Today in history

17 th February 1814

                 Beer flood :
                                   Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.

                                           
On Monday 17th October 1814, a terrible disaster claimed the lives of at least 8 people in St Giles, London. A bizarre industrial accident resulted in the release of a beer tsunami onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road.

The Horse Shoe Brewery stood at the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court Road. In 1810 the brewery, Meux and Company, had had a 22 foot high wooden fermentation tank installed on the premises. Held together with massive iron rings, this huge vat held the equivalent of over 3,500 barrels of brown porter ale, a beer not unlike stout.

On the afternoon of October 17th 1814 one of the iron rings around the tank snapped. About an hour later the whole tank ruptured, releasing the hot fermenting ale with such force that the back wall of the brewery collapsed. The force also blasted open several more vats, adding their contents to the flood which now burst forth onto the street. More than 320,000 gallons of beer were released into the area. This was St Giles Rookery, a densely populated London slum of cheap housing and tenements inhabited by the poor, the destitute, prostitutes and criminals.

The flood reached George Street and New Street within minutes, swamping them with a tide of alcohol. The 15 foot high wave of beer and debris inundated the basements of two houses, causing them to collapse. In one of the houses, Mary Banfield and her daughter Hannah were taking tea when the flood hit; both were killed.

In the basement of the other house, an Irish wake was being held for a 2 year old boy who had died the previous day. The four mourners were all killed. The wave also took out the wall of the Tavistock Arms pub, trapping the teenage barmaid Eleanor Cooper in the rubble. In all, eight people were killed. Three brewery workers were rescued from the waist-high flood and another was pulled alive from the rubble.



All this ‘free’ beer led to hundreds of people scooping up the liquid in whatever containers they could. Some resorted to just drinking it, leading to reports of the death of a ninth victim some days later from alcoholic poisoning.

‘The bursting of the brew-house walls, and the fall of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the mischief, by forcing the roofs and walls of the adjoining houses.‘ The Times, 19th October 1814.

Some relatives exhibited the corpses of the victims for money. In one house, the macabre exhibition resulted in the collapse of the floor under the weight of all the visitors, plunging everyone waist-high into a beer-flooded cellar.

The stench of beer in the area persisted for months afterwards.

The brewery was taken to court over the accident but the disaster was ruled to be an Act of God, leaving no one responsible.

The flood cost the brewery around £23000 (approx. £1.25 million today). However the company were able to reclaim the excise duty paid on the beer, which saved them from bankruptcy. They were also granted ₤7,250 (₤400,000 today) as compensation for the barrels of lost beer.

This unique disaster was responsible for the gradual phasing out of wooden fermentation casks to be replaced by lined concrete vats. The Horse Shoe Brewery was demolished in 1922; the Dominion Theatre now sits partly on its site.

18 th October 1922

Birth of the BBC:
The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

BBC Formed


Holborn, London The 18th of October 1922 AD

The British Broadcasting Company, forerunner of the British Broadcasting Corporation, was formed on October 18 1922 by a consortium that – whisper it gently – included the British branch of the USA’s General Electric Company, and Western Electric, part of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
With just one room and an antechamber at Magnet House, HQ of GEC in London, the fledgling company would have struggled to accommodate the board of directors, which had seven members, a Lord, a Knight and a Major among them – some things don’t change at the Beeb it appears. Their taxi bill is not known.
Lord Reith was appointed by the company less than two months after it formed, joining a dynamic organisation whose role was to set up a network of transmitters, cooperation between the various companies that already owned individual transmitters being thought the fastest way to master the new technology for the nation. By November 14 the same year stations in London, Birmingham and Manchester were functioning. Today the committee to decide on a policy about stationery would not even have been approved in that same period.

19 th October 1989

the Guilford four :
The convictions of the Guildford Four are quashed by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, after they had spent 15 years in prison.

It is 33 years this weekend since three Irish men and an English woman were released from prison in Britain. Their jailing for a pub bombing in the Surrey town of Guildford, south of London had been exposed as a gross miscarriage of justice in which police statements were shown to be fiction, confessions secured under duress, and forensic evidence concocted to jail the four. But it took almost 15 years for the truth to emerge.

At the time of their conviction they were very young men and women - Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill were 21, while Paddy Armstrong was 25 and living in a squat with a 17-year-old English girl, Carole Richardson. "I was a young hippie who took acid and smoked hash," Armstrong said last year.

They were convicted of the 1975 bombing which killed five people, and Armstrong and Hill of another in Woolwich which killed two. The trial judge said he was disappointed they hadn't been charged with offences which carried the death penalty. The four strongly protested their innocence, and long-running campaigns to secure their release gathered support in Britain and Ireland.

A police review found statements had been doctored and an appeal judge quashed the convictions and released them on October 19, 1989. Hill threw a pink carnation to the press bench.

Richardson and Armstrong wanted to avoid the crowds and left by a back exit from the Old Bailey, while Hill was rearrested and detained for two more days because he had also been convicted - wrongly - for a murder in Belfast.

So Gerry Conlon was the only person to emerge from the courthouse, and he emerged as an angry, passionate victim of years of injustice. With his sisters Bridie and Ann on either side, he ran the wrong way down the street before turning back, shirt and hair flying.

"I'm in prison for 15 years for something I didn't do, something I didn't know anything about," he called out. "I'm a totally innocent man - I watched my father die in a British prison for something he didn't do. He is innocent, the Maguires are innocent, let's hope the Birmingham Six are next to be freed."

Conlon's father, Giuseppe, had travelled to England to visit his son in jail and was arrested and tried with the Maguire family. He died in prison in 1980. All involved in that case, and the Guildford Four, were officially exonerated by British PM Tony Blair in 2005.

Carole Richardson slipped back quietly into living privately in England and died of cancer in 2013, aged 55. The same disease claimed 60-year-old Gerry Conlon last year after long struggles with alcohol and drug dependency.

Paul Hill was married to Courtney Kennedy, daughter of the former US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, from 1993 to 2006, when they separated. He still lives in the US and last year said that the Guildford Four had suffered a "greater miscarriage of justice than those who died in the Guildford, Woolwich and Birmingham bombings".

20 th October 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash :
A plane carrying the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in woodland in Mississippi, United States. Six people, including three band members, are killed.



45 Years After Tragedy, Lynyrd Skynyrd Still Carries On
That now legendary and near-mythical plane crash killed Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Honkettes backup singer Cassie Gaines, assistant tour manager Dean Kilpatrick and the pilot and co-pilot of the Convair 420



ON OCTOBER 20TH, 1977, a chartered plane carrying the band Lynyrd Skynyrd — in the midst of a headlining tour and fresh off the release of their sixth album — crashed in a Gillsburg, Mississippi swamp.

The toll was dire: Three band members perished; the others were all severely injured. The drummer — who was one of the few able to walk — staggered out for help, and was allegedly shot at by an alarmed farmer. The band’s record label scrambled to replace the new album’s cover, which eerily forecasted the accident by portraying the members engulfed in flames.

Although the crash remains now and forever the darkest centerpiece in the band’s legend — as well as a breeding ground for gruesome urban legends surrounding the various members’ demises — fans know quite well it’s far from the first or last tragedy the definitive Southern Rockers endured. In fact, Lynyrd Skynyrd has managed to earn the dubious distinction of “unluckiest band in history” over the years. Here’s a cheat sheet to their unfortunate past few decades.

It is undisputably the creepiest, but the flaming album cover wasn’t the first prediction of deadly events for Skynyrd. Trouble began for the hard-partying band a year before the plane crash, when guitarist Gary Rossington plowed his brand-new car into a tree along a Jacksonville, Florida road. He survived the incident and admitted he was under the influence at the time, prompting bandmates Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins to write “That Smell” — an ominous tune warning “Say you’ll be all right come tomorrow, but tomorrow may not be here for you.” (Ironically, the 60-year-old Rossington is the sole member of the original lineup still performing in the band.)

PnB Rock's Girlfriend Says Rapper 'Saved My Life' Before He Was Killed: 'I'm Not Supposed to Be Here'
After the plane crash, which claimed the lives of Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines (Gaines’s sister and backup singer Cassie, the band’s road manager, and the plane’s pilot and co-pilot also died), the remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded to recover from their extensive injuries. As might be expected, the album that was released just three days before the tragedy, Street Survivors, became one of their greatest hits in the wake of the spotlight on the events. Save one performance in 1979, “Lynyrd Skynyrd” would not emerge again for a decade.

The remaining band members continued to make music through the ’80s under various configurations, most notably the Rossington-Collins band — which was cooked up by Rossington and guitarist Allen Collins, who took special pains to distance the new outfit from a “reborn” Skynyrd tag by recruiting a female lead singer, Dale Krantz. The new band did not include drummer Artimus Pyle who — in another stroke of Skynyrd misfortune — had badly shattered his leg in a motorcycle accident.

This lineup eventually was doomed for misfortune as well. Shortly before the Rossington-Collins band was slated to go on its debut tour in 1980, Collins’s wife Kathy died unexpectedly from a miscarriage-related hemorrhage. The tragedy effectively splintered the band by 1982 and threw the grieving Collins himself into a spiral of substance abuse. Collins made another attempt by starting the Allen Collins band, which released one album in 1983 to lukewarm response. Three years later, an intoxicated Collins crashed his car in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and rendering him paralyzed from the waist down and with limited use of his upper body.

At this point, talk of a Skynyrd-proper reconfiguration had been in the works for some time. By 1987 it seemed solidified: The late Van Zant was replaced by brother Johnny; while crash survivors Rossington, Pyle, Billy Powell, and Leon Wilkeson resumed their former duties. Collins, who was charged with manslaughter for the death of his girlfriend, took position as musical director of the group — and as part of his plea bargain, addressed the band’s audience every night on tour from his wheelchair on the dangers of drunk driving.

Yet more despair was in store, however. Collins was felled by pneumonia in 1989, and died shortly after in 1990.

Although the worst seemed to be behind them by the 1990s — after all, it would be hard to top the past 20 years of upsetting events — the reunited Skynyrd’s lineup luck did not endure. The members either left, were asked to leave, or simply have passed away: Wilkeson was found dead a hotel room in 2001 at age 49; while keyboardist Billy Powell, who was only 56, died at home in 2009. The result has been a long string of replacements, leaving Rossington as the sole representative of the classic lineup (Pyle is still alive, but is not part of the current roster).

Despite the long history of misfortune, the band does one shining strength — its undeniable and enduring longevity. Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Although only one original member remains, Skynyrd continues to have a significant presence in both the rock and country worlds, as well as continues to shake things up — with the latest buzz being controversy over whether or not to continue their long-held tradition of waving the Confederate flag on stage.

21 st October 1971


Glasgow shopping mall explosion :
A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping centre near Glasgow, Scotland.



On a wet Thursday afternoon 51 years ago, a row of shops in a Glasgow suburb exploded killing 22 people and injuring more than 100, mostly women.

Fay McIntyre was on the top deck of a double-decker bus as it pulled up beside the shops on the main street in Clarkston.

She was looking out of the window as she travelled back to East Kilbride after a job interview in the city centre.

Fay says she remembers seeing two ladies sheltering from the rain under the canopy of the shops, one dressed in a red raincoat.

Then, at 2.52pm, there was a massive explosion.


The blast on 21 October 1971 was caused by a gas leak. It flattened 10 shops and the rooftop car park collapsed, sending vehicles plunging on to the street below.

Fay's bus was buried in the debris.

She told the BBC Scotland documentary The Disasters That Shocked Scotland: "When I tried to stand up, my arm was trapped by a big slab of concrete that I think had come from the car park."

The bus conductor came upstairs to free her and helped her off the bus.

"A lot of the rubble had come onto the platform of the bus and I could see the lady in red was under the rubble," Fay says.

She remembers seeing that the car park had folded in on itself, the silence and the smell of gas.

"A gas workman came beside us who was very badly cut in the back of his head," Fay says.

"I remember a lady from the bank giving me a towel to put round his neck."


Neil MacPherson's older sister Karen Fisher went to the shops that day and never came home.

Neil was just 13 but his sister was 25 and had two young children.

He says: "It was quite rainy in the afternoon. If that hadn't been the case she would probably have had her two sons with her, but she left them with a neighbour."

Karen's was one of the last bodies found.

"She was downstairs in the shop and therefore at the very bottom of the explosion site," Neil says.

About half the fatalities were unaccounted for overnight despite frantic attempts to free them that had begun before the emergency services arrived.


A memorial plaque was unveiled 30 years after the disaster
Eyewitnesses recalled people digging in the rubble with their bare hands in a bid to reach those trapped.

A local mechanic told a news reporter at the time how he rescued two people and so did his colleague.

Historian Norry Wilson says: "There is absolutely horrific imagery of nurses clambering over the rubble while the building is still smoking, along with police and fire service staff."

Twenty of the 22 people who died, and most of the people injured, were women.

The shops, on the main street in Clarkston, about five miles south of Glasgow city centre, were quite modern, having only been built six years earlier.

In the days leading up to the explosion, a number of shop staff had complained about the smell of gas and workers from the Gas Board were investigating.

Gordon Gibb's late father Dr William Gibb was given the job of investigating what happened.

Dr Gibb was a chemical engineer who had a reputation as an expert witness in cases of explosion.

'Whoosh and then the explosion'
His investigations found a big crack in a cast iron gas pipe about 3ft below the ground.

His son says it cracked because there was not enough support under the pipe so it moved when cars drove up and down the road, causing stress and corrosion.

Gordon Gibb says: "The gas from the main percolated through the soil and filled large cellars underneath the shops."

A spark ignited the gas at the north end of the row of shops and the flame went underground through all the shops until it reached a wall, where it blew back and exploded.

"Every one of the eye witnesses said that they heard this whoosh or a rumble under the ground and then the explosion," says Gordon Gibb.

"The rumble was the ignition of gas at the north end of the building and then that flame speeding along underneath the building towards the south."

Four weeks after the blast, a fatal accident inquiry began in order to determine the cause.

The shops were rebuilt soon after the explosion
Neil MacPherson says the inquiry was "cut and dried" within four months of the explosion.

"It would never happen today", he says. "The jury took two hours to conclude that no-one was at fault.

"I think the Gas Board, as they were known then, had been at fault because there had been a smell of gas in the area for the whole week.

"I don't believe the Gas Board took the appropriate precautions, even for 1971."

Gordon Gibb says: "I think my father felt they had got away with it.

"Although he wasn't in the role of seeking who was at fault, he did feel that there was probably more of a case to answer than had been found."

Thirty years after the explosion, a small plaque was erected on the rebuilt shops by East Renfrewshire Council to mark the spot.

But Neil MacPherson says he still thinks it is a "forgotten disaster".

"I would like to see a more significant memorial in commemoration of the victims," he says.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, a minute's silence was held for those who died.

22 nd October 1877

    Blantyre disaster:                    


              On this day October 22, 1877 Scotland's worst ever coal mining disaster occurred.

It happened at Pits No. 2 and No. 3 of William Dixon Ltd’s Blantyre Colliery.

At 4:40am on that fateful day, four firemen inspected Number 2 pit and found it free of gas and safe to work.

Miners began descending into the mine at 05:50 reassured by the firemens' report.

Rev Stewart Wright, writing in "The Annals of Blantyre" reports, "What a gloomy morning that October Monday was. How indelibly it is engraven on our memory."
Rev. Wright explained that he could view the pits from his window and at 9am: "A sudden flash darted up from the most distant shaft, accompanied by debris and a report not
very loud; then arose from the shaft nearest to us a dense volume of smoke, 'the blackness of darkness,' which spread itself, a terrible funeral pall, over the surrounding plain."

Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Mines said: "The explosion was felt at a considerable distance, and the smoke which hung around the pits...was seen by miners and managers in the neighbourhood who at once hastened to the place."

What they found on there arrival at the pithead was the scene of a subterranean nightmare. Hundreds of men and boys were already buried in what was to become their final resting place.
Of those that were rescued many had suffered horrific burns from the firedamp (flammable gas found in coal mines) and succumbed to their injuries.

The explosion killed 207 colliers, the youngest being a boy of 11 years of age.

It left 92 women widowed and 250 children fatherless.

A further two disasters happened at Blantyre in the following years of 1878 and 1879.

An 18 foot tall granite monument marks the two explosion disasters.

The engraved dedication reads: "William Dixon Ltd—in memory of 240 of their workmen who were killed by explosions in Blantyre Colliery on 22nd October, 1877 and 2nd July 1879 and many of whom are buried here".
A memorial to the Catholic miners killed in the disaster of 1877 is located in Dalbeath Cemetery, London Road, Glasgow.

23 rd October 1707

First parliament:
The First Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain.







First Parliament of Great Britain


Westminster, London The 23rd of October 1707 AD

The Acts of Union of 1706 and 1707 had in effect created the legal framework defining Great Britain as a state; yet they were the products of separate Parliaments in London and Edinburgh . Since James VI , King of Scotland, came to the English throne in 1603 the two countries had retained their own institutions. On October 23 1707 the two countries were united in parliamentary terms, as a single Parliament representing both ancient rivals sat for the first time.
MPs in this first Parliament of Great Britain were not elected specifically to it: on the English side MPs sitting in the existing English and Welsh Parliament transferred into the new body; on the Scots side 45 men were selected to represent their country. The disparity of power is obvious: there were 486 English, 27 Welsh, and 45 Scottish MPs in the new Westminster British House of Commons.
As there was no truly formalised party system in place at this time it can be argued that, in spite of its membership coming overwhelmingly from the privileged top levels of society, it managed to represent a broader range of opinions than our current system – indeed there was a Whig-Tory coalition headed by Sidney Godolphin operating in England when the new body first sat, a coalition that continued in the Parliament of Great Britain. MPs were not paid, thus not career-slaves to party machines. And the groupings that existed were fluid, willing to change as circumstances dictated rather than swearing chalk is cheese if the whips say they must.

24 th October 1946

First image of earth:





24 October 1946 - V2 Rocket Takes First Photo of Earth From Space:


On October 24, 1946, over a year after the end of World War 2 a German V2 rocket launched from the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

The V2 rocket was developed by the Nazis but a bunch of them were seized and transported to the US along with the top rockets scientists like Wernher von Braun.

While continuing the development of missile designs, they launched the V2 rockets into space for further testing.

On one of these launches Clyde Holliday, one of the engineers on the project, created a 35 millimeter camera that took a picture every 1.5 seconds.

FIRST IMAGE OF EARTH
This picture was really the first image of Earth taken from space. It shows the curve of the globe.

It was taken at 65 miles (or 105 km) altitude. Afterwards, the rocket fell straight back to Earth and crashed into the desert at a speed of 548 km/h or 341mph. The rocket and camera were smashed but the film survived because it was encased by a steel cassette.

The pictures weren't released until 1950. They were then published in National Geographic. Holliday, the one responsible for mounting the camera on the rocket knew the importance of the visual. He was quoted saying the picture showed "how our Earth would look to visitors from another planet coming in on a space ship."



This was the first image of earth from space.

25 th October 1415

Battle of Agincourt:
Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England, with his lightly armoured infantry and archers, defeats the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt.



Battle of Agincourt:
On October 25, 1415, during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France, Henry V (1386-1422), the young king of England, led his forces to victory at the Battle of Agincourt in northern France. After further conquests in France, Henry V was recognized in 1420 as heir to the French throne and the regent of France.

Battle of Agincourt: Background
Two months before the Battle of Agincourt began, King Henry V crossed the English Channel with some 11,000 men and laid siege to Harfleur in Normandy. After five weeks the town surrendered, but Henry lost half his men to disease and battle casualties. He decided to march his army northeast to Calais, where he would meet the English fleet and return to England. However, at Agincourt a vast French army of some 20,000 men stood in his path, greatly outnumbering the exhausted English archers, knights and men-at-arms.

Did you know? The Battle of Agincourt served as the focal point of William Shakespeare’s play “Henry V.”

Battle of Agincourt: October 25, 1415
The battlefield lay on 1,000 yards of open ground between two woods, which prevented large-scale maneuvers and thus worked to Henry’s advantage. On the morning of October 25, the battle commenced. The English stood their ground as French knights, weighed down by their heavy armor, began a slow advance across the muddy battlefield. The French were met by a furious bombardment of artillery from the English archers, who wielded innovative longbows with a range of 250 yards. French cavalrymen tried and failed to overwhelm the English positions, but the archers were protected by a line of pointed stakes. As more and more French knights made their way onto the crowded battlefield, their mobility decreased further, and some lacked even the room to raise their arms and strike a blow. At this point, Henry ordered his lightly equipped archers to rush forward with swords and axes, and the unencumbered Englishmen massacred the French.


Almost 6,000 Frenchmen lost their lives during the Battle of Agincourt, while English casualties stood around several hundred. Despite the odds against him, Henry had won one of the great victories in military history.

Battle of Agincourt: Aftermath
After further conquests in France, Henry V was recognized in 1420 as heir to the French throne and the regent of France. He was at the height of his powers but died just two years later near Paris.

26 th October 1861

           Gunfight at OK Corral :
                                            Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participate in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.


On this day in 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. After silver was discovered nearby in 1877, Tombstone quickly grew into one of the richest mining towns in the Southwest. Wyatt Earp, a former Kansas police officer working as a bank security guard, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, the town marshal, represented "law and order" in Tombstone, though they also had reputations as being power-hungry and ruthless.

The Clantons and McLaurys were cowboys who lived on a ranch outside of town and sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves and murderers. In October 1881, the struggle between these two groups for control of Tombstone and Cochise County ended in a blaze of gunfire at the OK Corral. On the morning of 25 October, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury came into Tombstone for supplies. Over the next 24 hours, the two men had several violent run-ins with the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday.

Around 1:30 p.m. on 26 October, Ike's brother Billy rode into town to join them, along with Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne. The first person they met in the local saloon was Holliday, who was delighted to inform them that their brothers had both been pistol-whipped by the Earps. Frank and Billy immediately left the saloon, vowing revenge. Around 3 p.m., the Earps and Holliday spotted the five members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral, at the end of Fremont Street.

The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired. Though it's still debated who fired the first shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury's chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McLaury with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton.

When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded. Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills. Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the shootout, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. A month later, however, a Tombstone judge found the men not guilty, ruling that they were "fully justified in committing these homicides." The famous shootout has been immortalised in many movies, including ‘Frontier Marshal ‘(1939), ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ (1957), ‘Tombstone’ (1993) and ‘Wyatt Earp’ (1994), and made Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday household names of the Old West.

27 th October 2018

Leicester city helicopter crash :
Leicester City F.C. owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others after a Premier League match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.


Saturday, 27 October 2018 - Leicester had just drawn 1-1 with West Ham
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's helicopter took off from the centre circle. It was a routine sight. Leicester City's 61-year-old Thai owner would often fly out from the pitch after home games.

Srivaddhanaprabha, known by fans as Vichai, had bought Leicester in 2010 for £39m when they were in the Championship. He helped clear the club's debts, and the Foxes returned to England's top flight four years later. They then beat odds of 5,000-1 to claim the Premier League title in 2015-16. It was one of sport's most remarkable success stories.

On Saturday, 27 October 2018, Leicester played at home to West Ham. A 17:30 BST kick-off, the match finished in a 1-1 draw. At around 20:30, Vichai's helicopter took off. It crashed seconds later, coming down just outside the stadium.

All five people on board were killed.

This is the story of a tragedy that stunned football - told by four firefighters who were dispatched to the scene.


Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service's white watch reported for duty at 19:00 BST.

The watch manager was running late as he had been to the King Power Stadium to see his beloved Leicester City play against West Ham. Wilfred Ndidi had scored late for the home side to secure a 1-1 draw. Attention had turned to a farewell presentation for a colleague about to leave the station. Routine jobs were being done. A briefing, a cup of tea, equipment checked.

At around 20:30, the bells sounded. As with every incident received at the Central Fire and Rescue station on Lancaster Road, whoever is nearest the printer is the first to find out what the call is for, which fire engines will be attending and the personnel required.

"Because we are one mile from the stadium, we got mobilised. The bells were going, the blue lights flashing," said Dave Tennant.

"When it was announced what the incident was, we pretty much knew automatically who it was and what was involved," said Nick Lack. "A lot of the watch are great Leicester fans. The initial realisation of what had taken place was pretty impactful."

Before Leicester's home match on 19 October, hundreds took part in a walk to the King Power Stadium in memory of the crash victims
Nearly everyone in Leicester knew how the club's owner left games. Tennant used to point the helicopter out to his three-year-old son from his house in Wigston, on the outskirts of the city, four miles away.

"It is vivid in my mind," he said. "I used to sit in the back garden with my son and say 'there is Leicester City flying'.

"Sometimes we are sent out to jobs and what you are initially told is happening doesn't turn out to be 100% accurate. We heard it was a helicopter crash but we had to treat it like any other job.

"That night, I was in charge of the second appliance. We were told there had been multiple calls, which is a good indication the reported incident has actually happened and that there were people on board the helicopter.

"The King Power Stadium was the address we had. But the stadium itself is vast. As we approached, I clocked the smoke on the left-hand side. I remember the driver saying 'whereabouts, any idea?' I remember saying 'left, left, go left'. There were still people walking. The police were there."

The crews were on the scene within minutes of the helicopter crashing.

At that point, there was no thought of who was involved. This is when training takes over, as Joe Robinson recalls: "You just go into work mode. It was an obvious scene. There was fire to deal with. It was a helicopter.

"It is hard to describe your feelings at that point. It is a cliche but it is something we get used to. People in other lines of work get used to certain things in their day and for us, it is not normal, but we learn to deal with it.

"And we are there to save everybody - it doesn't matter whether it is the chairman of a football club or a homeless person. We are there to rescue someone or make the situation better. In the moment it is a helicopter crash with people on it.

"The bigger picture came afterwards with all the media coverage. That is when it sinks in."

"I had friends who are Leicester fans, sending me messages asking me if I was there and if I could tell them anything," said Tennant. "There is nothing you can say until the names are released. The families need to hear information first from the right channels."

As the situation changed and reinforcements arrived, control of the situation was handed over.

A sense of loss took over for Robinson. "We are here to make things better," he said. "When something isn't better… it doesn't feel like you have failed but when there is a loss of life, it is not far off.

"I am not a football fan, so the attachment to football is not there for me. I understood everything Vichai did for the city and the club and it is sad he is not with us any more. But we are very quick to think of one person and not the other four who were on board. They had families as well.

"It is just a sad situation. We have been to incidents time and time again since. You can't carry that burden around with you. You just can't. There is not enough room for it."

Another member of the crew, Russ, was not working that night. He had been to the game though. And he could see the effect the event had on his mates when he returned for duty.

"You could visibly see it had been hard work; seeing it on the news all the time, the profile of it, the exposure to it all. It had stirred emotions in a lot of people. The member of our team who was supposed to be leaving that night came back for a little bit to spend time with the watch, because he needed to be around everyone else who had experienced the same thing.

"The service were very good at getting in touch and telling us there were things available if we wanted them. But there is nothing better than talking among yourselves."

Fans left flowers in tribute to Vichai - who they affectionately referred to as 'The Boss'
The group decided to bring some kind of closure to their experience by doing the Leicester Half Marathon earlier this month.

Their plans had to be altered when the race was cancelled because of poor weather. With money pledged for the Vichai Foundation and the Firefighters Charity, Leicester City came to their aid by allowing them to run round the pitch - 63 times - to fulfil their promise.

"This time last year I was training for the London Marathon," said Tennant.

"It is weird, but it is something that sticks in my mind. The training was horrible. I did some really long runs, really boring. This particular time, I finished late at night and I knew Leicester had been playing. I was catching my breath at the end of the run and the helicopter came over. You can see the lights, you know it is a helicopter and you think 'I know who that is'.

"That was the last time I heard it.

"I guess that is why it just feels personal. It was a completely different night."

28 th October 1962


Cuban missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba:
1962: World relief as Cuban missile crisis ends
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief after the superpowers reached an agreement ending the immediate threat of nuclear war.
Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev has agreed to dismantle all Russian missiles based in Cuba and ship them back to the Soviet Union.

The announcement was made in a public message to President John F Kennedy broadcast on Moscow Radio.

In response, President Kennedy said the decision to remove the Cuban missiles was an "important contribution to peace".

He has also promised the US will not invade Cuba and will eventually lift the US naval blockade imposed on the island.

The blockade will continue until effective UN inspection ensures that the missiles in Cuba have been dismantled.

Spy plane uncovers missiles

The crisis began on 14 October after a U-2 reconnaissance plane revealed the existence of several nuclear missiles based in on the Caribbean island capable of reaching the US.

Then, President Kennedy made a TV address to the nation denouncing the Soviets' actions. He declared a naval blockade on Cuba and threatened the USSR itself with attack if any Cuban missile were launched against the USA.

Since then the world was on tenterhooks wondering which superpower would back down first, desperately hoping this was not the beginning of a nuclear World War III.

a week later, faced with a huge US fleet including eight aircraft carriers that had formed an arc 500 miles (800km) from the eastern tip of Cuba, Soviet vessels approaching the island turned back.

Relief and anger

The British Foreign Secretary the Earl of Home welcomed Khrushchev's decision to dismantle the weapons in Cuba and praised President Kennedy's diplomatic skills.

China expressed anger at the Soviet climb-down and said it will support Cuba "through thick and thin".

As part of the settlement Cuba's president Fidel Castro, angered that he was not consulted on the agreement,
ordered all Americans off the American base at Guantanamo used by US military for 60 years.

Strange thowt i'd done this this morn .... musnt have pressed send.


29 th October 1969


Beginning of 'tinternet :

The beginning of the Internet is the story of two large computers, miles apart, sending the message: “LO.” The world has never been the same.

In the late 1960s an experimental network of four computers called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was commissioned by the U.S. government. The computers were located at UCLA, SRI International (then known as Stanford Research Institute), UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. ARPANET evolved into the network of computer networks we know as the Internet.

On October 29, 1969, the first message was sent between two ARPANET computers. They tried to type in “LOGIN,” but the computers crashed after the first two letters.



“The breakthrough accomplished that night in 1969 was a decidedly down-to-earth one. The Arpanet was not, in itself, intended as some kind of secret weapon to put the Soviets in their place: it was simply a way to enable researchers to access computers remotely, because computers were still vast and expensive, and the scientists needed a way to share resources.

….One of the most intriguing things about the growth of the internet is this: to a select group of technological thinkers, the surprise wasn’t how quickly it spread across the world, remaking business, culture and politics — but that it took so long to get off the ground. Even when computers were mainly run on punch-cards and paper tape, there were whispers that it was inevitable that they would one day work collectively, in a network, rather than individually.”

On January 1, 1983, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) were accepted as the standard protocols for the ARPANET and other computer networks. For some, the acceptance of TCP/IP as a common network communication language is considered the beginning of the Internet. Vint Cert talks about the history of TCP/IP:



“’The 1969 connection was not just a symbolic milestone in the project that led to the Internet, but in the whole idea of connecting computers — and eventually billions of people — to each other,’ said Marc Weber, founding curator of the Museum’s Internet History Program. ‘In the 1960s, as many as a few hundred users could have accounts on a single large computer using terminals, and exchange messages and files between them. But each of those little communities was an island, isolated from others. By reliably connecting different kinds of computers to each other, the ARPANET took a crucial step toward the online world that links nearly a third of the world’s population today.'”

30 th October 1938

War of the worlds hoax :
Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States.



Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of "War of the Worlds", a realistic radio dramatisation of a Martian invasion of Earth. Orson Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theatre company decided to update H.G. Wells' 19th-century science fiction novel ‘War of the Worlds’ (1898) for national radio. Despite his age, Welles had been in radio for several years, most notably as the voice of "The Shadow" in the hit mystery programme of the same name. "War of the Worlds" was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

The show began on Sunday, 30 October, at 8 p.m. A voice announced: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the air in 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells. Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on. But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy "Charlie McCarthy" on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on. By then, the story of the Martian invasion was well underway. Welles introduced his radio play with a spoken introduction, followed by an announcer reading a weather report.


Then, seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took listeners to "the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra." Dance music played for some time, and then the scare began. An announcer broke in to report that "Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory" had detected explosions on the planet Mars. Then the dance music came back on, followed by another interruption in which listeners were informed that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer's field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. Soon, an announcer was at the crash site describing a Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder. "Good heavens," he declared, "something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another one and another one.

They look like tentacles to me ... I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it ...it ... ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it's so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate." The Martians mounted walking war machines and fired "heat-ray" weapons at the puny humans gathered around the crash site. They annihilated a force of 7,000 National Guardsman, and after being attacked by artillery and bombers the Martians released a poisonous gas into the air.

Soon "Martian cylinders" landed in Chicago and St. Louis. The radio play was extremely realistic, with Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his actors doing an excellent job portraying terrified announcers and other characters. An announcer reported that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to flee. In fact, that was not far from the truth. Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out across the country. In New Jersey, terrified civilians jammed highways seeking to escape the alien marauders.

People begged police for gas masks to save them from the toxic gas and asked electric companies to turn off the power so that the Martians wouldn't see their lights. One woman ran into an Indianapolis church where evening services were being held and yelled, "New York has been destroyed! It's the end of the world! Go home and prepare to die!" When news of the real-life panic leaked into the CBS studio, Welles went on the air as himself to remind listeners that it was just fiction.

There were rumours that the show caused suicides, but none were ever confirmed. The Federal Communications Commission investigated the programme but found no law had been broken. Networks did agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future. Orson Welles feared that the controversy generated by "War of the Worlds" would ruin his career. In fact, the publicity helped land him a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in ‘Citizen Kane’ – a movie that many have called the greatest American film ever made.

31 st October 2011

   A lot of folk:


                     The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognized by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion.

                        The Day of Seven Billion, October 31, 2011, is the day that has been officially designated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as the approximate day on which the world's population reached seven billion people. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke at the United Nations building in New York City on this new milestone in the size of world population and the issues that it will raise, along with promoting the UNFPA's new program named 7 Billion Actions, which will seek to "build global awareness around the opportunities and challenges associated with a world of seven billion people" and inspire individuals and organizations to take action. It is succeeded by the Day of Eight Billion on November 15, 2022.

            Background
Population Year Years elapsed since
previous milestone
1 billion 1804 ––
2 billion 1927 123

3 billion 1960 33

4 billion 1974 14

5 billion 1987 13

6 billion 1999 12

7 billion 2011 12

8 billion 2023 12

9 billion 2032 9

World population milestones (USCB estimates)
The world had already reached a population of five billion on July 11, 1987,[5] and six billion, twelve years later on October 12, 1999.

United Nations Population Fund spokesman Omar Gharzeddine disputed the date of the Day of Six Billion by stating, "The U.N. marked the '6 billionth' [person] in 1999, and then a couple of years later the Population Division itself reassessed its calculations and said, actually, no, it was in 1998."

         Choice of date
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, October 31, 2011 is a symbolic date chosen based on data interpolated from its 5-year-period estimates. The estimates are based on data sources such as recent censuses, surveys, vital and population registers, and published every other year as part of its World Population Prospects.

The actual date that the world population reached 7 billion had an error margin of around 12 months owing to inaccuracies in demographic statistics, particularly in some developing countries (even the world's best censuses have 1–2% error).[citation needed] Assuming a 1% global error margin, the 7 billion world population could have been reached as early as March 20, 2011 or as late as April 12, 2012.

However, the International Programs Division of the United States Census Bureau estimated that total world population would not reach 7 billion until sometime on March 12, 2012. It also offered an estimate that differed by about three months from the UN estimate for the Day of Six Billion.[

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis estimated a date between February 2012 and July 2014

       Seven billionth person
United Nations Population Fund spokesman Omar Gharzeddine said, "There's no way that the U.N. or anyone could know where or at what minute on the 31st the 7 billionth baby will be born", and the United Nations is not giving official status to this and similar publicity efforts. Nevertheless, several newborns were selected by various groups to represent the seven billionth person.

On the Day of Seven Billion, the group Plan International symbolically marked the birth of the 7 billionth human with a ceremony in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where a birth certificate was presented to a newly born baby girl, Nargis Kumar, in order to protest sex-selective abortion in the state. The Indian girl to boy ratio for 0–6-year-olds is at 914 girls per 1,000 boys nationwide, with Uttar Pradesh's one of the lowest at 889 girls for every thousand boys.

Other babies selected include Danica May Camacho, born in the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, Manila, Philippines just before midnight on the eve of the Day of Seven Billion, and Wattalage Muthumai, of Colombo, Sri Lanka

1 st November 1512

    Sistine chapel ceiling :
                                   The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

Sistine Chapel ceiling opens to public
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo’s finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time on November 1, 1512.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, was born in the small village of Caprese in 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist’s apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. After demonstrating his mastery of sculpture in such works as the Pieta (1498) and David (1504), he was called to Rome in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—the chief consecrated space in the Vatican.

Michelangelo’s epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures are nine panels devoted to biblical world history. The most famous of these is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. In 1512, Michelangelo completed the work.

After 15 years as an architect in Florence, Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1534, where he would work and live for the rest of his life. That year saw his painting of the The Last Judgment on the wall above the altar in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Paul III. The massive painting depicts Christ’s damnation of sinners and blessing of the virtuous and is regarded as a masterpiece of early Mannerism.


Michelangelo worked until his death in 1564 at the age of 88. In addition to his major artistic works, he produced numerous other sculptures, frescoes, architectural designs, and drawings, many of which are unfinished and some of which are lost. In his lifetime, he was celebrated as Europe’s greatest living artist, and today he is held up as one of the greatest artists of all time, as exalted in the visual arts as William Shakespeare is in literature or Ludwig van Beethoven is in music

you're a month out

Thanks Lolly , early morning posting, not fully awake. sorted

2 nd November 1959

    M1 motorway :
                          The first section of the M1 motorway, the first inter-urban motorway in the United Kingdom, is opened between the present junctions 5 and 18, along with the M10 motorway and M45 motorway.

2 November 1959 – First section of M1 opens to the public.

Blissful, isn’t it? Miles of largely empty motorway stretching into the distance, freshly-laid Tarmac, and a distinct lack of overhead gantries showing lane closures that opened several hours previously.

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because the image seen here was taken on November 2, 1959 – on the day that the first section of M1, between the modern junctions 5 and 18, was opened by the British Minister for Transport, Ernest Marples.

The UK was relatively slow on the uptake with fast, multi-lane highways. The A1 had been officially designated in 1921, but was effectively dozens of existing roads linked together under a convenient naming scheme, with a handful of bypasses around major towns, with alternating sections of single lane and dual-carriageway.

In contrast, the first stretch of the German Autobahn system had opened in 1935, 1920s plans pushed through rapidly by the Third Reich, while Dwight D. Eisenhower built upon America’s already comprehensive highway system with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, work beginning in August that same year.

England’s first motorway didn’t appear until 1958, with the Preston Bypass, now part of the M6. A road between London and the north had been planned, much like the Autobahn, back in the 1920s, but ground wasn’t broken until 1958.

                               

                                                            A " busy " M1 motorway on opening day

That ground was between Watford and Crick, broadly following the route of the A5, with the section between the modern junctions 10 and 18 built by John Laing and the southern portion by Tarmac Construction. Opened in November by the British Minister for Transport, it would be six more years until the next section, north of Junction 18, was started.

The M1 was originally intended to terminate at Doncaster, but the final route instead passed Sheffield, ending in Leeds, the final stretch of which was completed in 1972. At the southern end, the route was completed in stages from 1966, the final section to junction 1 at Staples Corner opening in 1977.

Initial traffic volume was estimated at 13,000 vehicles daily in 1959. Today, at least pre-pandemic, that figure has risen to more than 300,000, albeit over the full 193.5 miles. And until 1965, the M1 was, much like its partner the A1, without a speed limit.

While the 70mph limit is popularly attributed to outrage over AC Cars testing a Le Mans Cobra at 185mph in 1964, the reality is that a limit was as much down to recent fatal accidents in foggy conditions. Originally introduced as a trial limit, it has remained in place ever since. Perhaps, if traffic was still at 1959 levels, you might even be able to reach that limit on occasion…

3 rd November 1957

    First animal in space :
                                     Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.


Aboard the Soviet's Sputnik 2, Laika, a dog, became the very first living creature to enter orbit on November 3, 1957. However, since the Soviets did not create a re-entry plan, Laika died in space. Laika's death sparked debates about animal rights around the world.

Three Weeks to Build a Rocket
The Cold War was only a decade old when the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States began. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets were the first to successfully launch a rocket into space with their launch of Sputnik 1, a basketball-sized satellite.

Approximately a week after Sputnik 1's successful launch, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested that another rocket should be launched into space to mark the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1957. That left Soviet engineers only three weeks to fully design and build a new rocket.

Choosing a Dog
The Soviets, in ruthless competition with the United States, wanted to make another "first;" so they decided to send the first living creature into orbit. While Soviet engineers hurriedly worked on the design, three stray dogs (Albina, Mushka, and Laika) were extensively tested and trained for the flight.

The dogs were confined in small places, subjected to extremely loud noises and vibrations, and made to wear a newly created space suit. All of these tests were to condition the dogs to the experiences they would likely have during the flight. Though all three did well, it was Laika who was chosen to board Sputnik 2.

Into the Module
Laika, which means "barker" in Russian, was a three-year-old, stray mutt that weighed 13 pounds and had a calm demeanor. She was placed in her restrictive module several days in advance.

Right before launch, Laika was covered in an alcohol solution and painted with iodine in several spots so that sensors could be placed on her. The sensors were to monitor her heartbeat, blood pressure, and other bodily functions to understand any physical changes that might occur in space.

Although Laika's module was restrictive, it was padded and had just enough room for her to lay down or stand as she wished. She also had access to special, gelatinous, space food made for her.

Laika's Launch
On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea). The rocket successfully reached space and the spacecraft, with Laika inside, began to orbit the Earth. The spacecraft circled the Earth every hour and 42 minutes, traveling approximately 18,000 miles per hour.

As the world watched and waited for news of Laika's condition, the Soviet Union announced that a recovery plan had not been established for Laika. With only three weeks to create the new spacecraft, they did not have time to create a way for Laika to make it home. The de facto plan was for Laika to die in space.

Laika Dies in Space
Although all agree that Laika made it into orbit, there had long been a question as to how long she lived after that.

Some said that the plan was for her to live for several days and that her last food allotment was poisoned. Others said she died four days into the trip when there was an electrical burnout and the interior temperatures rose dramatically. And still, others said she died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and heat.

The true story of when Laika died was not revealed until 2002, when Soviet scientist Dimitri Malashenkov addressed the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas. Malashenkov ended four decades of speculation when he admitted that Laika had died from overheating just hours after the launch.

Long after Laika's death, the spacecraft continued to orbit the Earth with all its systems off until it reentered Earth's atmosphere five months later, on April 14, 1958, and burned up on reentry.

A Canine Hero
Laika proved that it was possible for a living being to enter space. Her death also sparked animal rights debates across the planet. In the Soviet Union, Laika and all the other animals that made space flight possible are remembered as heroes.

In 2008, a statue of Laika was unveiled near a military research facility in Moscow.

4 th November 1922


Tutankhamens tomb is discovered:

On November 4, 1922, a team headed by British Egyptologist Howard Carter began excavating the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Tutankhamun, nicknamed King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from 1333 BCE (when he was just nine years old) until his death in 1323 BCE. After he died, Tutankhamun was mummified, according to tradition, and buried in a tomb filled with artwork, jewelry, and treasures. Shifting desert sands quickly hid the tomb, and it lay mostly hidden for more than 3,000 years. On November 4, Carter's team found the first step of a staircase. The next day, his team exposed the whole staircase, and by the end of November, an antechamber, a treasury, and the door to the tomb itself were uncovered. After making a tiny breach in the door, Carter saw a room filled with gold treasures on November 26. But it wasn't until much later that the sarcophagus containing Tutankhamen’s mummy was revealed.

5 th November 1605


Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested.


On the night of 4th/5th November 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the cellars beneath Westminster. The idea was to blow up the House of Lords at the opening of Parliament on the 5th November, and to assassinate King James I.
Although the plot happened in the Stuart period, in the reign of King James I, it actually had its origins in Elizabeth’s reign. Elizabeth had continued the work of Henry VIII, and Edward VI and made England a Protestant country. By the end of her reign, England was a dangerous place for Catholics, with the threat of persecution and even death hanging over them. As Elizabeth’s health deteriorated, the Catholics pinned their hopes on James VI of Scotland, who was married to a Catholic, and who was the son of the late Catholic queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. Although he himself was a Protestant, the Catholics felt sure that he would be sympathetic to their cause.


James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, on Elizabeth’s death, and although his reign started well for the Catholics, with James limiting the restrictions on Catholics, things took a turn for the worse when, after opposition from Protestants, James reversed his policy less than a year after implementing it. The Catholics’ hopes were dashed and they felt betrayed. One party of young Catholics, headed by Robert Catesby, a popular and rebellious young man at court, decided to seek revenge through rebellion. They met in London in May 1604 and hatched a plan to blow up the Palace of Westminster on the opening session of Parliament, thus killing the King, the Royal family, members of Parliament (MPs), the Lords and the leading bishops. This would be the first step in their rebellion which sought to replace James I with his daughter, nine year-old Princess Elizabeth, as a Catholic queen.

One of the plotters, Thomas Percy, a member of the King’s Bodyguard, was able to lease lodgings that were situated adjacent to the House of Lords, and the idea was that the plotters would dig down underneath the foundations of the House of Lords and place gunpowder there. Guy Fawkes (also known as Guido Fawkes), a man who had been fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was the man chosen to put the plan into operation by preparing the gunpowder and lighting the fuse, and he posed as Percy’s servant, calling himself John Johnson so that he could stay in the property.

The Black Plague of summer 1604 meant that the plan had to be changed due to the opening of Parliament being delayed. However, this delay worked in the mens’ favour because during this time, they learned of a vacant ground-floor undercroft directly under the House of Lords Chamber. Thomas Percy was able to secure the lease of this undercroft. Guy Fawkes and other members of the group set about filling this space with 36 barrels of gunpowder, which had the potential to completely level the Palace of Westminster.


Everything seemed fine, and the plot looked as if it would be successful, until Lord Monteagle received an anonymous tip-off just over a week before the state opening of Parliament was due to take place. The letter, thought to be from Lord Monteagle’s brother-in-law, Sir Francis Tresham, who had recently become a member of the plot, gave enough details for Lord Monteagle to go to Robert Cecil. Cecil took the news to the King, who ordered the cellars beneath Westminster to be searched. It was on the night of the 4th/5th November that Guy Fawkes was found red-handed with the evidence – 36 barrels of gunpowder!

Guy Fawkes was arrested and tortured for information, but despite this failure, Catesby still attempted to incite armed rebellion in the Midland. It, too, was a failure and Catesby, along with a few of his co-conspirators, was killed in a shoot-out on 8th November. Those who weren’t killed were arrested, tried and then hanged, drawn and quartered in January 1606.

On 5th November 1605, Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King’s narrow escape by lighting bonfires around the city, and it is that celebration that is remembered in the UK every year on 5th November, along with the fireworks which have their origins in Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder. In fact, this celebration to give thanks for the deliverance of the King was made compulsory in the United Kingdom until 1859.

The traditional rhyme which is said on Guy Fawkes Night is:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;

6 th November 2004

     Ufton Nervet rail tragedy:
                                         An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 150.

                         

Ufton Nervet rail crash: The tragic events which saw level crossing finally replaced by bridge 12 years later
A look back at the catastrophic events that led to the safety improvements.


18 years ago, seven people died and many more were injured when a train travelling through Ufton Nervet ploughed into a car parked on the village's level crossing.

The train carrying around 300 passengers was travelling at 100mph as it hit the car occupied by Brian Drysdale, a chef at Wokefield Park in Mortimer .



The car was destroyed, killing Mr Drysdale, and all eight of the train's coaches derailed.

The train's driver Stanley Martin, 54, from Torquay in Devon, and five passengers were killed, and around half of the people on board were injured.

The incident, which happened on Saturday, November 6, 2004, prompted an enormous response from the emergency services and the world's media descended on the normally quiet West Berkshire village.

More than 20 ambulances from five counties and 14 fire crews attended and 61 people were taken to hospital.

Ufton Nervet rail crash survivor says opening of £7 million bridge and level crossing closure is "a form of closure"
Following the tragic incident which made national headlines, the level crossing continued to be the scene of a number of deaths.

In 2009 67-year-old Reading man Thomas Porter died after being hit by a train, as did 60-year-old Gary Provins of Haywood Way, Calcot , in October 2014.

In both these cases a coroner ruled a suicide verdict.

In 2010 49-year-old Fareham man Kenneth Greenway was hit and in 2012 David Montague of Woodley was killed when his scooter was hit by a train .

In Mr Montague’s case the coroner said there was not enough evidence to say whether or not his death was deliberate and recorded an open verdict.

Mr Drysdale’s inquest placed the blame for the incident on the Newtown man. A jury recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on the people who died in the crash, and suicide for Mr Drysdale.


How the Reading Evening Post reported the tragedy
It was revealed Mr Drysdale, a heavy drinker, had been struggling with his homosexuality and was waiting for the results of an HIV test when he died.

The inquest heard how he could have been suffering from paranoid psychosis or delusions.

Police also said during the inquest they would have considered charging Mr Drysdale with manslaughter or murder if he had survived.

The victims of the 2004 tragedy
Stanley Martin, 54, of Torquay, Devon

Anjanette Rossi, 38, of Speen, Berkshire

Louella Main, nine, of Speen, Berkshire (the daughter of Anjanette Rossi)

Emily Webster, 14, of Doccombe, Moretonhampstead, Devon


Barry Strevens, 55, of Wells, Somerset

Charlie Matthews, 72, of Warminster, Wiltshire

The crash, and the subsequent deaths at the level crossing and work by survivors Jane Hawker and Julie Lloyds prompted a safety review by Network Rail.

The decision was made in April 2015 to remove the level crossing to replace it with a bridge .

Work started on the £7 million bridge in April and it officially opened to traffic on Friday, December 16, with a ceremony including Robbie Burns, regional director for Network Rail, survivors of the crash, the crews who built the bridge and villagers from Ufton Nervet.



Mrs Hawker, who took her first train journey since the crash in 2016, spoke at the event and said afterwards: “This is a new chapter for me, it’s so good to see it actually here, actually open.

“I’m just so pleased the project has actually been completed.”

7 th November 1492

Oldest meteorite :
The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.


A Brief History
On November 7, 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage to the New World, a large meteor fell on the town of Ensisheim, Alsace, Austria, in what is now France. Seen as a falling fireball 100 miles away, the meteorite (when it hits the ground, a meteor becomes a “meteorite”) landed safely in a wheat field.

Digging Deeper
The 280 pound rock left a crater 3 feet deep (not bad for a rock that size) and was quickly set upon by curious villagers. Contrary to popular belief, people back then were not a bunch of flat earth believing cretins and apparently knew what a meteor was, although you have to think having a rock that size falling from the sky would get you to wondering! Indeed, many did see it as an omen, but not so much as a supernatural event. Villagers began breaking off pieces as souvenirs (they never saw Creepshow), but authorities stopped that activity to preserve the meteorite as a gift to King Maximilian I (King of Germany and King of the Romans, and in 1493 he became Holy Roman Emperor).

A piece was lopped off as a present to Cardinal Piccolomini as well (he later became Pope Pius III).

Writer, poet and satirist Sebastian Brant memorialized the event in his poem, “Loose Leaves Concerning the Fall of the Meteorite.” Brant prepared broadsheets with his poem in which he described the rock as an omen. The Nuremberg Chronicle (Folio 257) also mentions the event (this was a religious oriented history of the world printed in 1493). German artist Albrecht Durer sketched the fall of the meteorite as well, based on his own observation of the falling orb.

A regular run of the mill chondrite meteorite (low in iron, high in iron oxide and silicates), triangular in shape, the rock now resides in Ensisheim in the Musee de la Regence, the local museum. Since the 12th Century, many meteorites have been discovered, easily distinguished from local rocks by their iron content. The Ensisheim Meteorite is the oldest documented fall of a recovered meteorite. In prior centuries, meteorites were indeed the subject of supernatural speculation and were sometimes revered. Iron beads made from a meteorite were discovered in Egypt dating back to 3200 BC. Meteorites were used by many people through the centuries as a ready source of iron (not having to be smelted from iron ore), ready to use. Native Americans, including Inuit people used the metal this simple way as cutting tools.

Although stories exist of people or animals killed by falling meteorites, no reliably documented cases exist, although the Ensisheim Meteorite would certainly have killed a person if it had landed on them! Non-fatal meteor strikes of people have happened, but rarely. One boy from Uganda was hit in the head and suffered no serious injury because the meteorite was slowed by passing through banana leaves! Chances are that at least some of the tales of people or animals killed by meteorites are true.

8 th November 1987


            Enniskillen bombing :
                                           Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.


On this day in 1987: IRA bomb attack in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, 12 killed



In 2017, 30 years after their deaths caused by an IRA explosion, the 12 killed in the Enniskillen attack will be honored when a memorial is unveiled on Wednesday (Nov 8) at the bomb site.

A short religious service took at the unveiling in the Clinton Centre which is on the site of the Remembrance Day bombing on November 8, 1987.  Wreaths were laid by relatives of the victims and by veterans.



There was a minute’s silence exactly 30 years after the explosion of the 40-pound bomb.

Former President Bill Clinton gave his name to the building when he opened it in 2002. It’s a home for peace-building projects.

Another religious service also followed in Enniskillen Presbyterian Church.

The functions preceded a larger commemoration on Sunday when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire attended.


Eleven people died in the Remembrance Day bombing, also known as the Poppy Day massacre because of the poppies sympathizers wear in remembrance of those who died in wars. A 12th person, a school headmaster, died after lying in a coma for 13 years.

The youngest victim was 20-year-old nurse Marie Wilson who died in the rubble in the arms of her father, Gordon, a local draper. He recalled her last words: “Daddy, I love you very much.”

He became a peace campaigner during The Troubles, bringing a message from Protestants that they did not blame their Catholic neighbors for the bombing. When he attended a special Mass by Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich in the town’s St. Michael’s Catholic Church days after the bombing the 1,000-strong congregation stood to applaud him.

In a special article  in The Irish Times, Enniskillen journalist Denzil McDaniel recalled, “In the years that followed, Wilson’s words were credited with helping to maintain calm as Enniskillen became a byword for a dignified response of a community that held together in the face of evil.


“The impact seemed particularly strong in the Republic, where many were left shocked.”

McDaniel recalled the lord mayor of Dublin, Carmencita Hederman, traveling north to deliver books of condolence containing 45,000 signatures, and crying as she spoke to bereaved relatives in Erne Hospital.

In 2012, Queen Elizabeth visited the town. Following a meeting with the bereaved, she made the short but significant and symbolic walk from the Church of Ireland Cathedral across to St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church. It was the first time ever that she had entered a Roman Catholic place of worship during her 60-year reign.

In 1997 Gerry Adams apologized for the Enniskillen bombing.

However, Stephen McCann, Sinn Fein chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, said he would not go down the road of condemning the bombing.  SDLP, UUP and DUP councilors walked out of a subsequent meeting in protest at his comment.


Nobody was ever charged with the attack, although 10 suspects were questioned.