Today in history

29 th July 1981

A worldwide television audience of around 750 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.


ON THIS DAY IN 1981, A WORLDWIDE TELEVISION AUDIENCE OF OVER 750 MILLION PEOPLE WATCHED THE ROYAL WEDDING OF PRINCE CHARLES AND LADY DIANA IN LONDON.
On this day in 1981, a worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watched the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday 29 July 1981.
The groom was the heir to the British throne, and the bride was a member of the Spencer family.
The ceremony was a traditional Church of England wedding service.
The Dean of St Paul's Cathedral Alan Webster presided at the service, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie conducted the marriage.
Notable figures in attendance included many members of other royal families, republican heads of state, and members of the bride's and groom's families.
After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The United Kingdom had a national holiday on that day to mark the wedding.
The ceremony featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry.
Their marriage was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" and the "wedding of the century".
It was watched by an estimated global TV audience of 750 million people.
Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding.
Many street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom to celebrate the occasion.
The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996 after fifteen years of marriage.

30 th July 1966


Their finest hour:
England defeats West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley Stadium after extra time.

HURST HAT-TRICK HELPS ENGLAND BECOME WORLD CHAMPIONS

57 years on from England's triumph in the World Cup Final at Wembley, we look back at the 4-2 victory over West Germany...

Relying on the team which had seen them through the previous two rounds, Alf Ramsey's England won a great match 4-2 after extra-time against West Germany.

The Germans had looked the more dangerous in the opening minutes, Haller and Held leading menacing sorties and Seeler, their captain, using his head to good advantage.


It came as no surprise when Haller shot West Germany into a 12th-minute lead following Wilson's misdirected header. He thought scoring the opening goal entitled him to keep the match ball - that was the custom in German football.

England, behind for the first time in the tournament, equalised six minutes later. Hurst positioned himself perfectly to head home Moore's quickly-taken free-kick.

The German defence gave little away in the second period and only 12 minutes remained when Peters scored after Hurst's centre had struck a defender and looped invitingly into the air. From that range Peters could hardly miss.

As England hung on for the final whistle, Jack Charlton was adjudged, harshly, to have fouled on the edge of the box.

The free-kick, blasted at the wall by Emmerich, appeared to strike Schnellinger's hand before rolling on for Weber to shoot, almost in slow motion, past Banks' desperate lunge.

England looked fitter and fresher in extra time, continuing to play with confidence and composure.

Hurst scored with a drive on the turn which hit the underside of the bar and bounced over the line with Tilkowski beaten. The goal was disputed by the Germans - and still is.


The Swiss referee asked the nearer linesman, Mr. Bakhramov from the USSR (he actually came from what is now Azerbaijan), and between them they agreed that it was a goal.

With the last kick of the match Hurst completed a personal triumph by scoring with a firm left-footer.

There were some people on the pitch. Geoff, now Sir Geoff, remains the only player to have notched a hat-trick in a World Cup Final.

A day to remember - especially today.

31 st July 1972

Operation Motorman:
The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.


Operation Motorman was a large operation carried out by the British Army (HQ Northern Ireland) in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The operation took place in the early hours of 31 July 1972 with the aim of retaking the "no-go areas" (areas controlled by residents, including Irish republican paramilitaries) that had been established in Belfast and other urban centres. In Derry, Operation Carcan (or Car Can), initially proposed as a separate operation, was executed as part of Motorman.

The Troubles (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.

The conflict was primarily political and nationalistic, fuelled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension but despite use of the terms 'Protestant' and 'Catholic' to refer to the two sides, it was not a religious conflict. A key issue was the status of Northern Ireland. Unionists and loyalists, who for historical reasons were mostly Ulster Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists and republicans, who were mostly Irish Catholics, wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland.

The conflict began during a campaign by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and local authorities. The government attempted to suppress the protests. The police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), were overwhelmingly Protestant and accused of sectarianism and police brutality. The campaign was also violently opposed by loyalists, who said it was a republican front. Increasing tensions led to the August 1969 riots and the deployment of British troops, in what became the British Army's longest operation. "Peace walls" were built in some areas to keep the two communities apart. Some Catholics initially welcomed the British Army as a more neutral force than the RUC, but soon came to see it as hostile and biased, particularly after Bloody Sunday in 1972.The main participants in the Troubles were republican paramilitaries such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); loyalist paramilitaries such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA); British state security forces such as the British Army and RUC; and political activists. The security forces of the Republic of Ireland played a smaller role. Republicans carried out a guerrilla campaign against British forces as well as a bombing campaign against infrastructural, commercial and political targets. Loyalists attacked republicans/nationalists and the wider Catholic community in what they described as retaliation. At times, there were bouts of sectarian tit-for-tat violence, as well as feuds within and between paramilitary groups. The British security forces undertook policing and counter-insurgency, primarily against republicans. There were incidents of collusion between British state forces and loyalist paramilitaries. The Troubles also involved numerous riots, mass protests and acts of civil disobedience, and led to increased segregation and the creation of temporary no-go areas.

More than 3,500 people were killed in the conflict, of whom 52% were civilians, 32% were members of the British security forces and 16% were members of paramilitary groups. Republican paramilitaries were responsible for some 60% of the deaths, loyalists 30% and security forces 10%. The Northern Ireland peace process led to paramilitary ceasefires and talks between the main political parties, which resulted in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. This Agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of "power-sharing" and it included acceptance of the principle of consent, commitment to civil and political rights, parity of esteem, police reform, paramilitary disarmament and early release of paramilitary prisoners. There has been sporadic violence since the Agreement, including punishment attacks and a campaign by dissident republicans.

1 st August 1984

Lindow man:

Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England.

Lindow Man: Murder Victim or Human Sacrifice?
In August 1984, archaeologists discovered Britain’s best preserved bog body in Lindow Moss, Cheshire. Initially believed to be the remains of a murdered woman, on examination, they were found to be much older, dating to the Iron age.

Nicknamed ‘Pete Marsh’ or Lindow Man’ , the health, social status, last meal and cause of death of the man more properly known as ‘Lindow II’ have all been established. But why he died is a matter of debate.Was Lindow Man a Celtic ritual sacrifice? Or is he an Iron Age Murder victim?

What Did Lindow Man look like?
When archaeologists discovered him, Lindow Man’s body was incomplete. His lower abdomen and one leg were missing. However, archaeologists were able to easily establish his sex as male from the fact that he had a neatly trimmed beard , moustache and sideburns.

Lindow Man must have been a well built individual. By looking at the length of his upper arm bone, experts established his height as between 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches, making him taller than most men of his time. His weight was calculated as being 60-65 kg (132 pounds or nearly 10 stone).

Lindow Man’s Lifestyle.
Despite showing signs of slight osteoarthritis, Lindow Man was in good health for the period he lived in. His teeth, although stripped of enamel by the acid environment of the peat were healthy with no cavities. He was suffering from a severe case of whip worm and maw worm but this would probably have passed unnoticed.

In fact, his overall standard of living appeared to have been good, if his personal grooming was anything to go by. Electron microscopy revealed that his hair follicles were stepped, leading archaeologists to conclude that his hair was trimmed not long before his death with scissors or shears. These implements were not common items at the time, and this coupled with his manicured nails and smooth hands led to speculation that Lindow Man had been a high ranking member of society.

Yet despite these indications of privelege, Lindow Man was buried with no trappings of rank. Instead, he appeared to have been sent to his grave naked but for a fox fur armband.

Lindow Man’s Last Meal

Lindow Man’s stomach had not decayed, allowing for the analysis of his partly digested last meal. Scientists examined this under a microscope, to discover that Lindow Man’s final food was little more than a snack composed of chaff and bran. Electron spin resonance was used to establish the maximum cooking temperature of the meal, how long it was cooked for and the method used. It seemed that Lindow Man had eaten a type of griddle cake, cooked on a flat surface at 200 degrees centigrade for about half an hour. During this process, it had burnt.

The griddle cake was not all that was found in the stomach. Traces of small quantities of mistletoe pollen present. While insignificant in itself, it does suggest Lindow Man died in around March or April..

Lindow Man’s Age

Lindow Man was between 20-25 when he died. However his exact date of death is harder to pinpoint. While the peat around the body was radiocarbon dated to around 300BC, the body itself was much younger, dating to 2BC and 119AD.

Archaeologist P C Buckland believes that the discrepancy in the dates, plus the fact that Lindow Man was found in layers of peat whose stratigraphy was undisturbed, suggests his body was deposited in an established pool on the moss. However, geographer K E Barber believes that the peat could have been peeled back and placed back over the body.

Lindow Man’s Death.

Lindow Man’s end was violent. At some point, someone kneed him in the back, breaking one of his ribs. This however was not the worst of the violence Lindow Man suffered. For his assailant also hit him twice on the head. One of the blows was made by a blunt object that left a V shaped wound on the skull. This blow was hard enough to drive a splinter of bone into Lindow Man’s brain which would have rendered him unconscious if it did not kill him outright. Archaeologists also found a1.5 mm thick thong of animal sinew around Lindow Man’s neck. Expersts have assumed was used to strangle him as two of his neck vertebrae were broken. If all of these injuries did not finish off the unfortunate man, the final one did. For a gash on the side of Lindow Man’s neck would have severed the jugular, causing him to bleed to death. Experst believe however that this wound was post mortem, and inflicted deliberatly before Lindow Man’s body was dropped face down into the bog pool.

Murder Victim, Criminal or Sacrifice?

Many experts believe the wounds to Lindow Man’s body suggest a complex, ritual death. The blow to the head, followed by garrotting and finally bleeding suggest a ceremonial ‘Triple Death’ according to Anne Ross, an expert on Iron Age religion.

What would be the reason for such a death? Lindow Man’s body is possibly contemporary with the Claudian Roman invasion of Britain so he may have been an important member of a local tribe who was chosen or volunteered to die to protect his people from the invaders. Alternatively, he may have been a sacrifice to ensure a good harvest or safe winter.

No one can know for certain. However there is a growing belief amongst some academics that Lindow Man was not sacrificed at all. R C Connolly, senior lecturer in physical anthropology at the University of Liverpool believes Lindow man was simply ‘clubbed to death’and dismisses the interpretation of ritual features as an ‘archaeological fettish’. To Connolly the sinew about the neck was the remains of a necklace rather than a garrot and that the neck wound in fact post mortem rupturing rather than a slash.




Lindow Man at the British Museum. Photograph by Mike Peel(www.mikepeel.net). CC-BY-SA-4.0.

2 nd August 1973

Isle Of Man Summerland disaster:
A flash fire kills 51 people at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.


The Summerland disaster is the Isle of Man’s greatest tragedy.

A total of 50 people died, and 80 more were seriously injured, after a fire spread through the island's leisure centre on 2 August 1973.

It was, at the time, the worst peacetime loss of life in a fire disaster since the blitz, and many who suffered feel the catastrophe has never been truly recognised.

The blaze has been widely recognised as one which, had lessons been learnt from, could have foretold the Grenfell disaster.

Of the 50 who tragically died, 11 of them were under the age of twenty.


How did the fire start?

The fire was sparked by three young boys from Liverpool who were smoking in a small disused kiosk at around 7.30pm on 2 August 1973.

A discarded cigarette caused the kiosk to catch fire, which then collapsed against the building, and within minutes it was ablaze.

Flames then spread undetected up the inside of flammable cladding called Galbestos.

Remarkably, during this time there was no attempt to evacuate the 3,000 people inside.

This was until visible flames appeared through a vent, causing a rushed panic towards the doors.


The fire started around 7:30pm on 2 August 1973.
After realising the fire doors were locked, everyone ran in the same direction, causing a crush at the main entrance.

The fire then caught on a material called Oroglas which was used to build the roof.

This caused burning Oroglas to then drip down onto people trying to escape.

The flames first became visible inside the building at around 8:00pm and the first fire engine was on the scene by 8:07pm.

Once the fire brigade had arrived, the whole building was ablaze.

50 people were killed and over 80 were injured.

The Inquiry

A public inquiry titled 'The Summerland Fire Commission' (SFC) was published in May 1974.

It found the primary cause of the disaster was due to the use of non fire-resistant materials, including Galbestos, being used on the external wall.

Flames spread up a 12-inch gap between the external wall and the internal combustible fibreboard wall which caused the flames to build in intensity.

The fire then continued up to the roof causing the Oroglas panels to fall out of their frames.

Once alight, the roof burnt out in around 10 minutes, causing burning debris to fall from the roof, burning people below.

The report highlighted how quick Oroglas burned as a building material once it had been heated by other materials built close to it.

It also concluded that the high number of deaths were due to the delayed evacuation of the building and the inadequate means of escape.

The inquiry also found that no fire alarm sounded when Summerland was engulfed in flames, leading to a major delay in the evacuation.

The SFC concluded the architects made a number of errors which led to the tragedy, but 'no villains' were singled out.

In the closing paragraph it states: "In all the above inadequacies and failings, it seems to the Commission that there were no villains.

"Within a certain climate of euphoria at the development of this interesting concept, there were many human errors and failures and it was the accumulation of these, too much reliance on an 'old boy' network and some very ill-defined and poor communications which led to the disaster."

No criminal charges were ever brought, and a series of 34 recommendations were made in relation to building regulations.

A verdict of 'death by misadventure' was given to those who had died in the fire.

Summerland: 50 years on

Half a century on from the fire, some of the original Summerland site is still visible in Douglas today.

The Summerland site remains in the ownership of the Isle of Man Government and continues to be marketed for development.

A programme of surveying work was undertaken by the Manx Development Corporation to assist with this process.

3 rd August 1946

First theme park:
Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.

Evansville, Ind., industrialist Louis J. Koch created the world’s first theme park as a retirement project. He was troubled that the tiny hamlet of Santa Claus, Ind., was visited by children who were disappointed when they discovered Santa was not there. With nine children of his own, Koch loved children, holidays and celebrations.

Santa Claus Land opened August 3, 1946; the theme park included a toy shop, toy displays, a restaurant, themed children’s rides, and, of course, Santa. Koch’s son Bill soon became the head of Santa Claus Land. In 1960, Bill married “Santa’s daughter,” Patricia Yellig; he remained active in the family business until his death in 2001. Bill and Pat had five children; the eldest, Will, was the park’s president for more than 20 years until his unexpected death in 2010. His brother Dan was president until 2012. Long-time employee Matt Eckert is now president.

Over the decades, Santa Claus Land flourished. Children from across the country came to sit on the real Santa’s knee and whisper their Christmas wishes. Guests included Ronald Reagan, who stopped by in 1955.

As the park grew, the Koch family knew Christmas was not the only theming possibility for the park. In 1984, Santa Claus Land expanded to also include Halloween and 4th of July sections, and the park’s name was changed to Holiday World.

In 1993, Splashin’ Safari Water Park was added; it now covers nearly 40 acres and features two water coasters and wave pools, a river, family raft rides and water slides, plus several interactive family-waterplay complexes. The park, which was named the nation’s #1 Water Park by USA Today, also offers free sunscreen.

Holiday World introduced The Raven wooden roller coaster in 1995; it has been voted one of the world’s top wooden coasters each year since, as has The Legend wooden roller coaster, added in 2000. That year, Holiday World became the first park in the world to provide free, unlimited soft drinks.

In 2004, the highly-coveted international Applause Award which honors “foresight, originality and creativity, plus sound business development and profitability,” was presented to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, the smallest park to ever receive the award.

In 2006, the park introduced a new holiday. The Thanksgiving section included a recording-breaking new wooden coaster, The Voyage, which helped catapult the park’s seasonal attendance past the one-million mark for the first time. In 2013, TIME magazine named The Voyage the nation’s best wooden roller coaster; the parks, which now cover 125 acres, have been repeatedly named the World’s Friendliest and Cleanest. In 2007 and again in 2012, Consumers Digest named Holiday World the nation’s “Top Value Park.”

In 2010, the park’s first water coaster, Wildebeest, opened; it has been voted the #1 Water Park Ride in the World every year since. In 2012, Mammoth, the World’s Longest Water Coaster, opened. In 2020, Cheetah Chase, the World’s first Launched Water Coaster opened and won the title of #1 New Water Park Ride in the Golden Ticket Awards.

4 th August 1693

Bubbly:
Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.


Aug. 4, 1693: Dom Pérignon 'Drinks the Stars'.


Dom Pérignon lived at the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers at the time of his "invention," the village in France's Champagne region, not far from Èpernay, is generally regarded as the birthplace of the bubbly.

But like many historical claims, the night they invented champagne appears more fanciful than fact. Sparkling wine certainly existed before Dom Pérignon arrived on the scene, although it would be unrecognizable today as champagne. But whether he invented the champagne method single-handedly is doubtful.

This much is true, though: He made an enormous contribution by developing the technique that finally produced a successful white wine from red wine grapes, something vintners had been trying to accomplish for years. That was a major step toward the development of modern champagne, probably the major step.

Even his famous quote, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars," appears to be apocryphal. The evocative declaration is plastered on a champagne ad dating from the 1880s, but is hard to trace back any further, certainly not to the 17th century.

In any case, Dom Pérignon spent a lot of time trying to get the bubbles out of his sparkling wine, primarily to mitigate the effects of refermentation, a major problem for winemakers of the time. Generations of bon vivants, from Madame Pompadour and Napoleon to Dorothy Parker and Noël Coward, were no doubt grateful that he failed.

What is fair to say is that Dom Pérignon established the principles of modern champagne making that are still in use today.

Vineyards have existed in the Champagne region since Roman times. The name, in fact, comes from the Latin campania, which refers to the province's physical resemblance to Campania, south of Rome.

By the time Dom Pérignon arrived at the abbey in 1668 to serve as cellar master, Champagne was already a major wine-producing region. In fact, it was locked in a bitter rivalry for viticultural primacy with its southern neighbor, Burgundy.

Champagne aside, Dom Pérignon proved a very able cellar master. Under his stewardship, the abbey more than doubled the size of its vineyards, earning him a burial, following his death in 1715, in a section of the abbey church usually reserved for abbots.

5 th August 2010

The Chilean miners:
The Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground for 69 days.


The 2010 Copiapó mining accident, also known then as the "Chilean mining accident", began on 5 August 2010, with a cave-in at the San José copper–gold mine, located in the Atacama Desert 45 kilometers (28 mi) north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile. Thirty-three men were trapped 700 meters (2,300 ft) underground and 5 kilometers (3 mi) from the mine's entrance, and were rescued after 69 days.

After the state-owned mining company, Codelco, took over rescue efforts from the mine's owners, exploratory boreholes were drilled. Seventeen days after the accident, a note was found taped to a drill bit pulled back to the surface: "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33" ("We are well in the shelter, the 33 of us").

Three separate drilling rig teams; nearly every Chilean government ministry; the United States' space agency, NASA; and a dozen corporations from around the world cooperated in completing the rescue. On 13 October 2010, the men were winched to the surface one at a time, in a specially built capsule, as an estimated 5.3 million people watched via video stream worldwide. With few exceptions, they were in good medical condition with no long-term physical effects anticipated. Private donations covered one-third of the US$20 million cost of the rescue, with the rest coming from the mine owners and the government.

Previous geological instability at the old mine and a long record of safety violations for the mine's owners, San Esteban Mining Company, had resulted in a series of fines and accidents, including eight deaths, during the dozen years leading up to this accident. After three years, lawsuits and investigations into the collapse concluded in August 2013 with no charges filed

6 th August 1945

Hiroshima :
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been warned that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was exploded in the desert in New Mexico in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific, however, continued to rage. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end.

On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.


In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that the weapons had a two-pronged objective. First, of course, was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union.

By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly. The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill (before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima. The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets. Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War.

If U.S. officials truly believed that they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic advantage, they had little time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began.

7 th August 1987


                 Some swim that:
                                         Cold War: Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing the Bering Strait from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union.

Quick Facts
SIGNIFICANCE: First woman to swim across the US-Soviet border in Bering Strait to promote peace and open dialogue between the two countries. Three years after Lynne Cox’s historic swim, this dialogue resulted in US-Russian agreement to collaborate in the areas of natural conservation, cultural preservation, and scientific research of shared heritage of Bering Strait and adjacent regions.
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Only 2.7 miles separate the Little and Big Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, but the international border between the US and Soviet Union/Russia made this distance nearly impossible to cross for much of the twentieth century.  

On August 7, 1987 the American swimmer Lynne Cox confronted the icy waters of the Bering Strait and the frigid political climate of the Cold War by swimming from the US Little Diomede Island to the Soviet Big Diomede. The swim was a peace gesture, inspired by a dream to bridge the distance between the two countries involved in the Cold War battle.

Cox grew up in a family of swimmers. Her grandfather swam across the Hudson River, and her parents taught her and her brother Dave to swim at early age. At age fifteen, she set a new record for crossing English Channel for both men and women, and three years later became the first woman to swim across Cook Strait, the 13 ½ mile shark-infested body of water between New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Cox conceived the idea to swim across the Bering Strait from the US to Russia in 1976, but it took her eleven years to bring this dream to the reality. Political tensions between US and Soviet Union stalled fundraising, and Soviet authorities were not responding to the swimmer’s request for permission to cross the border.

In 1987, Cox decided that the time had come. With personal funds, some support from friends and family, and a free ticket from Alaska Airlines, she arrived on Little Diomede, but thirty hours before the scheduled swim, there was still no word from the Soviet side. Instead, two large ships appeared in the middle of the strait, to which US responded by sending jet fighters. For a short while it looked like Cox’s peace initiative had taken a very wrong turn. Finally, 24 hours before the scheduled time, permission came from President Gorbachev. This was exciting news to both the swimmer and her local indigenous Inupiaq guides, who were to accompany her in their traditional skin boats and see their relatives on the Russian side for the first time in over forty years.

When the thirty-year-old swimmer finally stepped into the Strait on the foggy morning of August 7, 1987, the 38° F water took her breath away. "The cold was like a huge vampire pulling the heat from my body,” Cox recalled, “I looked down at my fingers and they were totally grey, like the hands of a cadaver." The Inupiaq guides were supposed to guide her to Big Diomede, but none of them had ever been there and with a rusty compass as the only means of navigation, there was a fear that they’d miss their target altogether.

Finally, a Russian support vessel emerged from the fog, a sight that Cox called “one of the most beautiful sights in her life.” The excitement was building, and an English-speaking Soviet journalist informed Cox, that there was a Russian welcoming party waiting for her… half a mile farther than the closest shore point. The freezing swimmer had a tough choice to make. “I decided to go that extra half mile, she says, because I felt like if I touch rock, instead of somebody’s hand, what have I done? “Nothing! There was no connection with the people on the opposite shore.” As she got close to the beach, the people began waving and jumping. “They were so excited,” Cox said, “because they realized that for the first time in 48 years the border was open, and they were there to witness it and greet us.”

When after two hours and five minutes in the water Cox came to shore, she could not pull herself up. She extended her arm and two Russians in military in uniform grabbed her. "I instantly felt this heat from their warm hands,” Cox recalls, “and they were speaking Russian, and I thought, oh my gosh, we really made it!”

In a tent nearby, Soviet doctor Rita Zakarova covered Cox with hot-water bottles, put her in a sleeping bag, and then embraced her. For the American, the moment symbolized the entire trip. For the world, Lynne Cox’s swim across of the Bering Strait symbolized hope for a new era in the US-Russia relationship. When President Gorbachev travelled to Washington to sign a nuclear weapons treaty later that year, he and President Reagan raised a glass to toast the swimmer. "She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live," Gorbachev said.

Bering Strait continues to play an important role in the US - Russian relationship. In 1990, Presidents Bush and Gorbachev announced their intention to create an international park spanning the Bering Strait and expand cooperation in the field of environmental protection and the study of global change. The NPS Shared Beringia Heritage Program works to strengthen this cooperation in the Bering Strait region.

Lynne Cox had a long and distinguished career as an endurance swimmer and activist. Today, she continues sharing her experiences as book author, public speaker and educator, motivating audiences by describing how one can overcome extraordinary obstacles by taking risks, working with teams, and ultimately achieving the impossible.

8 th August 1963


Its the big one son:
Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes.

At around 3.00am on 8 August 1963, a gang of armed criminals boarded a Royal Mail train en route to Euston station in London. Dangerous and organised, they escaped with a staggering £2.6 million (£50 million in today’s money).

Up until this time Britain had a proud record of operating a vast rail network without a major robbery. The robbery stunned the nation because of the enormous amount of money stolen. It also captured their imagination as the highly organised style of the robbery sounded more like a Hollywood script. Tales of a criminal gang co-ordinated by a single mastermind were soon spreading through the press.


The mail train was stopped after someone from the gang of criminals tampered with the railway signal at Cheddington near Leighton Buzzard. On reaching the tampered signal light the train stopped and the train fireman jumped from the train to the nearest railway telephone. Shortly afterwards he returned and told the driver, Mr Mills, that the telephone wires had been cut. At this stage both the fireman and Mr Mills were brutally attacked by a member of the gang, Mr Mills sustained a severe head injury (which may have contributed to his untimely death, a few years later). After attacking Mr Mills, the gang realised that they were not able to drive the particular model of train. The injured Mr Mills was then forced to drive the train on to a pre-arranged meeting point; where the rest of the gang would unload the High Value Packets containing the money.


Before the train moved off, some members of the gang uncoupled the third carriage. So now only the engine and first and second carriage would be pulled forward by the engine. As the engine pulled away, the five officers working in the High Value Packet coach heard steam escaping, saw that the third coach was detached and assumed that the connecting coupling had accidentally broken. They attempted to attract attention by pulling the communication cord and then by opening the window and shouting, but these were unsuccessful.

None of the officers were aware that an attack was being made on the High Value Packet coach until one of the windows was completely smashed. One of the officers then called out “It’s a raid”. Whilst an attempt was made to fasten the corridor door and to pile bags against it, one assailant brandishing a heavy metal crow bar entered the coach through the off-side centre window. Other assailants then entered through the corridor door, threatened the five officers and made them lie down at the far end of the van. One robber stood guard over them whilst others threw bags of High Value Packets out, which were passed to a waiting vehicle.


After unloading the High Value Packet sacks of mail, the attackers bundled the driver and fireman into the High Value Packet coach. All seven men were then ordered not to leave the coach for half an hour. However as soon as things appeared to be quiet, two of the officers left the coach and raised the alarm.

The press was rife with rumours. The Postmaster General returned early from his holiday in Spain. On his arrival he was met with a barrage of questions from the press. He also announced that the three top-security trains which should have been on the mail run that night were all out of action. This fuelled speculation that the security trains had been tampered with; possibly by someone that worked for the Post Office.

With speculation on the prospect of the robbery being an inside job, the Post Office’s own policing department, the Investigation Branch, was called into action. Every available member of staff was put on the case, and they looked into every single one of the 70 plus Post Office employees who were working on the train that night.


The most immediate job for the Investigation Branch was to find out the exact amount of money stolen. This had several purposes, firstly to help track down the culprits, secondly to help curtail the speculative reports which were circulating, and thirdly the banks needed to know how much money they had lost. The task was a mammoth one covering no fewer than 663 High Value Packets posted by different banks in different towns and cities throughout England, Scotland and Wales. 27 High Value Packets were left behind in the coach and in one further sack recovered from the railway embankment. There was, however, 636 High Value Packets enclosed in the 120 sacks which were stolen by the robbers. The total amount stolen was £2,595,997.10s.0d.

In the aftermath of the robbery a total reward of £260,000 was offered for the detection of the thieves, £10,000 of which was offered by the Post Office. The high reward and confirmed high figure of the theft added to press and public interest. The police and the Investigation Branch received many tip-offs in the following days, one of which was from a farm worker in Leatherslade, named John Maris.


Mr Maris first became suspicious of a neighbouring property when he heard that the new occupants had offered a hundred pounds over the asking price, they also did not seem to do any work and particularly suspiciously had blacked out all the windows. After the robbery several vehicles appeared in the yard of the house including a lorry. Mr Maris phoned the police to report this information but it was not until the next day, after a further phone call from Mr Maris that the police sent a car to Leatherslade.

Upon arrival at the house it became increasingly obvious that this had been the hideout for at least some members of the criminal gang. Behind a hedge there was a grave-like pit, with a spade sticking in the clay amid empty mail bags. More bags were scattered inside the house, while in the cellar lay pile of wrapping marked “National Provincial Bank” (one of the banks that was transporting money at the time of the robbery). Mr Maris then made a claim for the £10,000 reward money, offered by the Post Office.


At this time it appeared that the police were hot on the heels of the train robbers as half-finished meals were found on the kitchen table. However, it was not until 2001 when the last of the known suspect was sent to jail. The story continued along the lines of a Hollywood movie with two of the men being arrested and then escaping from prison separately, arrests being made in Germany, Canada and Brazil, and an assassination of one of the perpetrators.

9 th August 1907


Birth of the Boy Scouts:
The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.



What is seen as the first true Scout Camp was held at Humshaugh, Northumberland from 22 August to 4 September 1908, as this was held after the official start of the Scout Movement.

Despite this the Brownsea Island Camp is seen by many as the first camp and the same week of the camp in 2007 was used to officially mark the centenary of Scouting.

Below is information on why Brownsesa was chosen as well as information about the make up of the Patrols and what the program consisted of,

Why Brownsea?

Brownsea Island was chosen for the camp because it was off the beaten track and was difficult to get to and this was due to BP being a very public figure and if the Press had got to know his plans it would have been difficult to reporters on the scent of a good story away, so that the experimental camp could be given a fair trial out of the public gaze.

In May of 1907 while on Holiday in Ireland BP met and became friends with Mr and Mrs Charles van Raalte and they invited him to visit them at their country home on Brownsea Island.

As a boy BP had sailed in Poole Harbour with his brothers and knew the Island, they had in fact made a landing on the beech it the more he became convinced the Brownsea Island would be the ideal location for the camp, isolated but not to far away from civilisation to get provisions to.

A letter to Charles van Raalte asking for permission to use the island produced an immediate response. Of course he could come. To help with plans van Raalte enclosed a booklet about the island and its History which he had recently published and the more that BP discovered about the place, the more certain he became that this little piece of ground a mile and half long and about three quarters of a mile wide could not be bettered and it was agreed to hold the camp in August 1907

The Camp

On 29 July, 1907, Bill Harvey, one of the local boatmen, was waiting at the Customhouse Steps in Poole to take Baden-Powell, his nephew, and some of the boys from London set off to Brownsea. They boarded his motor boat Hyacinth and set out on the two-mile crossing to the island. Bill Harvey landed the party on Seymour’s Pier on Brownsea and returned to Poole, while Baden-Powell and the boys made their way the half mile along the island shore to the camp site.

The Boys

The camp consisted of 20 boys form all kinds of backgrounds, 10 of them were from the Public schools of Eton and Harrow and were the boys of Army friends and other acquaintances of BP while of the remaining 10, 7 were from the Bournemouth Boys Brigade and 3 from the Poole Boys Brigade, there was also Donald Baden-Powell, BP’s 9 year old nephew and Simon Rodney, older brother of George, James and William on camp.

The boys were divided up into 4 Patrols called Curlews, Ravens, Wolves and Bulls. For patrol identification, the boys were given long, wool streamers in different colours to pin on their left shoulder – green for Bulls, blue for Wolves, yellow for Curlews, and red for Ravens. The senior boy in each patrol was assigned as Patrol Leader and was given a flag with the animal of their Patrol on it. Each patrol Leader was given full responsibility for the behaviour of his Patrol at all times, in camp and in the field. The Patrol was the unit to work or play, and each patrol was camped in a separate spo

10 th August 991

The battle of Maldon:
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The Battle of Maldon
by Ellen Castelow
As recalled in the 325-line Anglo-Saxon poem ‘The Battle of Maldon’, a marauding army of Vikings were confronted by a force of East Saxons led by Ealdorman Brihtnoth (Byrhtnoth) in AD 991.

The Vikings had already pillaged Folkestone, Sandwich and Ipswich before they were confronted by Brihtnoth at Maldon.

The Vikings had established their temporary base on Northey Island, which is linked to the Essex mainland by a causeway, only accessible at low tide.

Brihtnoth and his militia force took up their position at the causeway end during high tide, when the two sides could only shout insults at each other.

Brihtnoth refused to pay the invaders to leave, challenging them to battle instead, even agreeing to let them cross the causeway to do so.

In true English style, the Saxon army formed their mighty shield wall and waited for the Vikings to advance.

The Vikings fired arrows and then spears into the massed ranks of Saxons, before the two forces became locked in bloody hand to hand combat. It is thought that the battle was relatively even, but turned in the Viking’s favour when Brihtnoth was killed.

Although the Vikings were eventually victorious they had lost so many men that it is said that they had barely enough left to man their boats to leave, let alone continue with their raid on Maldon.

11 th August 1315

   The great famine:
                            The Great Famine of Europe becomes so dire that even the king of England has difficulties buying bread for himself and his entourage.

   
Great Famine of 1315–17
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck Europe early in the 14th century. Most of Europe (extending east to Russia and south to Italy) was affected. The famine caused millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marked a clear end to the period of growth and prosperity from the 11th to the 13th centuries.



The Great Famine started with bad weather in spring 1315. Crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer harvest in 1317, and Europe did not fully recover until 1322. The period was marked by extreme levels of crime, disease, mass death, and even cannibalism and infanticide. The crisis had consequences for the Church, state, European society, and for future calamities to follow in the 14th century.


During the Medieval Warm Period (the period prior to 1300), the population of Europe exploded compared to prior eras, reaching levels that were not matched again in some places until the nineteenth century. The onset of the Great Famine coincided with the end of the Medieval Warm Period. It may have been precipitated by a volcanic event, perhaps that of Mount Tarawera, New Zealand, which lasted about five years.


In the spring of 1315, unusually heavy rain began in much of Europe. The French, under Louis X, tried to invade Flanders, but in the low country of the Netherlands, the fields were soaked and the army became so bogged down that they were forced to retreat, burning their provisions where they left them, unable to carry them away.


A number of documented incidents show the extent of the Great Famine. Edward II of England stopped at St Albans on 10 August 1315, and on th 11th had difficulty finding bread for himself and his entourage; it was a rare occasion in which the King of England was unable to eat. In the spring of 1316, it continued to rain on a European population deprived of energy and reserves to sustain itself.



The height of the famine was reached in 1317, as the wet weather continued. Finally, in that summer, the weather returned to its normal patterns. Historians debate the toll, but it is estimated that 10–25% of the population of many cities and towns died. Though the Black Death (1347–1351) would kill more people, it often swept through an area in a matter of months, whereas the Great Famine lingered for years, prolonging the suffering of the populace.


The Great Famine coincided with and greatly influenced the Bruce campaign in Ireland, the attempt of Edward de Bruce, a younger brother of Robert the Bruce of Scotland, to make himself High King of Ireland. The famine hit Ireland hard in 1317 and struck most of the country, making it difficult for Edward de Bruce to provide food to most of his men. He never regained momentum and was defeated and killed in the Battle of Faughart

12 th August 2021

The Keyham shootings:
Six people, five victims and the perpetrator are killed in Keyham, Plymouth in the worst mass shooting in the UK since 2010.

Keyham Shooting: What happened in Plymouth on August 12, 2021.

Five people, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in a six-minute mass shooting in the Keyham area of Plymouth.


Shortly after 6pm on August 12, 2021, Jake Davison went on a killing spree. Five people, including a three-year-old girl, were killed in a six-minute mass shooting in the Keyham area of Plymouth - the worst such event in Britain since 2010.

Two more people were injured. The 22-year-old later turned the gun on himself.

The apprentice crane operator armed with a legally held pump-action shotgun, began his shooting spree, killing his mother, former trawler woman Maxine, following an argument with her.
He left their terraced home in Biddick Drive, Keyham, carrying the shotgun and a number of cartridges and began to head down the hill towards Wolseley Road. However, a short distance from his home he encountered three-year-old Sophie and her father 43-year-old Lee Martyn, shooting them both dead. From there he approached a nearby property in Biddick Drive and shot at a mother and adult son, through their front door, injuring them both. They were later treated for their injuries at Derriford Hospital.

Davison then walked through the nearby Snakey Path where he encountered dog-walker 59-year old Stephen Washington, shooting him dead. Leaving the path he turned left into Henderson Place and continued for a few hundreds yards to the hair salon where he shot 66-year-old Kate Shepherd. Despite the efforts of people on the scene, paramedics and surgeons, she died of her injuries at Derriford Hospital shortly before 11pm that same night.

Davison is believed to have headed up Bedford Street and turned right into an area containing several garages. He returned moments later and on the corner of Bedford Street and Henderson Place, took his own life using his shotgun.

The inquests into the deaths were opened on August 19, 2021 and adjourned. On December 9 a pre-inquest review was held which saw Plymouth's senior coroner Ian Arrow note he would split the inquests into two, the first being for the five victims and the second for the gunman. A second pre-inquest review was held on March 15 this year which saw Mr Arrow confirm that a six-week-long jury-led inquest into the deaths of the five victims would take place next year, beginning on January 16, 2023.

13 th August 1964


    U.Ks last executions:
                                   Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West becoming the last people executed in the United Kingdom.

                            The Last Executions
Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans were the last people executed in the UK. Both men were hanged at the same time on 13 August 1964 but at different prisons; Allen at Liverpool and Evans at Manchester.

Subsequent people were sentenced to death, but they were all reprieved.

A 53 year old laundry van driver called John Alan West, who had worked for his firm for over 25 years, was found dead at his Workington home on 7 April 1964. West, who lived alone, had returned as normal on 6 April. Later that night, at about 3am, his next door neighbour was woken up by the noise from next door. Looking out of his window, he observed a car disappearing down the street.

The neighbour called the police, and John West was found dead from severe head injuries and a stab wound in his chest. In the house, the police found a raincoat with a medallion and an Army Memo Form in the pockets. The medallion was inscribed “G.O. Evans, July, 1961” and the memo form had the name “Norma O’Brien” on it, together with a Liverpool address. Norma O’Brien was a 17 year old Liverpool factory worker who told the police that in 1963, while staying with her sister and brother-in-law at Preston, she met a man called ‘Ginger’ Owen Evans. She also confirmed that she had seen Evans wearing the medallion.

Forty-eight hours after the murder, two men had been arrested and charged with West’s murder. They were Gwynne Owen Evans (real name John Robson Welby) and Peter Allen.

GWYNNE OWEN EVANS

Gwynne Owen Evans, real name John Robson Walby, was born on 1 April 1940 at Maryfort, Cumberland.

PETER ANTHONY ALLEN

Peter Anthony Allen was born on 4 April 1943 at Wallasey, Cheshire. In 1961, Allen married Mary I. Hannett.

Evans was found to have a watch inscribed to West in his pocket. Evans lodged with Allen and his wife in Preston. They both had criminal records.

Although Evans blamed Allen for beating West, he admitted stealing the watch and it became clearer as the questioning went on, that Evans had masterminded the whole incident. In his turn, Allen stated that they had stolen a car in Preston and driven over to West’s house so that Evans could borrow some money from his onetime work mate.

Allen and Evans were both tried together at Manchester Crown Court in June 1964, for the capital murder of John West (murder in the course or furtherance of theft).

During the trial, the judge posed the question to the jury of whether it was Allen or Evans who committed the murder. The jury found both men guilty of murder, and they were both sentenced to death by hanging.

On 21 July 1964, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed appeals by Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans. Allen was represented by Mr. F. J. Nance and Mr. R. G. Hamilton. Evans was represented by Mr. Guthrie Jones, QC, and Mr. Morris Jones.

The Daily Herald newspaper, 12 August 1964, that there were two petitions being circulated in Preston, where both Allen and Evans lived. A petition requesting the Home Secretary recommend clemency had “… more than 1000 signatures”. There was another petition, with 108 signatures, asking for the executions to go ahead and the return of capital punishment for all murders.

Tory Councillor Joseph Holden, who leads the pro-hanging campaign, said last night: “Many people will be sorry if they ever see the abolishment of capital punishment.”

The Rev. W. G. Grimes, curate of Preston parish church, who was one of the reprieve petition organisers, said: “This whole pro-hanging campaign is one of hate and danger.”

The Daily Herald newspaper, 12 August 1964 (The British Newspaper Archive).



Gwynne Owen Evans was hanged at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison on 13 August 1964. At the same time, Peter Allen was hanged at Liverpool’s Walton Prison.

The Liverpool Echo newspaper, 13 August 1964, contained the following announcement.

A Home Office announcement later said: “The sentences of death passed on Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans at Manchester Crown Court on July 7 were carried out at Liverpool and Manchester at 8 a.m. to-day.”

In Bristol, opponents of hanging stood silent and bareheaded outside Bristol Cathedral this morning in a 5-minute vigil as the executions were taking place. Mr. George Gummer, secretary of the Bristol branch of the Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, who took part in the demonstration, said afterwards: ” These were two sick young men, and some other method than legalised murder must be found to deal with people like them.”

A small demonstration against capital punishment was held at Leeds, when 18 people held a half-hour vigil In City Square, underneath the monument of the Black Prince.

14 th August 1040

Macbeth:
King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.

15 August 1040: Macbeth kills King Duncan I of Scotland


Susan Sontag wrote that having a photograph of Shakespeare would be like having a piece of the True Cross. We don’t have a photograph, of course, and even the portraits that we do have are unreliable, but in his plays he left snapshots of a different kind. Since we know with some precision — thanks to the diligence of many scholars — the sources he relied upon in writing the plays, we are able to trace his creativity by a simple contrast. By paying attention to what he retains from his sources, and what he changes, we may produce — like developing a photograph from its negative — a portrait of Shakespeare at work.

The principal source for the plot of Macbeth is the massive Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, compiled by Raphael Holinshed and first published in 1577. Holinshed narrates how Macbeth was “sore troubled” by King Duncan’s nomination of his son Malcolm as heir to the throne, and “he slue the king at Enuerns, or (as some say) at Botgosuane, in the sixt year of his reigne,” on 15 August 1040. Macbeth is, according to Holinshed, not immediately a tyrant: “governing the realme for the space of ten yeares in equall justice,” he becomes increasingly paranoid and murderous, and eventually “He was slaine in the yeere of the incarnation 1057” by Malcolm, who assumes the throne.


No dates are given in Shakespeare’s play, but the dramatic version of events is far more rushed than the seventeen years narrated in the Chronicles. The play opens in civil war and in a flurry of action: messengers sent back and forth, the battle, and the arrival of King Duncan as a guest at Macbeth’s castle. That night, Macbeth kills Duncan, and the body is discovered in the morning; Macbeth becomes king, murders Banquo, holds a feast, and sees a ghost. Malcolm flees to England and returns to depose Macbeth.
This compression of seventeen years into what feels like only weeks isn’t incidental to the play. The central character is obsessed with the rushing passage of time. The witches promise Macbeth that he shall be king, but they also show him a vision of the eight kings that will follow him, all of whom are the heirs of Banquo. “What!” he declares, “will the line stretch out to th’crack of doom?” He is horrified that Banquo’s family will rule until, it seems, the end of time, while his kingship is only temporary. Later, when he hears of the death of his wife, he says:

She should have died hereafter,
There would have been time for such a word.—
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time.

He longs for eternity, for the endless deferral of the present, but he is like all of us trapped inside too-short human time.

15 August reveals much about this play and its author. Shakespeare’s is an art of intensification. He condenses years into moments, bitter rivals into lovers, and in particular the tragedies hinge upon the shortness of time. In both Romeo and Juliet and King Lear, messages are delivered only moments too late and cause deaths. “The weight of this sad time we must obey” says Edgar at the end of King Lear, and in Othello — another play whose timespan Shakespeare has drastically reduced from his source — the hero echoes this line: “We must obey the time.”


Shakespeare disobeyed the time given by his source. He denies Macbeth the seventeen years for which the historical king ruled. He is, after all, writing tragedy, not faithful history, but August 15 might have taught him how to do this. According to other chronicle accounts of this period — although not Holinshed — the date when Macbeth was killed in 1057 was also 15 August. The day of his accession to the throne was also the day of his death, and the historical original, like his dramatic counterpart, simply ran out of time.

15 th august 1998

The Omagh bombing:
Northern Ireland: Omagh bombing takes place; 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) killed and some 220 others injured.

Omagh bombing
terrorist attack, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Omagh bombing, terrorist attack in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on August 15, 1998, in which a bomb concealed in a car exploded, killing 29 people and injuring more than 200 others. The Omagh bombing, carried out by members of the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA, or New IRA), was the deadliest and most-damaging attack to have occurred during the three-decades-long civil conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The attack came just months after the citizens of Northern Ireland voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement, a document laying out the necessary steps to peace and the order in which they should be taken.

The Troubles—a civil conflict between members of Northern Ireland’s majority-Protestant community, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain a part of the U.K., and its minority-Catholic community, who wanted the province to become a part of the Republic of Ireland—began in the late 1960s. Late in 1997, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and various Protestant paramilitary groups declared a cease-fire. On April 10, 1998, delegates representing the major parties to the conflict signed the Good Friday Agreement.

THE TROUBLES EVENTS
A number of IRA members disagreed with the decision to declare a cease-fire, however, and they were disgusted by the Good Friday Agreement, which required the IRA to seek a political solution to the conflict through its representative political party, Sinn Féin. These members split with the group and formed a competing organization, the Real IRA.


It is believed that on the day of the bombing, members of the Real IRA drove across the border from the Republic of Ireland to Omagh in Northern Ireland. Omagh, a small town with a largely Catholic population, had long housed a British army garrison. In the early afternoon, a car carrying a 500-pound bomb was parked in the town’s market square, an area frequently crowded with shoppers and even more so on the day of the bombing, which marked the final day of an annual town carnival week.

Around 2:30 PM a call was placed to Omagh’s police force warning them of a bomb. The police believed it was near the town’s courthouse, a building at the opposite end of the main street from the market square. Police rushed to clear the area, tragically directing people toward the market. Shortly after 3:00 PM, the car bomb exploded, destroying two buildings nearby.

The attack immediately put the peace accords into jeopardy. Although suspicion quickly fell on the Real IRA, many Unionist politicians declared that the IRA’s failure to disarm—its reluctance to do so had been a major obstacle throughout the peace process—had allowed the atrocity. Providing some reassurance about the IRA’s commitment to the peace process, Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, made an unprecedented declaration condemning the bombings. Previously, the IRA’s position was that civilian deaths were regrettable but justified. In the days following the bombing, the British Parliament passed harsh new antiterrorism laws that allowed suspects to be convicted on the word of a senior police officer, and the Real IRA issued an apology for the bombing, insisting that civilians had not been the target.

In December 2001, Nuala O’Loan, the ombudsman for Northern Ireland’s new security force, issued a report severely criticizing the conduct of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), in particular the officers of its Special Branch, in the days before the bombing. The report maintained that a highly regarded police informant warned his Special Branch handlers that a bombing was being planned somewhere in Northern Ireland for August 15. It further alleged that a warning was received by the RUC that a mortar attack on police headquarters in Omagh was also planned for that date. Records of those events, however, were never found within Special Branch.

The victims’ families expressed outrage at the report’s conclusions, outrage that was only heightened when the only person convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, Republic of Ireland citizen Colm Murphy, had his conviction overturned and a retrial ordered in 2005 because law-enforcement officials tampered with interview notes and perjured themselves. A second suspect, Sean Hoey, Murphy’s nephew, was acquitted in 2007, with the judge once again strongly criticizing law enforcement’s handling of evidence from the attack.


Frustrated by the criminal courts, the families of the victims took the case to civil court, suing Murphy, Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, and the founder of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, for their involvement in the bombing. On June 8, 2009, a judge found that the four men were liable for the attack and awarded the relatives £1.6 million. In 2014, Daly, the last remaining suspect, was charged with murder for those killed in the bombing; the charges against him were dropped in 2016.

16 th August 1819

The Peterloo massacre:
Peterloo Massacre: Around eventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.

The Peterloo massacre: what was it and what did it mean?
When a militia attacked Manchester protesters in 1819 it was a turning point for Britain

What was the Peterloo massacre?
On 16 August 1819, up to 60,000 working class people from the towns and villages of what is now Greater Manchester marched to St Peter’s Field in central Manchester to demand political representation at a time when only wealthy landowners could vote. Their peaceful protest turned bloody when Manchester magistrates ordered a private militia paid for by rich locals to storm the crowd with sabres. An estimated 18 people died and more than 650 were injured in the chaos.

Why don’t we know exactly how many people died?
Most historians agree that 14 people were definitely killed in the massacre – 15 if you include the unborn child of Elizabeth Gaunt, killed in the womb after Gaunt was beaten by constables in custody. A further three named people are believed to have either been stabbed or trampled to death, but their fate remains unconfirmed.


Where exactly did it happen?
St Peter’s Field is no longer a field, but a built-up area of central Manchester, around St Peter’s Square. A red plaque on Peter Street marks the spot, on the side of what is now the Radisson Blu hotel.

What did the protesters want?
They wanted political reform. At that point, only the richest landowners could vote and large swathes of the country were not adequately represented in Westminster. Manchester and Salford, which then had a population of 150,000, had no dedicated MP, yet Oxford and Cambridge Universities had their own representation in parliament dating back to 1603. So did Old Sarum, a field in Salisbury, which had no resident electorate. At the time of Peterloo, the extension of the vote to all men, let alone women, was actively opposed by many who thought it should be restricted to those of influence and means.

Why did they want to vote?
The years leading up to Peterloo had been tough for working-class people and they wanted a voice in parliament to put their needs and wants on the political agenda, inspired by the French Revolution. Machines had begun to take away jobs in the lucrative cotton industry and periodic trade slumps closed factories at short notice, putting workers out on the street. The Napoleonic wars, which ended in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo, had taken a heavy toll on the nation’s finances, and 350,000 ex-servicemen returned home needing jobs and food. Yet those in power seemed more interested in lining their own pockets than helping the poor.

Why is it called Peterloo?
The name was first coined five days after the massacre by James Wroe, editor of the Manchester Observer, the city’s first radical newspaper (no relation to the Observer of today). “‘Peterloo’ was a bitter pun, comparing the cowardly attacks by the yeomanry and soldiers on unarmed civilians to the brutality suffered at Waterloo,” according to historian Robert Poole.

Why is Peterloo important?
The massacre paved the way for parliamentary democracy and particularly the Great Reform Act of 1832, which got rid of “rotten” boroughs such as Old Sarum and created new parliamentary seats, particularly in the industrial towns of the north of England. It also led to the establishment two years later of the Manchester Guardian by John Edward Taylor, a 28-year-old English journalist who was present at the massacre and saw how the “establishment” media sought to discredit the protesters.

Why haven’t I heard of it?
Because it was rarely taught in schools. Some might say that was because history has traditionally concentrated on the battles and victories of royalty and the elite, rather than the working classes. It was only last year that Mike Leigh’s Peterloo film brought the story to the masses.

This article was amended on 18 August 2019. An earlier version omitted the word “adequately” from the sentence “… only the richest landowners could vote and large swathes of the country were not adequately represented in Westminster”; and the word “dedicated” from the sentence “Manchester and Salford, which then had a population of 150,000, had no dedicated MP”.

17 th August 1896

First pedestrian fatality:
Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.

How the UK's first fatal car accident unfolded.

Almost 4,000 people are killed on the world's roads every day, according to the campaigning charity RoadPeace which is marking National Road Victim Month. So who was the UK's first fatal car accident victim - exactly 128 years ago - and what happened?

There were little more than a handful of petrol cars in Britain when labourer's wife Bridget Driscoll, 44, took a trip to the Crystal Palace, south-east London, on 17 August 1896.

So she could be forgiven for being bewildered by Arthur Edsall's imported Roger-Benz which was part of a motoring exhibition taking place as she attended a Catholic League of the Cross fete with her 16-year-old daughter, May, and a friend.

But as the Times recalled 70 years later, when giving mention to a memorial service for Mrs Driscoll at her local church, hers was the misfortune of becoming the UK's first traffic fatality.

"At the inquest, Florence Ashmore, a domestic servant, gave evidence that the car went at a 'tremendous pace', like a fire engine - 'as fast as a good horse could gallop'," it read.

"The driver, working for the Anglo-French Motor Co, said that he was doing 4mph when he killed Mrs Driscoll and that he had rung his bell and shouted."

The car's maximum speed, the inquest heard, was 8mph but its speed had been deliberately limited.

One of Mr Edsell's two passengers during the exhibition ride, Ellen Standing, told the inquest she heard the driver shout "stand back" and then the car swerved - giving her a "peculiar sensation", according to a contemporary edition of Autocar.

Mrs Driscoll had hesitated in front of the car and seemed "bewildered" before being hit, the inquest heard.

Three of the German-manufactured, French-assembled cars were being demonstrated at the Dolphin Terrace, an area at the back of the palace, according to an edition of local paper the Norwood News published on 22 August 1896.

It reported May Driscoll as claiming the driver "did not seem to understand what he was doing" and that he had zig-zagged towards them.

"The car then swerved off, and [the] witness looked to see where it was, and it was then going over her mother. (Here witness broke down.) Her mother was knocked down, and the car was at once pulled up," the paper reported, in rather equine terms.

'No outrage'

However, there were conflicting reports about the speed and manner of Mr Edsall's driving and the jury returned an accidental death verdict.

He had been driving only three weeks at the time and - with no licence requirement - had been given no instruction as to which side of the road to keep to.

The Croydon Chronicle quoted one witness as saying "the machines made a great noise" but that he did not think it would drown out the tinkling of the alarm bell.

The era's matter-of-fact newspaper reports give no hint of public outrage or hysteria at the new menace.

Melvyn Harrison, of historical group the Crystal Palace Foundation, says people would have been simply bemused at the sight of these "horseless carriages".

"It was such a rare animal to be on the roads and, for her to be killed, people would have thought the story was made up," he says.

And as Jerry Savage, local history librarian at Upper Norwood Library, notes: "The Victorians had no real sense of health and safety. They would just sort of accept the death as what they would call a horrible tragedy."

Nonetheless, the National Motor Museum's libraries officer Patrick Collins admits there was "quite a lot of anti-car feeling" in the UK at the time.

"A lot of people didn't want drivers running around the country scaring horses," he explains, adding that there were fewer than 20 petrol cars in Britain at the time.

This was reflected in the rules of the road at the time. To the frustration of early drivers, the nation's first cars were subject to strict safety laws which had been designed for steam locomotives weighing up to 12 tonnes.

Red flags

Each vehicle was expected to have a team of three in control; the driver, the fireman - to stoke the engine - and the flagman, whose job was to walk 60 yards in front waving a red flag to warn horse-drawn traffic of the machine's approach.

The flag requirement was ditched in 1865 and the walking distance reduced to 20 yards, although speed limits of 2mph in towns and 4mph in the country remained in place.

Mrs Driscoll died just a few weeks after a new Parliamentary act - designed for the new and lighter petrol, electricity and steam-driven cars - raised the speed limit to 14mph, while the flagman role was scrapped altogether.

The coroner told her inquest that he hoped hers would be the last death in this sort of accident.

Little did he know how times would change over the following century, with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimating more than 550,000 people have been killed on Britain's roads since then.

18 August 1612


The Pendle witches:
The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.



In 1612, a dozen people were accused of using witchcraft to murder ten of their neighbors. Two men and nine women, from the Pendle Hill area of Lancashire, eventually went to trial, and of these eleven, ten were eventually found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Although there were certainly other witchcraft trials taking place in England during the fifteenth to eighteenth century, it was rare for so many people to be accused and tried at once, and even more unusual for so many people to be sentenced to execution.

Of the five hundred or so people executed for witchcraft in England over three hundred years, ten were the Pendle witches. Although one of the accused, Elizabeth Southerns, or Demdike, had been known in the area as a witch for a long time, it's entirely possible that the accusations which led up to formal charges and the trial itself were rooted in a feud between Demdike's family and another local clan. To understand why the case of the Pendle witches took place – as well as other trials of the era – it’s important to understand the political and social environment of the time.

Religion, Politics, and Superstition

The England of the sixteenth and seventeenth century was a fairly turbulent time. The English Reformation led to a split in which the Church of England broke away from the Catholic church – and really, this was more about politics than theology, and was spurred largely by King Henry VIII’s desire for an annulment of his first marriage. When Henry passed away, his daughter Mary took the throne, and reasserted the right of papal control over the throne. However, Mary died and was replaced by her sister Elizabeth, who was Protestant like their father. There was an ongoing battle for religious supremacy in Britain, predominantly between Catholics and Protestants, but also including fringe groups like the new Lutheran church and the Puritans.

Queen Elizabeth I passed away in 1603, and was succeeded by her distant cousin James VI and I. James was a highly educated man who was fascinated by the supernatural and spiritual, and in particular was intrigued by the idea that witches might be roaming the country causing mischief. He attended witch trials in Denmark and Scotland, and supervised the torture of several accused witches himself. In 1597, he wrote his treatise Daemonologie, which details how to hunt witches and punish them.

When the Pendle witches were accused, in 1612, England was a country in political and religious upheaval, and many religious leaders actively spoke out against the practice of witchcraft. Thanks to the relatively new invention of printing, information spread faster and further than ever before, and the general populace – of all social classes – saw witchcraft as a very real threat to society as a whole. Superstitions were taken as matter of fact; evil spirits and curses were legitimate causes of misfortune, and those who worked with such things could be blamed for any number of problems in a community.

The Accused
Elizabeth Southerns and several of her family members were among the accused. Elizabeth, known as Mother Demdike, was in her eighties at the time, and her daughter Elizabeth Device were at the forefront of the investigation. In addition, Elizabeth Device’s son and daughter, James and Alison, were accused.

Anne Whittle, also known as Chattox, and her daughter Anne Redferne were charged in the trials. Of Whittle, court clerk Thomas Potts wrote, “This Anne Whittle, alias Chattox, was a very old withered spent and decrepit creature, her sight almost gone: A dangerous witch, of very long continuance; always opposite to old Demdike: For whom the one favoured, the other hated deadly: and how they envy and accuse one another, in their examinations, may appear.”

Allegations were also leveled against Alice Nutter, the wealthy widow of a farmer, Jane Bulcock and her son John, Margaret Pearson, Katherine Hewitt, and other members of the community.

The Charges
Based on the evidence gathered by the Lancaster Assizes during trial, and documented in extensive detail by Potts, it appears that the case of the Pendle witches was rooted in a rivalry between the two families – those of Elizabeth Southern and Anne Whittle, each the elderly and widowed matriarch of her clan. Both families are poor, and often resort to begging to make ends meet. The timeline unfolded as follows:

March 1612: Alison Device, the granddaughter of Mother Demdike, is out begging, and asks a peddler for some pins. He refuses to let her have them, so allegedly she curses him – and shortly thereafter, he falls down, having a seizure. Alison is arrested and hauled before Justice Roger Nowell, and confesses to witchcraft. Upon interrogation, she says that her grandmother has been practicing witchcraft as well, and was even responsible for using magic to cause the death of a local girl. In addition, Alison says that Anne Whittle, also called Chattox, is a witch too, and caused the death of an innkeeper’s son with a clay doll.
April 1612: Nowell orders that Demdike, Chattox, and Redferne be brought in to testify, and Demdike confesses to practicing witchcraft. Nowell sends the three of them, along with Alison Device, to Lancaster Castle to await trial. Several of Demdike’s family members meet at Malkin Tower – the Device family home - to figure out how they can help Demdike and Device, and Nowell later deems this meeting a gathering of a witches’ coven. Meanwhile, Demdike’s daughter, Elizabeth Device, and her children, James and Jennet are brought in for questioning. Nine year old Jennet tells Nowell the names of those who were present at the family meeting, as well as Alice Nutter. All of those named are sent to prison, but Demdike dies before the trial takes place.
August 1612: When the trial opens, Nowell brings Jennet forth as a witness, and she testifies against her relatives and other village residents, none of whom have a defense attorney. Elizabeth Device is removed from the courtroom when she begins screaming at her daughter and cursing Nowell. Chattox asks for mercy and forgiveness for herself and for Redferne. Alison Device faints when the peddler appears to give evidence against her, but later confesses to cursing him. Nowell finds all of them guilty. On August 20, a crowd gathers at Lancaster Castle to watch the public hangings of Chattox and Redferne, as well as Elizabeth, James, and Alison Device, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Jane Bulcock and her son John, and Margaret Pearson.

The Legacy of the Pendle Trial

In 1634, a woman named Jennet Device was accused of witchcraft in Lancaster, and charge with the murder of Isabel Nutter, the wife of William Nutter. Although it’s not clear whether this was the same Jennet who testified as a child against her own family members, she and nineteen other people were found guilty. However, rather than being executed, their case was referred to King Charles himself. Upon cross-examination, the one witness – a ten-year-old boy – recanted his testimony. The twenty accused remained in jail at Lancaster, where it assumed that they eventually died.

Much like Salem, Massachusetts, Pendle has become famous for its witchcraft trials, and has capitalized on that notoriety. There are witchcraft shops and even guided tours, as well as a brewery that makes a beer called Pendle Witches Brew. In 2012, the 400th anniversary of the trial, an exhibition was on display at nearby Gawthorpe Hall, and a statue was erected in the memory of Alice Nutter, near her home in the village of Roughlee.

In 2011, a cottage was unearthed near Pendle Hill, and archaeologists believe it could be Malkin Tower, the home of Elizabeth Southerns and her family.

19 th August 1987


Hungerford :
Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.

Slaughter on a warm summer's day: The Hungerford massacre.

It was a warm summer afternoon in August of 1987 when a lone gunman committed a series of shootings in the historic market town of Hungerford, United Kingdom, before ending his own life. The murder spree became known as the Hungerford Massacre and would lead to sweeping changes in gun control.

It was the 19th of August, 1987, when 35-year-old Susan Godfrey, a nurse at Dunedin Hospital in Reading, left her home in Burghfield Common to take her two young children for a picnic in Savernake Forest. As Godfrey was strapping her two children into their car seats, 27-year-old Michael Robert Ryan approached her from behind and pointed a gun at her. He led Godfrey away from her children and deeper into the forest to an area where he lay down a groundsheet, possibly an indication that he had intended on sexually assaulting her. It isn’t known exactly what transpired between Godfrey and Ryan but Godfrey’s body would be found 75 yards from her car and 10 yards away from the groundsheet. She had been shot 13 times in the back and there was no evidence of a sexual assault. Godfrey’s two young children would be found wandering alone in the forest, terrified but otherwise unharmed. They informed police of the 'nasty man who shot mummy.'

From here, Ryan drove to the Golden Arrow petrol station in Foxfield where Kakaub Dean had been working behind the till. Dean would recognise Ryan immediately as a regular customer. However, this time, instead of filling up his car with petrol, he filled up a can with petrol. Dean would later say to The Guardian: 'I lifted my eyes and I saw him pointing a gun straight at me. He fired a shot.' Dean had managed to duck behind the counter but she then heard Ryan enter the store. She pleaded for her life as he lifted the gun up and pointed it towards her face, ready to shoot her at point-blank range. Miraculously, Ryan’s gun jammed and he left the store. Dean immediately called 999.

Shortly after leaving the petrol station, Ryan arrived back at his family home on South View, Hungerford, which is a small road with four groups of former council houses on the left-hand side as well as a detached home and two bungalows. Inside the home, Ryan shot and killed his Labrador dog, Blackie, before retrieving the can of petrol and setting the living room on fire.

When Ryan came back outside, he was wearing a flax jacket and was carrying a plethora of ammunition. He began to shoot indiscriminately at members of the community. As one neighbour, Margery Jackson, said: 'He was shooting at anything.' Another neighbour, 77-year-old Dorothy Smith, came outside and shouted at Ryan to stop making so much noise. She later said: 'He turned his head to the right and looked at me. He had a terribly vacant look in his eyes. He had sort of a grin on his face.' Jackson grabbed Smith and as she was pushing her inside to safety, Ryan shot her once in the back, injuring her.

From the neighbourhood, Ryan headed east towards the school playing fields and continued to shoot. He came across 70-year-olds Roland and Sheila Mason who were taking advantage of the good weather by tending to their garden. He shot the elderly couple dead. Upon hearing the commotion in the neighbourhood, 14-year-old Lisa Mildenhall, came outside to try and detect where the noise was coming from. She was shot four times in the legs by Ryan but survived: 'He looked straight at me and he smiled,' she would chillingly recall.

Ryan continued on route, walking past the school playing fields and towards the town’s common. He came across 51-year-old Kenneth Clements who had been walking his dog, Cindy, with his family. Ryan shot Clements once, killing him instantly. His family were able to jump over a fence and escape unscathed. From the town’s common, Ryan turned back and headed towards his own neighbourhood, South View. By this point, numerous calls had been placed to 999 and it was evident that there was an active shooter situation in their close-knit community. One of the first responding officers was Constable Roger Brereton. Ryan fired 23 rounds into Constable Brereton’s car; he managed to radio for help before succumbing to his wounds.

Continuing on his rampage, Ryan would shoot at various other people before shooting and killing George White, who had been bringing Ivor Jackson home from work. As White turned his car onto South View, he was shot in the head and died instantly behind the wheel of his car. Jackson was shot in the arm, chest and head but would survive after playing dead. From here, Ryan headed in the direction of Fairview Road which was just off South View. He shot and killed 84-year-old Abdur Khan who had been gardening. It was theorised that the partially-deaf man had not been aware of the horrors that had been unfolding just around the corner.

It was at this moment that Ryan’s 63-year-old mother, Dorothy, returned home from her trip to the local market. It was hoped that she would be able to talk some sense into her son and call a stop to the bloodshed. Her pleas, however, fell onto deaf ears and her own son shot her dead at point blank range. He then shot her again twice in the back. After killing his own mother, Ryan head back towards the town’s common and on to the War Memorial Grounds where he shot and killed 26-year-old Francis Butler who had been walking his dog. Leslie Bean attempted to render first aid to Butler but to no avail.

From the War Memorial Grounds, Ryan walked in the direction of Bulpit Lane. At the time, local taxi driver and new father, Marcus Barnard, had been driving home to see his wife and new-born baby in between his fares. Ryan shot Barnard dead through the window of his taxi. As Douglas and Kathleen Wainwright were driving on Priory Avenue, located near Bulpit Lane, they were ambushed by Ryan, who opened fire on their vehicle. Douglas was shot in the head and died in the couple’s vehicle while Kathleen was shot in the chest and hand but survived. At the time, the couple had been driving to the home of their son, Trevor Wainwright who was an off-duty police officer. As Kathleen lay alongside her deceased husband, Ryan shot at Eric Vardy and Stephen Ball, who had just turned their vehicle onto Priory Avenue. Vardy was killed but Ball would survive. Moments later, he shot and killed Sandra Hill in her vehicle.

After the shootings on Bulpit Lane and Priory Avenue, Ryan continued south-west onto Priory Road. He shot his way into the home of Victor and Myrtle Gibbs, where he shot Victor five times in the chest and abdomen, killing him instantly, before shooting Myrtle four times. Victor had attempted to shield his wife from the gunfire but she was pronounced dead at the hospital two days later. Ryan then continued southbound on Priory Road where he opened fire on a car containing a young family. Ian Playle, who had been driving, was shot once in the neck and died two days later at hospital but his family, including his two children, were able to escape from the car uninjured.

After shooting at the Playle family, Ryan barricaded himself in a second-floor classroom of John O’Gaunt, a local high school where he had been a former student. Police negotiators were sent to the scene to try and coax Ryan out and talk him into surrendering. One of them would later reveal that Ryan had commented 'It was strange he could shoot other people and couldn’t shoot himself'. Shortly afterwards, however, Ryan shot himself in the head, finally bringing an end to the massacre.

In total, Ryan had killed 16 people including himself and had seriously injured countless more. He had shot and injured paramedics, police officers and passersby who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had used an arsenal of weapons including a Kalashnikov semiautomatic rifle, a Beretta pistole and an M1 carbine.

As the grisly massacre unfolded in the media, many scrambled to uncover more about the lone gunman. According to neighbours, there was nothing remarkable about Ryan; he was unemployed and lived at home with his widowed mother. However, Ryan had kept a cache of weapons in the shed at the bottom of the garden and was a proud member of the local gun club. Just the day before the bloodshed, he had spent an hour at the gun club practicing his aim. He had licenses for three hand guns and two rifles; this included the weapons he had used during the shooting spree.

Some would say that Ryan was a 'mummy’s boy' who was idolised by his mother, who he would ultimately go on to murder. 'He had the best clothes, the fastest cars, and the latest records,' said one childhood friend of Ryan.

In the aftermath of the shootings, a wide-ranging inquiry into Britain’s firearms laws would be ordered. It was to be carried out by the all-party House of Commons select committee. At the time, residents in Britain could obtain a pistol and rifle after a background check by police and membership in a gun club for six months. If one wanted to obtain an automatic weapon, certificates had to be obtained directly from the office of the British Cabinet secretary responsible for law and order. The following year, The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was signed into law, banning the ownership of semi-automatic firearms and pump-action weapons. It also made registration mandatory for all shotgun owners in Britain.

While the physical injuries from that fateful day have long since healed, the emotional scars in Hungerford still run deep. In addition to the infamous Dunblane school massacre and the Cumbria shootings which occurred in 2010, the Hungerford massacre remains one of the most infamous shootings within the United Kingdom. What makes the case all the more chilling is the fact that the true motivation behind the massacre still remains an enigma today.

20 th August 1989

Marchioness disaster:
The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

1989: Marchioness river crash 'kills 30'
At least 30 people died when a pleasure cruiser, packed with young party-goers, and a barge collided on the River Thames.
The captain and second mate of the barge, the dredger Bowbelle, are now under arrest.

Among those still missing are the captain of the cruiser, the Marchioness, and a city banker who chartered the boat to celebrate his birthday.

There are fears the final death toll could be as high as 60.

Divers are still searching below deck where more bodies are expected to be found.

Most of those on board were young people in their 20s.

Both vessels were moving down river towards Southwark Bridge in the early hours of Sunday morning when they collided.

The Marchioness's owners said the 90-ton boat was struck a blow from the 2,000-ton dredger which forced it directly into the larger vessel's path.

They said the Bowbelle then ran over the cruiser forcing it underwater "like a bicycle being run over by a lorry".

Search

So far the owners of the Bowbelle have made no public comment.

Police commandeered other boats to search for survivors who had been tipped into the river after the collision.

Party-goers on other cruisers witnessed the events and some tried to help.

"We were all shouting at the driver to back up to try and rescue some of the people which he did.

"We got back and some of the guys jumped into the water and pulled some of the people onto our boat," said one witness, Rob Elliott.

So far 89 people are known to have survived the crash.

Earlier today some of them left the hospitals where they had been taken after being pulled from the river.

21 st August 1879

Apparition in Knock:
The locals of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland report their having seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition is later named “Our Lady of Knock” and the spot transformed into a Catholic pilgrimage site.

the Apparition in Knock, Co. Mayo.
21st August 1879
At about 8 o'clock on Thursday evening the 21st August, 1879, Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist appeared at the South gable of the Church at Knock.

Our Lady wore a large white cloak, fastened at the neck. Her hands and eyes were raised towards heaven, in a posture of prayer. On her head was a brilliant crown and where the crown fitted the brow, was a beautiful rose.

On her right was St Joseph, head bowed and turned slightly towards her as if paying her his respects. He wore white robes.

On our Lady's left was St John the Evangelist, dressed as a bishop, with a book in his left hand and right hand raised as if preaching. His robes were also white. Beside the figures and a little to the right in the centre of the gable was a large plain altar.

On the altar stood a lamb, facing the West and behind the lamb a large cross stood upright. Angels hovered around the lamb for the duration of the Apparition.

There were fifteen official witnesses to the Apparition which was enveloped in a heavenly light. They included men, women and children of various ages. They watched the apparition for two hours, in the pouring rain and recited the Rosary. It was so real that an old lady, Brigid Trench, went up to the gable and tried to kiss the feet of Our Lady.

Commision of Enquiry 1879
Most Rev. Dr. John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam, only six weeks after the Apparition, set up a Commission of Enquiry. Fifteen witnesses were examined and the Commission reported that the 'testimony' of all taken as a whole, was trustworthy and satisfactory.

Commision of Enquiry 1936
Archbishop Gilmartin set up another Commission in 1936 to examine the three surviving witnesses of the Apparition: Mrs. Mary O'Connell (Mary Byrne), Patrick Byrne and John Curry. All three confirmed their original statements of 1879. Mrs O'Connell gave evidence under oath from her death bed and at the end of her statement she added: "I am quite clear about everything I have said, and I make this statement knowing I am going before my God."

The verdict of this Commission was that the evidence of the witnesses was upright and trustworthy, and concerning Mrs. O'Connell, it was reported that she left 'a most favourable impression on their minds'.

Knock Shrine recognised and honoured by the Church - September 30th, 1979 On September 30th, 1979, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II came as a pilgrim to Knock Shrine, to honour it, in a very special way, in its Centenary year Knock was "the goal" of his journey to Ireland. Well nigh half a million pilgrims gathered to welcome the Vicar of Christ.

Extraordinary Cures
After the Commission had given its report and the news spread, through the media, thousands upon thousands of people came to Knock Shrine bringing their sick. Many extraordinary cures were reported in the newspapers at the time. That devotion both of priests and people has continued, down all the years.

22 nd August 1485:
Bosworth:

At the Battle of Bosworth (aka Bosworth Field) in Leicestershire on 22 August 1485 CE, the Yorkist king Richard III of England (r. 1483-1485 CE) faced an invading army led by Henry Tudor, the figurehead of the Lancastrians. It was to be a decisive engagement in the long-running dynastic dispute known to history as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487 CE). Henry won the day, largely because some of Richard's allies either switched sides or remained inactive during the battle. The king was unseated from his horse and butchered as he made a last-ditch attempt to personally strike down his direct opponent for the throne. The victorious Henry Tudor then became King Henry VII of England (r. 1485-1509 CE). The Battle of Bosworth used to be considered the end of the Middle Ages in England but, even if modern historians tremble at such picturesque and arbitrary cut-off points, the battle remains a pivotal event in English history. Bosworth has gripped the popular imagination ever since, largely thanks to William Shakespeares' play Richard III, which has immortalised that day in August when the last English king to be killed on the battlefield fell.

The Wars of the Roses
When Edward IV of England (r. 1461-1470 CE & 1471-1483 CE) died unexpectedly on 9 April 1483 CE, his young son became king. Edward V of England (r. Apr-Jun 1483 CE) was only 12 years of age and so he had a regent, his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The duke, given the title Lord High Protector of the Realm, imprisoned Edward and his younger brother Richard in the Tower of London where they became known as the 'Princes in the Tower'. The boys were never seen again and Duke Richard made himself king in July 1483 CE. The king was widely accused of having killed his nephews in the most despicable act of the Wars of the Roses, even if the exact causes of their deaths remain a mystery.

NEWS OF THE DEATH OF RICHARD'S HEIR IN 1484 CE BOOSTED THE LANCASTRIAN CAUSE. IT WAS NOW A CASE OF TOPPLING RICHARD & THE THRONE COULD BE THEIRS.
Even Yorkists supporters were shocked at this turn of events, and the old foe the Lancastrians had not gone away completely. The latter group, still eager to claim the throne for themselves, were now led by their best hope, the exiled Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (b. 1457 CE). Henry was, through the illegitimate Beaufort line, a descendant of John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE). It was not much of a royal connection but the best the Lancastrians could produce after years of purges by the Yorkist king Edward IV. Taking advantage of the discontent at Richard's court, Henry gathered around him some impressive support: the Woodvilles (family of Edward IV's queen, Elizabeth Woodville), nobles not happy with Richard's distribution of estates or favours, and Charles VIII of France (r. 1483-1498 CE), eager to cause any disruption that limited England's power abroad, particularly in Brittany. After an invasion fell apart due to bad planning in November 1483 CE, news of the death of Richard's son and heir Edward in April 1484 CE boosted the Lancastrian cause. It was now a case of toppling Richard, and the throne could be theirs.