Today in history

20 th May 1943

       Luttra woman:
                           The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC),[10] was discovered near Luttra, Sweden.

The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC)[2] that was discovered near Luttra, Sweden, on 20 May 1943. Because her stomach contents showed that raspberries had been her last meal and she was estimated to have been a teenager or young adult at the time of her death, she was nicknamed Hallonflickan (listen (help·info); lit. 'Raspberry Girl'). As of 2017, she was the earliest-known Neolithic person from Western Sweden.

No trace of injuries or fatal diseases was found on her body. She appears to have been tied up before her death and deliberately drowned. Axel Bagge [sv], an archaeologist who assisted at the initial investigation of the body, suggested that she had been either a human sacrifice or executed. Her body has been on a permanent exhibition titled Forntid på Falbygden (lit. 'Prehistory in Falbygden') at the Falbygdens Museum [sv], Falköping, since 1994.

Discovery

Carl Wilhelmsson, a local farmer, noticed one of the hands of the skeletonised corpse at a depth of 1.2 m (4 ft) below the surface whilst digging peat in Rogestorp, a raised bog that was part of a relatively large bog complex called Mönarp's bogs [sv] (Swedish: Mönarpa mossar or Mönarps mossar) near the parish of Luttra, Falköping, Västra Götaland County, on 20 May 1943.

Wilhelmsson reported to the police, who dismissed any possibility of a prosecutable crime because they thought, since the body had been found at such a depth in a bog, it had to be very old. The police informed the local representative of the Swedish National Heritage Board, senior teacher Hilding Svensson [sv]. Svensson inspected the find the next day and forwarded a discovery report to the Board, requesting an expert's assistance. The Board dispatched geologist and archaeologist Karl Esaias Sahlström [sv; no] and pollen analysis expert Carl Larsson, both of whom were from the Geological Survey of Sweden. Upon arrival, they found that a protruding segment of the skeleton had been cut through during the excavation; nevertheless the well-preserved skull remained in its original position. Sahlström decided that a thorough in situ investigation was not feasible, so he had the entire block of peat in which the skeleton was partially embedded cut out and sent in a wooden box to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm by train

               

The Luttra Woman's skull has a hole below the left eye socket, likely due to a long-term infection of the bone tissue; otherwise no trace of injuries or diseases was found on her remains

You don't half dig up some good stuff

Ah.. dug up , i see what you did there Lolly

21 st May 1894

 Manchester ship canal opened:
                                            The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.


The Manchester Ship Canal

The Lancashire hills that surround Manchester are coloured vivid green for a reason, and it was this ever so slightly damp climate that provided the area with the optimum conditions for the processing of cotton. The moist conditions prevented the cotton fibres from splitting and the resulting streams and rivers powered the water mills that ran the factories.

Raw cotton was imported into the country, mainly from the American cotton fields. Factories in the south of Lancashire spun the threads and the weaving of vast cloths occurred in the towns to the north.

Water power alone however was no longer proving sufficient to keep the wheels of the Industrial Revolution turning. When in 1761 the Duke of Bridgewater opened his now famous canal, coal from the Duke’s mines at the Worsley Collieries could be transported much more easily to Manchester, thus providing a cheap source of power to feed the new-fangled steam engines.

The Bridgewater Canal was quickly extended, and by 1776 it had reached the River Mersey, thereby providing easier access to the port of Liverpool. The cost of transporting raw cotton from the port to Manchester halved almost overnight, as did the cost of shipping out the finished cloth.

Before Richard Arkwright built his first cotton mill in 1780, Manchester was barely keeping pace with the needs of the expanding British Empire, particularly the enormous demand of the Indian population for the “dhootie”, a cheap cotton loincloth which clothed the nation. The increased levels of production achieved by the new mills earned Lancashire the title of the “Workshop of the World”, with Manchester becoming known as “Cottonopolis”.



Manchester was expanding at a phenomenal rate and by the mid 1830’s it was widely recognised as the greatest industrial city in the world. In addition to making the machines required for the cotton mills, Manchester’s engineering firms diversified into general manufacturing. The bleaches and dyes required by the cotton industry spawned a substantial chemical industry that would gradually spread across the entire region. Industry requires financing, and so banks and insurance companies flocked to the city to provide the necessary services.

Despite the opening of the world’s first inter-city railway (the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) in 1830), by the mid 1870’s Manchester’s supply lines were being stretched to their limits. In addition, the dues being charged by their ‘friends’ at the Port of Liverpool were considered by Manchester’s business community as being a tad excessive …they pointed out that goods could often be imported and bought from the Port of Hull, on other side of country, at a cheaper rate than via Liverpool!

Whilst the idea of linking Manchester with the sea by a navigable canal and river route can be traced back as early as 1660, it was not until 1882 that Manchester manufacturer Daniel Adamson brought together the men who could actually make it happen. In June of that year, he met with several other leaders from the Manchester business community, representatives and politicians from local Lancashire towns and two civil engineers to form the basis of a bill that would be submitted to Parliament later that year for approval.

A meticulously organised campaign was launched in order to gain public support for the venture, which pointed out that reduced transport costs to the city and surrounding region would make local industries more competitive and thus help to create new jobs.

Surprisingly, the bill failed to gain any support at all from those ‘friends’ in the Port of Liverpool and as a consequence, was rejected by Parliament on two separate occasions thanks to their objections. The bill was finally passed in May 1885, becoming The Manchester Ship Canal Act 1885. Conditions of the act stipulated that the Manchester Ship Canal Company needed to raise £8 million in share capital to cover the estimated cost of construction of just over £5 million.

With Thomas Walker appointed as lead contractor and Edward Leader Williams as chief engineer, the first sod was cut on 11th November 1887 by Lord Egerton of Tatton, who had taken over the role of chairman of the company following Daniel Adamson’s resignation earlier that year. Adamson had wanted to encourage the widest possible share ownership of the company by raising the necessary funds from ordinary working folk, but resigned after failing to gain support for his plans.



The 36 mile route of the canal was subdivided into eight separate sections, with a civil engineer being made responsible for each stretch. Initially the construction work went well and all schedules were met, but in November 1889 Walker died and after this, further delays due to bad weather and repeated flooding caused serious setbacks.

By early 1891, the canal company had run out of money and with only half the construction work completed, they were forced to seek financial help from the Manchester Corporation in order to avoid bankruptcy. The required funds were approved and released by the Corporation in March that year, in order to ‘preserve the city’s prestige’.

The ship canal was finally flooded in November 1893, and opened for traffic from 1st January 1894. After six years in the making, with an average workforce of 12,000 navvies and almost 200 steam trains hauling 6,000 wagons, the final cost of the project totalled more than £15 million, equivalent today to approximately £1½ billion. Queen Victoria officially opened the canal on 21st May 1894.

Despite being some 40 miles from the sea, the Manchester Ship Canal allowed the newly-founded Port of Manchester to establish itself as the third busiest port in Britain. At its peak in 1958, the amount of freight carried by the canal was almost 20,000,000 tons.


Since then, the traffic on the canal has slowly decreased year on year as the size of modern ocean-going ships has increased. Plans are now afoot however, to revive the fortunes of both the canal and the port, ironically in conjunction with the now ‘old friends’ at the Port of Liverpool through the Atlantic Gateway scheme.

22 nd May 1915

   The Quintishill rail disaster:
                                         Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.  


The Quintinshill rail disaster was a multi-train rail crash which occurred on 22 May 1915 outside the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It resulted in the deaths of over 200 people and remains the worst rail disaster in British history.

The Quintinshill signal box controlled two passing loops, one on each side of the double-track Caledonian Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle (now part of the West Coast Main Line). At the time of the accident, both passing loops were occupied with goods trains, and a northbound local passenger train was standing on the southbound main line.

The first collision occurred when a southbound troop train travelling from Larbert to Liverpool collided with the stationary local train. A minute later the wreckage was struck by a northbound sleeping car express train travelling from London Euston to Glasgow Central. Gas from the Pintsch gas lighting system of the old wooden carriages of the troop train ignited, starting a fire which soon engulfed all five trains.

Only half the soldiers on the troop train survived. Those killed were mainly Territorial soldiers from the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots heading for Gallipoli. The precise death toll was never established with confidence as some bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, and the roll list of the regiment was also destroyed in the fire. The official death toll was 227 (215 soldiers, nine passengers and three railway employees), but the Army later reduced their 215 figure by one. Not counted in the 227 were four victims thought to be children, but whose remains were never claimed or identified. The soldiers were buried together in a mass grave in Edinburgh's Rosebank Cemetery, where an annual remembrance is held.

An official inquiry, completed on 17 June 1915 for the Board of Trade, found the cause of the collision to be neglect of the rules by two signalmen. With the northbound loop occupied, the northbound local train had been reversed onto the southbound line to allow passage of two late-running northbound sleepers. Its presence was then overlooked, and the southbound troop train was cleared for passage. As a result, both signalmen were charged with manslaughter in England, then convicted of culpable homicide after a trial in Scotland; the two terms are broadly equivalent. After they were released from a Scottish jail in 1916, they were re-employed by the railway company, although not as signalmen.

23 rd May 1934


Bonnie 'n' Clyde:
American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Bonnie and Clyde Are Killed in Police Ambush.

On May 23, 1934, the bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, La.

The May 23 New York Times wrote that a group of Texas rangers and other authorities laid a “carefully laid death trap,” and as Bonnie and Clyde approached, they “riddled them and their car with a deadly hail of bullets.” After the car crashed, “the officers, taking no chances with the gunman who had tricked them so often, poured another volley of bullets into the machine.”

The episode ended a two-year crime spree that resulted in 13 deaths. Bonnie and Clyde, who had each grown up in poor Texas families, met each other in 1930. The 21-year-old Clyde had been arrested multiple times for theft and other nonviolent crimes when he was a teenager. The 19-year-old Bonnie, married at age 15, soon separated when she fell in love with Clyde, and she remained devoted to him.

Clyde spent two years in prison and emerged in February 1932 a more violent man. He formed a small gang that committed numerous robberies of gas stations and small stores. The turning point in Clyde’s criminal life came that April — as Bonnie served a short prison sentence — when his accomplices killed a store owner during a robbery. Knowing that he would likely face murder charges, Clyde became determined to never be caught. That summer, he committed his first murder, killing a police officer.

The couple became famous after a March 1933 episode in Joplin, Mo., where they were hiding out with Clyde’s brother Buck and sister-in-law Blanche. When the police came to investigate the hideout, the four gangsters shot their way out, killing two police officers to flee the scene. Inside the building, the police found a poem written by Bonnie and numerous photos of the couple, including shots of Bonnie smoking a cigar and holding a rifle.

The photos created a glamorous image for the couple, described by The Times as the “notorious Texas ‘bad man’ and murderer, and his cigar-smoking, quick-shooting woman accomplice.” They became folk heroes of the Depression era, a time when resentment against banks and financial institutions made many criminals, including John Dillinger, George (Baby Face) Nelson and Charles Arthur (Pretty Boy) Floyd, popular with the public.

Their fame also prompted authorities to ramp up efforts to catch them as the gang continued to evade capture. Bonnie suffered a serious leg injury in a car accident and Buck died after a shootout, but Bonnie and Clyde were able to press on and survive numerous shootouts with law enforcement. In January 1934, Clyde enacted revenge against his former prison by engineering a breakout.

Five days after Easter of that year, the gang committed its last killing of an officer and took a second one hostage, releasing him after Bonnie told him to tell the public that she did not smoke cigars. Their end would come seven weeks later with the Bienville Parish ambush.

Connect to Today:

The death of Bonnie and Clyde did not put an end to their popular appeal. Over the near century since their deaths, the couple has been the subject of numerous songs, books, films and a recent Broadway musical. In a review for a film starring Faye Dunaway as Bonnie and Warren Beatty as Clyde, The Times’s movie critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the film was not the “faithful representation” it claimed to be and that it “treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cutups in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie.’”

24 th May 1941

World War 11, battle of Denmark strait:
World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.


World War II in the Atlantic -

Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1941 --

Battle of the Denmark Strait, 24 May 1941.

In the early morning hours of 24 May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen steamed southwesterly through the Denmark Strait, shadowed by the British heavy cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk. Shortly before 6AM, Prinz Eugen, which was ahead of Bismarck, sighted ships to the southeast. These were the Royal Navy's battlecruiser Hood, long the World's largest warship, and battleship Prince of Wales, a new ship that was not yet properly "shaken down".

The British capital ships soon opened fire with their forward turrets, while rapidly closing the range. Hood initially fired her fifteen-inch guns at Prinz Eugen. Her consort, which carried fourteen-inch guns, shot at Bismarck, but neither made hits. As the British began a turn to bring their after turrets to bear, the two Germans opened fire at Hood, whose identity was clearly apparent. Bismarck's fifteen-inch guns, and the much smaller eight-inchers of Prinz Eugen, soon found the range and started hitting. Fire broke out amidships on Hood, and at a minute past Six, immediately after Bismarck's fourth salvo arrived, the great battlecruiser's after ammunition magazines exploded in a jet of flame and a large cloud of smoke. Hood's bow rose as her shattered after hull filled with water, and she was soon gone, leaving but three survivors of her crew of over 1400 officers and men.

The Germans shifted fire to Prince of Wales, making three 15" and four 8" hits that seriously damaged the British ship. She was troubled throughout the action by gun functioning problems, but still managed to hit Bismarck with three shells before her own damage forced her to turn away and break off the battle. One of the three British 14" projectiles hit Bismarck's hull forward, flooding some of the German ship's bow compartments. Another hit low and amidships, bringing more water into the ship. This damage, though hardly vital, left Bismarck listing to port, down at the bow and unable to use all her oil fuel. Her maximum speed, seakeeping ability and range were all reduced, and she was now leaving an oil slick in her wake. The third shell, which struck high and amidships, made it impossible for Bismarck to launch her floatplane.

The brief Battle of the Denmark Strait, which lasted only about seventeen minutes from opening shot to "cease fire", caused the Germans to terminate Bismarck's sortie. After parting ways with Prinz Eugen later in the day, she turned southeast, toward France. The British, who already had sufficient cause to want Bismarck eliminated, now had an additional motive: revenge for the tragic loss of Hood and nearly all of her crew.

25 th May 240 B.C.


Haley's comet:
First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

Through the ages, people have attributed meaning to unusual celestial apparitions such as comets. Such is the case for perhaps the most famous comet, the one named after British astronomer Edmond Halley, who determined that periodic sightings of a comet were in fact of the same object. Although recorded sightings of Halley’s Comet go back more than 2,000 years, its most famous association is with the Norman invasion of England in 1066, including the first illustration of the comet on the Bayeux Tapestry. Making an appearance roughly every 76 years, during its last close approach in 1986 several nations dispatched spacecraft for a close examination of this celestial visitor to the inner solar system. Other comets have since received close scrutiny, increasing our understanding of these primordial objects.

Although possible records of Halley’s Comet from its 467 B.C.E. apparition may be found in Greece and China, the first positive observations date to 240 B.C.E. in the Chinese chronicle “Records of the Grand Historian” or “Shiji.” Over the subsequent centuries, observations of what is now known to be Halley’s Comet are found in Babylonia, China, Japan, India, the Middle East, Europe, and even possibly on petroglyphs in North America. People in those societies often associated its appearance with dramatic political and social events, such as the defeat of Attila the Hun in 451 C.E. or the death of kings. During its 1066 appearance, Halley’s Comet approached within nine million miles of Earth. As it first appeared in April of that year, observers in England saw it as a bad omen, portending great change for the Anglo-Saxon kingdom ruled by King Harold, while Duke William of Normandy believed it was a positive sign from heaven. In late September, William’s army landed in England and on Oct. 14, 1066, he defeated Harold’s army at the Battle of Hastings, killing the Anglo-Saxon king. On Dec. 25, William was crowned King of England, changing the nation’s history forever. The 11th century 230-foot long Bayeux Tapestry, more accurately an embroidery and most likely made in England, depicts scenes leading up to the Norman invasion of England and William’s ascendancy to the English throne. One of the scenes depicts a comet that has been identified as the first illustration of Halley’s Comet.

Halley’s Comet continued to make repeat appearances in the inner solar system, but it wasn’t until 1705 that British astronomer Edmond Halley, using Isaac Newton’s recently published theories of gravitation, planetary motions, and the mathematical tool of calculus, determined that the comets seen in 1531, 1607, and 1682 were actually one and the same object with an orbital period of about 76 years. He correctly predicted the comet would next appear in 1758, although close passes by Jupiter and Saturn delayed its appearance by a few months. To honor Halley’s prediction, astronomers named the comet after him and today it is officially known as 1P/Halley, the P denoting it is a periodic comet.

Halley’s Comet continued its periodic return to the inner solar system in 1835, 1910, and 1986. In its highly elongated orbit, it approaches to within 55 million miles of the Sun at perihelion, within the orbit of Venus, and departs to reach aphelion or greatest distance from Sun past the orbit of Neptune. The actual frequency of its apparitions varies from 74.4 to 79.3 years depending on close approaches to the planets. It is during its perihelia that the comet develops its signature tail, gas and dust released as the Sun heats its nucleus. Its apparent size and brightness from Earth depend on the distance between the two objects. As telescope technology advanced, astronomers made better and more detailed observations of Halley and other comets, but the objects remained mysterious regarding their origins and composition. During the 1910 apparition that provided the first photographs of the comet, the Earth passed through the comet’s tail, leading to some popular unease and added to the unrest in China that led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. In an interesting historical quirk, American writer Mark Twain, born two weeks after the comet’s 1835 perihelion, died the day after its 1910 perihelion. The 1986 apparition provided the first opportunity for spacecraft to study Halley’s Comet up close, and an international collaboration called the Halley Watch included a veritable flotilla of spacecraft, informally known as the Halley Armada, dispatched to observe the most famous comet. The 1986 apparition proved somewhat disappointing to Earthbound comet watchers, since the two objects were on opposite sides of the Sun during the comet’s perihelion.

Prior to the observations of Halley’s Comet, on Sept. 11, 1985, the Interplanetary Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft completed the first ever close encounter of a comet when it passed through the 14,000-mile-wide tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner at a distance of 4,850 miles from its central nucleus. The ICE spacecraft contributed to the Halley Watch observations by measuring the solar wind upwind of Halley’s Comet on Oct. 31, 1985, and March 28, 1986. The Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, dispatched two nearly identical spacecraft called Suisei and Sakigake to observe Halley’s Comet. Suisei made ultraviolet observations of the comet, approaching to within 94,000 miles of the comet’s sunward side on March 8, 1986. Its twin Sakigake observed the comet from 4.3 million miles away. The NASA Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft, orbiting Venus since December 1978, used its ultraviolet spectrometer to monitor the loss of water from the comet. Because of Venus’ position, it made its measurement in February 1986 at a time the comet was unobservable from Earth due its close apparent proximity to the Sun.

The Soviet Union launched the Vega-1 and Vega-2 spacecraft on dual missions to study Venus and Halley’s Comet — Vega is a contraction for the words Venera and Galley, the Russian words for Venus and Halley. After dropping landers and balloons off at Venus, and using that planet’s gravity to alter their trajectory, the flyby sections of the Vega spacecraft flew on toward Halley’s Comet. Vega-1 returned the first images of the comet on March 4, 1986, before passing within 5,525 miles of its nucleus two days later. It returned more than 500 images of the comet. Vega-2 made its closest approach on March 9, at a distance of 4,990 miles, returning 700 images of the comet.

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Giotto spacecraft in July 1985, dedicated to close-up observations of Halley’s Comet. Following the Vega-1 and Vega-2 observations, Giotto flew within 370 miles of the comet’s nucleus. Images returned before an impact with a dust particle disabled the camera showed Halley’s nucleus as a dark peanut-shaped body, measuring 9 by 4 by 6 miles. Only 10 percent of the comet’s surface appeared to be active, with three outgassing jets seen on its sunlit side.


Plans for NASA to observe the comet using instruments aboard two space shuttle missions succumbed to the Jan. 28, 1986 Challenger accident. The ill-fated STS-51L mission carried the SPARTAN-203 free flyer spacecraft, also known as SPARTAN-Halley since its instruments were dedicated to observing the comet during its five-day mission. The satellite was lost in the accident. The next planned space shuttle launch, Columbia’s STS-61E mission, planned to carry the Astro-1 observatory – a suite of three ultraviolet and visible light telescopes. The nine-day mission, planned for launch on March 6, 1986, and timed to study Halley’s Comet, was canceled in the wake of the accident. The Astro-1 telescopes eventually flew on the STS-35 mission in December 1990, but Halley’s Comet was no longer their target. Since the Halley Armada of 1986, a series of ever-more sophisticated spacecraft have explored a variety of comets, conducting scientific studies, landing on cometary nuclei, and even returning samples from cometary tails, adding to our knowledge of these primordial solar system objects.

In addition to its infrequent passes through the inner solar system, Halley’s Comet provides two annual celestial spectacles to Earthbound viewers. The annual Eta Aquarid and Orionid meteor showers, occurring in May and October, respectively, occur as the Earth moves through a trail of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet. The peak of the 2021 Orionid meteor shower will occur in the early morning of Oct. 20, although a full Moon that night will limit visibility. The peak of the Eta Aquarids in 2022 will occur in the morning of May 7, and the Moon will not affect that event. After reaching its furthest distance from the Sun in December 2023, Halley’s Comet will swoop back in toward the inner solar system and reach its next perihelion on July 28, 2061. Earthbound viewing should be favorable as the two objects will be on the same side of the Sun. One can only speculate at the scientific return from any spacecraft studies, given another 40 years of technological advancement.

May 26 th 1940

Dunkirk:
World War II: Operation Dynamo: In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.



The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "We shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".

After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Empire declared war on Germany and imposed an economic blockade. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sent to help defend France. After the Phoney War of October 1939 to April 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and France on 10 May 1940. Three panzer corps attacked through the Ardennes and drove northwest to the English Channel. By 21 May, German forces had trapped the BEF, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French field armies along the northern coast of France. BEF commander General Viscount Gort immediately saw evacuation across the Channel as the best course of action, and began planning a withdrawal to Dunkirk, the closest good port.

Late on 23 May, a halt order was issued by Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group A. Adolf Hitler approved this order the next day, and had the German High Command send confirmation to the front. Attacking the trapped BEF, French, and Belgian armies was left to the Luftwaffe until the order was rescinded on 26 May. This gave Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops to fight the Battle of Dunkirk. From 28 to 31 May, in the siege of Lille, the remaining 40,000 men of the French First Army fought a delaying action against seven German divisions, including three armoured divisions.

On the first day, only 7,669 Allied soldiers were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 vessels. Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 39 British Royal Navy destroyers, four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers, at least three French Navy destroyers, and a variety of civilian merchant ships. Others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what became known as the Little Ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain. The BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of its tanks, vehicles, and equipment. In his 4 June speech, Churchill also reminded the country that "we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.

27 th May 1995


The Dibbles bridge coach crash:
Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.

On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom of a steep hill at Dibbles Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver, and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of fatalities.

Accident
The coach, a 1967 Bedford VAM5 run by Riley's Luxury Coaches, was carrying 45 female pensioners on a day trip from Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, to Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales. The trip was organised by Dorothy White, Lady Mayoress of Thornaby who had previously run several such trips. While driving on a downhill stretch of the B6265 road between Greenhow and Hebden, stand-in coach driver Roger Marriott, a British Steel Corporation security officer, missed a gear. He then applied the brakes. The brakes had been serviced a week before the crash and had new linings, but as magistrates were later told, "defects" due to improper maintenance "meant there was no braking on the offside rear wheel".

The brakes were insufficient to hold the coach, and it accelerated, heating up the brakes until they eventually failed as the coach travelled down the 1400yd, 1:6 (17%, 10°) gradient from Fancarl Top to the bottom of the valley downstream of Grimwith Reservoir. After crashing through a steel crash barrier and a 3adj=onNaNadj=on high stone parapet above the bank of the River Dibb, it landed on its fibreglass roof in the garden of a cottage 17feet below. The aluminium sides of the coach then buckled on impact with the ground.

The son-in-law of the cottage owners, London barrister (now painter and sculptor) Lincoln Seligman, was having a barbecue with his partner in the garden at the time and was first on the scene. He later gave an eyewitness account to the Teesside Evening Gazette: "There were screams. I dragged some people out ... I don't know how many".

Three teenagers from Hull who were camping nearby heard the crash and came to assist, namely: Steven Griffin, Steve Jennison and Carl Dickinson. One saw the bus flip over and saw the entire upper section crushed when it landed. They said the scene was silent when they arrived two minutes later, with the survivors stunned into silence. A car was flagged down and eventually one ambulance with a single driver arrived. He radioed a code which eventually brought a fleet of ambulances to ferry the injured to Airedale General Hospital in Keighley.

The initial aftermath was 32 killed on the scene and 14 seriously injured all with major head and neck trauma. No-one was uninjured. One of the injured later died.

Inquest
An inquest at Skipton Town Hall, in July 1975, recorded a verdict of accidental death on the victims. Jury foreman John Mitchell said the accident was caused by the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend, owing to deficient brakes on the coach, due to possible lack of care in the maintenance of the braking system. The pathologist reported that the main cause of the loss of life was the crushing of the victims between the seats. The proprietor of the coach company, Norman Riley, was later fined £75 for running a motor vehicle with defective brakes.

Aftermath
Even before the crash there had been a campaign to have electro-magnetic retarders fitted to all coaches. An electro-magnetic retarder uses the rotation of the axle to generate electricity, the energy for which has to come from the movement of the axle. The use of such a retarder means that the frictional brakes are kept cool for use at slow speeds. Local newspaper The Yorkshire Post staged a trial two weeks later: a coach which had been fitted with the retarder was put out of gear and allowed to run away down the hill without braking, and the retarder kept the coach's speed within safe limits. The Dibbles Bridge crash brought the issue to a wider public; ultimately, legislation was passed requiring improved braking systems.

A memorial service was held at St Paul's Church, Thornaby, in May 2015 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the crash, when a memorial plaque was unveiled outside Thornaby Town Hall listing the names of those who died.

28 th May 1588


The Spanish armada:
The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel. (It will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port.)



On this day in Tudor history, 28th May 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon in Portugal bound for the Spanish Netherlands.

King Philip II of Spain had set about planning his “Enterprise of England”, an invasion of England to depose Queen Elizabeth I, in 1587 following the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in the February. His plan was to send a huge fleet, or armada, from Spain to the Netherlands, where he had an army under the control of the Governor of the Netherlands, the Duke or Parma. The fleet would pick up the army and then sail to invade England.

However, Philip’s plan had to be postponed following Sir Francis Drake’s attack on the fleet in the harbour of Cádiz in southern Spain in April 1587. Drake managed to capture or destroy thirty ships and their supplies. This postponement gave Elizabeth I time to get her navy organised under the control of Lord Admiral Baron Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.


On 25th April 1588, the Spanish Armada’s banner, which displayed images of the Virgin Mary and Crucified Christ either side of the arms of Spain and with a Latin motto which translated to “Arise, O Lord, and vindicate thy cause”, was blessed in a special ceremony at Lisbon Cathedral. It was then carried out to the fleet and papal crusader absolution was given to the soldiers and sailors. It was seen as a holy mission against heresy. Garret Mattingly, in The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, explains how all the sailors and soldiers went to confession before they sailed and were warned against bad behaviour such as blasphemous swearing. The ships were also searched to make sure that no women were on board.

Then, on this day in 1588, the fleet of 130 ships left Lisbon harbour for their journey to the Spanish Netherlands. Victorian historian Agnes Strickland wrote that the fleet carried ““19,290 soldiers, 8350 mariners, 2080 galley slaves, besides a numerous company of priests to stir up religious fervour in the host.” In the Netherlands, 30,000 foot soldiers and 1800 horses awaited them.

In June, the fleet put in at A Coruña in north-west Spain for provisions and water, but a storm scattered some of the ships and around 6,000 men were lost. There was damage to some of the remaining ships and many of the men were suffering with dysentery and scurvy. They set off once again on 12th July and were spotted by the English just off The Lizard in Cornwall on 19th July 1588. The English fleet set sail on 21st July 1588 and there was a skirmish which saw the Armada having to abandon two of its ships. An inconclusive battle took place between the two fleets on 23rd July, just off the Isle of Portland, and on 25th July 1588, the Battle of the Isle of Wight took place. The Spaniards had planned on taking the island to use it as a base to launch invasions, but a five hour battle put a stop to their plans and the Armada was forced to carry on to Calais.


On 28th July 1588, the English fleet sent eight hell-burners amongst the Spanish Armada anchored just off Calais. . Hell-burners were fire-ships, ships that were packed with wood and pitch and set alight. The high winds at Calais caused an inferno which resulted in complete chaos, and the Armada’s crescent formation was wrecked as galleons scattered in panic. The next day, the English fleet attacked the remaining Spanish Armada in a battle known as the Battle of Gravelines. England was victorious and Spain lost at least five ships and several others were severely damaged.

On 30th July, the wind changed and the remaining Spanish ships were forced northwards and scattered. Then, terrible storms caused further damage to the Armada. This wind that saw the end of Spanish hopes of invasion became known as the Protestant Wind, for it was believed that God had helped Protestant England drive off Catholic Spain – God blew and they were scattered, is the translation of the Latin motto inscribed on a special medal which was struck.

Although the Armada had been defeated, Queen Elizabeth I still expected an invasion from the Spanish Netherlands and so visited her troops at Tilbury Fort to give a rousing speech to raise morale, but by 20th August 1588, it became clear that England was safe for now, and a thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s. The defeat of the Spanish Armada was commemorated in the famous Elizabeth I Armada portrait.

29 th May 1985

Heysal stadium disaster :
Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.

On 29 May, 1985, 39 football fans died during violent clashes between Liverpool and Juventus supporters at the European Cup final in Brussels.

As a result of the disaster at Heysel Stadium, UEFA banned English clubs from taking part in European football for five years, with Liverpool serving an extra year.

For lifelong Liverpool fan Chris Rowland, the events of that night are as clear today as they were 25 years ago.

"I remember all of it," he said. "The memory has stayed crystal clear in my mind."

More than 60,000 Liverpool and Juventus fans were at the rundown stadium when violence erupted about an hour before kick-off.

A retaining wall separating the opposing fans collapsed as the Italian club's supporters tried to escape from Liverpool followers.

Thirty-two Italians, four Belgians, two French and a man from Northern Ireland died while hundreds of fans were injured.

Mr Rowland, who was not involved in the violence, was aged 28 at the time and regularly travelled with friends throughout Europe to support Liverpool.

"It started out like all the European trips," he said. "There was no reason to suspect it would be very different to any of the others."

But when Mr Rowland, now aged 53, arrived at the stadium half an hour before the match, it became clear that something was amiss.

"We saw people charging over the wall and charging towards us," he explained. "Our first thought was that they were attacking us.

"We saw chaos around the turnstiles and the shabby state of the ground."

He said he heard a sound similar to that of a heavy metal gate clanging - which he later realised must have been the wall falling.

A wall separating supporters fell and crushed a number of fans
Mr Rowland, who lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, became aware that someone had died later that evening.

But it was not until reading the morning newspapers the following day that he realised the real extent of what had happened.

"It was incredulous that something of that scale could have happened," Mr Rowland added.

"You cannot begin to understand the enormity of it. It was awful, absolutely awful."

Inside the stadium's dressing room waiting to play was Liverpool defender Gary Gillespie.

'Completely useless'
Mr Gillespie said he and his teammates had no idea what was happening.

"We we very much cocooned in that dressing room," he said. "We did not really know what the situation was outside.

"As we were getting changed in the dressing room there was the usual banter, obviously the usual nerves because it was such a big occasion, and then we got conflicting reports about what had happen."

Following the tragedy, there was widespread criticism of the Liverpool fans and English football supporters in general, who had gained a reputation for hooliganism in previous years.

UEFA imposed the ban on English clubs and in 1989, 14 Liverpool fans were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter at a five-month trial in Belgium.

They were given three-year sentences - although half the terms were suspended.

There has never been an official inquiry into the incident to find out exactly what happened.

Some people claimed Juventus supporters provoked Liverpool fans by hurling stones and other missiles, others blamed the lack of police presence, poor organisation and a decrepit stadium.

Italian journalist Giancarlo Galavotti, London correspondent for the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper, was at the Heysel Stadium on 29 May, 1985.

He described the Belgian policing of the event as "completely useless".

"I could really tell, let's say 15 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, before the fatal clash occurred that it was a very serious and dangerous situation that was developing," he said.

"Irrespective of what was the behaviour of some sections of the Liverpool fans, if Belgian police had been adept in policing the situation, like the Italian police were the year earlier in Rome, I do not think there would have been such a tragedy happening in Brussels in 1985."

Liverpool supporter Graham Agg, 48, from Netherton, Liverpool, also criticised the Belgian police and the state of the stadium.

Some claim Juventus fans provoked Liverpool fans by hurling missiles
"How they got permission to hold a European Cup final was beyond belief," he said. "It was falling down. There was no security.

"The terrace was crumbling - you could pick up bricks. It was a disgrace.

"In Liverpool's history it is one of the dark days, but a very small minority caused the trouble.

"Even when they did cause the trouble, they did not intend for people to die. If it had been held in a proper stadium it would never have happened."

The game eventually went ahead, despite objections from both managers, and Juventus won 1-0 with a second-half penalty.

The Heysel Stadium, built in 1930, was demolished and replaced by the all-seater Stade Roi Baudouin.

A plaque to remember the 39 people killed was unveiled at Liverpool's Anfield stadium.

A two minutes' silence was held at the city's town hall when the bells were rung 39 times - a gesture that is being repeated on Saturday.

by gassey Today at 5:08 am. You posted this on Smithy Brook thread gassey




30 th May 1842


Royal assassination attempt :
John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert.

Eight Assassination Attempts on Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria had a majestic sixty-three-year reign but despite this, she was not universally loved. While some people protested against her, others had a slightly more radical method. From Edward Oxford to Roderick Maclean, during her reign Queen Victoria survived eight assassination attempts.

The first attempt on the Queen’s life occurred on June 10th 1840 at a parade around Hyde Park, London. Edward Oxford, an unemployed eighteen-year-old, fired a duelling pistol at the Queen who was five months pregnant at the time, only to miss from a short distance. Prince Albert noticed Oxford soon after leaving the palace gates and recalled seeing a “a little mean man”. After the traumatic experience, the Queen and the Prince managed to maintain their composure by finishing the parade whilst Oxford was wrestled to the ground by the crowd. The reason for this attack is unknown, but afterwards at his trial at the Old Bailey, Oxford proclaimed that the gun was only loaded with gunpowder, not bullets. Eventually, Oxford was found not guilty but insane, and spent time in a asylum until he was deported to Australia.

However, he was not nearly as motivated an assassin as John Francis. On May 29th 1842, Prince Albert and the Queen were in a carriage when Prince Albert saw what he called “a little, swarthy, ill-looking rascal”. Francis lined up his shot and pulled the trigger, but the gun failed to fire. He then left the scene and readied himself for another attempt. Prince Albert alerted the Royal security forces that he had spotted a gunman, however despite this Queen Victoria insisted on leaving the Palace the next evening for a drive in an open barouche. Meanwhile, plain-clothes officers scoured the site for the gunman. A shot rang out abruptly only a few yards away from the carriage. Eventually, Francis was sentenced to death by hanging but Queen Victoria intervened and he was transported instead.

The next attempt was on July 3rd 1842 as the Queen left Buckingham Palace by carriage, on the way to Sunday church. On this occasion, John William Bean decided to attempt to take her life. Bean had a deformity and was mentally ill. He made his way up to the front of the large crowd and pulled the trigger of his pistol, but it failed to fire. This was because instead of it being loaded with bullets it was loaded with bits of tobacco. After the attack he was sentenced to 18 months hard labour.

The fifth attempt on the Queen’s life was a feeble attempt made by William Hamilton on June 29th 1849. Being frustrated at Britain’s attempts to help Ireland during the Irish famine, Hamilton decided to shoot the Queen. However instead of being loaded with a bullet, the gun was only loaded with gunpowder.


No attempt was probably as traumatic as Robert Pate’s attempt on June 27th 1850. Robert Pate was an ex British Army officer and known around Hyde Park for his slightly lunatic like behaviour. On one of his walks through the park he noticed a crowd of people gathering outside Cambridge House, where Queen Victoria and three of her children were visiting family. Robert Pate walked up to the front of the crowd, and using a cane hit the Queen on the head with it. This action marked the nearest assassination attempt Queen Victoria had ever faced, as she was left with a scar and a bruise for some time. After the attack Pate was sent to then the penal colony of Tasmania.


Probably the most politically motivated of all the attacks was on February 29th 1872. Arthur O’Connor, armed with a pistol, managed to get undetected into the palace entrance past the courtyard and waited for the Queen after she had finished a ride around London. O’Connor was quickly caught and later proclaimed that he never intended to hurt the Queen, hence the fact that his pistol was broken, but wanted to get her to free Irish prisoners in Britain.

The final attempt on Queen Victoria’s life was on March 2nd 1882 by twenty-eight-year old Roderick Maclean. The Queen was being serenaded with cheers from the nearby crowd of Etonians as she departed from Windsor Station towards the Castle. Then Maclean fired a wild shot at the Queen which missed. He was arrested, charged and committed to trial where he was sentenced to the rest of his life in an asylum. A poem was written later about the assassination attempt by William Topaz McGonagall.

Other than the seventh assassination attempt by Arthur O’Connor, there were never really any clear motives amongst these men, which is startling considering the action they intended to take against the Queen. However, it is suggested that they perhaps did it for fame and notoriety. Overall however it would seem that these assassination attempts did not deter the Queen, as evidenced in the fact that she returned to duty only two hours after the attack by Robert Pate

Thanks a lot Lolly , id only just woken up
still half comatosed

31 st May 1859


Big Ben is born :
The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.

Big Ben rings out over London for the first time.

The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high Elizabeth Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on May 31, 1859.

After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster—the headquarters of the British Parliament—in October 1834, a standout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. While many clockmakers dismissed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expertise in horology, or the science of measuring time.

The name “Big Ben” originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist about how Big Ben got its name. Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London commissioner of works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind.

Even after an incendiary bomb destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons during the Second World War, Elizabeth Tower survived, and Big Ben continued to function. Its famously accurate timekeeping is regulated by a stack of coins placed on the clock’s huge pendulum, ensuring a steady movement of the clock hands at all times. At night, all four of the clock’s faces, each one 23 feet across, are illuminated. A light above Big Ben is also lit to let the public know when Parliament is in session.

1 st June 1648

The battle of Maidstone :
The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War.


When the English Parliament tried to suppress Christmas celebrations in December 1647, Riots broke out in London and Canterbury. In London, the Lord Mayor managed to intervene and quell the situation. However, in Canterbury the rioters drove the mayor from the city, leaving a rioting community that set the tone for what was to come.



As the Civil War progressed, things became even more dangerous for Parliament. The placing of King Charles I under arrest at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, in April 1648, sparked a spate of riots around the South East, as the Royalist rebellion demanded his return to full power. As well as the extensive rioting in Kent and Essex, an uprising was taking place in South Wales together with the threat from the Engager Army in Scotland.



In May 1648, Kent was witness to a significant Royalist rebellion, when the committee at Canterbury tried to suppress a petition calling for the disbandment of the New Model Army and reinstatement of the King. The Kentish Royalists reacted with aplomb, quickly securing a number of key towns on behalf of the King, which included Dover, Gravesend, Rochester and Maidstone. Alongside the Royalist uprising in South Wales, this represented one of the biggest rebellions seen in the Second Civil War.



On 26 May, the insurgents gained control of Deptford and Dartford, and the following day a naval revolt broke out when several ships from the Parliamentarian fleet declared allegiance to the King. This seaward threat to the artillery forts which guarded the Downs led to the surrender of the troops positioned there, and the fall of Dover castle.



Meanwhile, the New Model Army divided into two. The larger portion going, with Cromwell, to deal with the uprising in South Wales, while the remaining 6,000 troops, under the command of General Fairfax, were to move north and counter the threat from the Scottish Engager.



However, his plans changed when Parliament ordered him to deal with the more immediate and local threat to London of the uprising in Kent. Parliament surmised that the Kent Royalists if left unchecked, would join forces with insurgents from Surrey and Essex, and become a real danger to London.



On 27 May, troops under Major General Skippon mobilised to defend London, Colonel Barnstead’s band strategically secured the area at Southwark, to the South of London and Major Fairfax gathered his troops on Hounslow Health and advanced towards Maidstone, reaching Blackheath by 30 May.



On the 29 May, at a rendezvous on Burnham Heath, the Kent Royalists declared the Earl of Norwich to be their leader. Fearing an attack from the New Model Army, Norwich concentrated 3,000 men in the heart of Maidstone, who built barricades around the town centre. A smaller group guarded the outskirts Norwich remained with around 7,000 men on Penenden Health, some way outside the main town area.

At four o’clock on 1 June 1684, Fairfax arrived on the outskirts of Maidstone with an 8,000 strong army of NMA veterans. Employing a well thought out tactical strategy, he avoided heading straight into the town centre, and confronting the rebel troops, instead opting to circle and attack on the outpost, at Farleigh Bridge.

From here, the New Model Army crossed the River Medway to the south west of Maidstone and by 7pm, had secured the perimeter of the town. Standing before the barricaded town centre, Fairfax began to lay plans to storm the stronghold at first light. These plans were never to be executed.



During the evening of 1 June, an advance guard led by Colonel Hewson came under attack from a group of insurgents. After some heavy skirmishing with the defenders, other units began to get drawn into the fight and Fairfax decided it was now or never. He launched his general assault as the night was drawing in, running his main army straight into the stronghold of the Royalist rebels.



The strength of the smaller and less well trained rebel army took Fairfax by surprise. Rather than being the walkover he had convinced himself it would be, the battle was bloody and hard fought on both sides. Inch by inch and street by street, the New Model Army attacked and won each Royalist barricade, facing not only the ferocity of the defending army in their path, but also the torrential rains that fell on Maidstone that night.



The Royalists slowly retreated back through the town, at first retreating towards Gabriel’s Hill and then into the shadows of Week Street. Finally, at 11pm, and cornered in the confines of a churchyard, the remaining Royalists fled, leaving a tally of 300 of their men dead or dying and 1,000 others captured.



After the battle, the Earl of Norwich escaped in the direction of London. With him, he took around 3,000 men from the rebel forces. However, upon reaching Blackheath on 3 June he discovered the gates to the capital firmly closed to him and the forces of Major General Skippon ready to defend the city against his access. At this point, the bulk of Norwich’s followers turned tail and deserted. All that remained of his once 10,000 strong force were around 500 or so resolutely dedicated followers, who helped Norwich cross the Thames and head for Essex, to join Sir Charles Lucas and the Royalists in Chelmsford.



Fairfax set about recapturing Dover Castle and the three forts on the edge of the Downs. Fairfax had won the battle, but the event was not without casualties on his side too. An estimated 30 – 80 Parliamentary troops lost their lives that day, against a smaller and largely unskilled army of “cavaliers, citizens, seamen and watermen”. Fairfax’s troops received a run for their money, and although the New Model Army was victorious, it learned a thing or two in the process.

2 nd June 1953


   Elizabeth 11 coronation:
                                    The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey becomes the first British coronation and one of the first major international events to be televised.


Coronation of Elizabeth II, coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon,” and “Possessions and other Territories.” The ceremony was presided over by the archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Francis Fisher, and took place on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey, London. Although Elizabeth had ascended the throne upon the death of her father, George VI, on February 6, 1952, her coronation took place more than a year later. This allowed for a period of mourning and was typical of the modern British monarchy.

The following account of Elizabeth II’s coronation was authored by Lawrence Edward Tanner, keeper of Westminster Abbey’s Library and Muniment Room and secretary of the Royal Almonry. It offers a unique insider’s view of the event and its historical context. It originally appeared in the 1954 Britannica Book of the Year.

At the coronation of King George VI in 1937 for the first time a commentary was broadcast from within the Abbey and the service was relayed. In 1953 not only was there a commentary but the service itself was televised and colour films were taken during its progress. The innovation, which had caused some misgivings when it was first proposed as possibly tending to “theatricalize” the ceremony, was in fact a great success. The millions who saw on their screens or subsequently in motion pictures the age-long and stately ceremony unfold itself before their eyes realized, perhaps for the first time, that this was no outworn pageant but a deeply religious and significant service. In it the queen, matchless in her dignity, poise and humility, dedicated herself to the lifelong service of the peoples over whom she was called to rule and was solemnly invested with the robes and insignia of sovereignty, each with its own symbolic meaning. Those who had been present within the abbey at the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937 were not unprepared for a ceremony which, despite its splendid setting, had a simplicity which was deeply moving. There is, however, no doubt that on the millions who were thus enabled to see and take part, as it were, in the service for the first time it made the most profound impression.

The form and order of the coronation service has altered little in essentials down the centuries and can, indeed, trace its descent in a direct line from that used at the coronation of King Edgar at Bath in 973. It has been, of course, often revised, but from the coronation of William III and Mary II in 1689 its main outline has remained the same.

During the first half of the 20th century successive archbishops of Canterbury, with whom lay the responsibility for revision, made various improvements in the service. Broadly speaking these were made with a view to decreasing its length, to removing the traces of past controversies which had become embedded in the service, and to emphasizing its spiritual significance which during the 18th and early 19th centuries had almost disappeared.


For the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II there were many who hoped and urged that the procession from Westminster Hall should be revived, and that some ceremony should be devised within that historic hall which might associate the overseas members of the Commonwealth more closely with the sovereign’s coronation. But for various reasons this was not found to be practicable. With regard to the actual service, the sermon was again omitted; the litany was sung, as in 1937, during the regalia procession; and the oath was again slightly reworded. In addition, various changes or additions to the ritual were made by the archbishop of Canterbury (Geoffrey Fisher) with the advice of several distinguished scholars, and these added greatly to the dignity and significance of the service.


The most important of the changes was the presentation of the Bible immediately after the sovereign had taken the oath instead of after the crowning. This enabled the archbishop of Canterbury and, by a notable innovation, the moderator of the Church of Scotland—representing the two churches which in particular the queen was pledged by her path to protect—to present the Bible to her jointly and to share between them the words accompanying the presentation.

No less striking was the revival of the presentation of the armills or bracelets which, although part of the ancient rite, fell out of use in Stuart times. The bracelets symbolize “sincerity and wisdom” and are “tokens of the Lord’s protection embracing you on every side” as well as “symbols and pledges of that bond which unites you with your peoples.” It was, therefore, peculiarly fitting that the new bracelets were given by the Commonwealth governments and served as visible tokens of the readiness of the peoples of the Commonwealth to support and protect the sovereign.

The presence of the husband of a queen regnant at a coronation had not occurred since Prince George of Denmark attended the coronation of Queen Anne in 1702. Although as consort the duke of Edinburgh could take no part in the ceremony beyond doing homage as a royal prince, it was felt that his presence should in some way be recognized. When, therefore, the queen after her coronation went from the throne to a faldstool before the altar for the Holy Communion, she was joined there by the duke, for whom, before the prayer for the whole church, a special prayer was inserted and a blessing given that “in his high dignity he might faithfully help the queen and her people.” Then as husband and wife they received the Sacrament together before the duke resumed his seat with the royal princes in front of the peers.


The music for the coronation was under the direction of William (later Sir William) McKie, the organist of Westminster Abbey, assisted by Sir Arnold Bax, the master of the queen’s music. Unlike the liturgical forms, the music is chosen afresh for each coronation, and it was the aim of those responsible, following the precedent first set in 1902, to make it representative of English music of every age, special prominence being given to living composers. Handel’s “Zadok the Priest,” sung during the anointing, and Sir Hubert Parry’s “I Was Glad,” sung on the sovereign’s entry into the church and into which is introduced the Vivats of the Westminster scholars, had alone remained constant since the coronations of George II and Edward VII for which they were respectively written. For the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II the most notable innovation was the setting by Vaughan Williams of the Old Hundredth (“All People That on Earth Do Dwell”), which was sung by the whole congregation during the offertory. The group of anthems chosen for the homage was representative of English church music from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II. It included Orlando Gibbons’ “O Clap Your Hands,” Wesley’s “Thou Shalt Keep Him in Perfect Peace” (both of which were sung at the coronation of George VI) and “O Lord Our God” specially written for this occasion by Healey Willan, the Canadian musician. Mention should also be made of the effective setting of Te Deum by Sir William Walton, the lovely simplicity of Vaughan Williams’ “O Taste and See,” sung during the Communion—both of which were written for this coronation—and the fanfares composed by Sir Ernest Bullock, who, as the organist of Westminster Abbey, was responsible for the music at the coronation of King George VI.

3 rd June 2017

  London bridge terror attack:
                                          London Bridge attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police.

                     2017 London Bridge attack

On 3 June 2017, a terrorist vehicle-ramming and stabbing took place in London, England. A van was deliberately driven into pedestrians on London Bridge, and then crashed on Borough High Street, just south of the River Thames. The van's three occupants then ran to the nearby Borough Market area and began stabbing people in and around restaurants and pubs. They were shot dead by Metropolitan Police and City of London Police authorised firearms officers, and were found to be wearing fake explosive vests. Eight people were killed and 48 were injured, including members of the public and four unarmed police officers who attempted to stop the assailants. British authorities described the perpetrators as "radical Islamic terrorists".

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Background
In March 2017, five people had been killed in a combined vehicle and knife attack at Westminster. In late May, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. After the Manchester bombing, the UK's terror threat level was raised to "critical", its highest level, until 27 May 2017, when it was lowered to severe.

Attack
2017 London Bridge attack is located in London Borough Market and London BridgeLondon Borough Market and London Bridge attack overlay.pngBoro Bistro pubBoro Bistro pubVan crashesVan crashesPedestrians hit on pavementPedestrians hit on pavementLobos Meat and TapasLobos Meat and TapasBlack & Blue SteakhouseBlack & Blue SteakhouseEl PastorEl PastorRoastRoastAttackers shot deadAttackers shot dead
Map showing key locations of the attack with Borough Market and London Bridge Highlighted.
The attack was carried out using a white Renault Master hired earlier on the same evening in Harold Hill, Havering by Khuram Butt. He had intended to hire a 7.5 tonne lorry, but was refused due to his failure to provide payment details. The attackers were armed with 12-inch (30 cm) kitchen knives with ceramic blades, which they tied to their wrists with leather straps. They also prepared fake explosive belts by wrapping water bottles in grey tape.

At 21:58 BST (UTC+1) on 3 June 2017, the van travelled south across London Bridge, and returned six minutes later, crossing over the bridge northbound, making a U-turn at the northern end and then driving southbound across the bridge. It mounted the pavement three times and hit multiple pedestrians, killing two. Witnesses said the van was travelling at high speed. 999 emergency calls were first recorded at 22:07. The van was later found to contain 13 wine bottles containing flammable liquid with rags stuffed in them, along with blow torches.

The van crashed on Borough High Street, after crossing the central reservation. The van's tyres were destroyed by the central reservation and the three attackers, armed with knives, abandoned the vehicle. Then they ran down the steps to Green Dragon Court, where they killed five people outside and near the Boro Bistro pub. After attacking the Boro Bistro pub, the attackers went back up the steps to Borough High Street and attacked three bystanders. Police tried to fight the attackers, but were stabbed, and Ignacio Echeverría helped them by striking Redouane and possibly Zaghba with his skateboard. Echeverría was later killed outside Lobos Meat and Tapas.] Members of the public threw bottles and chairs at the attackers. Witnesses reported that the attackers were shouting "This is for Allah".

People in and around a number of other restaurants and bars along Stoney Street were also attacked. During the attack, an unknown man was spared by Rachid Redouane, but despite many efforts the man was never found. A Romanian baker hit one of the attackers over the head with a crate before giving shelter to 20 people inside a bakery inside Borough Market.

One man fought the three attackers with his fists in the Black and Blue steakhouse, shouting "Fuck you, I'm Millwall", giving members of the public who were in the restaurant the opportunity to run away. He was stabbed eight times in the hands, chest and head. He underwent surgery at St Thomas' Hospital and was taken off the critical list on 4 June. A British Transport Police officer armed with a baton also took on the attackers, receiving multiple stab wounds and temporarily losing sight in his right eye as a consequence. Off-duty Metropolitan police constables Liam Jones and Stewart Henderson rendered first aid to seriously injured members of the public before protecting 150+ people inside the Thameside Inn and evacuating them by Metropolitan marine support unit and RNLI boats to the north shore of the Thames.

The three attackers were then shot dead by armed officers from the City of London and Metropolitan police Specialist Firearms Command eight minutes after the initial emergency call was made.CCTV footage showed the three attackers in Borough Market running at the armed officers; the attackers were shot dead 20 seconds later. A total of 46 rounds were fired by three City of London and five Metropolitan Police officers

4th June 1913

Womens suffrage:
Emily Davison, a suffragist, runs out in front of King George V's horse at The Derby. She is trampled, never regains consciousness, and dies four days later.


Today marks 110 years since one of the most famous events in the campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain.

4 June 1913 was the day of the Epsom Derby and at 15.10, just after the leading horses had rounded Tattenham Corner, Emily Wilding Davison, a militant suffragette, ran out from under the railings and into path of two trailing horses. Anmer, the King’s horse, struck Emily with his chest and pitched onto its head while the jockey, Herbert Jones, was thrown and rendered unconscious. The injuries Davison suffered would lead to her death four days later from a fractured skull.


As we have seen in recent television and newspaper coverage, debate has surrounded Davison’s actions since Derby Day 1913 1. Was Emily Davison making a suffrage protest, disrupting the race by attaching a flag in the suffragette colours to the King’s horse? Were her actions part of a wider suffragette demonstration at the Derby or did she act alone? Was she trying to commit suicide? Or, was she simply trying to cross the course in the mistaken belief that all the horses had passed?

Intrigued by all these questions, I decided to take a look at a Metropolitan Police file at The National Archives (MEPO 2/1551) which contains police reports, witness statements and notes made in the hours and days following Davison’s actions.

One of the most vivid statements I found comes from Dr Vale-Jones, a local man, who was attending the Derby as a spectator. He was standing near Tattenham Corner and recounts: ‘A woman opposite me threw her arms up and jumped out into the course just as the last few horses were passing. A space between gave sufficient light to show what was happening.’ Dr Vale-Jones made his way through the crowd to offer medical assistance and his dramatic statement details the medical aid he and a nurse provided before Emily was transferred to Epsom Cottage Hospital:

‘I found her suffering from concussion of the brain and heart failure and her life! ebbing fast… I called for brandy or whisky, and a policeman brought me the latter, but this had but little effect to save life. A nurse then came up to my assistance. I said to her “she is slipping out fast, I must have hot water”. None to be had I then sent a policeman to obtain a thermos flask that contained very hot tea, which I could hardly stand the touch. I then took the nurse’s handkerchief and poured some of the contents on and applied it to the left wrist. The second application had the desired effect of restoring the heart action.’

While Dr Vale-Jones was treating Emily, jockey Herbert Jones was taken to the ambulance station where he regained consciousness, suffering from bruises, abrasions and shock. Amner, the horse, was stopped on the course and secured.


Clippings from contemporary newspaper reports included in the file claim that someone hoisted a placard emblazoned ‘Votes for Women’ just after the accident, implying Emily’s actions were part of a wider protest. Metropolitan Police reports dispute this claim, indeed they indicate that at the time Emily rushed onto the race track, no one knew who she was. Sergeant Frank Bunn and PC Samuel Eady were two of the police officers on the scene and accompanied Davison to hospital. Their statements reveal that Emily’s identity was only discovered when she got to hospital and they found a handkerchief embroidered with her name. Nor was there any sign a demonstration was underway or that Emily might be acting on behalf of the suffragettes until her jacket was removed, revealing two flags.


A report by Superintendent Robinson dated 5 June suggests that police officers would have noticed any signs of suffragette activity, having received instructions to keep a sharp look-out following a threat received by the Jockey Club that nails would be placed on the course to disrupt the race.


While his statement does not support the suggestion of a larger suffragette protest, Robinson’s report does imply that Emily Davison acted to deliberately disrupt the race, noting that she chose a favourable spot at Tattenham Corner where she could get through the rails and onto the track. Bunn’s discovery of two suffragette flags pinned to Emily’s jacket also indicates that she intended to make some form of protest. On her arrival at hospital, Bunn searched through Emily’s purse, where, among other items, he found a return train ticket to Victoria and a helper’s pass to a suffragette festival that evening. All these different pieces of evidence have only fuelled speculation as to whether Emily really meant to martyr herself when she ran onto the track at Epsom. Perhaps it is in relation to this question that newspaper clippings about the Derby are included in files relating to a suicide attempt Emily made in June 1912, when she threw herself from a staircase in Holloway Prison 2. Disparities between the newspaper reports and witness statements found in MEPO 2/1551 reveal how quickly contradictory stories emerged following this tragic event and might explain why we are still struggling to understand Emily’s intentions over a century later.

5 th June 1963

The Profumo affair :
The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigns in a sex scandal known as the "Profumo affair".

British Secretary of War John Profumo resigns amid sex scandal

On June 5, 1963, British Secretary of War John Profumo resigns his post following revelations that he had lied to the House of Commons about his sexual affair with Christine Keeler, an alleged prostitute. At the time of the affair, Keeler was also involved with Yevgeny “Eugene” Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache who some suspected was a spy. Although Profumo assured the government that he had not compromised national security in any way, the scandal threatened to topple Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government.

John Dennis Profumo was appointed secretary of war by Macmillan in 1960. As war minister, he was in charge of overseeing the British army. The post was a junior cabinet position, but Profumo looked a good candidate for future promotion. He was married to Valerie Hobson, a retired movie actress, and the Profumos were very much at the center of “swinging ’60s” society in the early 1960s. One night in July 1961, John Profumo was at the Cliveden estate of Lord “Bill” Astor when he was first introduced to 19-year-old Christine Keeler. She was frolicking naked by the Cliveden pool.

Keeler was at Cliveden as a guest of Dr. Stephen Ward, a society osteopath and part-time portraitist who rented a cottage at the estate from his friend Lord Astor. Keeler was working as a showgirl at a London nightclub when she first met Dr. Ward. Ward took her under his wing, and they lived together in his London flat but were not lovers. He encouraged her to pursue sexual relationships with his high-class friends, and on one or more occasions Keeler apparently accepted money in exchange for sex. Ward introduced her to his friend Ivanov, and she began a sexual relationship with the Soviet diplomat. Several weeks after meeting Profumo at Cliveden, she also began an affair with the war minister. There is no evidence that either of these men paid her for sex, but Profumo once gave Keeler some money to buy her mother a birthday present.

After an intense few months, Profumo ended his affair with Keeler before the end of 1961. His indiscretions might never have come to public attention were it not for an incident involving Keeler that occurred in early 1963. Johnny Edgecombe, a West Indian marijuana dealer, was arrested for shooting up the exterior of Ward’s London flat after Keeler, his ex-lover, refused to let him in. The press gave considerable coverage to the incident and subsequent trial, and rumors were soon abounding about Keeler’s earlier relationship with Profumo. When Keeler confirmed reports of her affair with Profumo, and admitted a concurrent relationship with Ivanov, what had been cocktail-party gossip grew into a scandal with serious security connotations.

On March 21, 1963, Colonel George Wigg, a Labour MP for Dudley, raised the issue in the House of Commons, inviting the member of government in question to affirm or deny the rumors of his improprieties. Wigg forced Profumo’s hand, not, he claimed, to embarrass the Conservative government but because the Ivanov connection was a matter of national security. Behind closed doors, however, British intelligence had already concluded that Profumo had not compromised national security in any way and found little evidence implicating Ivanov as a spy. Nevertheless, Wigg had raised the issue, and Profumo had no choice but to stand up before Parliament on March 22 and make a statement. He vehemently denied the charges, saying “there was no impropriety whatsoever in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler.” To drive home his point, he continued, “I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside the House.”

Profumo’s convincing denial defused the scandal for several weeks, but in May Dr. Stephen Ward went on trial in London on charges of prostituting Keeler and other young women. In the highly sensationalized trial, Keeler testified under oath about her relationship with Profumo. Ward also wrote Harold Wilson, leader of the Labour opposition in Parliament, and affirmed that Profumo had lied to the House of Commons. On June 4, Profumo returned from a holiday in Italy with his wife and confessed to Conservative leaders that Miss Keeler had been his mistress and that his March 22 statement to the Commons was untrue. On June 5, he resigned as war minister.

Prime Minister Macmillan was widely criticized for his handling of the Profumo scandal. In the press and in Parliament, Macmillan was condemned as being old, out-of-touch, and incompetent. In October, he resigned under pressure from his own government. He was replaced by Conservative Alec Douglas-Home, but in the general election in 1964 the Conservatives were swept from power by Harold Wilson’s Labour Party.

Dr. Stephen Ward fell into a coma after attempting suicide by an overdose of pills. In his absence, he was found guilty of living off the immoral earnings of prostitution and died shortly after without regaining consciousness. Christine Keeler was convicted of perjury in a related trial and began a prison sentence in December 1963. John Profumo left politics after his resignation and dedicated himself to philanthropy in the East End of London. For his charitable work, Queen Elizabeth II named him a Commander of the British Empire, one of Britain’s highest honors, in 1975.

Keeler’s autobiography, The Truth at Last: My Story was published in 2001. She died on December 4, 2017. Profumo died on March 10, 2006, two days after suffering a stroke.

6 th June 1944

Operation Overlord :
Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

D-Day was the name given to the June 6, 1944, invasion of the beaches at Normandy in northern France by troops from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries during World War II. France at the time was occupied by the armies of Nazi Germany, and the amphibious assault—codenamed Operation Overlord—landed some 156,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy by the end of the day. Despite their success, some 4,000 Allied troops were killed by German soldiers defending the beaches. At the time, the D-Day invasion was the largest naval, air and land operation in history, and within a few days about 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed. By August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and in spring of 1945 the Allies had defeated the Germans. Historians often refer to D-Day as the beginning of the end of World War II.

Preparing for D-Day

After World War II began, Germany invaded and occupied northwestern France beginning in May 1940. The Americans entered the war in December 1941, and by 1942 they and the British (who had been evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk in May 1940 after being cut off by the Germans in the Battle of France) were considering the possibility of a major Allied invasion across the English Channel. The following year, Allied plans for a cross-Channel invasion began to ramp up. In November 1943, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who was aware of the threat of an invasion along France’s northern coast, put Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) in charge of spearheading defense operations in the region, even though the Germans did not know exactly where the Allies would strike. Hitler charged Rommel with finishing the Atlantic Wall, a 2,400-mile fortification of bunkers, landmines and beach and water obstacles.


On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops stormed 50 miles of Normandy's fiercely defended beaches in northern France in an operation that proved to be a critical turning point in World War II.

Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill knew from the start of the war that a massive invasion of mainland Europe would be critical to relieve pressure from the Soviet army fighting the Nazis in the east.

Since Operation Overlord was launched from England, the U.S. military had to ship 7 million tons of supplies to the staging area, including 450,000 tons of ammunition. Here, ammunition is shown in the town square of Morten-in-Marsh, England ahead of the invasion.

The D-Day invasion began in the pre-dawn hours of June 6 with thousands of paratroopers landing inland on the Utah and Sword beaches in an attempt to cut off exits and destroy bridges to slow Nazi reinforcements.

The first waves of American fighters were cut down in droves by German machine gun fire as they scrambled across the mine-riddled beach.

At Omaha Beach, U.S. forces persisted through the day-long slog, pushing forward to a fortified seawall and then up steep bluffs to take out the Nazi artillery posts by nightfall. Shown, wounded U.S. soldiers lean against chalk cliffs after storming Omaha Beach.

Anticipating an Allied invasion somewhere along the French coast, German forces had completed construction of the “Atlantic Wall,” a 2,400-mile line of bunkers, landmines and beach and water obstacles.


In January 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) was appointed commander of Operation Overlord. In the months and weeks before D-Day, the Allies carried out a massive deception operation intended to make the Germans think the main invasion target was Pas-de-Calais (the narrowest point between Britain and France) rather than Normandy. In addition, they led the Germans to believe that Norway and other locations were also potential invasion targets. Many tactics were used to carry out the deception, including fake equipment; a phantom army commanded by George Patton and supposedly based in England, across from Pas-de-Calais; double agents; and fraudulent radio transmissions.

A Weather Delay: June 5, 1944

Eisenhower selected June 5, 1944, as the date for the invasion; however, bad weather on the days leading up to the operation caused it to be delayed for 24 hours. On the morning of June 5, after his meteorologist predicted improved conditions for the following day, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord. He told the troops: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”

Later that day, more than 5,000 ships and landing craft carrying troops and supplies left England for the trip across the Channel to France, while more than 11,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.

D-Day Landings: June 6, 1944

By dawn on June 6, thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. The amphibious invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture beaches codenamed Gold, Juno and Sword, as did the Americans at Utah Beach. U.S. forces faced heavy resistance at Omaha Beach, where there were over 2,000 American casualties. However, by day’s end, approximately 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches. According to some estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing.

Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy.

For their part, the Germans suffered from confusion in the ranks and the absence of celebrated commander Rommel, who was away on leave. At first, Hitler, believing the invasion was a feint designed to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River, refused to release nearby divisions to join the counterattack. Reinforcements had to be called from further afield, causing delays. He also hesitated in calling for armored divisions to help in the defense. Moreover, the Germans were hampered by effective Allied air support, which took out many key bridges and forced the Germans to take long detours, as well as efficient Allied naval support, which helped protect advancing Allied troops.

In the ensuing weeks, the Allies fought their way across the Normandy countryside in the face of determined German resistance, as well as a dense landscape of marshes and hedgerows. By the end of June, the Allies had seized the vital port of Cherbourg, landed approximately 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy, and were poised to continue their march across France.

7 th June 1977


   Jubilee day:
                    Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.



1977: Queen celebrates Silver Jubilee
More than one million people  lined the streets of London to watch the Royal Family on their way to St Paul's at the start of the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations.
The Queen, dressed in pink on her Jubilee Day and accompanied by Prince Phillip, led the procession in the golden state coach.

Despite the rain thousands camped out over night to try to get a better view of the procession as it made its way down the Mall and through Trafalgar Square, Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill.

At St Paul's 2,700 specially selected guests, including politicians and other heads of state joined in the ceremony which began with Ralph Vaughan Williams' arrangement of the hymn "All people that on earth do dwell" which was played at the Queen's coronation in 1953.

Across Britain millions of people tuned in to watch events on the television and many more celebrated with their own street parties. Roads were quiet and many took the day off work.

Sea of Union Jacks

The Queen, speaking at the Corporation of London lunch at the Guildhall said: "I want to thank all those in Britain and the Commonwealth who through their loyalty and friendship have given me strength and encouragement during these last 25 years."

"My thanks go also to the many thousands who have sent me messages of congratulations on my silver jubilee, that and their good wishes for the future" she added.

The Queen and Prince Phillip then mingled with crowds who handed over flowers and cards.

Later the Royal Family delighted the crowds again with an appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

The Queen, along with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, waved as the crowd on the Mall, which resembled a sea of Union Jack flags, sang the National Anthem.


                  In contrast to the celebrations punk band the Sex Pistols sailed down the Thames on Jubilee Day playing their controversial version of "God save the Queen".
Radio stations were banned from playing the single but it still managed to reach number two in the charts.

The group were arrested as they left the boat but had achieved their aim of distracting people from the main celebrations.

In June 2002 the Queen celebrated her Golden jubilee. Celebrations mirrored those of 1977 as millions took to the streets and crowded into the Mall to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family.

The Queen toured Britain and the Commonwealth throughout the year and two massive concerts, one pop and one classical, were held at Buckingham Palace and shown on television around the world.

8 th June 1029

Margaret Bondfield:
Margaret Bondfield is appointed Minister of Labour. She is the first woman appointed to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

The Guildhall in the middle of Chard in Somerset, might seem an unlikely place to celebrate the life of a local woman who made political history, as well as championing workers rights and equal opportunities for women.

There on the wall, however, is a blue plaque – prominently displayed to the side of the main columns. The town’s pride in one of its former citizens is clear in the opening part of the inscription’s layout:

‘Margaret Bondfield: The first woman Cabinet Minister…WAS BORN IN THIS TOWN’

Margaret Bondfield’s political achievements form only part of her story, as she blazed a trail in the early part of the 20th century for future social reformers and activists. Nevertheless, January 1924 marks the 90th anniversary of a unique event – her appointment as the first ever female British government minister. A step that was to lead to even greater things five years later.


Margaret was born in 1873, the second youngest of eleven children. At this time, Chard was a busy industrial town – with lace making; the cloth trade and iron working among its trades. Margaret grew up in a family environment that encouraged social fairness and an interest in working class political movements. She was later to write in her book, ‘A Life’s Work’, that …”the old radicalism and nonconformity of Chard…must somehow have got into the texture of my life and shaped my thoughts….” Her anger at injustice may also have been stirred by her father’s dismissal from his lace factory job, after many years as a foreman, when Margaret was only a child.

Attending the local High Street School, the young Margaret was a bright and conscientious student, showing an interest in wider issues. At fourteen however, her life was to change drastically. Following a visit to see relatives in Brighton and keen to start working after leaving school, Margaret was offered an apprenticeship at a draper’s shop in the city. It would be several years before she saw her family again and, although she didn’t know it at the time, the job would set her on the path to political activism and eventual high office.

Although treated well by the shop owner, Mrs White, the long working hours and living-in conditions made a deep impression on Margaret. Mixing with other shop girls, she saw how the daily grind wore down the women and affected their self-respect – leaving them little time or energy to pursue interests away from work. Many of the girls just seemed intent on getting married as early as possible in order to escape the drudgery of shop work. Margaret did not want to follow the same path, but determined to help improve conditions for ordinary workers.


Her desire for action was further stirred after becoming friendly with Louise Martindale, a customer at the shop and activist for women’s rights, who took Margaret under her wing. In 1894, Margaret left Brighton and went to live with her brother in London – working, again, in a shop. By now, she had had become an active Union member and shortly after the move was elected to the Shop Assistants Union District Council.


In 1896, the Women’s Industrial Council asked Margaret to investigate the pay and conditions of shop workers. Her subsequent report and elevation to Assistant Secretary of her Union meant that by the age of 25, her political potential was being noticed in wider circles. Within a few years, Margaret was recognised as the leading authority on shop workers – constantly fighting to improve their rights and reporting her findings to Parliamentary Committees. Her desire to gain equality for women would continue throughout her life.

The first decade of the 20th century saw Margaret co-found the first trade union for women, the National federation of Women Workers, and play an active role in the Women’s Labour League. By 1910, she was working as an advisor to the Liberal government – helping to influence the Health Insurance Bill, giving improved maternity benefits to mothers. This, along with her campaigning efforts for improvements in child welfare; a reduction in infant mortality rates and minimum wage laws cemented her activist reputation and paved the way for her subsequent political career. Her ideals owed much to a prominent role within the Women’s Co-operative Guild, leading to lifelong links with the Co-operative movement.

Prior to the First World War, Margaret was chairperson of the Adult Suffrage Society – working in another area to further gender equality. Her efforts to win the vote for poorer, working class women were not always popular with the more cautious aims of other suffragettes – a powerful speaker, she was not afraid to use her charm and relative youth to win over waverers at times.


Continuing her work for social equality throughout the war years and beyond, Margaret was approached to stand as a Labour candidate for Northampton. Victory at her third attempt, in the 1923 election, meant that she became one of the first female MP’s – reward for her efforts in helping to gain further rights for women, although votes for all adult women would take a little longer to achieve.


History was made in early 1924, when she was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Labour – the first woman ever to become a government minister. This was to be short-lived, however, as Margaret lost her seat in the following year’s general election – regaining her place as an MP in the Wallsend by-election of 1926.

A greater honour was to follow. In 1929, she was made Minister of Labour in the new government – the first time that a woman had been made a British Cabinet minister. She soon found out that political realities could conflict with personal ideals – her support of a government policy to cut unemployment benefit for some married women during the Depression proving particularly unpopular with Labour voters. In the face of rising unemployment, this was a difficult time to be Minister of Labour and Margaret was placed in an almost impossible position. Losing her seat in the 1931 election meant that Margaret’s parliamentary career was over. Despite attempts at a come back, she played no active part in politics again. Suffering from ill health in later life, she died, in Surrey, in 1953.

The reforming efforts of the working class girl from Chard, who started work as a lowly shop assistant, played a huge part in advancing women’s rights in the first part of the last century. She fought for and succeeded in gaining improvements in working conditions; living standards; universal suffrage and overall gender equality. Her pictures in the National Portrait Gallery suggest a strong, determined character – driven to succeed in her life’s work.


Bondfield Way, a small 1940’s-built estate on the outskirts of Chard, and the granting of the freedom of the town are further acknowledgements of the town’s pride in Margaret’s achievements. The last words of the Guildhall’s blue plaque, however, provide the most fitting epitaph:

‘Shop worker, Christian, Socialist, Trades Unionist, she devoted her life to improving the lot of the downtrodden’.

9 th June 1944

W.W2 The Tulle massacre:
World War II: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.

What a sense of relief it must have been when the French people found out that the allied troops had finally arrived on June 6 1944. Unfortunately though D-Day wasn’t the end of the war it was only the start of the end and many innocent lives were still lost between that day and the end of WWII.

The citizens of the town of Tulle found out only 3 days after D-Day that the war was still raging in the most brutal way possible.

After a successful attack by the French Resistance group Francs-tireur on 7 and 8 June 1944, the arrival of Das Reich troops forced the Maquis(French Resistance) to flee the city of Tulle (department of Corrèze) in south-central France.

Resistance operations in Tulle had been planned by the commander of the Maquis FTP of Corrèze, Jacques Chapou , aka Klébe

The offensive started on June 7 1944 at 5 AM with a Bazooka attack on the barracks of the security forces at Champ de Mars. This action functioned as the signal to begin the attack.

The fighting centered around three main areas: the armory, the gendarmerie barracks and the girls’ school, which housed German troops.

The focus the following day was on the girls’ school. the Resistance fighters set fire to the school building around 3 PM.About 2 hours later , in circumstances that remain unclear and disputed, the Germans tried to leave, if one of them was waving a white cloth, others were carrying live grenades. In all the chaos, the Maquis opened fire with automatic weapons; some soldiers were cut down at close range, by exploding grenades, which would explain the injuries observed on the horribly mutilated corpses. An estimated 40 were killed.

When the 2nd SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ entered the town they found 40 dead bodies of the German 3rd Battalion/95th Security Regiment garrison troops near the school, their bodies badly mutilated.

On 9 June 1944, after arresting all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, the SS and members of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) ordered 120 of the prisoners to be hanged, of whom 99 were actually hanged.

The citizens of Tulle had been warned by a text on a poster

“Forty German soldiers were murdered in the most horrible manner by a band of communists. For the guerillas and those who helped them, there is a punishment, execution by hanging. Forty German soldiers were murdered by the guerrillas, one hundred and twenty guerrillas and their accomplices will be hanged. Their bodies will be thrown in the river — Poster signed by the commanding General of the German troops.



In the days that followed, 149 men were sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where 101 lost their lives. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the SD claimed the lives of 213 civilian residents of Tulle.

10 th June 1990

Aviation miracles :
British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities.


British Airways Flight 5390: How A Pilot Survived 20 Minutes Outside A Flying Jet

Explosive decompressions can cause a serious threat to life onboard an aircraft. Such incidents are rare, but one stands out as a particularly incredible story of survival. Specifically, in June 1990, the captain of a British Airways BAC 1-11 survived being sucked out of his seat and pinned to the aircraft's exterior for 20 minutes. Let's explore the unbelievable tale of British Airways flight BA5390.

The flight in question
British Airways flight 5390 was a service from Birmingham (BHX) down to Málaga–Costa del Sol (AGP), Spain's fourth-busiest airport. This was, and remains, an immensely popular leisure corridor among sun-seeking British tourists looking to enjoy a Spanish holiday. Today, Jet2, Ryanair, and TUI all ply this route year-round, with easyJet also doing so on a seasonal basis.



On the other hand, British Airways no longer operates out of Birmingham. That being said, it does still serve Málaga from London City and Heathrow all year long, as well as Southampton and London Gatwick seasonally. This underlines the destination's nationwide popularity among travelers from all over the UK.

The date of the alarming incident was June 10th, 1990. While this falls outside typical British school holiday dates, the flight was still reasonably well loaded, with 81 passengers (and six crew). Flight BA5390 was operated by the stretched BAC 1-11-500. This had a maximum capacity of 119 passengers seated five abreast. It departed Birmingham at 08:20 local time.

The aircraft involved
As we have established, the aircraft operating flight BA5390 on June 10th, 1990 was a BAC 1-11-500. According to data from ATDB.aero, British Airways operated 35 of these rear-engined planes from 1974 to 1993. Additionally, it also flew nine examples of the shorter BAC 1-11-400 from 1974 to 1998.

This particular example bore the registration G-BJRT. It was named County of South Glamorgan, after a coastal region of South Wales. It had only joined BA in 1988, although it was not brand-new at this point. Indeed, it had originally entered service with West Germany's Bavaria Fluggesellschaft in 1971, which was renamed Bavaria Germanair in 1977.


The aircraft joined fellow German airline Hapag-Lloyd Flug in 1979, before moving on in 1981. This took it from Germany to the UK, where it joined British Caledonian, It was with the carrier for seven years before BA acquired the airline and its fleet in 1988. At the time of the incident, G-BJRT had been in service for a total of 19 years.

Decompression over Didcot
Following an uneventful departure under the control of First Officer Alastair Atchison, the flight climbed out of Birmingham on a southerly heading towards the Spanish sunshine. During the climb, Atchison handed control of the aircraft over to Captain Tim Lancaster.

13 minutes after the flight's departure from Birmingham, at 08:33 local time, G-BJRT was at an altitude of 17,300 feet over the railway town of Didcot, Oxfordshire. This was the point at which the flight's storyline took a sudden and alarming turn. Specifically, the windscreen on Captain Lancaster's side explosively separated from the plane with a loud bang.

In a terrifying turn of events, the force of the sudden explosive decompression caused by the window coming loose propelled Captain Lancaster head-first out of the climbing aircraft. Luckily, he caught his legs on the flight controls, which prevented him from being sucked out altogether. However, this disengaged the autopilot, forcing the plane to descend.

Rapid descent
The aircraft picked up speed during its sudden descent as the decompression had caused the cockpit door to collapse inwards, jamming the throttle controls. First Officer Atchison elected to continue the descent to a safe altitude in terms of air pressure and oxygen levels.


This was because the 1-11 did not have sufficient auxiliary oxygen supplies for its entire contingent of passengers and crew. Meanwhile, cabin crew members had entered the cockpit to hold on to Captain Lancaster's body. They feared that, if let go, his body might damage the wings or even be ingested into the engines, potentially causing further danger.

Emergency landing at Southampton
With the plane's flight attendants holding Captain Lancaster in place, First Officer Atchison was able to regain full control of the aircraft, and set about initiating the process of an emergency landing. Air Traffic Control directed the flight to Southampton Airport.

There were fears that the runway might be too short for the heavily fueled BAC 1-11. However, the aircraft didn't have the ability to dump fuel to save weight, leaving Atchison with no other options. The flight touched down safely at Southampton at 08:55 local time.

The landing took place 35 minutes after the flight's initial departure from Birmingham. By this time, Captain Lancaster had been pinned outside the cockpit for more than 20 minutes, causing his colleagues to fear the worst about his survival prospects.


However, he somehow survived the tremendous ordeal, with just a handful of injuries to show for it. Lancaster suffered frostbite due to the time spent outside the aircraft, as well as shock, bruising, and fractures to his arms, hands, and wrists. Steward Nigel Ogden was the only other seriously injured party, suffering frostbite and a dislocated shoulder.

The investigation
Investigators quickly got to work on the alarming incident, and soon uncovered an equally shocking cause. This came about after the missing window, and many of its 90 bolts, were located in Cholsey, Oxfordshire. The village is around 5.5 miles (9 km) from Didcot, where the aircraft had been above at the time of its decompression.


Upon examination, investigators found that the bolts used to hold the windscreen in place were fractions of a centimeter too narrow and short. They had been installed the night before the incident, when engineers changed the windscreen panel during maintenance.

While seemingly marginal, this difference meant they could not withstand the air pressure difference between the cabin and the outside at altitude. This difference is what caused the decompression. The investigation highlighted malpractice at BA's maintenance facility in Birmingham, finding that workers had taken shortcuts to expedite procedures.