was awarded a burial in the Kremlin wall as a hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a routine jet-aircraft test flight in 1968. His ashes were also placed in the Kremlin wall.


https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-missions/yuri-gagarin-first-human-in-space/

13 th April 1970

Apollo 13 Houston we've had a problem :
An oxygen tank explodes aboard the Apollo service module
putting the crew in great danger and damaging the command module , en route to the moon , causing
the moon landing to be abandoned and the craft orbit the moon and return to earth .


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13



My p.c is in for repair so sorry for short post , should be back to normal soon

14 th  April 1865

 Presidential assassination :
                                                United States President Abraham Lincoln is shot
in Ford's theatre by John Wilkes Booth , Lincoln was shot in the head  while
watching the play  " our American cousin " , he was immediately taken to the
hospital Wich was just across the way , but died from his injuries the
following day . Lincoln was the first United States President to be assassinated


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

15 th April 1989

  The Hillsborough  tragedy :
                                                A human crush , due to overcrowding occurred in the
 two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand ,at Hillsborough
stadium , home of Sheffield Wednesday during an F,A CUP semi final between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest . The stand
had been allocated to Liverpool supporters . 96 fans die and a further 766 are injured


    Before the game , a heavy influx of  fans arrived at the  Lepings Lane turnstiles
     causing heavy congestion , the South Yorkshire police match commander ,
      David Duckinfield ordered police to open a main gate to ease congestion  ,
      this caused a rush  of people ,  who had already missed kick off  to rush
      forward through the gate and into the top of the terrace causing the crush .


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

16 th April 1912

  Women's firsts in aviation :
                                                Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to
 fly an airplane across the English channel ,

    The feat was made more remarkable because as she enjoyed a clear
     take off poor visibility hampered the rest of the flight as the English
      channel was shrouded in dense fog . With the only two
      instruments available to her , being her compass and her watch
     she flew the crossing after a few scary incidents and landed on a
       beach near Calais one hour and nine minutes after taking off from
      Dover .

     Harriet Quimby's greeting in France
                                                     

http://www.arcadiami.com/index.php/hidden-exhibits/hidden-harriet-quimby/hidden-quimby-flight

17 th April 2006

  The Tel-Aviv shawarma  bombing :
                                                               A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an
explosive device in a Tel-Aviv restaurant, killing 11 people and injuring 70 more .

    At 1.30 p.m. on 17th April 2006 a Palestinian suicide bomber entered a crowded
      fast food restaurant near the old Tel-Aviv  Central bus ststion in the southern
      part of Neve Shaawan neighborhood . He exploded his device , blowing himself up
     when a security guard at the entrance to the restaurant asked him to open his bag
      for inspection . The blast kills 11 people an d injures 70 more


https://military.wikia.org/wiki/2006_Tel_Aviv_shawarma_restaurant_bombing

18 th April 1930

     Todays news is ... there is no news :
                                                                    Ninety one years ago today , it was Good Friday
  18 th April 1930 , people then used to huddle around their radio at night to listen to the
   evening news report , as they did on this day they were astonished to hear the news slot
   consisting of just four words, as the announcer declared " there is no news today " . The
   rest of the fifteen minute news slot was filled up with piano music . Unimaginable by todays standards
   as half hour and even one hour news slots are crammed with news and incidents .


              https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/on-this-day-april-18-1930-there-is-no-news-bbc-replaces-bulletin-with-15-minutes-of-piano-music/

19 th April 1927

Mae West , your nicked :
Actress Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail
for obscenity , for writing , directing , and appearing in her play , sex .
Strangely , the show ran for a full year before being raided by New York
police , accusing West of corrupting and misleading the youth of the day .
The jury offered to drop the charges in return for the play being closed down
but West realised in the interests of show business crime does pay and refused
to close down .
Whilst in jail she reportedly had dinner with the governor and his wife . She
was also released early for "good behavior " ,on Wich West who was noted for
for her innuendos and intende , said to the press
" Thats the first time I ever got anything for good behavior "



http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/this-day-in-history-mae-west-is-sentenced-to-10-days-in-prison-for-writing-directing-and-performing-in-the-broadway-play-sex/

20 th April 1968

     Rivers of blood speech :
                                                Enoch  Powell delivers his infamous and deeply divisive
 " rivers of blood speech "  against Britains immigration policy . " As I look ahead I am
  filled with foreboding , like the Roman , I see the river Tiber foam with much blood "
 said Powell , quoting Virgil in a speech .Britain was in a state of flux with the empire
 evaporating , with many fearing Britain too was disappearing , with the blame laid
  squarely at the feet of immigration. After the second world war , literary thousands
  upon thousands of West Indians answered Britains call for workers , but among the
 general public , many complained of " being strangers in their own country " with
"  much racial tension mounting " as Enoch Powell put it .


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

21 st April 1934

 Loch Ness monster " the surgeons photograph " :
                                                                        – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail .

In 1933, George Spicer went for a drive with his wife through the Scottish highlands.  The couple saw a large, unfamiliar creature pass in front of their car and disappear into nearby Loch Ness. They later described the creature as having a huge body with no limbs and long neck. A few weeks later, a motorcyclist made similar claims, describing a prehistoric marine creature with four large fins and a long neck. These reported sightings sparked excitement among the general public and drew many more visitors to the lake, hoping to catch a sight of what would soon be dubbed the “Loch Ness Monster.” But was it real? Claiming to see a monster is one thing, but proving its existence is another matter entirely.

           
In November that same year, Hugh Gray captured the first photograph that was thought to depict the Loch Ness Monster, now affectionately known as “Nessie.” Gray claimed to see a large creature rise above the surface of the water and snapped several photographs, but only one contained any information. The picture revealed a shape appearing to have a long neck and thick body. At this time in photo history, many people believed a photograph to be indisputable proof of evidence. Although manipulation techniques were common, the general public was not as familiar with them as they are today. Even so, many critics believed Gray’s photograph to be a dog swimming with a stick in its mouth, instead of the elusive monster.

  On April 21, 1934, the Daily Mail published what is arguably the most famous picture of the monster. Known as the “Surgeon’s Photograph,” the photograph was reportedly made by a doctor named Robert Kenneth Wilson. The photograph depicts the trademark long neck of “Nessie” emerging from rippling water. For decades, believers and critics debated the authenticity of the photograph with myriad theories about its subject.


Since the publication of the “Surgeon’s Photograph” inspired hundreds of people to flock to Loch Ness in 1934, we have come to mistrust photographs more frequently than we view them as evidence. In 2016, our default response to a photograph claiming proof is to casually suggest that it has been photoshopped. In his 1984 article in the British Journal of Photography, Stewart Campbell analyzed the famed photo. The original version of the Surgeon’s Photograph shows a dark band along the top of the image and provides a sense of scale between the monster and the Loch. In the version published by the Daily Mail, the image is substantially cropped in, blurring the subject’s shape, and skewing its scale to suggest that is substantially larger. After comparing the two versions, Campbell concluded that the object in the water could only have been a few feet long at most. He speculated that it might be a seabird or otter.

The full uncropped surgeon's photo :

                 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster

Reet , should be back to normal now , hopefully

   22 April 1993

 The murder of Stephen Lawrence :
                                                   Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham.
     


    On 22 April 1993, black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in south-east London by a gang of white youths in an unprovoked attack.

The crime, and the protracted investigation that followed, had profound consequences for the UK that continue to be felt more than 25 years later.

Here’s what happened to Lawrence, and how two of his killers were eventually brought to justice following decades of campaignin

On 22 April 1993, 18-year-old Lawrence was waiting at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, with his friend Duwayne Brooks when the pair were attacked by a gang of white youths.

While Brooks was able to escape unhurt, Lawrence had been stabbed multiple times and, after managing to run over 100 metres from the scene, he collapsed and subsequently bled to death.

In the days following his murder, several people came forward to the police to name a local gang in connection with the crime, with notes left on a car windscreen and in a telephone box.

The suspects were Gary Dobson, brothers Neil and Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight and David Norris, who had been linked with previous knife attacks and racist incidents in the area..

A British judge sentenced two white men to minimum jail terms of 14 years and 15 years jail respectively  for the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Gary Dobson, 36, was sentenced to serve at least 15 years and two months while David Norris, 35, was sentenced to at least 14 years three months after a jury found them guilty .
Campaigners have been fighting for justice over Stephen Lawrence’s death for over25 years .
Between 7 May and 3 June, all five were arrested by police – Neil Acourt and Luke Knight were charged with murder on 13 May and 23 June respectively after being identified by Duwayne Brooks.

However, on 29 July 1993, the CPS said that Brook’s ID evidence was insufficient, and the prosecution was dropped.

The Lawrence family had expressed its frustration at the police’s attempts to catch Stephen’s killers, with Nelson Mandela joining the calls for justice.

In September 1994, Stephen’s parents Doreen and Neville Lawrence launched a private prosecution against Neli Acourt, Knight and Dobson. However, in April 1996 the murder trial against the trio collapsed, with the judge ruling that Brooks’ ID evidence was inadmissable.

On 13 February 1997, almost four years after the murder, the five suspects appeared at the inquest into Lawrence’s death and refused to answer questions.

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 14: Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered student Stephen Lawrence, arrives at the Old Bailey on November 14, 2011 .
Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Steohen’s mother, campaigned tirelessly for justice over her son’s death
How were Stephen Lawrence’s killers brought to justice?
The following day, the Daily Mail printed the famous “Murderers” front page, displaying the five men’s faces with the sub-heading: “The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us”.

Later that year, the MacPherson inquiry was launched by the Home Secretary Jack Straw, investigating both the killing and the police response.

When it was released in February 1999, the damning 350-page report concluded that the investigation was “marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership.”

Of its 70 recommendations, mostly aimed at improving police attitudes to racism, 67 led quickly to changes in working practices or the law.


More than a decade later, and after members of the gang had been jailed for other crimes, this law change meant that Gary Dobson and David Norris could once more be charged over Lawrence’s death, following the discovery of new forensic evidence.

This included a blood spot on Dobson’s jacket and hairs found in Norris’s bedroom, both of which were identified as Lawrence’s – the court also saw covert video footage captured in 1994 which showed Norris talking about “skinning” black people.

Their trial began at the Old Bailey in November 2011, and after six weeks in court Dobson and Norris were found guilty of murder in January 2012, both receiving life sentences.

In 2018, ahead of the 25th anniversary of Lawrence’s death, the police suggested that the case was “unlikely the progress further” unless detectives received new evidence.