Today in history

18 th January 2007

Cyclone Kyrill:
The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.

The beginning of 2007 was particularly dangerous weather-wise across Europe, as a series of major storms pummeled the continent with wind and rain. The strongest of these storms made its mark on this date, January 18, across the United Kingdom.

At the time, there wasn’t a standardized naming system in place for European storms, although this would earn the name “Kyrill.” Nearly 50 people were killed from Britain to Russia, leaving damage estimated in excess of 1 billion euros.

After starting innocently enough as a low pressure system in the cold waters of the northern Atlantic became a formidable extratropical cyclone on January 15, 2007. From there, the storm would pack hurricane-force winds as it crossed over Ireland and Great Britain. By the time the system moved onto the continent on January 18, Kyrill’s would be producing sustained winds approaching 100 mph. Gusts in excess of 125 mph were measured across the mountainous terrain of northern Germany and Poland, along with numerous tornadoes reported.

Thanks to the storm’s size, the devastation from Kyrill stretched across all of northern Europe. Over 25,000 people lost electricity in southern England while over 50,000 lost power in Germany. The outages would last well into the weekend and schools in Germany had to close due to massive outages.

Along with the power outages, many roads, houses and business were laid to waste due to flood damages sustained from the storm. Countries such as Poland and the Netherlands have systems in place to alarm the public of dangerous flooding, but nothing could’ve prepared them for this storm. Kyrill would increase tides 12 to 15 feet above normal, leading to major flood issues. While Germany suffered the most deaths from Kyrill with 13 reports, but the U.K., Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Belgium and Austria all suffered deaths due to this storm.


At the time, the UK Meteorological Office had not yet introduced their colorized storm-warning system that is now common across Europe. However, it was determined later that this storm would have met all the criteria be a top-of-the-scale Red Warning storm.

19 th January 1764

    John Wilkes Booth expulsion :
                                               John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.


John Wilkes believed in liberty, freedom of speech and freedom of action. He was a keen member of the Hell-Fire club, which met dressed as monks to parody Roman Catholic rites and to enjoy women costumed as nuns. He was known for his wit and his reply to the Earl of Sandwich, who told him he would either die on the gallows or of the pox, is a classic: ‘That must depend on whether I embrace your lordship’s principles or your mistress.’

Wilkes was elected to the House of Commons in 1757. George III came to the throne in 1760 and presently chose Lord Bute, who had been his mentor, as prime minister. Wilkes started a weekly paper called the North Briton in which he attacked the administration and made libellous suggestions about Bute’s relationship with the king’s mother.

Bute resigned in 1763 and was replaced by George Grenville. In April that year Wilkes published the famous No. 45 issue of the North Briton in which he denounced the king’s speech to Parliament as a tissue of lies. The new administration’s ministers were outwardly his target, but many felt he had attacked the king himself and so unforgivably broken established convention. He himself remarked, invited to join a game of cards, that he could not tell a king from a knave.

Seeing a chance to silence him, the ministry had Wilkes arrested and sent to the Tower of London, but the Lord Chief Justice ordered his release on grounds of parliamentary privilege. Wilkes sued for damages and won. The ministers decided to cancel his privilege by expelling him from the Commons in 1764. They got hold of the proofs of his pornographic, blasphemous ‘Essay on Woman’, which Sandwich read aloud to the House of Lords. The Lords and the Commons condemned it as seditious and impious and in January the Commons carried a government motion expelling Wilkes from Parliament.

Wilkes went to France and in his absence was tried and found guilty of obscene libel. Now a popular hero and admired on both sides of the Atlantic, he returned and in 1767 was triumphantly elected MP for Middlesex to cries of ‘Wilkes and Liberty’. He then surrendered to the authorities and served time in prison. Expelled from the Commons again in 1769 for another alleged libel, he was re-elected three times in three successive months as Parliament refused to seat him. At last, in 1774, he became Lord Mayor of London, was again elected MP for Middlesex and was at last allowed to take his seat. Popular pressure had triumphed, so had Wilkes and so had liberty.

20 th January 1265

First parliament :

1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament"


While the signing of Magna Carta by King John in 1215 is a universal focus of any discussion of the English political system’s development, it was not the first step toward the parliamentary system that exists today. Indeed, the foundation for parliamentary government was laid back in 1066 when William the Conqueror imposed his vision upon the island of Britain. As the feudal system developed in Norman England, English kings were dependent upon the nobles and the clergy for a stable base of support. A tradition arose whereby the English monarch would call a Great Council of the leading nobles and clergy. The king still reigned supreme, but issues of practicality were apparent to even the most obtuse monarch and most kings saw the wisdom in consulting with the people who controlled the money and the armies.

Occasionally, however, one side or the other chose to forge its own path, as can be seen in the examples of Henry II’s conflict with Thomas Becket–a conflict that ended with Becket’s death–and King John’s refusal to listen to his feudal barons, a conflict that culminated in King John’s signature being affixed to Magna Carta. Shortly after signing Magna Carta King John attempted to repudiate his “assent,” a move that resulted in the First Barons’ War. King John died in 1216 and his son, Henry, succeeded to the throne, the only problem being that he was only nine years old. Until Henry III reached an age where he could assume control, England was under the effective control of his barons. After some brief instability early on, the barons helped him to establish a legitimate reign. Their stint in full control of the country, however, had only whetted their appetite for a larger measure of control.


Not long after Henry had assumed control of his reign he began to chart his own course, leaving the barons who had initially supported him feeling somewhat betrayed. Both Henry’s wife and mother were French, a situation that led Henry to rely on the advice of foreign kinsmen more so than on the advice of his own barons. Henry’s government gradually declined as he shifted many of the important financial and administrative duties away from his barons and over to the household departments of his court, positions that were occupied by those still loyal to him. By 1258, the barons had grown tired of Henry’s games. An ill-fated attempt by Henry to secure control of Sicily–by means of a back-door agreement with the Pope–proved to be the final nudge that pushed the simmering unrest in England over the edge.


In an echo of Magna Carta, the English barons banded together and forced Henry to agree to a series of articles called the Provisions of Oxford. The articles attempted to regain the traditional supervisory power that the barons had previously held, but shortly after having agreed to abide by the Provisions of Oxford Henry rallied enough support to repudiate his acceptance of the baronial council. At first the barons struggled to mount a unified resistance, but a French-born noble named Simon de Montfort emerged on the scene to lead the English barons in their cause. Tensions rapidly escalated and by 1264 Henry had amassed an army to march against the defiant barons. At the Battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264, King Henry III and his son were defeated and captured by Montfort’s army.

Just as the barons had been unhappy with Henry’s overbearing rule, so were they skeptical of Montfort’s success and rise to power. Montfort, to his credit, recognized that the barons comprised a crucial bloc of support for any leader, and he moved forward with calling the first English parliament that was not authorised by a monarch. Montfort instructed that each county elect two knights, and that each borough elect two burgesses and two alderman to attend the parliament. The meeting of barons, considered to be the first English parliament, began on 20 January 1265. It is considered the first English parliament in the technical sense because it was the first time that representatives to the parliament had been elected, rather than appointed. In addition, it was the first time that both knights and burgesses had attended the same parliament, an arrangement that broadened the groups represented.


For his part, Montfort only drew the ire of King Henry III and was killed later in 1265 during the Second Barons’ War. Montfort’s parliament did not signal the start of a consistent, broadly represented parliament, but it did lay the foundation for later parliamentary developments in the 13th century. 1265 saw the first parliament summoned by Edward I, a parliament at which both knights and burgesses were present. It was not until the Model Parliament in 1295 that regular attendance by commoners became a fixture of parliamentary practice in England.

21 st January 1976

Concorde,s first commercial flight :

1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

Heathrow, London The 21st of January 1976 AD

The dream which had begun in the 1950s, commercial supersonic flight, finally came about on January 21 1976. The British and French governments had agreed to cooperate in 1962; the first prototype emerged into public view in 1967; on March 2 1969 Britain saw its first Concorde takeoff from Filton in Bristol . Finally the whole point of the project was to be realised.
Concorde G-BOAA had been delivered just a week earlier (another plane had been returned for improvements having been used to test the route in advance of passenger services starting). But she was ready.
As so often with Concorde the first flight was laden with political overtones. Firstly, the intended transatlantic route was barred for the time being, supposedly for environmental reasons, but with a definite stench of American pique at the Old World having stolen a huge march on supposed US technological superiority. And of course it had to be the case that flights would take off simultaneously in Britain and France.
Even the destinations had a ring of politics about them: the French flight travelled to Rio via Dakar, in the old French colony of Senegal; the British flew to Bahrain, one of Britain's trading partners in the Middle East, though it was also viewed as a stopping point for future flights to Singapore and Australia.
Flight BA300 thus left Heathrow for Bahrain on January 21 1976, beginning a new age of supersonic commercial flight, albeit for the few who could afford it. The plane could travel at 1,350mph; she flew on the edge of space, 11 miles up; eventually the best time for a London - New York flight was 2 hours 53 minutes. And she was beautiful to boot. It is tragic that such an advance has now been consigned to history and that a few years hence when lucky grandparents say to their children's children "Of course in my day we flew much quicker," it will indeed be true.

22 nd January 1927

First live football broadcast :
Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

THE FIRST LIVE SOCCER BROADCAST

SATURDAY, 22nd JANUARY 1927

The first football match that was broadcast live on t' wireless was a First Division League match that was played in January 1927 between Arsenal and Sheffield United. The venue was Highbury and it took place a week after the first ever Rugby broadcast (England v Wales - Twickenham). The BBC schedule proudly announced that on Saturday afternoon

"2.5 Community singing and Arsenal v Sheffield United Association Football Match (relayed from Arsenal ground, Highbury)"

The match was to be described by Mr. H.B.T. Wakelam with local colour provided by Mr. C.A. Lewis. Some papers including the Radio Times published a plan of the pitch divided into eight sectors. The idea was that Lewis would call out the number of the section the ball was in, whilst his co-commentator Wakelam described the action. From the accounts of the time the broadcast was a great improvement on the earlier Rugby commentary. The following Monday's edition of the Manchester Guardian gave a summary of the broadcast.





THE HIGHBURY RELAY

The broadcast of running commentaries of the Arsenal v Sheffield United match at Highbury on Saturday afternoon was more successful than that from Twickenham the previous week. In the Rugby match listeners only heard one commentator whereas on Saturday there were two, and with the aid of the plan of the ground issued by the B.B.C. and their information it was possible to follow fairly closely the movements of the ball.

One commentator gives listeners a graphic description of the game while the other called out the section in which the ball was actually being played -

"Oh! pretty work, very pretty (section 5)..now up field (7).. a pretty (5,8) pass.. come on Mercer.. Now then Mercer; hello! Noble's got it (1,2)"

With the chart before one, it was fairly easy to visualise what was actually happening and the cheers and the groans of the spectators help considerably the imagination of the listeners.....

The Times agreed with the Guardian's review and praised the commentary for it's vivid and impressive descriptions of play throughout the game. In fact the the initiative remained a part of broadcasting for many years and has, unfortunately, enjoyed something of a resurgence recently with the advent of the "summariser"

Oh and the score - it was a 1 - 1 draw with Billy Gillespie scoring for the Blades.

As a footnote the 1927 F. A. Cup Final between Arsenal and Cardiff City was broadcast live from Wembley to homes all around the country. The commentators for the Final were George Allison who was later to become Arsenal's manager and Derek McCulloch who was later to achieve fame as "Uncle Mac" in B.B.C. Radio's Children's Hour

23 rd January 1986

Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame :
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.


A Brief History
On January 23, 1986, the first musicians were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!


Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find these inductees are largely responsible for the widespread acceptance of “rock and roll” as a mainstream musical genre.

The first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a great one indeed and included: Elvis Presley; Buddy Holly; Jerry Lee Lewis; James Brown; Chuck Berry; The Everly Brothers; Sam Cooke; Ray Charles; Little Richard; and Fats Domino.

Other inductees voted in for their early influences on rock and roll were: Jimmy Rodgers; Jimmy Yancey; and Robert Johnson, with Alan Freed and Sam Phillips entered with the inaugural class as non-performers.

As Alan Freed had coined the phrase “rock and roll” and was instrumental in its propagation, as well as for organizing The Moondog Coronation Ball, the first big time rock and roll concert with Cleveland, Ohio as its location, it was not surprising when in 1986, the Hall of Fame Foundation chose Cleveland to be the site of the actual museum housing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It did not hurt that a USA Today national poll had chosen Cleveland as well.

The first several induction ceremonies (which take place every year) were held in New York City as the building in Cleveland would not be ready until 1995. Since then, inductions have taken place in Cleveland, New York and Los Angeles.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located in downtown Cleveland very near the Great Lakes Science Center as well as the major league baseball, football and basketball stadiums. Other nearby attractions include the USS Cod submarine from World War II and the SS William H. Mather, a retired great lakes cargo ship/museum. Popular shopping areas in the vicinity are the Gateway and Galleria.

Around Labor Day, an air show and grand prix auto race are also held at Burke Lakefront Airport.

Along with performers and other contributors to rock and roll, 600 songs are enshrined as having been particularly influential (“The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”), too many to list here! Seven floors of exhibits and performances by inductees are just part of the multi-faceted agenda of the Hall.

The best way to learn more about the people and events in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is to go there, spend the day and ROCK ON!

24 th January 1908

Boy Scout movement begins :
The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powe

January 24
Boy Scouts movement begins
On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.

In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.

First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for a fortnight. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success.


With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization.

The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in the fog when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia.

In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.

25 th January 1533

Henry V111 secret wedding :
Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.

Today on January 25, 1533, King Henry VIII of England secretly marries Anne Boleyn at a private ceremony in London.

King Henry VIII had a total of six wives during his 38-year reign. His family, the House of Tudor, ascended to the English crown after his father’s victory at the Battle of Bosworth. On April 22, 1509, he succeeded Henry VII to become the next King of England. Henry VIII is now remembered as one of England’s most notorious and scandalous monarchs. After an initial affair with Anne Boleyn’s sister, his eyes eventually gazed towards his future second wife. While Anne initially tried to resist his sexual advances, she could no longer avoid him. These affairs transpired while Henry was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. By early 1533, it became clear that Anne was pregnant with her first child; thereby forcing the king into taking immediate action.

On January 25, 1533, King Henry VIII married Anne during a private ceremony in London. The wedding took place in Henry’s private chapel at Whitehall Palace. Only a handful of the king’s closest friends stood in as witnesses. Everyone was sworn to strict secrecy. The new royal couple went months before Henry’s court was even informed of the marriage. The king’s divorce with Catherine and marriage to Anne sparked religious tensions with the Pope. Henry ultimately decided to break ties with the Roman Catholic Church, leading to the creation of the Anglican Church. Anne was subsequently crowned as Queen consort of England. The lavish ceremony held at Westminster Abbey took place five months after their secret wedding. In many ways, this likely substituted for the grand marriage ceremony that she was denied. In September 1533, she gave birth to their one and only child, Elizabeth Tudor.

The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn eventually ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth I; serving as one of the country's longest-reigning monarchs. As time went on, Henry became increasingly obsessed with having a son and male heir. Over the next two years, Anne had two miscarriages. From Henry’s perspective, it was clear she would not fulfill his needs and blamed her for this misfortune. In 1536, Anne was suddenly arrested on charges of adultery and witchcraft. A secret commission that included her father and uncle investigated the charges. The adultery charges claimed she slept with five men including her own brother, Lord George Rochford. Following a swift conviction, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London. On May 16, 1536, Anne Boleyn met her evitable fate and was beheaded. Here is an easy way to remember the sequential fate of Henry's six wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

26 th January 1926

First television :
The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird;

London The 26th of January 1926 AD

It may have fallen some way short of today’s HD-ready plasma screens but it is much easier to refine an idea; being first is what counts, and John Logie Baird ’s electromechanical system was the world’s first television. It was his invention. It was the work of a maverick electrical engineer who let his mind run amok. It was the work of a pioneer. To a degree, he could be indirectly responsible for Eastenders and Big Brother – but don’t hold that against him; how was he to know?
Well, he knew a lot. Having earned his diploma at Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (now Strathclyde University), Baird studied for his degree at Glasgow University. He would never graduate though; Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist and the conflict of the First World War required his services elsewhere. Considered too poorly to be a soldier, Baird took a far more appropriate position as superintendent engineer at Clyde Valley Electrical Power Company.
It is not hard to imagine Baird in his element; his first television was said to be cobbled together from odds and sods – what inspiration he must have took from the electrical paraphernalia that would have littered the shop floor. Sure enough, after the war finished, Baird’s pursuit of a working television took him to the the South Coast of England, where his experiments carried on at pace. By 1924 he had made a primitive television, and demonstrated its flickering image to the Radio Times. Much work still needed to be done, but this was encouragement enough. A year later, Baird persisted and even dared to engage the public with a series of demonstrations of moving silhouettes. By October 2nd, 1925, Baird had cracked it – he had transmitted the first television picture. Primeval to today’s eye, Baird had nonetheless sired a new media. The flickering, low-res (30 lines per screen) image of a ventriloquist’s dummy was a ghostly debut for the television.
It was time for Baird to demonstrate in front of his peers. On January 26th, 1926, Baird paraded his invention before 50 scientists from the Royal Institute, and a journalist for The Times. His incremental progress allowed him to increase the scan rate of the image to 12.5 pictures a second – approximately half the speed of the human eye. Again, it was flickering and primal, yet it was deliciously avant garde, brimming with promise.


Baird would be buoyed by his success in broadcasting live, kinetic images. Two years later, July 3rd, 1928, he had delivered the first moving images in colour. Not stopping there, stereoscopic and infra-red television was next. Then an epochal moment for broadcasting; Baird’s transmission from London to Glasgow, delivered through 438 miles of telephone line proved that his invention could become national. Soon it was trans-Atlantic. Baird’s mechanical model, aside from being the first, hinted at the possibilities for television.
He was not alone in his vision. Across the Atlantic, the American company Marconi-EMI were developing a fully electronic television that would later supplant Baird’s electromechanical model. As the BBC broadcast its first television programme, the British play ‘The Man With The Flower In His Mouth’ the radio was in re-treat; a powerful new media’s age was about to began. Not bad for an electrical engineer from Helensburgh.



The first television image .

27 th January 1606

The gunpowder plot :
The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

Westminster, London The 27th of January 1606 AD

These days such a trial would last perhaps three months. In Jacobean times justice was swifter: Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators left alive were tried and convicted within the one day, January 27 1606. Some were executed on January 30, Fawkes himself on January 31 .

Given Guy Fawkes had been discovered in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with enough gunpowder to blow the building to pieces, armed with fuses and the wherewithal to light them, the verdict against him was never going to be anything other than guilty. He had also confessed to the crime, albeit under terrible tortures, though in that age torture could be part of the judicial system.

The trial itself at Westminster Hall was an occasion of enormous drama: tickets for the court changed hands like Wimbledon finals ticket today. The greatest judges and some of the highest figures in the in the land presided, with a total of nine commissioners: The Earls of Nottingham, Salisbury, Worcester, Suffolk, Devonshire and Northampton; Sir John Popham , Lord Chief Justice; Thomas Fleming, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; and Sir Peter Warburton, a Justice of the Common Pleas.

The indictment was read by Sir Edward Philips, the Serjeant at Law; Attorney General Sir Edward Coke prosecuted, describing the crimes as: “the greatest treasons that ever were plotted in England.” The accused all – with one exception, Sir Everard Digby who tried to justify his crimes – pleaded not guilty, but to no avail. All were found guilty, and all were sentenced to die by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

28 th January 1896

The first boy racer:
Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).


January 28th, 1896 must have started out as an ordinary day for the police constable responsible for Paddock Wood, Kent. As he pushed his bicycle through the quiet streets, he probably had nothing more on his mind than wondering whether today was the day he’d be able to say “You’re nicked, son” to that rogue of a poacher.

While proceeding in an orderly fashion through the village, the peace of the constable’s regular beat was suddenly and rudely shattered. He wasn’t to know that what was happening was also an event of national, and, ultimately, international significance.

Belting past the bobby at a scary 8mph, a motorist by the name of Walter Arnold was about to enter the record books in a burst of exhaust fumes and a flurry of legal activity. Not only was he clearly breaking the speed limit for one of these infernal machines, which was 2mph, but also, and even more damningly, he had no man with a red flag preceding him as the law required.

The bobby on the beat set off in hot pursuit on his regulation issue bicycle, finally catching up with this deranged road racer after five miles. Having captured his man, what was a bobby to do in pre-speeding ticket days? It’s not hard to imagine a subsequent scene between motorist and constable.

“Gasp – didn’t you hear me shouting at you to pull over sir? – cough – must ask you to accompany me – hang on a minute – wheeze…“


“Have you thought of asking your superiors for an upgrade, constable? I could provide them with a very good deal on a Benz motor, finest German engineering…”

“Now I’ve got my breath back, I’m writing you a citation, sir.”

Walter Arnold was no ordinary motorist. He was also one of the earliest car dealers in the country and the local supplier for Benz vehicles. He was well ahead of the times and set up his own car company producing “Arnold” motor carriages at the same time. It has to be said that the subsequent publicity surrounding his speeding offence probably wasn’t entirely unwelcome, and it was certainly a game changer for the automobile.

The London Daily News detailed the four counts, also known as “informations”, on which Walter Arnold faced charges at Tunbridge Wells court. Arnold’s vehicle was described several times in the newspaper court report as a “horseless carriage”, and the case clearly raised some interesting philosophical as well as legal points for the bench.




The first count, which reads oddly now, was for using a “locomotive without a horse,” the next for having fewer than three persons “in charge of the same”, indicating the enduring influence of horse-drawn and steam locomotion when it came to legislating the new vehicles. Next came the actual speeding charge, for driving at more than two miles per hour, and finally, a charge for not having his name and address on the vehicle.

In defence, Arnold’s barrister stated that the existing locomotive acts had not foreseen this type of vehicle, throwing in the names of a couple of elite users, Sir David Salmons and the Hon. Evelyn Ellis, who had never had any problems while out and about in theirs. Whether this was intended to impress the court or to make some point about one law for the rich and another for the man in the street is not entirely clear.

Since this was a case that would set a precedent, referencing names of people who were in the public eye would avoid the problem that has become a by-word for judges who are out of touch – the “who he?” reaction. The origin of this phrase, frequently referenced by satirical magazine Private Eye, lies in the response of one judge in the 1960s who was heard to ask in court “Who are the Beatles?”

Mr Cripps, defending, said that if the Bench considered the vehicle was a locomotive, therefore presumably legislating it within existing acts, they should charge a nominal fine. Eventually, Mr Arnold was fined 5 shillings for the first count of “using a carriage without a locomotive horse” (aka “horseless carriage”) plus £2.0s.11d costs. On each of the other counts, he was to pay 1 shilling fine and 9 shillings costs. Effectively then, his speeding offence cost him a shilling. All in all, the publicity it created may have made it worth it.

The case may have had an influence on the changes to legislation shortly afterwards. The man with the red flag was no longer required, presumably leading to labour exchange staff scratching their heads over what to do with a skill that clearly wasn’t that transferable. The fearsome machines no longer needed a minimum of three people to control them (“Whoa car, ah said whoa, whoa!” to paraphrase cartoon character Yosemite Sam).

29 th January 1886

    Birth of the automobile :
                                      Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

It was the document that set the world in motion: on 29 January 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent on his "gas-powered vehicle". This was the day the automobile was born. Later the same year, independently of Benz, Gottlieb Daimler built his motorised carriage. Thus it was that 1886 marked the beginning of the so far 130-year-long success story of Mercedes-Benz.
Stuttgart. The birth certificate of the automobile bears the number DRP 37435. For that was the reference under which the patent on a "gas-powered vehicle" filed by the Mannheim engineer Carl Benz on 29 January 1886 was registered with the German Imperial Patent Office in Berlin. The 137-year-old document is testimony to Carl Benz's innovative spirit, creative power and entrepreneurial vision. Since 2011, the patent document has been part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, which also includes the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta and Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor.
How it all began
Carl Benz developed the world's first automobile in 1885. To do this, he installed a high-speed one-cylinder four-stroke engine (954 cc displacement running at 400 rpm with 0.55 kW/0.75 hp output) horizontally in a specially designed chassis. The top speed was 16 km/h. This three-wheeled patent motor car was an absolute world first: a totally self-contained, self-propelled vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine.
The patent motor car made its first public appearance on 3 July 1886 on Ringstrasse in Mannheim. Yet it was the long-distance journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in 1888 in the improved Model III patent motor car that was to fully demonstrate the automobile's suitability for everyday use.
That journey was undertaken not by Carl Benz himself, but by his wife, Bertha. In a show of utmost confidence in her husband's invention, which had been filed with the Patent Office on 29 January 1886, Bertha Benz was accompanied by her sons Eugen and Richard – entirely unbeknown to the inventor – as she took to the wheel on this first long-distance journey in the history of the automobile in August 1888. Bertha and her sons thus proved how well the concept of a motor vehicle worked at the technical level. At the same time, they gave a practical demonstration of the today still typical application of a passenger car. This was set out by Carl Benz in his patent application when he referred to the "operation of mainly light carriages for the conveyance of one to four passengers".
In 1886, the pioneering inventions of Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler brought a revolutionary, new dimension to mobility. For the past 130 years, the innovations presented by Mercedes-Benz have built on that accomplishment: in the interests of safety, comfort, efficiency and confidence. With present-day developments in areas such as autonomous driving, intelligently connected vehicles and electric mobility, Mercedes-Benz is introducing the future of the automobile. It was a visionary path on which Carl Benz set out on 29 January 1886 when he applied for a patent on his motor car.
Together with Gottlieb Daimler's motorised carriage, which was developed likewise in 1886, Carl Benz's patent motor car is the first exhibit on view to visitors as they begin their tour of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. The Museum celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2016, having to date attracted over seven million visitors.

                                 

                            The first patented automobile.

30 th January 1969


The Beatle's rooftop performance :
The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

The Beatles' rooftop concert.

On 30 January 1969, the Beatles performed an impromptu concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, in central London's office and fashion district. Joined by guest keyboardist Billy Preston, the band played a 42-minute set before the Metropolitan Police arrived and ordered them to reduce the volume. It was the final public performance of their career.

Although the concert had been conceived only a few days previously, the Beatles had been planning to return to live performance since they began the recording sessions for their album Let It Be (1970). They performed nine takes of five new songs as crowds of onlookers, many on lunch breaks, congregated in the streets and on the rooftops of nearby buildings to listen. The concert ended with "Get Back", with John Lennon joking, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition.]

The entire performance was filmed and recorded, and footage was used in the 1970 documentary film Let It Be and the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back. The first performance of "I've Got a Feeling" and single takes of "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony" were also featured on the accompanying album. On 28 January 2022, the audio of the full rooftop performance was released to streaming services under the title Get Back – The Rooftop Performance.

In February 2022, Disney released the entire concert sequence as presented in The Beatles: Get Back in IMAX as The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert. It had a limited theatrical engagement to critical acclaim.

Performance

3 Savile Row, London, the location of the concert (pictured in 2007)
Until the last minute, according to Lindsay-Hogg, the Beatles were still undecided about performing the concert.[24] He recalled that they had discussed it and then gone silent, until "John said in the silence, 'F**k it – let's go do it.'

The four Beatles and Preston arrived on the roof at around 12:30pm. When the musicians started playing, there was confusion among members of the public, many of whom were on their lunch break. As the news of the event spread, crowds began to congregate in the streets and on the roofs of nearby buildings] While most responded positively to the concert, the Metropolitan Police grew concerned about noise and traffic issues, having received complaints from several local businesses. The film cameras captured police officers arriving at Apple to stop the performance. Apple employees initially kept the officers in reception and refused to let them up to the roof, but reconsidered when threatened with arrest.

According to Johns, the band fully expected to be interrupted by the police, since there was a police station not far along Savile Row. The authorities' intervention satisfied a suggestion made by McCartney earlier in January, that the Beatles should perform their concert "in a place we're not allowed to do it ... like we should trespass, go in, set up and then get moved ... Getting forcibly ejected, still trying to play your numbers, and the police lifting you."

The officers ascended to the roof just as the Beatles began the second take of "Don't Let Me Down". During the next number – the final version of "Get Back" – McCartney improvised the lyrics to reflect the situation: "You've been playing on the roofs again, and you know your momma doesn't like it; she's going to have you arrested!" Acting on the police officers' instructions, Evans turned off Lennon and Harrison's guitar amplifiers mid-song, only for Harrison to turn his amplifier back on in defiance. Evans then turned Lennon's back on as the band continued to play.

The concert came to an end with the conclusion of "Get Back". McCartney said "Thanks Mo", in response to applause and cheers from Maureen Starkey, Starr's wife. Lennon then said: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition."

31 st January 2020

Brexit day :
The United Kingdom's membership within the European Union ceases in accordance with Article 50, after 47 years of being a member state.


The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership - and more than three years after it voted to do so in a referendum.

The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests.

Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU, while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square.

Boris Johnson vowed to bring the country together and "take us forward".

In a message released on social media an hour before the UK's departure, the prime minister said: "For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come.

"And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss."

He said some had worried the political "wrangle" would not end but it was his job to take the country forward.

Brexit supporters held a party in Parliament Square
Brexit parties were held in pubs and social clubs across the UK as the country counted down to its official departure.

Thousands gathered in Parliament Square to celebrate Brexit, singing patriotic songs and cheering speeches from leading Brexiteers, including Nigel Farage.

The Brexit Party leader said: "Let us celebrate tonight as we have never done before.

"This is the greatest moment in the modern history of our great nation."

Pro-EU demonstrators earlier staged a march in Whitehall to bid a "fond farewell" to the union - and anti-Brexit rallies and candlelit vigils were held in Scotland.

Police in Whitehall arrested four men and also charged one man with criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly, while in Glasgow one man was arrested.

Meanwhile, other symbolic moments on a day of mixed emotions included:

The Union flag being removed from the European Union institutions in Brussels
The Cabinet meeting in Sunderland, the first city to declare in favour of Brexit when the 2016 results were announced
A light show illuminating 10 Downing Street and Union flags lining The Mall
A 50p coin to mark the occasion entering circulation
The building of the UK government's delegation to the EU changed its name and sign.

A pro-EU group earlier projected a message onto the White Cliffs of Dover
In Northern Ireland, the campaign group Border Communities Against Brexit staged a series of protests in Armagh, near to the border with the Irish Republic.

The Irish border - now the UK's land border with the EU - was a major sticking point in the Brexit divorce talks.

NI and the Irish Republic "will continue to remain neighbours", said NI First Minister Arlene Foster on RTÉ on Friday.

At 23:00 GMT, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted a picture of the EU flag, adding: "Scotland will return to the heart of Europe as an independent country - #LeaveALightOnForScotland".

Ms Sturgeon is calling for a new referendum on Scottish independence, arguing that Brexit is a "material change in circumstances".

Speaking in Cardiff, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said Wales, which voted to leave the EU, remained a "European nation".

Labour MP Hilary Benn, who chairs the Brexit select committee and backed Remain, said he was "sad last night... but we have to accept it".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UK was always a "reluctant" EU nation, adding: "We joined late and we left early."


A dreary night didn't discourage those celebrating in Parliament Square. We wake this morning out of the European Union. But we follow their rules until the end of the year, without a say.

We are separate after more than 40 years, but remember much of the status quo will hold for now - the UK and the EU, the awkward couple, finally divorced - but still sharing a house and the bills.

But what the prime minister hails as a new era, a bright new dawn, starts months of hard bargaining with our neighbours across the Channel.

The UK's requests: a free trade agreement, cooperation on security, and new arrangements for fishing are just some of the vital arguments that lie ahead.

What happens now?

UK citizens will notice few immediate changes now that the country is no longer in the European Union.

Most EU laws will continue to be in force - including the free movement of people - until 31 December, when the transition period comes to an end.

The UK is aiming to sign a permanent free trade agreement with the EU, along the lines of the one the EU has with Canada.

But European leaders have warned that the UK faces a tough battle to get a deal by that deadline.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis said agreeing a trade deal was "not a charitable exercise, this is an exercise of both sides recognising their own best interests".

"From today, we are their [the EU's] biggest export market," he told the Today programme.

1 st February 2003


Space shuttle Columbia disaster :
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster .

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board. The mission was the second that ended in disaster in the Space Shuttle program after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, which killed all seven crew members during ascent.

During the STS-107 launch, a piece of the insulative foam broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter's left wing. Similar foam shedding had occurred during previous Space Shuttle launches, causing damage that ranged from minor to near-catastrophic, but some engineers suspected that the damage to Columbia was more serious. Before reentry, NASA managers had limited the investigation, reasoning that the crew could not have fixed the problem if it had been confirmed. When Columbia reentered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the orbiter to become unstable and break apart.

After the disaster, Space Shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years, as they had been after the Challenger disaster. Construction of the International Space Station (ISS) was paused until flights resumed in July 2005 with STS-114. NASA made several technical and organizational changes to subsequent missions, including adding an on-orbit inspection to determine how well the orbiter's thermal protection system (TPS) had endured the ascent, and keeping a designated rescue mission ready in case irreparable damage was found. Except for one mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, subsequent Space Shuttle missions were flown only to the ISS to allow the crew to use it as a haven if damage to the orbiter prevented safe reentry; the remaining orbiters were retired after the ISS was finished.

2 nd February 1969

Ural mountains incident :
Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances.

People all over the world enjoy various forms of outdoor activities, and hiking is certainly the most popular and accessible. Millions of people enjoy leisurely strolls along nature parks, while some opt for more rigorous paths up mountains and through extreme terrain. It pays to be knowledgeable about your surroundings, have training in first aid, and have certain skills that would benefit yourself and any companions that have been brought along. Generally, the worst and most common accidents to befall hikers are scrapes and sprains. However, hikers every year face deadly situations that prevent them from their return home.

Exposure to the elements, deadly falls, and animal encounters are typically the ways in which most hikers will meet their untimely deaths. Yet, there are some mishaps that are rather unexplained. One such case of unexplained hiker death is that of Dyatlov Pass. This mystery has left researchers, detectives, and the public utterly puzzled for the last five decades. Nine experienced hikers went on a treacherous trek in the Ural Mountains in Russia between February 1st and February 2nd, 1959; none of the nine returned, but rather, were found dead in various and unexplained ways.

The Dyatlov Pass incident has inspired a slew of documentaries and books, both fact and fiction, over the years. Both professional and self proclaimed detectives have made attempts to produce logical explanations for these young hikers’ deaths, but in the end, are left unsatisfied. There are a multitude of theories regarding the incident, ranging from practical to outlandish. Aliens, secret government conspiracies, scorned lovers, and panic induced hysteria have all been circulating theories.

The group originally consisted of ten Ural Polytechnical Institute students: Yuri Doroshenko, Lyudmila Dubinina, Yuri (Georgiy) Krivonischenko, Alexander Kolevatov, Zinaida Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin, Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles, Yuri Yudin, and 38 year old Semyon (Alexander) Zolotaryov and their leader from whom the incident was named after, Igor Dyatlov. Yuri Yudin suffered from many health problems, including a heart defect and rheumatism. He did not follow through with the planned trek and turned back due to joint pain. It was this joint pain that surely saved Yudin. He was the only member of the group to survive.

The group had planned a grand skiing trip. All eight men and two women were Grade II hikers. Along with their obvious hiking experience, they also had ski tour experience. They were all to receive a Grade III rating upon their return, which at the time, was the highest level one could earn in Soviet Russia. Their goal was to reach Otorten, an intimidating mountain 6.2 miles north of where all the bodies were eventually found. The route the hikers had mapped out in February was considered a Category III, the most difficult. Due to both the experience needed, the expected danger, and the publicity of the incident, this region was closed to all hikers for three years after the remains of the hikers were found.


On January 27th, 1959, the trekkers began their journey toward Otorten from Vizhai, a village that is the last inhabited settlement to the north. The hikers established a camp on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl, which was later renamed Dyatlov Pass in honor of the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov. When investigators found the group’s campsite, they were able to retrieve diaries and cameras, allowing them to retrace the nine’s footsteps. Upon reading the diaries, investigators discovered the group had planned to make a camp on the opposite side of the pass, but due to worsening weather conditions, they lost their direction and headed westward towards the top of Kholat Syakhl.

Once they had realized their mistake, the group abruptly stopped and set up a camp on the slope. Had they moved downward 0.93 miles, they could have sheltered in a forested area, protecting them from the treacherous snowstorm causing them to lose all direction. However, the sole surviving trekker who left the group prior to the February deaths, Yudin, speculated that Dyatlov was responsible for the decision, stating: “Dyatlov probably did not want to lose the altitude they had gained, or he decided to practice camping on the mountain slope.”

Wisely, Dyatlov had declared he would send a telegram to the school’s sports club when he and the group returned to the village of Vizhai. The telegram was expected by February 12th, but before Yudin departed from his hiking group, Dyatlov told him he expected it to be a little longer. February 12th passed, as did more days of no news from Dyatlov’s group. Because of worsening weather conditions and the nature of such arduous hikes, fellow students and friends were not overly concerned that they had not heard from the group.

It was not until relatives of the nine hikers demanded a search party be sent out on February 20th that any attempt to find the men and women occurred. Volunteers from the institute, friends, family, and rescue crews were the initial parties involved. Several days passed, and no signs of the seasoned hikers could be found. Helicopters, planes, and the military were utilized as last efforts in hopes they would find the missing nine.

On February 26th, fourteen days after Dyatlov had planned to contact others assuring their safety, a rescue group found the shredded remains of the group’s tent. A student from Ural Polytechnical institute, Mikhail Sharavin, found the tent, stating “the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind.” This single discovery was the beginning of a baffling mystery: what happened to these young men and women?


Investigators found nine sets of footprints exiting the camp, all footprints appearing to be from people only wearing socks, only one shoe, or entirely barefoot. Tracking the footprints, crews followed the path to the edge of nearby woods, nearly a mile northeast and opposite the side of the pass. Strangely, after 500 feet, the hiker’s tracks were covered with snow.

The investigators entered the woods and found a cedar nearby; underneath the cedar, signs of a small fire were visible and adjacent to the extinguished fire were the bodies of those of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, both without shoes and naked except for underwear. The cedar tree itself had odd clues to the group’s reasoning for being at this location. Sixteen feet above were broken branches. Investigators speculated one of the skiers must have climbed up in an attempt to find something. Between the cedar and the campsite lie three more dead bodies belonging to Dyatlov, Kolmogorova, and Slobodin. All three were posed in ways that suggested to investigators that they were headed back towards the camp and tent. Ultimately, only five bodies were recovered on that February trip. It took over two months for the remaining four to be recovered.


On May 4th, 1959, the remaining four hikers were recovered under thirteen feet of thawing snow in a ravine over 200 feet from the cedar tree Krivonischenko’s and Doroshenko’s bodies were found. All four were at least better dressed than the five previously found in February, but it appeared they were not wearing their own clothes. Each hiker was wearing pieces of clothing that belonged to their fellow hikers, rather than there own gear.

The deaths of the first five were quickly proposed. Hypothermia was the official cause of death. Slobodin had a small injury on his skull, but coroners felt certain the injury was of no significance. Initially, the diagnosis of hypothermia was not shocking, but when the remaining four bodies were found, the narrative of exactly what happened February 1st and 2nd changed from unfortunate to ominous. Three of the hikers had fatal injuries. Thibeaux-Brignolles’s skull was thoroughly damaged and both Dubinina and Zolotaryov had fractured chests. It was said that the force required to sustain such significant injuries was analogous to a car crash. Dubinina was also found without a tongue, her eyes, and parts of her lips missing. All nine bodies were also reported to have strange amounts of radiation readings on both their bodies and any clothes they were wearing.

Initial speculation from the investigators and the public was that a local tribe, the indigenous Mansi, were responsible for the attack. This theory was proven wrong on three fronts. Firstly, the Mansi people are known as peaceful people who are not prone to violence. Secondly, the force required in several of the member’s injuries would not be humanly possible. Thirdly, there were only enough footprints to account for all the missing hiker.

Other strange reports around the time of the February disappearance of the nine hikers add extra mystery to the incident. Another group of hikers who were camping approximately 31 miles south of the Dyatlov incident reported seeing strange orange glowing spheres to the north of their camp. These spheres were not just observable to this set of hikers, as people from the nearby town of Ivdel and other adjacent communities also reported seeing odd spherical lights in the sky. Other sources, such as meteorological services and the military, confirmed these reports.

No truly satisfactory answer has ever been given for the untimely and strange deaths of these extraordinarily knowledgeable hikers. Decades have passed and thanks to many dedicated sleuths, the Dyatlov Pass has remained a fascinating puzzle begging to be solved. Perhaps one day, definitive answers will lay this mystery to rest.

3 rd February 1959

The day the music died :
Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash along with the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa, an event later known as The Day the Music Died.


Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock n roll. Holly was at the height of his musical career when he, along with two other rock n roll stars, Ritchie Valens and JP ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson, got onto a small plane on the 3rd of February 1959. The stars were headliners for The Winter Dance Party, a tour of popular music stars through the Mid-West of America, but fate stepped in.

Buddy Holly was born in Texas on the 7th of September 1936, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by Gospel Country and Rhythm and Blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school. He made his first appearance on local television in 1952, and the following year he formed the group “Buddy and Bob” with his friend Bob Montgomery. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, he decided to pursue a career in music. He opened for Presley three times that year; his band’s style shifted from country and western to entirely rock n roll. In October that year, when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, he was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records.

Holly’s recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley, who had become famous for producing orchestrated country hits for stars like Patsy Cline. Unhappy with Bradley’s musical style and control in the studio, Holly went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded a demo of “That’ll Be the Day”, among other songs. Petty became the band’s manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to “The Crickets”, which became the name of Holly’s band. In September 1957, as the band toured, “That’ll Be the Day” topped the US and UK singles charts. Its success was followed in October by another major hit, “Peggy Sue”.

The album ‘The Chirping Crickets’, released in November 1957, reached number five on the UK Album Chart. Holly made his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after toured Australia and then the UK. In early 1959, he assembled a new band, consisting of future country music star Waylon Jennings (bass), famed session musician Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), and embarked on a tour of the mid-western U.S. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, he chartered an airplane to travel to his next show, in Moorhead, Minnesota. Soon after take-off, the plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in a tragedy later referred to by Don McLean as “The Day the Music died” in his song “American Pie”.

The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of Flu and even frostbite. After stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by such conditions, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, suffering from flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin-toss. Soon after take-off, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield, killing all four on board.

The event has since been mentioned in several songs and films. Various monuments have been erected at the crash site and in Clear Lake, where an annual memorial concert is also held at the Surf Ballroom, the venue that hosted the artists’ last performances. During his short career, Holly wrote and recorded many songs. He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll line-up of two guitars, bass, and drums. He was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Hollies (who named themselves in his honour), Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, and Elton John. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 13 in its list of “100 Greatest Artists”.

4 th February 1974

M62 coach bomb:
M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.


M62 Coach Bombing – 12 People including two children die in coach bomb.

The M62 coach bombing happened on 4 February 1974 on the M62 motorway in northern England, when a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members.

Twelve people (nine soldiers, three civilians) were killed by the bomb, which consisted of 25 pounds (11 kg) of high explosive hidden in a luggage locker on the coach. Judith Ward was convicted of the crime later in 1974, but 18 years later the conviction was judged as wrongful and she was released from prison.

The Bombing
The coach had been specially commissioned to carry British Army and Royal Air Force personnel on leave with their families from and to the bases at Catterick and Darlington during a period of railway strike action. The vehicle had departed from Manchester and was making good progress along the motorway. Shortly after midnight, when the bus was between junction 26 and 27, near Oakwell Hall, there was a large explosion on board. Most of those aboard were sleeping at the time. The blast, which could be heard several miles away, reduced the coach to a “tangle of twisted metal” and threw body parts up to 250 yards (230 m).

The explosion killed eleven people outright and wounded over fifty others , one of whom died four days later. Amongst the dead were nine soldiers – two from the Royal Artillery, three from the Royal Corps of Signals and four from the 2nd battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

One of the latter was Corporal Clifford Haughton, whose entire family, consisting of his wife Linda and his sons Lee (5) and Robert (2), also died. Numerous others suffered severe injuries, including a six-year-old boy, who was badly burned.


The driver of the coach, Roland Handley, was injured by flying glass, but was hailed as a hero for bringing the coach safely to a halt. Handley died, aged 76, after a short illness, in January 2011.

Suspicions immediately fell upon the IRA, which was in the midst of an armed campaign in Britain involving numerous operations, later including the Guildford Pub Bomb and the Birmingham pub bombings.

Reactions in Britain were furious, with senior politicians from all parties calling for immediate action against the perpetrators and the IRA in general. The British media were equally condemnatory; according to The Guardian, it was:

“the worst IRA outrage on the British mainland” at that time, whilst the BBC has described it as “one of the IRA’s worst mainland terror attacks”.

The Irish Sunday Business Post later described it as the “worst” of the “awful atrocities perpetrated by the IRA” during this period.

IRA Army Council member Dáithí Ó Conaill was challenged over the bombing and the death of civilians during an interview, and replied that the coach was bombed because IRA intelligence indicated that it was carrying military personnel only.

The attack’s most lasting consequence was the adoption of much stricter ‘anti-terrorism‘ laws in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, allowing police to hold those ‘suspected of terrorism’ for up to seven days without charge, and to deport those ‘suspected of terrorism’ in Britain or the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland to face trial, where special courts judged with separate rules on ‘terrorism‘ suspects.

The entrance hall of the westbound section of the Hartshead Moor service area was used as a first aid station for those wounded in the blast. A memorial to those who were killed was later created there. following a campaign by relatives of the dead, a larger memorial was later erected, set some yards away from the entrance hall.

The site, situated behind four flag poles, includes an English oak tree, a memorial stone, a memorial plaque and a raised marble tablet inscribed with the names of those who died.

A memorial plaque engraved with the names of the casualties was also unveiled in Oldham in 2010.

5 th February 1924

The "pips":
The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.


BBC first broadcasts Greenwich Time Signal pips

Britain’s power came from its navy. British merchantmen and marines sailed the world over, establishing colonies on almost every continent in both hemispheres. To keep themselves coordinated and oriented, they began to use common navigational standards, such as referencing the Greenwich Meridian to calculate their longitude. The Greenwich Meridian eventually led to Greenwich Mean Time, for a while the world standard for timekeeping.

On this day, February 5, in 1924 the Greenwich observatory first broadcast its time signal, the five “pips” in the last five seconds preceding every hour. They continue to this day on BBC radio broadcasts, although now more as a matter of tradition, as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), based on atomic clocks, has succeeded it in accuracy.

The pips were originally the brainchild of astronomer Frank Watson Dyson, and the head of the BBC at the time, John Reith. Dyson came up with the idea of broadcasting the pips for coordination (even going so far as adding a sixth pip for the occasional leap second), while Reith first connected them to BBC radio broadcasts.

6 th February 1958

Munich air disaster :
Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

The Munich air disaster occurred on 6 February 1958 when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. The aircraft was carrying the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes", along with supporters and journalists. There were 44 people on board, 20 of whom died at the scene. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to Munich's Rechts der Isar Hospital, where three more died, resulting in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors.

The Manchester United team were returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), having eliminated Red Star Belgrade to advance to the semi-finals of the competition. The flight stopped to refuel in Munich because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was beyond the range of the "Elizabethan"-class Airspeed Ambassador. After refuelling, pilots James Thain and Kenneth Rayment twice abandoned take-off because of boost surging in the left engine. Fearing they would fall too far behind schedule, Thain rejected an overnight stay in Munich in favour of a third take-off attempt. By that time snow was falling, causing a layer of slush to form at the end of the runway. After hitting the slush, the aircraft ploughed through a fence beyond the end of the runway and the left wing was torn off when it struck a house. The tail section broke off and hit a barn with a parked fuel truck in it, which caught fire and exploded. Fearing the aircraft too might explode, Thain began evacuating passengers while goalkeeper Harry Gregg helped pull survivors from the wreckage.

An investigation by West German airport authorities originally blamed Thain, saying he did not de-ice the aircraft's wings, despite eyewitness statements indicating that de-icing was unnecessary. It was later established that the crash was caused by the slush on the runway, which slowed the plane too much to enable take-off. Thain was cleared in 1968, ten years after the incident.

United were aiming to become the third club to win three successive Football League titles; they were six points behind league leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers with 14 games still to play. They also held the FA Charity Shield and had just advanced into their second successive European Cup semi-finals. The team had not been beaten for 11 matches. The crash not only derailed the team's title ambitions that year but also destroyed the nucleus of what promised to be one of the greatest generations of players in English football history. It took ten years for the club to recover after the tragedy. Busby rebuilt the team and won the European Cup in 1968 with a new generation of "Babes".

7 th February 1991

Mortar attack on Downing St.
The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.



The Ford Transit van, on the corner of Whitehall opposite Horseguards, from which three IRA mortars were fired on 7 February 1991.

At 1008 am, on 7th February 1991, as Prime Minister John Major’s War Cabinet sat down to meet in the Cabinet Room, an IRA mortar hit 10 Downing Street. Several police officers were injured but nobody was killed.

An account of this as told to me by Prime Minister John Major, is part of the kindle book “Forgotten Voices Gulf War One”.

It had been fired from a white transit van outside the Ministry of Defence, 250 metres away parked – near where King Charles the First had been executed.

The Cabinet Room’s bomb-proof windows buckled inwards but didn’t shatter. The building shook and the Prime Minister’s War Cabinet took cover underneath the substantial table.

After the shock and then a considerable aftershock, the politicians and civil servants moved downstairs to the safety of Downing Streets underground protective levels. They continued with their meeting in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A – “COBRA”.

The success of this IRA mission was downplayed at the time. But the damage to Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street – the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer’s official residences, was considerable. Despite shattered windows, the heavy bomb-proof net curtains then in every government building, prevented glass injuries.

A total of three mortars were fired. One landed in the garden of 10 Downing Street, just ten yards from the Cabinet Meeting Room windows, making a large crater several feet deep. The other two went further to land on Mountbatten Green.

As a result, the entrance to Downing Street (a cul de sac) from Whitehall was blocked with a large wrought iron security gate – to prevent car bomb attacks.

This attack was of considerable sophistication and daring, carried out with impressive precision. Security forces had not detected the reconnaissance and measurements that made it possible – although it’s likely these took place months before the actual attack.

The missiles were entirely homemade; gas cylinders packed with explosives, fired using fast-burning propellant of the weed killer and sugar type, from metal tubes welded in a line inside the van. They were fired in two volleys: first as a pair to balance the recoil, then a single in the middle, from the cut-out roof of the van just behind the driver – using the van both as delivery vehicle and as the mortar base plate. It’s unlikely the mortars had impact fuses. Instead, burning time fuses would have been lit just before setting off the mortar firing charges.

The timing of this would have been critical. It’s remarkable that nobody at the time appeared to have observed the van being positioned, or the bombers escaping before it exploded.

8 th February 1983

Shergar:
Irish race horse Shergar is stolen by gunmen.




In February 1983, at the height of The Troubles, Ireland faced a truly mysterious crime that remains virtually unsolved.

Shergar, a beloved thoroughbred racehorse worth over $15 million, was kidnapped from his stable in County Kildare by a gang of machine gun-wielding men in balaclavas. After failed attempts to demand money for the stallion, gentle Shergar was brutally killed and his body was never found.


The most famous and valuable racehorse in the world, Shergar had won the 1981 Epsom Derby by ten lengths, which is the longest winning margin in the race's 202-year history. Following this triumph, he had four more major derby wins and was named European Horse of the Year.

When he retired after that first season, racehorse owners paid up to £80,000 for shares in his services impregnating mares, eager to have young horses from his bloodline to train for races.

The stallion had a white blaze mark on his face, four white "socks" and a distinctive racing style of running with his tongue hanging out - he was gentle, calm and kind.

On the cold, muggy evening of February 8, 1983, Shergar was kidnapped by a gang of men in balaclavas, thought to be part of the IRA.

The bay colt was owned by the Aga Khan, the billionaire spiritual leader to 15 million Ismaili Muslims. When he was returned to Ireland after her first winning season, he was syndicated for £10 million between 34 people - each share was worth around £282,000, six of which were kept by the Aga Khan.

Shergar was just five years old when he was snatched in the middle of the night from the Ballymany Stud in Co. Kildare. He had been preparing for his second season as a breeding stallion, the BBC said.

It was shortly after 8 pm when the son of Jim Fitzgerald, Shergar’s head groom that lived at the stud, heard a knock at the door. He opened it to find two men wearing balaclavas wielding guns - one of them said, “We have come for Shergar. We want £2 million for him."



Jim Fitzgerald, a father of six, was forced at gunpoint to Shergar’s stable where they were joined by six more masked gunmen. He loaded Shergar into the horsebox the men had brought with them. Fitzgerald was then forced into their car at gunpoint.

Among others, one reason the investigation was so difficult for authorities was because the kidnappers had chosen the day before Ireland’s big Goff’s racehorse sale to abduct Shergar, when many horseboxes were being driven across all of Ireland’s roads, thereby making it hard to differentiate him.

"I can still remember that night in that car with them lads. All sorts of thoughts were racing through my head about what they might do to me. One of them, with the revolver, was very aggressive," Mr. Fitzgerald told the Telegraph about his ride in the kidnappers’ car.

After driving him around for three hours, the kidnappers dumped Fitzgerald out of the car. He found his way to a telephone and rang his brother - this phone call led to a series of phone calls between Shergars’ shareholders, his vet, racing associates and several Irish Ministers. This process is referred to as “a caricature of police bungling,” as the actual police weren’t notified until 8 hours after Shergar was taken and the men were long gone from the area.

Using coded phrases, the kidnappers soon began negotiations with a representative of the Aga Khan over the telephone but made sure to hang up before 90 seconds passed so that authorities couldn’t track their location.

Collectively it had been decided not to pay the ransom because they figured if they had, every racehorse in the world would be in danger, as many of them were worth over a million pounds and Ireland had lacked adequate security.

The hunt for Shergar created a huge media storm - everyone in the UK and Ireland were hell-bent on getting him back, and the Dublin police had offered an over £100,000 reward for his return.

The kidnappers had agreed to negotiate with a man named Derek Thompson who had worked for ITV’s racing team. He flew to Belfast to negotiate at the Europa Hotel.

He said the scene that greeted him at Belfast airport was unreal: "It was like being a film star. There were cameras all around." About 100 cameramen and journalists were in or outside the Europa Hotel as Thompson and his co-negotiators arrived.

The men never reached an agreement. Thompson received a phone call the next day from the kidnappers - they said, "The horse has had an accident. He's dead." He then hung up.


There are several ideas pertaining to what happened to Shergar. One idea is that the horse did have some sort of accident while in a frenzy, and the men killed him because they couldn’t handle his crazed manner

Senior IRA leader Kevin Mallon is thought to be the man who devised the plot. A convicted killer from Co. Tyrone, he eventually became part of IRA folklore after shooting his way out of one prison and being lifted by helicopter from another.

What has been discovered almost definitively, according to a close course, was that two handlers, one clutching a machine gun, went into the remote stable where the horse was being held and opened fire.

A former IRA member told the Sunday Telegraph: "Shergar was machine-gunned to death. There was blood everywhere and the horse even slipped on his own blood. There was lots of cussing and swearing because the horse wouldn't die. It was a very bloody death." It was several minutes before Shergar bled to death.

It is also widely believed his kidnappers buried him in a bog in Co. Leitrim, though some think they dumped him into the sea of Ireland’s south coast.


Shergar's former jockey Walter Swinburn, who rode Shergar at his famous race, was distressed by the findings. "No horse deserves an ending like that - let alone one as special as Shergar.”

Shergar’s body was never found, and the case remains a mystery. The IRA has never officially claimed responsibility for stealing the beloved horse. The incident has inspired several books, documentaries, and a film starring Mickey Rourke.

9 th february 1539

First race at oldest racecourse :
The first recorded race is held on Chester Racecourse, known as the Roodee.

Chester Racecourse, known as the Roodee, is officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest racecourse still in operation. Horse racing at Chester dates back to the early sixteenth century, with 1539 cited as the year racing began. It is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile and 1 furlong .

Chester Racecourse: The oldest in the world with a history going back to the Romans

When people talk about Chester, one of the first things that comes to mind is the city's picture postcard racecourse.

The Roodee, as it's also known, attracts many Cestrians and visitors to the city to dress up in their finery and enjoy a day at the races. Over the summer months and into autumn, the familiar sight of well-dressed racegoers in sharp suits, colourful dresses and incredibly high heels has become the stuff of city folklore.


Chester's 65-acre racecourse was established way back in 1539 and, 480 years on, it was awarded the accolade of oldest racecourse still in operation by the Guinness World Records in 2019. It also holds the distinction of being the smallest racecourse in the country, with a full circuit being just one mile and one furlong.


And typically for Chester, a city with a history spanning 2000 years, tales of the Racecourse and the land it lies on go way back to the days of the Romans being in town, when this area was submerged by water and was a fortress harbour.

With the sound of thundering hooves set to return to Chester when the season's fixtures begin in May, CheshireLive takes a look at some of the tales behind this popular attraction. It certainly wasn't always a place for genteel activities such as family days or enjoying a glass of fizz while watching Thoroughbred horses galloping

Origins of the name Roodee

During the Dark Ages, which was the early Medieval period, the land on which the racecourse now sits was actually a key harbour for goods to be brought into Chester. Indeed, some of the anchor stones from this era can still be see at the Racecourse to this day. Several centuries later the river silted up and an island was formed, known as the island of the cross.


Tudor rule

Henry VIII was on the throne and would meet the woman who was to become his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, the same year the racecourse was established in the Tudor period. The first ever horse race there is said to have taken place on February 9, 1539.

The racecourse was designated as such by then Mayor Henry Gee, after whom the slang term for horses and horse-racing, 'gee-gees' is thought to have been coined.

Gruesome football

Back in the Middle Ages, the land now occupied by Chester Racecourse was the scene of a gruesome sounding football match known as Goteddsday, held on Shrove Tuesday. Organised by the city's Trade Guilds, this violent game saw teams compete to get an inflated pig's bladder from one side of the pitch to the other, by any means.

A report on the game from the time reveals just how brutal it was, saying: "Much harm was done, some having their bodies bruised and crushed, some their armes, heads, legges."

In 2019 Chester's Grosvenor Museum held a special exhibition to mark 480 years of the racecourse, looking at the history of the site going back to the Roman era. The museum's curator Liz Montgomery said people died or got injured every year at Goteddsday, until the gruesome spectacle was finally banned in 1533.

Buried statue of the Virgin Mary

Local legend has it that a statue of the Virgin Mary lies buried beneath the centre of the Roodee. It is believed to have fallen on and crushed the Governor of Hawarden's wife while she was praying at church, killing her.

Liz Montgomery said that at this point in time, when such a tragedy happened, the object would be buried to 'punish' it. The statue is thought to lie beneath a stone cross that can still be seen in the centre of the Roodee.

Royally good visitors

Royal guests over the years have include the Queen Elizabeth II, who was pictured at Chester in 1966, and Prince William played polo at the Roodee in 2013. Hugh Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster was also photographed enjoying a day at the races with his partner, the legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel.

Legendary racehorse Shergar won the Chester Vase in 1981. That same year he won the Epsom Derby by 10 lengths before being stolen by masked gunmen, never to be seen again.


The racecourse has only ever had three major stoppages - due to the English Civil War, the First World War and the Second World War. During the First World War, it was used as a base for training war horses.

It was damaged by incendiary bombs during the Second World War.

10 th February 1840

A Royal wedding :
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Victoria was 18 when she succeeded to the throne in 1837, amid mounting speculation about who she would marry. The key figure proved to be her German uncle, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her mother’s brother, who had been King of the Belgians since 1831. To further strengthen his family’s European influence, he hoped to secure Victoria for one of his nephews, Ernst or Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The youngest brother, Albert, was three months younger than Victoria and he later recalled that even as a small boy he had been told that one day he should marry Victoria and had always thought of her in that light.

At the apparently innocent suggestion of Leopold’s adviser, Baron Stockmar, in April 1836 Victoria’s Saxe-Coburg mother invited Ernst and Albert to London for the princess’s 17th birthday celebrations in Kensington Palace, along with their father, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. Young Victoria was smitten with Albert, whom she thought extremely handsome. They talked happily and played piano duets together and, after he left London for Brussels in June, she wrote to tell Uncle Leopold that she had cried bitterly at Albert’s departure and to thank him for ‘the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me in the person of dear Albert’.

On Victoria’s accession, Albert wrote to wish her ‘a long, happy and glorious’ reign and later sent her presents from abroad. Victoria was enjoying her independence and she was determined not to be rushed into a bad marital decision, of which her family offered all too many examples. After consultations with Leopold and Baron Stockmar, she invited Albert and Ernst to England again in 1839. They arrived at Windsor Castle in October and the instant Victoria saw Albert she made up her mind. A few days later she summoned him to her private room and it was she who proposed to him, as protocol required. He accepted immediately and they kissed over and over again. All the talk was in German, though Albert’s English would soon improve.

‘Oh!’, Victoria confided to her diary, ‘to feel I was, and am, loved by such an Angel as Albert was too great delight to describe! he is perfection … Oh! how I love and adore him I cannot say!!’ The couple spent every minute they could together, singing and dancing, while seizing every opportunity to kiss and cuddle in private, until Albert left in November to return to Germany.

Much argument now broke out about what exactly Albert’s position would be after the marriage, what rank and precedence he would hold, how his household was to be organised and how much he would be paid. There were those who did not relish the prospect of paying for a penniless foreign princeling and there were also false rumours that Albert was a Roman Catholic. Matters were sorted out, however, and Albert was invested with the Order of the Garter and escorted back to London from Gotha in January 1840.

The wedding in February, the first marriage of a reigning English queen since Bloody Mary almost 300 years before, was held at 1pm in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace. Victoria arrived in a procession of carriages from Buckingham Palace, to which she had moved to get away from her mother. She wore a white dress of heavy silk satin, trimmed with Honiton lace. She had a white lace veil and wore a diamond necklace and earrings as well as a sapphire brooch given her by Albert and she carried a wreath of orange blossoms, a symbol of fertility. Albert was in a British field marshal’s uniform and was escorted by a squadron of Life Guards. He entered the chapel to the strains of Handel’s ‘See, the conquering hero comes’, followed by Victoria, who was given away by her uncle the Duke of Sussex. Twelve young bridesmaids carried her train.

There was not remotely room in the chapel for the huge crowds that had gathered and which cheered the young couple at every chance. The wedding breakfast was held at Buckingham Palace and the wedding cake weighed 300 pounds. The newlyweds went off to Windsor Castle for a three-day honeymoon. Victoria described her wedding day as ‘the happiest day of my life!’ and the wedding night that followed as ‘most gratifying’.

There is no doubt about the sexual intensity involved. Victoria was pregnant within a couple of months of the wedding and, although she would always detest pregnancy and childbirth, she and Albert would have nine children. He proved himself an admirable consort and made a strong positive contribution to British life. His premature death at 42 in 1861 was a devastating blow to Victoria. It was many years before she could even begin to recover.

11 th February 1858

Apparition at Lourdes :
Bernadette Soubirous's first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary occurs in Lourdes, France.


February 11
OUR LADY OF LOURDES: THE APPARITIONS.


On Thursday, 11th of February 1858, accompanied by her sister and a friend, Bernadette went to Massabielle on the banks of the Gave to collect bones and dead wood. Removing her socks in order to cross the stream, she heard a noise like a gust of wind, she looked up towards the Grotto:

“I SAW A LADY DRESSED IN WHITE, SHE WORE A WHITE DRESS, AN EQUALLY WHITE VEIL, A BLUE BELT AND A YELLOW ROSE ON EACH FOOT.”

Bernadette made the Sign of the Cross and said the Rosary with the lady. When the prayer ended the Lady suddenly vanished.

On Sunday 14th of February, Bernadette felt an inner force drawing her to the Grotto in spite of the fact that she was forbidden to go there by her parents. At her insistence, her mother allowed her; after the first decade of the Rosary, she saw the same lady appearing. She sprinkled holy water at her. The lady smiled and bent her head. When the Rosary ended she disappeared.


It was on Thursday 18th of February when the Lady spoke for the first time. Bernadette held out a pen and paper asking her to write her name. But the Lady replied;

“It is not necessary” and she added: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the other. Would you be kind enough to come here for a fortnight?”

Bernadette returned to the Grotto of Feb. 19 with a lighted blessed candle. This is the origin of carrying candles and lighting them in front of the Grotto. The next day she returned as well and the lady taught her a personal prayer. At the end of the vision Bernadette is overcome with great sadness.

On Sunday, 21st of February, the Lady appeared to Bernadette very early in the morning. About one hundred people were present. Afterwards the Police Commissioner, Jacomet, questioned her. He wanted Bernadette to tell what she saw. Bernadette would only speak of “AQUÉRO” (“that thing” in local dialect)

Surrounded by 150 people, Bernadette arrived at the Grotto on Feb. 23. The Apparition reveals to her a secret “only for her alone”.

On the 24th of February, The Lady told Bernadette:

“PENANCE! PENANCE! PENANCE! PRAY TO GOD FOR SINNERS. KISS THE GROUND AS AN ACT OF PENANCE FOR SINNERS!”

It was on the 25th of February when Bernadette relates; “She told me to go, drink of the spring (….) I only found a little muddy water. On the fourth attempt I was able to drink. She also made me eat the bitter herbs that were found near the spring, and then the vision left and went away.” In front of the crowd that was asking “Do you think that she is mad doing things like that?” she replied; “It is for sinners.” Three hundred people witnessed the scene.

On Feb. 27th, eight hundred people were present. The Apparition was silent. Bernadette drank the water from the spring and carried out her usual acts of penance.


On Feb. 28, over one thousand people were present at the ecstasy. Bernadette prayed, kissed the ground and moved on her knees as a sign of penance. She was then taken to the house of Judge Ribes who threatened to put her in prison.

It was on the 1st of March: when the First Miracle occurred. Over one thousand five hundred people assembled and among them, for the first time, a priest. In the night, Catherine Latapie, a friend from Lourdes, went to the Grotto, she plunged her dislocated arm into the water of the Spring: her arm and her hand regained their movement.

The next day, March 2, there was more crowd than ever. The Lady asked her:

“GO, TELL THE PRIESTS TO COME HERE IN PROCESSION AND TO BUILD A CHAPEL HERE.”

Bernadette spoke of this to Fr. Peyramale, the Parish Priest of Lourdes. He wanted to know only one thing: the Lady’s name. He demanded another test; to see the wild rose bush flower at the Grotto in the middle of winter.

On March 3, from 7 o’clock in the morning, in the presence of three thousand people, Bernadette arrived at the Grotto, but the vision did not appear! After school, she heard the inner invitation of the Lady. She went to the Grotto and asked her again for her name. The response was a smile. The Parish Priest told her again: “If the Lady really wishes that a chapel be built, then she must tell us her name and make the rose bush bloom at the Grotto.”


The next day, March 4, the ever-greater crowd (about eight thousand people) waited for a miracle at the end of the fortnight. The vision was silent. Fr. Peyramale stuck to his position. For twenty days Bernadette did not go to the Grotto, she no longer felt the irresistible invitation.

On March 25, the Lady finally revealed her name, but the wild rose bush, on which she stood during the Apparitions, did not bloom. Bernadette recounted; “She lifted up her eyes to heaven, joined her hands as though in prayer, that were held out and open towards the ground and said to me:

“QUE SOY ERA IMMACULADA CONCEPCIOU (I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION).”

The young visionary left and, running all the way, repeated continuously the words that she did not understand. These words troubled the brave Parish Priest. Bernadette was ignorant of the fact that this theological expression was assigned to the Blessed Virgin. Four years earlier, in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared this a truth of the Catholic Faith (a dogma)

On April 7, another apparition occurred. During this Apparition, Bernadette had to keep her candle alight. The flame licked along her hand without burning it. A medical doctor, Dr. Douzous, immediately witnessed this fact.

The final apparition happened on the 16th of July. Bernadette received the mysterious call to the Grotto, but her way was blocked and closed off by a barrier. She thus, arrived across from the Grotto to the other side of the Gave. “I felt that I was in front of the Grotto, at the same distance as before, I saw only the Blessed Virgin, and she was more beautiful than ever!