Today in history

23 rd August 1944

Freckleton air disaster :
Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.



During WWII there were several incidents where civilians were killed by friendly fire by allied forces, like the 5 Oct 1942 air raid on Geleen.

Or by accident like the Freckleton Air Disaster.

On 23 August 1944, an American United States Army Air Forces Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber crashed into the centre of the village of Freckleton, Lancashire, England. The aircraft crashed into the Holy Trinity Church of England School, demolishing three houses and the Sad Sack Snack Bar. The death toll was 61, including 38 children.


Two newly refurbished B-24s, prior to delivery to the 2nd Combat Division, departed USAAF Base Air Depot 2 at Warton Aerodrome on a test flight at 10.30 am. Due to an impending violent storm, both were recalled. By the time they had returned to the vicinity of the aerodrome, however, the wind and rain had significantly reduced visibility. Contemporary newspaper reports detailed wind velocities approaching 60 mph (100 km/h), water spouts in the Ribble Estuary and flash flooding in Southport and Blackpool.

At Holy Trinity School, teachers and students observed the darkness descend on the village. The pounding rain was overshadowed by the gusting winds, the roar of thunder, and lightning bolts slicing through the sky. Five years old at the time, Ruby Whittle (nee Currell) remembers, “It went very, very dark. There was thunder and lightning, and all sorts of crashes and bangs overhead. I remember the teacher putting on the classroom lights and she began reading to us.”

On approach from the west, towards runway 08, and in formation with the second aircraft, First Lieutenant John Bloemendal,pilot of the first Consolidated B-24H Liberator USAAF serial number 42-50291 (named Classy Chassis II), reported to the control tower that he was aborting landing at the last moment and would perform a go-around.


Shortly afterwards, and out of sight of the second aircraft, the aircraft hit the village of Freckleton, just east of the airfield.

Already flying very low to the ground and with wings near vertical, the aircraft’s right wing tip first hit a tree-top, and then was ripped away as it impacted with the corner of a building. The rest of the wing continued, ploughing along the ground and through a hedge. The fuselage of the 25-ton bomber continued, partly demolishing three houses and the Sad Sack Snack Bar, before crossing Lytham Road and bursting into flames. A part of the aircraft hit the infants’ wing of Freckleton Holy Trinity School. Fuel from the ruptured tanks ignited and produced a sea of flames.

In the school, thirty-eight school children and six adults were killed. The clock in one classroom stopped at 10.47 am. In the Sad Sack Snack Bar, which catered specifically for American servicemen from the airbase, fourteen were killed: seven Americans, four Royal Air Force airmen and three civilians. The three crew on the B-24 were also killed.

A total of 23 adults and 38 children died in the disaster.

The devastation in the infants’ wing was complete. Seven of the young victims were either first or second cousins to each other. Ironically, three of the children were evacuees from the London area. They had come to Freckleton as part of Operation Rivulet. The British government had instituted this program to move children to safe havens out of the range of German V-1 rocket attacks. Only two children from Freckleton, Ruby Whittle and George Carey (David Madden was from Brighton, England), escaped the infants’ wing devastation. For years to come, the local school was missing an entire grade level.


The official report stated that the exact cause of the crash was unknown, but concluded that the pilot had not fully realised the danger the storm posed until under way in his final approach, by which time he had insufficient altitude and speed to manoeuvre, given the probable strength of wind and downdraughts that must have prevailed.

Structural failure of the aircraft in the extreme conditions was not ruled out, although the complete destruction of the airframe had precluded any meaningful investigation.

Noting that many of the pilots coming to the UK commonly believed that British storms were little more than showers, the report recommended that all U.S. trained pilots should be emphatically warned of the dangers of British thunderstorms.

A memorial garden and children’s playground were opened in August 1945, in memory of those lost, the money for the playground equipment having been raised by American airmen at the Warton airbase. A fund for a memorial hall was started, and the hall was finally opened in September 1977. In addition to a memorial in the village churchyard, a marker was placed at the site of the accident in 2007

24 th August 1482 :
The town and castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army.

The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army
In July 1482 an English army invaded Scotland during the Anglo-Scottish Wars. The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed and its castle were captured and the English army briefly occupied Edinburgh. These events followed the signing of the Treaty of Fotheringhay, 11 June 1482, in which Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, the brother of James III of Scotland declared himself King of Scotland and swore loyalty to Edward IV of England. The follow-up invasion of Scotland under the command of Edward's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester failed to install Albany on the throne, but Berwick has remained English ever since the castle surrendered on 24 August. The English army left Edinburgh with a promise for the repayment of the dowry paid for the marriage of Princess Cecily of England to the Scottish Prince.

25 th August 1875

Captain Webb :
Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

Englishman swims the Channel

Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old merchant navy captain, becomes the first known person to successfully swim the English Channel. Captain Webb accomplished the grueling 21-mile crossing, which really entailed 39 miles of swimming because of tidal currents, in 21 hours and 45 minutes. Webb set out to much fanfare the day before, on August 24. During the overnight crossing from Dover, England, to Calais, France, Captain Webb drank brandy, coffee and beef tea to keep his strength and heat up. He was hailed as a national hero upon his return to England, and a triumphal arch was erected in his honor in his hometown in Shropshire. The Daily Telegraph proclaimed, “At this moment the Captain is probably the best-known and most popular man in the world.”

One of 12 children, Webb learned to swim in the Severn River below Ironbridge. At age 12, he joined the mercantile training ship Conway. He was not remembered as a fast swimmer, but his fellow cadets noted his endurance. While traveling the world with the merchant navy, Webb made his mark with several brave and dangerous swims. Endurance swimming was popular in the 1870s, and Webb decided to swim the English Channel after reading in a newspaper about an unsuccessful attempt. He trained along England’s south coast, swimming distances of 10 to 20 miles and becoming acclimatized to the cold water. In August 1875, his first attempt to swim the Channel ended in failure, but he decided to give it another try.

On August 24, 1875, smeared in porpoise fat for insulation and wearing a red swimming costume made of silk, he dove off Dover’s Admiralty Pier into the chilly waters of the Channel. He began the race in the late evening because of the tides and kept up a slow and steady pace in the dark, using the breaststroke. Accompanying boats handed him beef tea, brandy, and other liquids to sustain him, and Webb braved stinging jellyfish and patches of seaweed as he plodded on. Seven miles from the French coast, the tide changed, and he appeared to be driven backward, but just after 10 a.m. he approached the French shore. The crew of the outgoing mail ship The Maid of Kent serenaded him with “Rule Britannia,” and shortly before 11 a.m. Webb waded ashore.

After sleeping 12 hours in France, Webb returned to England by boat, saying, “the sensation in my limbs is similar to that after the first day of the cricket season.” He was honored at a welcoming banquet in Dover, where the mayor proclaimed, “In the future history of the world, I don’t believe that any such feat will be performed by anyone else.” The London Stock Exchange set up a testimonial fund for him. He toured the country, lecturing and swimming.

Within a few years, interest in Captain Webb began to wane. Overexposed on the lecture circuit and having spent or given away most of the money he earned as a result of his Channel swim, he agreed to a series of degrading exhibitions. In March 1880, he floated for 60 hours in the whale tank of the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, and in October he agreed to an extended swim in the freezing waters of Lancashire Lake. He was pulled from the water exhausted and hypothermic, and those close to him said his constitution never recovered. Seeking an alternate form of income, he prided himself on being an inventor, but few ever saw his bicycle, swimming apparatus, or flying machine, which had flapping seagull-like wings. Reportedly, he broke his nose testing the flying machine.

Eventually, Captain Webb traveled to America with his wife and two children and staged swimming exhibitions that attracted varying degrees of attention. Hearing of the exploits of Emile Blondin, a French daredevil who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope, Captain Webb came up with a new plan to restore his fame and fortune. He would travel to the Falls and swim a particularly treacherous stretch of the Niagara River that was feared for its lethal rapids and whirlpool.

Upon his arrival in Niagara Falls, he called a press conference to outline what he believed would be his greatest exploit since swimming the English Channel. He would embark in a small boat to a point below the Falls. He would then jump out and float down through the rapids. If it was too difficult to stay on the surface, he would dive down, coming up occasionally to breathe and show off his swimming ability. Then he would make his way around the whirlpool, estimating that it would take him two or three hours to extricate himself from its pull. Once beyond it, he would swim to the shore on the Canadian side.

Locals advised Webb that his plan was suicide, noting that 80 people had died in the rapids in recent memory. Webb ignored them and estimated that he would receive $10,000 from the railroad companies, which he assumed would profit greatly from throngs of spectators traveling to Niagara for the event. Ultimately, the railroads refused to sponsor him, and he was rowed out into the river at 4 p.m. on July 24, 1883, intending to risk his life for what he called the credit of his good name. Clad in the same red swimming suit he wore when he swam the Channel, he dove bravely into the water. A cheer went up from the thousands of spectators gathered along the shore.

At first he was swimming powerfully and looked untroubled, but then the river narrowed, and he was gripped by the rapids. Three times he was pulled under and then came up hundreds of feet from where he was seen last. He was no longer in control and was pulled downstream at a furious pace. As he came upon the whirlpool, he threw up his right arm and then went under. Seconds, minutes, and hours passed, and he didn’t come up.

Five days later, his gashed, bruised, and bloated body was found by a fisherman downstream. It had been held by the whirlpool for sometime before being expelled. The body had a huge head wound, exposing the skull, but an autopsy concluded that Webb probably was crushed by the force of the whirlpool and suffered the gash later.

Webb was given a pauper’s burial in the Oakwood cemetery at the edge of the Falls, in a small plot known as “The Strangers’ Rest.” In 1908, in what would have been his 60th year, the Webb Memorial was erected at his birthplace in England. Its simple inscription reads, “Nothing Great Is Easy.”

26 th August 1914


   Togoland campaign:
                                World War I: The German colony of Togoland surrenders to French and British forces after a 20-day campaign. Togoland is the first German colony to fall to allied hand in World War I.

                             
The Togoland Campaign (626 August 1914) was a French and British invasion of the German colony of Togoland in West Africa, which began the West African Campaign of the First World War. German colonial forces withdrew from the capital Lom and the coastal province to fight delaying actions on the route north to Kamina, where the Kamina Funkstation (wireless transmitter) linked the government in Berlin to Togoland, the Atlantic and South America.

The main British and French force from the neighbouring colonies of Gold Coast and Dahomey advanced from the coast up the road and railway, as smaller forces converged on Kamina from the north. The German defenders were able to delay the invaders for several days at the Affair of Agbeluvoe (affair, an action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle) and the Affair of Khra but surrendered the colony on 26 August 1914. In 1916, Togoland was partitioned by the victors and in July 1922, British Togoland and French Togoland were established as League of Nations mandates.

Togoland CampaignWorld War I, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, also known as the First World War and contemporaneously known as the Great War and by other names, was an international conflict that began on 28 July 1914 and ended on 11 November 1918. It involved much of Europe, as well as Russia, the United States and Turkey, and was also fought in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died from occupation, bombardment, hunger or disease. The genocides perpetrated by the Ottomans and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic spread by the movement of combatants during the war caused many millions of additional deaths worldwide.In 1914, the Great Powers were divided into two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente, consisting of France, Russia, and Britain, and the Triple Alliance, made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian heir, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and the interlocking alliances involved the Powers in a series of diplomatic exchanges known as the July Crisis. On 28 July, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia; Russia came to Serbia's defence and by 4 August, the conflict had expanded to include Germany, France and Britain, along with their respective colonial empires. In November, the Ottoman Empire, Germany and Austria formed the Central Powers, while in April 1915, Italy joined Britain, France, Russia and Serbia as the Allied Powers.

Facing a war on two fronts, German strategy in 1914 was to defeat France, then shift its forces to the East and knock out Russia, commonly known as the Schlieffen Plan. This failed when their advance into France was halted at the Marne; by the end of 1914, the two sides faced each other along the Western Front, a continuous series of trench lines stretching from the Channel to Switzerland that changed little until 1917. By contrast, the Eastern Front was far more fluid, with Austria-Hungary and Russia gaining, then losing large swathes of territory. Other significant theatres included the Middle East, the Alpine Front and the Balkans, bringing Bulgaria, Romania and Greece into the war.



Shortages caused by the Allied naval blockade led Germany to initiate unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, bringing the previously neutral United States into the war on 6 April 1917. In Russia, the Bolsheviks seized power in the 1917 October Revolution and made peace in the March 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, freeing up large numbers of German troops. By transferring these to the Western Front, the German General Staff hoped to win a decisive victory before American reinforcements could impact the war, and launched the March 1918 German spring offensive. Despite initial success, it was soon halted by heavy casualties and ferocious defence; in August, the Allies launched the Hundred Days Offensive and although the German army continued to fight hard, it could no longer halt their advance.Towards the end of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse; Bulgaria signed an Armistice on 29 September, followed by the Ottomans on 31 October, then Austria-Hungary on 3 November. Isolated, facing revolution at home and an army on the verge of mutiny, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and the new German government signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918, bringing the fighting to a close. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference imposed various settlements on the defeated powers, the best known being the Treaty of Versailles. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires led to numerous uprisings and the creation of independent states, including Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. For reasons that are still debated, failure to manage the instability that resulted from this upheaval during the interwar period ended with the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

27 th August 1979

Warrenpoint:
The Troubles: Eighteen British soldiers are killed in an ambush by the Provisional Irish Republican Army near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, in the deadliest attack on British forces during Operation Banner. An IRA bomb also kills British royal family member Lord Mountbatten and three others on his boat at Mullaghmore, Republic of Ireland.



1979: Soldiers die in Warrenpoint massacre
At least 18 soldiers have been killed in two booby-trap bomb attacks at Warrenpoint, South Down, close to the border with the Irish Republic.
It is the highest death toll suffered by the British Army in a single incident since it arrived in Northern Ireland to restore order a decade ago.

The IRA are believed to be behind the attack.

It came only hours after the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bomb attack in Donegal Bay in the Irish Republic.

The dead at Warrenpoint included the most senior Army officer killed in Northern Ireland to date, the commanding Officer of the Queen's Own Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair.

Reinforcements

The ambush had been carefully planned. The first bomb, weighing half-a-ton, was planted under some hay on a flat-bed lorry beside a dual carriageway 44 miles (71km) from Belfast on the Irish border.

It exploded killing six soldiers of the Second Battalion Parachute Regiment as they travelled past in a four-ton lorry at the back of a three-vehicle army convoy.

The surviving troops in the other two vehicles were immediately deployed to cordon off the area and call for reinforcements.

Members of the Queen's Own Highlanders, who flew to the scene by helicopter, arrived from Bessbrook base in County Armagh.

Twenty minutes after the first explosion, as the helicopter took off carrying some of the injured, the second device was detonated.

Twelve more soldiers - two Highlanders and ten Paras - who had been taking cover in a nearby gate house were killed as the second device exploded close to them.

In Context
The IRA admitted carrying out the attacks the following day. They had also admitted carrying out the bomb attack in which Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed.
The Parachute Regiment went straight back out on patrol. Any suggestion their 18-month tour of duty would be curtailed was swiftly rejected.

A memorial service was held for the dead at the Royal Garrison Church in Aldershot on 26 September.

Among the dead was a civilian, the 28-year-old son of one of the Queen's coachmen. Michael Hudson was killed by Army gunfire.

The deaths of Lord Mountbatten and the 18 British soldiers were followed by a series of killings of Catholic civilians by Loyalist paramilitaries.

28 th August 1914

Battle of Heligoland Bight:

World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.


THE ORANGE NAVY - THE BATTLE OF THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT – 28TH AUGUST 1914
The battle arose from a plan devised by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt and Commodore Roger Keyes. Tyrwhitt commanded a destroyer force and Keyes commanded a squadron of long-range submarines, both based at Harwich. They had noticed that the German Navy had a routine whereby, each evening, cruisers would escort out destroyers who would then patrol the area through the night before being met by cruisers and escorted home the following morning. Tyrwhitt and Keyes planned to attack the destroyers before they could be escorted home. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, approved the plan but with the alteration that the attack on the Germans would take place at 08.00 on the Germans’ day time patrol.

British submarines set sail on 26th August. The E6, E7 and E8 were to draw the Germans out to sea, while the E4, E5 and E9 positioned themselves to cut off German ships attempting to retreat to their bases while D2 and D8 positioned themselves off the River Ems to intercept any German reinforcements from that direction. Keyes was aboard the destroyer HMS Lurcher. On 27th August Tyrwhitt set out aboard a new light cruiser, HMS Arethusa, leading the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of sixteen modern L-class destroyers. He was followed by the 1st Destroyer Flotilla of sixteen older ships, which was led by Captain Wilfred Blunt on the light cruiser HMS Fearless. The Arethusa was so new that it had only just joined the force. Its crew was inexperienced and some of its guns were prone to jamming. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, in command of Britain’s Grand Fleet, decided to send further reinforcements. Commodore William Goodenough’s 1st Light Cruiser Squadron, comprising the Southampton, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Falmouth and Lowestoft were sent south and, at some distance, the battlecruisers Lion, Queen Mary and Princess Royal.

Around 07.00 on 28th August Tyrwhitt, on the Arethusa followed by the 16 destroyers of the 3rd Flotilla, sighted the German destroyer G-194. The G-194 turned away towards Heligoland and radioed back that British units were in the area. Rear Admiral Franz Hipper ordered the light cruisers Stettin and Frauenlob to go out to support the destroyers. He also ordered the light cruisers Mainz, Strassburg, Cöln, Ariadne, Stralsund, Kolberg, Danzig and Munchen to get under way and get to the destroyers as soon as possible.

The British destroyers attacked the German destroyers and the latter took some hits. They requested support from coastal batteries, but visibility rendered this impossible. Tyrwhitt led the Arethusa and Fearless east towards the sound of the guns. The German destroyers reached Heligoland and Tyrwhitt broke off the pursuit. At this point, about 07.58, Stettin and Frauenlob arrived and the British destroyers retreated westwards towards their own light cruisers. Having achieved the objective of extricating the destroyers, Stettin withdrew, but Frauenlob engaged Arethusa. Arethusa had two 6-inch guns and four 4-inch guns, while the Frauenlob had ten 4-inch guns. This should have given the Arethusa an advantage, but technical problems with some of the guns slowed Arethusa’s rate of fire so that the British ship suffered damage. Suddenly, the situation was turned about when one of Arethusa’s 6-inch shells scored a direct hit on Frauenlob’s bridge killing 37 men including the German Captain. The Frauenlob was forced to drop out of the battle and managed to reach Wilhelmshaven.

Tyrwhitt returned to the original plan and began a sweep to the east. They sighted some German destroyers who made a run for it, but Goodenough’s light cruisers were beginning to arrive and threatened to cut off the retreat of the German destroyers, one of which, the V-187, turned west and tried to pass through the British destroyers. This was unsuccessful and the V-187 was surrounded by British destroyers and sunk. The British attempted to rescue survivors in the water but at this point the Stettin returned to the battle and opened fire. The British ships had to withdraw, leaving the German sailors and their British rescuers in the water. The British submarine E4 fired a torpedo at the Stettin but missed, and the Stettin tried to ram the British submarine, which successfully evaded this by diving. Eventually the sub resurfaced and all the large ships had gone. The British sailors were taken on board the sub but there was no room for the Germans who were given the boats and a compass to enable them to get back to Germany.

Goodenough’s light cruisers were now arriving at the combat area, but Tyrwhitt and Keyes had not been told they were on their way. Consequently, there was a period of utter confusion when Tyrwhitt and Keyes’s ships thought that Goodenough’s ships were hostile and vice versa. There was a great danger that they would fire on each other, and a British submarine fired two torpedoes at HMS Southampton while the light cruiser tried to ram the sub. Fortunately, both vessels escaped unharmed.

By now the German light cruisers were arriving in the combat area. They were converging from different directions but, as the German command had not yet understood the nature of the fight they were in, their ships were spread out in a search formation rather than being concentrated. Strassburg sighted the Arethusa and attacked with shells and torpedoes. Arethusa was damaged from its duel with Frauenlob, so this was a very dangerous moment, but accompanying British destroyers drove the Strassburg away by torpedo attacks of their own. Next, the Cöln came up from the south-east with Rear-Admiral Leberecht Maass aboard, but the British destroyers also successfully drove off this attack. Tyrwhitt sent out a message requesting assistance and Goodenough with his light cruisers, and Beatty with his battlecruisers, set course to join in the battle.

At 11.30 the SMS Mainz engaged with Tyrwhitt’s force, an exchange which lasted about 20 minutes, but then Goodenough arrived with the Southampton, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Falmouth. (The Nottingham and Lowestoft had lost communication with the rest of the squadron and took no further part in the battle). The Mainz sustained severe damage and at 12.20 her Captain ordered her to be scuttled and the crew to abandon ship.

Cöln now combined with Strassburg to launch a further attack on the British but at this point Vice-Admiral David Beatty arrived with the British battlecruisers – a far mightier force than any that had been engaged in the battle hitherto. The lighter British units carried on their withdrawal to the west while Beatty went straight for the Germans. Strassburg managed to escape, but Cöln was quickly disabled by the British big guns.

Instead of going in for the kill, Beatty sighted another German light cruiser, the Ariadne, and set off in pursuit of her. Ariadne was caught and sunk by only three salvoes at 15.00. A danger to the British was that, as the tide rose, larger German units would be able to leave harbour and head for the battle. Consequently, Beatty decided to call it a day and ordered a British withdrawal to the north. Coming across the Cöln once again Beatty once more opened fire. This time the Cöln sank with great loss of life. The British thought they had sighted German submarines and so could not stay to pick up survivors. Rear-Admiral Maass was among those who died. In mid-afternoon several German battlecruisers arrived at the scene and searched for British ships, but they were far too late.

This battle was a clear British success. The Germans had lost the light cruisers Cöln, Ariadne, and Mainz, and the destroyer V-187 all sunk. The light cruiser Frauenlob had been severely damaged and the light cruisers Strassburg and Stettin had received significant damage. They had 712 men dead, including Rear-Admiral Maass, 336 taken prisoner, and 194 wounded. The British had lost no ships and had suffered 35 men killed and 40 wounded.

The biggest damage done to the German navy was that this emphatic demonstration of the “Nelson touch” left the Germans with a sense of their own inferiority. Their sailors were skilful and brave, their ships were technically superior, and their gunnery was better than that of the Royal Navy, but they were never able to free themselves from a sense that the Royal Navy was unbeatable. This was especially true of the Kaiser himself, who issued orders that deprived his Naval commanders of much of their freedom of movement.

29 th August 1966

Beatles last concert:
The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.



Although they made an unannounced live appearance in January 1969 on the rooftop of the Apple building, The Beatles’ final live concert took place on 29 August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.

There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end. At that San Francisco gig it seemed that this could possibly be the last time, but I never felt 100% certain till we got back to London.
John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he’d had enough.

Ringo Starr
Anthology


The Park’s capacity was 42,500, but only 25,000 tickets were sold, leaving large sections of unsold seats. Fans paid between $4.50 and $6.50 for tickets, and The Beatles’ fee was around $90,000. The show’s promoter was local company Tempo Productions.002

The Beatles took 65% of the gross, the city of San Francisco took 15% of paid admissions and were given 50 free tickets. This arrangement, coupled with low ticket sales and other unexpected expenses resulted in a financial loss for Tempo Productions.

Candlestick Park was the home of the baseball team the San Francisco Giants. The stage was located just behind second base on the field, and was five feet high and surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence.

Home»Live»Live: Candlestick Park, San Francisco: The Beatles’ final concert Monday 29 August 1966 Live 78 Comments
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Although they made an unannounced live appearance in January 1969 on the rooftop of the Apple building, The Beatles’ final live concert took place on 29 August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.

There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end. At that San Francisco gig it seemed that this could possibly be the last time, but I never felt 100% certain till we got back to London.
John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he’d had enough.

Ringo Starr
Anthology
The Park’s capacity was 42,500, but only 25,000 tickets were sold, leaving large sections of unsold seats. Fans paid between $4.50 and $6.50 for tickets, and The Beatles’ fee was around $90,000. The show’s promoter was local company Tempo Productions.

The Beatles took 65% of the gross, the city of San Francisco took 15% of paid admissions and were given 50 free tickets. This arrangement, coupled with low ticket sales and other unexpected expenses resulted in a financial loss for Tempo Productions.

The Beatles at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 29 August 1966


Candlestick Park was the home of the baseball team the San Francisco Giants. The stage was located just behind second base on the field, and was five feet high and surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence.


The compère was ‘Emperor’ Gene Nelson of KYA 1260 AM, and the support acts were, in order of appearance, The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The show began at 8pm.

Home»Live»Live: Candlestick Park, San Francisco: The Beatles’ final concert Monday 29 August 1966 Live 78 Comments
12Next
Although they made an unannounced live appearance in January 1969 on the rooftop of the Apple building, The Beatles’ final live concert took place on 29 August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.

There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end. At that San Francisco gig it seemed that this could possibly be the last time, but I never felt 100% certain till we got back to London.
John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he’d had enough.

Ringo Starr
Anthology
The Park’s capacity was 42,500, but only 25,000 tickets were sold, leaving large sections of unsold seats. Fans paid between $4.50 and $6.50 for tickets, and The Beatles’ fee was around $90,000. The show’s promoter was local company Tempo Productions.

The Beatles took 65% of the gross, the city of San Francisco took 15% of paid admissions and were given 50 free tickets. This arrangement, coupled with low ticket sales and other unexpected expenses resulted in a financial loss for Tempo Productions.

The Beatles at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 29 August 1966


Candlestick Park was the home of the baseball team the San Francisco Giants. The stage was located just behind second base on the field, and was five feet high and surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence.

The compère was ‘Emperor’ Gene Nelson of KYA 1260 AM, and the support acts were, in order of appearance, The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes. The show began at 8pm.


I was the MC, and, as any Giants fans will know, Candlestick Park in August, at night, was cold, foggy and windy. The funniest thing this night was one of the warm-up acts, Bobby Hebb. He stood up on the stage at Candlestick Park, with the fog, and the wind blowing, and he was singing ‘Sunny’! It was tough anyway to work a ballpark as an MC, especially as The Beatles were taking their time to get out. I was trying to entertain a crowd that was shouting, ‘Beatles, Beatles, Beatles.’
The dressing room was chaos. There were loads of people there. The press tried to get passes for their kids and the singer Joan Baez was in there. Any local celebrity, who was in town, was in the dressing room. They were having a party in there. They were having a perfectly wonderful time, while I was freezing my buns off on second base!

’Emperor’ Gene Nelson
The Beatles Off The Record, Keith Badman
The Beatles took to the stage at 9.27pm, and performed 11 songs: ‘Rock And Roll Music’, ‘She’s A Woman’, ‘If I Needed Someone’, ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Baby’s In Black’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘Paperback Writer’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

The group knew it was to be their final concert. Recognising its significance, John Lennon and Paul McCartney took a camera onto the stage, with which they took pictures of the crowd, the rest of the group, and themselves at arm’s length.

Before one of the last numbers, we actually set up this camera, I think it had a fisheye, a wide-angle lens. We set it up on the amplifier and Ringo came off the drums, and we stood with our backs to the audience and posed for a photograph, because we knew that was the last show.
George Harrison
The Beatles Off The Record, Keith Badman

As The Beatles made their way to Candlestick Park, Paul McCartney asked their press officer Tony Barrow to make a recording of the concert on audio cassette, using a hand-held recorder. The cassette lasted 30 minutes on each side, and, as Barrow didn’t flip it during the show, the recording cut off during final song ‘Long Tall Sally’.

There was a sort of end of term spirit thing going on, and there was also this kind of feeling amongst all of us around The Beatles, that this might just be the last concert that they will ever do. I remember Paul, casually, at the very last minute, saying, ‘Have you got your cassette recorder with you?’ and I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ Paul then said, ‘Tape it will you? Tape the show,’ which I did, literally just holding the microphone up in the middle of the field. As a personal souvenir of the occasion, it was a very nice thing to have and the only difference was that it wasn’t a spectacular occasion. It was nothing like Shea Stadium, there was nothing special about it at all, except that The Beatles did put in extra ad-libs and link material which they hadn’t put in before on any other occasion.
Tony Barrow
The Beatles Off The Record, Keith Badman
Barrow gave the original tape of the Candlestick Park concert to McCartney. He also made a single copy, which was kept in a locked drawer in Barrow’s office desk. The recording has since become widely circulated on bootlegs, although quite how is not known.

At San Francisco airport, as our plane prepared to take off, Paul’s head came over the top of my seat from the row behind: ‘Did you get anything on tape?’ I passed the cassette recorder back to him: ‘I got the lot, except that the tape ran out in the middle of Long Tall Sally.’ He asked if I had left the machine running between numbers to get all the announcements and the boys’ ad lib remarks. I said: ‘It’s all there from the guitar feedback before the first number.’ Paul was clearly chuffed to have such a unique souvenir of what would prove to be an historic evening – the farewell stage show from the Fab Four.
Back in London I kept the concert cassette under lock and key in a drawer of my office desk, making a single copy for my personal collection and passing the original to Paul for him to keep. Years later my Candlestick Park recording re-appeared in public as a bootleg album. If you hear a bootleg version of the final concert that finishes during Long Tall Sally it must have come either from Paul’s copy or mine, but we never did identify the music thief!

Tony Barrow
John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me

Being a Beatles fan that was an interesting read Gassey

31 st August 1916

Elephant island rescue:

Ernest Shackleton completes the rescue of all of his men stranded on Elephant Island in Antarctica.

August 30th 1916 – The 22 men stranded for 127 days on Elephant Island in Antarctica are finally rescued by Shackleton, Crean and Worsley who arrived onboard the Chilean vessel Yelcho.

It was another epic moment in an expedition filled with high and lows. Though this must surely have counted as the greatest moment for these barely alive men.

Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition on board the ship Endurance is a tale of epic proportion. A few weeks into the voyage the ship became trapped in ice and for eight months they drifted off course until finally the ship gave up, crushed under the weight of the ice the Endurance sank.

For several months the crew trekked as far as Elephant Island but most were unable to go much further and supplies were getting low. Shackleton needed to find help so he took five of his best men including his fellow Irishmen Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy and set off on an epic voyage within an epic voyage onboard the James Caird. They took the small open lifeboat to find help at the whaling station on South Georgia, 1500 km away. For over two weeks they battle with the harshest environment on earth and managed to arrive safely in South Georgia to put out a call for rescue.


The rest of the crew stayed behind on Elephant Island with Frank Wild, Shackleton’s second in command, left in charge. They had no way to contact the outside world , no way to know if or when the James Caird landed safely on Georgia, or if anyone was coming to save them.

In Wild’s memoir he recalled “We gave them three hearty cheers and watched the boat getting smaller and smaller in the distance. Then seeing some of the party in tears, I immediately set them all to work”.

There was no natural source of shelter so the men needed to construct a shack from the remaining lifeboats and pieces of canvas from the tents. They hunted penguins and seals, neither of which were abundant and set watches looking for any sign of approaching ships.


On the 10th of May, after 16 days at sea the James Caird had made it. Shackleton, Crean and Worsley left the other three men, who were too sick to travel, and trekked across the island to the whaling station. Once they got there a few days later they sent a boat to retrieve the men on the beach. The next priority was rescuing the crew from Elephant Island. Several attempts were made to but the harsh conditions made it impossible for boats to pass through the icy sea.

For the fourth and final attempt Shackleton appealed to the Chilean government for help. They offered him the use of Yelcho, a small seagoing tug. Shackleton was joined by Crean and Worsley and they set out to rescue their friends.

Back on Elephant Island, the men were losing hope. Wishfully Frank Wild had estimated their rescue would take around four or five weeks. But four and a half months later their food was running low, many of the men were ill and had frostbite. Each day men were assigned to watch out for approaching ships, which at this point must have seemed fruitless. But on this day George Marston was on lookout when he spotted the approaching ship. He ran to the camp and the men frantically signalled to the ship.


Amazingly all 28 members of the expedition survived the gruelling endurance of Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

31 st August 1997

Diana:
Diana, Princess of Wales, her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.


‘A tragic night’: Princess Diana’s fatal Paris crash.
Diana Spencer, princess of Wales, died in a car crash at the entrance to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997. Her life and death have had a lasting impact on the British royal family and the world. Frederic Mailliez, the first medic on the scene, recounts what happened that fateful night and admits he still “feels a little responsible for her last moments”.

Diana Spencer, the princess of Wales, and her partner, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, left the Ritz Hotel in Paris en route to Fayed’s apartment on Rue Arsène Houssaye a little after midnight on August 31, 1997.

The car’s other two occupants were driver Henri Paul, who was the Ritz’s deputy head of security, and Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family’s personal protection team.

After crossing Place de la Concorde, the car entered the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at 12:23am, when Paul lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a pillar.

First medic on the scene
Doctor Frederic Mailliez, the first medic on the scene, is still marked by what happened on that fateful night 25 years ago – and the realisation that he was one of the last people to see Princess Diana alive.

“I realise my name will always be attached to this tragic night,” Mailliez, who was off-duty and on his way home from a party when he came across the car crash, told The Associated Press. “I feel a little bit responsible for her last moments.”

Mailliez was driving into the tunnel when he spotted a smoking Mercedes limousine nearly split in two. “I walked toward the wreckage. I opened the door, and I looked inside,” he said.

He describes what he saw: “Four people, two of them were apparently dead, no reaction, no breathing. And the two others, on the right side, were living but in severe condition. The front passenger was screaming – he was breathing, he could wait a few minutes. And the female passenger, the young lady, was on her knees on the floor of the Mercedes. She had her head down, she had difficulty to breathe. She needed quick assistance.”

He ran to his car to call emergency services and grab a breathing bag, a balloon-like device that helps someone breathe. “She was unconscious,” he said. “Thanks to my respiratory bag (...) she regained a little bit more energy, but she couldn’t say anything.”

“I know it’s surprising, but I didn’t recognise Princess Diana,” he said. “I was in the car on the rear seat giving assistance. I realised she was very beautiful, but my attention was so focused on what I had to do to save her life, I didn’t have time to think, 'Who was this woman?'.”

“Someone behind me told me the victims spoke English, so I began to speak English, saying I was a doctor and I called the ambulance,” he said. “I tried to comfort her.”

As he worked, he noticed paparazzi had gathered to take pictures of the scene. But Mailliez said he had no criticisms of their actions. “They didn’t hamper me having access to the victims. ... I didn’t ask them for help, but they didn’t interfere with my job.”

Firefighters quickly came and Diana was taken to a Paris hospital at around 1:40am. She died more than an hour later, at 3am. Her companion Fayed and the driver also died.

“It was a massive shock to learn that she was Princess Diana, and that she died,” Mailliez said.

Then self-doubt set in. “Did I do everything I could to save her? Did I do correctly my job?” he asked himself. “I checked with my medical professors and I checked with police investigators,” he said. They all agreed that he had done everything he could.

But Mailliez was not the only one with questions about that night. As speculation and rumours swirled, Britain launched what turned out to be the longest-running and most expensive inquest in its history to find the truth behind Diana's death. After almost six months and listening to more than 250 witnesses, a jury found in 2008 that Diana and Fayed had been unlawfully killed by the negligent driving of Henri Paul, who had been drunk and driving at high speeds to shake off the paparazzi.

A lasting legacy
The British public was bereft at the loss of the glamorous Diana, who was known worldwide for her charitable works.

Her life and premature death remain a source of continuing public interest, as evidenced by a wealth of movies and documentaries depicting her life, including the recently released "Spencer" and "The Princess", as well as the highly acclaimed Netflix series "The Crown".

The tragic epilogue in Paris also cast a spotlight on the British royal family, whose reaction to Diana’s death at first seemed out of step with the public outpouring of grief. The queen subsequently paid tribute to Diana and addressed the "overwhelming expression of sadness" seen worldwide.




"Diana's death is this whirlwind moment, which requires the monarchy to reorient its public image, to embrace a more modern, expressive kind of celebrity image as a way of appealing to audiences," royal historian Ed Owens told AFP.

The monarchy now has a far more nimble PR operation, adept at social media and rapid-response while still able to stage grand events, like the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, with aplomb.

However, recent controversies – notably revelations of Prince Andrew's links to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle quitting frontline royal duties – have cast doubts on the monarchy's future.

Harry’s exit leaves “a huge hole” in the institution, said Owens, pointing to “troubled times ahead” for the monarchy. “Meghan also embodied some of the virtues that Diana had sought to project as well, in terms of emotion and being in touch ... with the lives of people in the developing world,” he added.

The emotion is still palpable at the Pont de l’Alma, where the nearby Flame of Liberty monument has become an unofficial memorial site that attracts Diana fans of all generations and nationalities. She has become an iconic figure even for those born after her death.

Francine Rose, a Dutch 16-year-old who stopped by the memorial while on a biking trip in Paris, said she discovered Diana's story through film. “Diana is an inspiration because she was evolving in a strict household – the royal family – and just wanted to be free.”

1 st September 1878

Connecting you now sir:
Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.

The Woman Who Made History by Answering the Phone

The first telephones were hard enough to use without the added harassment of the teenage boys who worked as the earliest switchboard operators — and who were, per PBS, notoriously rude.

It was Alexander Graham Bell himself who came up with a solution: replacing the abrupt male operators with young women who were expected to be innately polite. He hired a woman named Emma Nutt away from her job at a telegraph office, and on this day, Sept. 1, in 1878, she became the world’s first female telephone operator. (Her sister, Stella, became the second when she started work at the same place, Boston’s Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Company, a few hours later.)

As an operator, Nutt pressed all the right buttons: she was patient and savvy, her voice cultured and soothing, according to the New England Historical Society. Her example became the model all telephone companies sought to emulate, and by the end of the 1880s, the job had become an exclusively female trade.

Many women embraced the professional opportunity, which seemed like a step up from factory work or domestic service. But the work wasn’t easy, and telephone companies were draconian employers, according to the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, which notes:

Merely to get the job, a woman had to pass height, weight, and arm length tests to ensure that she could work in the tight quarters afforded switchboard operators. Operators had to sit with perfect posture for long hours in straight-backed chairs. They were not permitted to communicate with each other. They were to respond quickly, efficiently, and patiently — even when dealing with the most irascible customers.

It soon became clear to these operators why the teenage boys who preceded them had so often talked back to their customers. One woman, in an anonymous 1922 op-ed for the New York Times, reported saying “number please” an average of 120 times per hour for eight hours a day (and sometimes at night) — and biting her tongue when she was excoriated for every possible connection problem, “including the sin of sending your party out to lunch just when you wanted to reach him.”

Working under these conditions for impossibly meager pay (Nutt herself made $10 a month working 54 hours a week) ultimately drove the women to organize. In 1919 they went on strike, paralyzing the telephone-dependent New England region — and winning a wage increase.

Nearly a century after Nutt first connected a call, switchboards remained almost entirely staffed by women. In 1973, a group of women filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about this hiring disparity — and the corresponding dearth of women employed in other telecommunications positions. The EEOC persuaded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (later known as AT&T) to sign an agreement opening every job in the company to both sexes.

The agreement backfired in its intended effect, however. “[It] is producing many more male operators than female linemen or telephone installers,” TIME observed later that year. Boys, it seemed, had retaken their place at the switchboard.

2 nd September 1666

Great fire of London:
The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral.

When London Burned: 1666’s Great Fire
Between September 2 and September 6, 1666, a massive inferno ripped through London, reducing much of the city center to a smoldering ruin.

London had already burned several times in its history, most notably in 1212, but in September 1666 the conditions were present for an inferno of epic proportions. The city of 500,000 people was a tinderbox of cramped streets and timber-frame structures, many of them built with flammable pitch and tar. Stables filled with hay and straw were everywhere, and many cellars and warehouses were packed with combustible materials such as turpentine, lamp oil and coal. To make matters worse, a months-long drought had created a water shortage and left most of the wood buildings kindling dry.

The fateful spark in the Great Fire came early on Sunday, September 2, at the Pudding Lane bakery of Thomas Farriner. Before heading to bed that night, Farriner had made a final inspection of his bakery and raked the spent coals in his ovens, which were still warm from a day of making ship’s biscuit for King Charles II’s navy. He would later swear that the ovens were extinguished when he retired to his upstairs apartment, but it seems that a smoldering ember escaped and started a fire. Whatever the cause, at around 1 a.m., Farriner awoke to find his house in flames. The baker and his daughter only survived by exiting an upstairs window and crawling on a gutter to a neighbor’s house. His manservant also escaped, but another servant, a young woman, perished in the smoke and flames.

By the time Farriner joined the crowd gathering on Pudding Lane, the fire had already consumed most of his house. A few neighbors formed a bucket brigade and began throwing water on the flames, but most simply stood idle or rushed home to secure their valuables. Sir Thomas Bludworth, London’s Lord Mayor, took even less action. After arriving to inspect the blaze, he pronounced it so insignificant that “a woman might piss it out” and returned to bed.

Fanned by a powerful easterly wind, the bakery fire soon spread to other buildings on Pudding Lane before leaping to nearby Fish Street, where it torched the stables of a hotel called the Star Inn. When it reached a ship’s supply store, it heated up several barrels of tar, which exploded and rained flaming debris across the neighborhood. The blaze then moved south toward the River Thames, consuming every building in its path. The Church of St. Magnus the Martyr went up in smoke—one of the first of the 84 churches lost in the fire—as did dozens of riverside guildhalls and warehouses. Flames also ripped through half the buildings and waterwheels on London Bridge but were halted when they reached a gap in construction caused by a previous fire in 1633.

By sunrise, the inferno was burning out of control across the Thames waterfront. Samuel Pepys, a civil servant and diarist, wrote of panicked Londoners “staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another.” Other people simply cast their furniture and other goods directly into the Thames. As the day wore on, the wind continued to feed the fire and blow it west across the homes, halls and churches of central London. Pepys described “a most horrid malicious bloody flame” that stretched for over a mile. “It made me weep to see it,” he wrote.


The Great Fire only grew more horrific on September 3. By then, the wind had carried sparks and embers across the city, starting scattered fires away from the main blaze. Fearing that the entire city would burn, King Charles II placed his brother James II, Duke of York, in charge of firefighting efforts. The Duke organized fire brigades that used heavy chains, ropes and grapples to pull down houses and create firebreaks to stop the inferno’s advance. Yet the blaze was moving so fast that it repeatedly overran the men as they worked. That evening, it roared through the Royal Exchange before engulfing Baynard’s Castle, a centuries-old fortress.

As the fire spread, so too did wild rumors about its cause. England was embroiled in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and frantic Londoners soon began to speculate that the blaze was the result of arson by enemy agents or Catholic terrorists. Armed mobs eventually took to the streets and pounced on anyone with a foreign accent. One Frenchman had his house destroyed after the rabble became convinced he was planning to set it on fire. Elsewhere, a man was attacked when a mob mistook the box of tennis balls he was carrying for combustible “fireballs.”

While Londoners searched for a scapegoat, the flames continued their determined march across the city. On September 4, London’s Guildhall burned along with most of the structures on Cheapside, one of the city’s wealthiest streets. As the fire raged, many people took refuge in St. Paul’s Cathedral, a medieval church whose 500-foot spire had long dominated the London skyline. It was thought that St. Paul’s stone edifice and wide plazas would protect it, but at around 8 p.m., the inferno engulfed the church and sent its occupants fleeing for their lives. According to writer John Evelyn, the flames melted the church’s lead roof, sending molten metal “down the streets in a stream” that left “the very pavements glowing with a fiery redness.”

St. Paul’s would prove to be one of the last major buildings to fall victim to the Great Fire. That same night, the fierce easterly wind that had been feeding the blaze finally abated, allowing the Duke of York’s brigades to make progress with their firebreaks. On the other side of the city, the Tower of London’s garrison used gunpowder to demolish properties and halt the fire in its tracks. By the afternoon of September 5, the fires were corralled and starting to burn themselves out. Most were extinguished the following day.

All told, the Great Fire had destroyed 13,200 buildings and left an estimated 100,000 people homeless. Over 400 acres of the city had burned, leaving behind a desert of charred stone and smoldering wood beams. “London was, but is no more,” Evelyn lamented. Compared to the scale of the destruction, the supposed death toll was minuscule. Official reports listed as few as four people killed, but many modern researchers believe the number failed to include those whose bodies were cremated by the flames. “The true death toll of the Great Fire of London is not four or six or eight,” author Neil Hanson has argued, “it is several hundred and quite possibly several thousand times that number.”


While a Parliamentary investigation later blamed the fire on “the hand of God upon us, a great wind and the season so very dry,” many Londoners continued to believe it was the work of a foreign-born arsonist. At one point in the witch-hunt, a slow-witted Frenchman named Robert Hubert confessed to having firebombed Farriner’s bakery. Hubert was almost certainly innocent—he wasn’t even in London when the blaze began—but he was still hanged in October 1666. Despite all evidence to the contrary, rumors that the fire was part of a foreign or Catholic plot would persist for decades.

As it had been many times before, London was rebuilt following the Great Fire. Architects seized on the opportunity and presented ambitious building schemes, some of which called for boulevards and piazzas modeled after the great cities of France and Italy. In the end, however, the new London looked much the same as the old one, albeit with wider alleys and more brick structures. By far the biggest construction project was architect Christopher Wren’s new St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was completed in 1711, 45 years after the original burned in the Great Fire. The rebuilt cathedral would later become famous for surviving what has often been called the “Second Great Fire of London”—an incendiary bomb attack during World War II’s London Blitz.

3 rd September 1878

Princess Alice Thames disaster:
Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames.


Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead

The Princess Alice sank in the River Thames on 3 September 1878, killing hundreds of ordinary Londoners returning home from a day trip to the seaside. The tragedy, now largely forgotten, dominated newspaper headlines and led to changes to the shipping industry.

A boatman hooks another body out of the foul-smelling Thames, a grisly prize that will earn him five shillings.

A few days before, the Princess Alice had been smashed in two as it returned to London packed with men, women and children who had been on a trip to Kent.

About 650 lives were lost and for weeks bodies decayed in the polluted water or washed up on the riverbank.

On the morning of the disaster, the weather was bright and the passengers were excited as the pleasure steamer set off from London and headed out to catch the end of the summer sun and the fresh sea air of Sheerness.

It was an inexpensive trip - tickets were about two shillings, depending on which stop passengers travelled to.

Most of the approximately 700 people on board were upper working-class or lower middle-class families.

The children were tired but happy after their day at the famous Rosherville Pleasure Gardens in Northfleet, playing on the promenade at Sheerness or wandering around the popular resort of Gravesend.

As the evening drew in, many families took the decision to retreat inside the saloon or to their cabins below.

It was a move that sealed their fates.


The 30-year-old father of four from Bow, east London, was no doubt grateful for the extra cash, as well as the rare opportunity to escape the dirty streets of the capital.

At about 7:40pm, as the Princess Alice neared North Woolwich Pier, he was standing on the deck by the saloon door.

Just as he was saying how "splendid" the voyage had been, he saw a huge collier (a coal-carrying ship) bearing down on the smaller vessel.

The Bywell Castle ploughed straight into the starboard side of the Princess Alice, which weighed less than a third of the 890-ton collier.

The vessel sliced the Princess Alice in two with a sickening crash.

"The panic on board was terrible, the women and children screaming and rushing to the bridge for safety," Merryman's witness account reads.

"I at once rushed to the captain and asked what was to be done and he exclaimed: 'We are sinking fast, do your best.'

"Those were the last words he said. At that moment, down she went."

As a model held by the National Maritime Museum shows, the ends of the ship rose into the air as the middle sank, sending people on deck hurtling into the watery chasm between.

Merryman and others on deck were pitched into the churning river, while the unfortunate passengers below deck were trapped.

Tons of untreated sewage spewed from outlets near where the boats collided.

The water bubbled with raw detritus, giving out a stench strong enough to leave even the hardiest boatman gagging.

Boatmen used large hooks to retrieve bodies from the water
The men, women and children thrashing about in the water breathed in lungfuls of toxic waste.

Despite crew members of the Bywell Castle throwing down planks of wood, lifebuoys and even chicken coops for people to cling to, the heavy Victorian clothes of those in the water dragged them down. For many, death was inevitable.

Deafened by the screams of his doomed fellow passengers, Merryman clung to a piece of wreckage to stay afloat.

But when about 20 desperate people grabbed hold too, it sank.

He started swimming - one of the lucky few who could - and lunged for a rope hanging over the side of the Bywell Castle. He was hauled to safety along with four others.


Other survivors described being overwhelmed by an instinct for survival.

One man told the Illustrated Police News - a somewhat sensationalist tabloid - how he had to push drowning people off him to reach safety.

Claude Hamilton Wiele said: "I found my brother swimming about. We are both good swimmers, and we made for the screw steamer."

The 20-year-old clerk added: "The water was full of people... we had great difficulty in avoiding them.

"A woman clutched me, but I got away, and I saw her go down like a stone."


The wreck of the Princess Alice was examined as part of the inquest
Merryman was taken to South Woolwich Pier after he was retrieved from the water.

"There were others also rescued but few recovered," he said.

"One boy died on my lap."

4 th September 1972

7 events 7 golds:
Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.


Seven events. Seven golds. Seven records. 51 years ago, IU's Mark Spitz became an icon.

BLOOMINGTON – Fifty years ago, there was a before-and-after Olympic Games.

After: The darkest moment in recorded sports history, terror and tragedy ending splendor and joy of Munich 1972.

Before: It was the Mark Spitz Olympics.

Seven events. Seven gold medals. Seven world records.

The seventh came in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Sept. 4, 1972.

Witnessing it was Bob Hammel, then a 35-year-old journalist from the Bloomington Herald-Telephone, by far the smallest U.S. newspaper to have a credentialed reporter there. What he called a stroke of luck led to an exclusive interview — the only one Spitz granted during his Olympic swims — with the most famous man on the planet.

Mark Spitz flashes his gold medals in 1972. Photo courtesy of Indiana University.
Mark Spitz flashes his gold medals in 1972. Photo courtesy of Indiana University.
By then, the swimmer had five gold medals, then the most ever by any athlete at any Olympics. Five was one more than swimmer Don Schollander won at Tokyo in 1964.

“I was able to get back and talk with him at a time he had 40 minutes under a heat lamp and had nowhere else to go. The idea of talking to someone he knew all of a sudden had some charm,” Hammel said.

Spitz told him the public would not remember Schollander. Spitz said everybody remembers Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens.

“He didn’t continue to say that’s who he’d like to be, but that was implication. It all held up extremely well,” Hammel said.

It did.

***
If not for epic failure at Mexico City four years before, Spitz would not have had epic success at Munich. And in one of the strangest twists in college sports history, Indiana University’s greatest athlete was not recruited by IU.

After the 1968 Olympics — where Spitz failed to win an individual gold medal — the 18-year-old Californian toured South America with other U.S. Olympians, including a teammate from the Santa Clara Swim Club, Mitch Ivey. Ivey wanted to transfer from Stanford, and the school he spoke about most was IU. Spitz remembered the camaraderie of the Hoosiers from the pre-Olympics camp but did not know a lot about coach Doc Counsilman.

Coincidentally, Spitz’s flight back from South America included a layover in Miami, and the Hoosiers were training nearby in Fort Lauderdale. He showed up at Counsilman’s hotel room, announcing to the coach he would not enroll at Long Beach State, as planned, and would go to Indiana.

“I ended up having the most marvelous years at Indiana University. And that helped my own confidence immensely,” Spitz said in a new 53-minute documentary by the Olympic Channel.

Spitz was a frequent visitor to the home of Counsilman and wife Marge, as were other Hoosier swimmers.

“Mark was an interesting blend. He really did have an appreciative side,” Hammel said. “But he masked it well. He cared about his team. Really grateful to Doc and Marge.”

For the Olympic Channel, Spitz returned to Munich. He spoke candidly, and in detail, about what happened there and what led up to it.

Munich Olympics: Mark Spitz gave 'greatest athletic performance' longtime sports journalist Bob Hammel ever saw

The Mexico City memory “haunted” him, he said. Before those Olympics, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. There was talk of four, five, even six gold medals. He held world records in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, after all.

“As it turned out, it was a catastrophe,” Spitz told the Olympic Channel.

Doug Russell, who had lost to Spitz in nine previous races, won the 100 butterfly in an Olympic record of 55.9 seconds. Spitz took silver in 56.4.

Spitz remembers Russell signaling No. 1 with his finger to the rest of Team USA.

“It was shocking,” Spitz said. “And I was thinking, ‘I’m the fastest in this event on the planet. I can’t believe this is happening.’“

By then, he said, he was feeling sorry for himself. He made the final of the 200 butterfly, and he swam dead last.

“It was my worst moment in my life. And I can remember that as if it happened six hours ago,” he said. “And we’re talking 54 years ago. I was devastated.”

***
Upon arrival in Munich, the talk was not about Spitz’s swimming. It was about his moustache.

He conceded he grew it to spite Counsilman — “you’re not telling me what to do now” — and planned to shave it off before his first race. The “ultimate psych” job, he called it.

Swimmers customarily shave body hair before important meets to reduce drag in the water. For a swimmer to have a moustache was, well, ridiculous.

So he was asked about it.

“I don’t know why I said this,” he told the Olympic Channel. “I said, ‘No, I’m not going to shave it off. Matter of fact, it allows the water to deflect off of my mouth. I can get much lower and streamlined, get my behind up a little bit more. That’s why I broke the world record in the butterfly events at the Olympic Trials four weeks ago.”

It was utter nonsense. It was Mark Spitz in Munich.

“I’m going to keep it going, man,” he said.

***
The 200 butterfly was Spitz’s least favorite event, but he talked himself into thinking it was best to swim it first. U.S. coach Peter Daland of USC suggested the 200 fly would set a tone for the entire team. Spitz conceded winning could springboard him into history, and losing could derail him as it did four years before.

He had the presence of mind to close the sliding door separating the adjoining rooms between himself and Gary Hall, his roommate during IU road meets and a top contender in the 200 fly. Hall said he understood. The fact IU teammates like Hall actually did understand made all the difference.

Spitz was confident going into that first final. Then it happened.

He told the Olympic Channel “it was just like a movie” in which he felt he was back in the pool at Mexico City.

Oh no. Not again.

In his mind, Spitz said, he traveled elsewhere. He was not in Mexico City. He was not in Munich.

He was in Sacramento. It was there he said, he had actually bettered a world record during a workout before the Olympic Trials. When he dove in that Munich pool, he said, he imagined himself swimming in water in the middle of a California cornfield.

“The lesson I learned from Mexico City was, my destiny wasn’t a matter of chance. It was a matter of choices that I had to make,” Spitz said. “It wasn’t something that was going to happen by accident. It was going to happen by my sheer determination.”

At 50 meters, Spitz already led by three-fourths of a body length. He lowered the world record to 2:00.70, a time so fast even Hall, accustomed to Spitzian feats, was astounded. In an era in which world records fell regularly, this one lasted nearly four years.

It was Spitz’s first individual gold medal, something he had sought all of his life. He said he felt more relief than satisfaction.

“After I won my first individual medal in Munich,” he said, “I sort of forgot everything that happened to me in Mexico City.”

That night, he won another gold medal with another world record, 3:26.42 in the 400 freestyle relay. Ominously, Jerry Heidenreich’s third leg (50.78) was faster than Spitz’s anchor (50.91).

“The next day, this became my pool. I owned it,” Spitz said.

Pre-race drama involving his next event, the 200 freestyle, was not about him but about rival Steve Genter. The UCLA swimmer developed a collapsed lung on the charter flight to Munich. Five days before Genter’s Olympic debut, he had surgery that allowed the lung to expand to normal. At risk to his own health, he rehabbed all night and was able to raise his right arm, despite the 13 stitches.

Spitz led through 50 meters but was overtaken by Genter at the midpoint and still trailed at 150. Genter’s stitches had ripped open at the second turn, but not until 25 meters remained did Spitz pass him for good. Spitz lowered the world record for a fourth time, to 1:52.78, and beat Genter by nearly a full second. It was Spitz’s third gold in two days, overcoming Genter’s against-all-odds swim.

The post-ceremony drama was nearly as intense as that of pre-race. Spitz grabbed his worn Adidas shoes afterward — “my good luck shoes,” he said — without having time to slip them on. Then, holding the shoes, he waved at fans from the medals podium. The Russians complained Spitz was endorsing the shoes in violation of amateurism, and he was called in front of the International Olympic Committee’s eligibility committee.

Spitz said he never feared he would be kicked out of the Olympics. He was scolded, and that was it.

“The fact is, I had to compartmentalize every single day, and then seal it off, win lose or draw,” he said. “Move to the next day.”

***
Spitz’s parents, Arnold and Lenore, traveled to Munich as any other tourists would. They bought their tickets and commuted from Garmisch, Germany, or 55 miles from Munich.

They were interviewed on German TV, and the mother mentioned where they were staying. The head of the opposition party to Chancellor Willi Brandt heard the telecast and arranged to have the Spitzes seated in the VIP section with heads of state. And the commute became much shorter.

“Honest. I’ve got a helicopter,” Arnold Spitz told Hammel.

So Spitz often glimpsed his parents in the Schwimmhalle, they sat so close to the action.

***
After a day of heats and semifinals, Spitz had two gold-medal chances Aug. 31 — 100 butterfly and 800 freestyle relay. His fly nemesis, Russell, had retired after the 1970 NCAAs.

But there was ample competition: East Germany’s Roland Matthes, better known for backstroke; Canada’s Bruce Robertson, who equaled Spitz’s time in prelims; and the other Americans, Heidenreich and Dave Edgar.

Edgar started fastest but was overtaken at the turn by Spitz, who built a lead of half a body length. Spitz broke the 100 fly world record for the seventh time, to 54.27, followed by Robertson and Heidenreich. It was Spitz’s fourth gold, tying Schollander’s record.

Spitz called the 100 butterfly his revenge swim because it was that loss in Mexico City sending him on a downward spiral.

“He was real candid about how big that race was to him,” Hammel said.

In the relay, the Americans led off with Spitz’s IU teammate, John Kinsella, who was slightly behind the Soviets. The United States trailed West Germany through two legs, but Genter’s 1:52.72 third leg gave anchorman Spitz a lead of more than two body lengths. Genter’s leg was fastest of the race, even faster than Spitz’s world record (albeit with a rolling start).

The time of 7:35.78 broke the world record by an astounding eight seconds.


“My biggest regret was I didn’t take enough time to enjoy it while it was happening,” Spitz told the Olympic Channel. “I couldn’t have. Because had I done that, I would have been a spectator to my own spectacle.

“And that happened to me four years before in Mexico City. I can’t advocate that the only way to be successful is to stay super-focused, but that’s exactly what you have to do.”

***
After nine races in four days, Spitz’s load would be light thereafter: three 100 freestyles and leg of the 400 medley relay over four days. Time off made him fretful, though. What if he lost in the 100 free? Better to be 6-for-6, right? Heidenreich was fast enough to beat him, and Spitz knew it.

After he told Daland he might not swim the 100 free, the U.S. coach approached Sherm Chavoor, coach of the women’s team and one of Spitz’s former coaches.

According to Spitz, Chavoor told him:

“You’re going to swim that damn event because nobody is going to recognize you as the best swimmer in the world unless you win that event — because that was the premier event. There were 15 contested men’s events. You could win 14 gold medals, Mark, but if you don’t win that gold medal, you are not the fastest swimmer in the world.”

Spitz replied:

“Well, you got a point.”

In prelims and semifinals, Heidenreich and Australia’s Mike Wenden, the defending Olympic champion, were both faster than Spitz. Yet in the final, in contrast to anxiety in the ready room of four years before, Spitz sensed the others were worried about him.

Spitz had held back in earlier swims. Not now.

“Because I wanted to put the pressure on the other guys,” he said. “If I was going to lose, they were going to have to catch me.”

U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz, of Carmichael, Cal., emerges from the pool on September 3, 1972 after winning again for the United States in the 100 m freestyle Summer Olympic Games swimming event in Munich, Germany.
U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz, of Carmichael, Cal., emerges from the pool on September 3, 1972 after winning again for the United States in the 100 m freestyle Summer Olympic Games swimming event in Munich, Germany.
He was ahead as early as 15 meters, leading at the turn over Heidenreich and the Soviet Union’s Vladimir Bure. The Russian drifted to the right side of lane 2 to take advantage of Spitz’s draft. Spitz moved to the center of lane 3 to foil that tactic. He lost rhythm near the end but reached the wall a half-stroke ahead of Heidenreich. Wenden, having over-trained in Australia, was fifth. Spitz’s time was 51.22, making it 6-for-6 in world records.

Heidenreich, who took silver in 51.65, was disconsolate. Winning this gold had been a life’s ambition since his parents moved the family from Terre Haute to Texas in the late 1940s so he could swim year-round. Heidenreich won four medals in Munich, two of them gold in relays, in a career so decorated that he wound up in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Heidenreich, at age 52, committed suicide in 2002, a year after suffering a stroke.

Spitz and Heidenreich shared the pool once more, in the climactic 400 medley relay. Matthes tied the world record in the opening 100 backstroke to give East Germany a lead over Mike Stamm, another Hoosier. But breaststroker Tom Bruce put the Americans in front before Spitz’s butterfly leg, and Heidenreich’s freestyle anchor completed a world record of 3:48.16.

It was finished.

Seven events. Seven gold medals. Seven world records.

“It’s kind of hard to believe. I, I don’t know,” he said in a TV interview at the time. "Some day I’ll wake up and realize what I’ve done.”

Stamm and Bruce twice lifted Spitz onto their shoulders. Spitz had wanted to swim the freestyle anchor leg, capping his perfect Olympics. He agreed Heidenrich should have done so.

Michael Phelps’ eight golds at Beijing in 2008 eclipsed Spitz’s record. When it comes to dominance, though, a case could be made Spitz’s achievement was greater.

Spitz’s closest race in Munich was in the 100 freestyle, in which the margin was .42. Phelps famously won the 100 butterfly by .01, lunging at the finish, and took gold in the 400 freestyle relay because of Jason Lezak’s for-the-ages anchor swim.

To conclude the documentary, Spitz said he remembered his father telling him what he often did: Don’t let this all go to your head.

“Because I was just an ordinary guy that trained — hard, diligently,” he said. “And on one particular week, did extraordinary things.”

Then he teared up, showing emotion he had not allowed himself 51 years before.

5 th September 1887

Exeter theatre royal fire.
A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter kills 186, making it the UK's deadliest ever building fire





Exeter Theatre Royal Fire - remembering Britain's deadliest ever blaze.


On the evening of September 5, 1887, Exeter Theatre Royal caught fire. The building was just months old - having been built to replace a predecessor also destroyed in a blaze.

It was the opening night of a new comedy, Romany Rye, and 800 people were packed into the venue.

Three minutes after the fire was spotted at 10.10pm the building was engulfed in flames. After an hour it was destroyed - 186 people died in the flames, in the crush to escape or throwing themselves from the building.

It remains the largest loss of life in a property fire in the country.

And it changed the way theatres, and public buildings, have operated ever since - with the introduction of new safety regulations for all public buildings and fire-proof safety curtains for all theatres.

Fire broke out during the fourth act of the play when a naked gas flame caught drapes above the stage.

Panic then broke out as people rushed for the few fire exits there were, finding themselves crushed in doorways and narrow stair cases or trapped on the roof with nowhere to go.


The West of England Insurance Company tried to put out the flames with their fire engine, which proved ineffective.
The landlord of the nearby New London Inn brought ladders to the scene, then opened his pub to shelter the victims.

A report published the day after the fire by H P Such of London read: "The suddenness of the outbreak, the rapidity with which the flames spread, and the lack of sufficient outlets combined to make the calamity all the more appalling and the deaths the more horrible.

"Notwithstanding the fact that the Exeter Theatre was a new one, opened last autumn, and that it's predecessor suffered a similar fate, it seems to have been full of awkward staircases amid passages and cramped exits, which soon became blocked; and more deaths are due to such causes than to the fire itself.

"The gallery, which was crowded, had only one exit, which soon became blocked, and the occupants of that part of the house were imprisoned in a furnace to be crushed suffocated, or burned to death."

The report added: "Within three minutes the theatre was a roaring furnace. Flames shot up through the roof over the stage and dense smoke poured forth from every window. The roar of fire, the shrieks of women, despairing shouts of men, both in the streets and on the balconies, made up an awful scene.

"Women threw themselves into the streets from side balconies, quite a distance of 40 feet, and the flat lead roof over the portico was crowded with human beings crying for help. Meanwhile the fire had swept with amazing rapidity from the stage, and tongues of flame licked and scorched those on the balconies.

"There seemed to be no choice between a horrible death and becoming a mangled corpse on the pavement below, which was already covered with the blood of those who had cast themselves despairingly down. Soon after the outbreak the City Fire Brigade were on the spot, but the water they poured on the fire was absolutely without effect.


There was only one escape from the gallery, and most of those in that part of the theatre died, while others reached the roof over New North Road only to find no way down.

The report described 'utmost panic': "The shrieks, as described by one or two who did get outside were heartrending. Blinded and nearly stifled with smoke, the unfortunate people could perceive no chance of escape, and its believed that over 90 lives were lost here."

Many of those who died were buried in a mass grave in Heavitree Cemetery, where a memorial still stands.

5 th September 1972

Munich olympics massacre :
Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.


The 1972 Munich massacre through the eyes of the athletes in the Olympic village
Members of the 1972 US basketball team tell the unfolding of the tragedy that saw 11 Israeli coaches and athletes killed and a botched hostage rescue attempt.



A little after 4 in the morning on September 5, eight members of the Black September Palestinian terrorist group hopped a fence into the Olympic village and within minutes broke into the hotel rooms where some of the Israeli team’s players and coaches were sleeping. They killed wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and wrestler Yousef Romano, who attempted to resist, then wounded some of the others before keeping them under armed guard.

Monday marks the 51st anniversary of what has come to be known as the Munich Massacre, after the nine Israeli coaches and athletes taken hostage were all killed after a botched hostage rescue attempt by West German police later that night. Last year The German government held a commemoration ceremony in Munich on Monday, days after reaching a 28 million euro compensation agreement with family members of the victims and releasing a statement acknowledging the failures of “the German state” during the infamous day.

For years, the victims’ family members — along with the Israeli government — had alleged that Germany failed to protect the Israeli athletes and sought to cover up the police failings that transpired throughout the course of the day. Lax security measures allowed for the terrorists to easily access the Olympic village apartments, and numerous reports show that miscommunication and the use of inexperienced police officers led to the chaos that marked the end of the crisis on an airplane tarmac. A 2012 report claimed that Germany was also tipped off about a possible terrorism incident weeks before the Games.

Germany’s announcement shows that it has upped its compensation figure to 28 million from around 10 million after recent negotiations with a group of the victims’ family members.

On the fateful day, confusion reigned for the non-Israeli athletes on the ground. Word gradually got out about a situation unfolding throughout the morning, but few in the Olympic village knew the specifics. Jones explained that the village was “three long buildings of apartments” and that the basketball team could watch the situation from afar in the middle building.

Teammate Mike Bantom, a Philadelphia native who would go on to have a nine-year NBA career, connected the shooting to being back home.

“I remember standing on the terrace and looking across the courtyard seeing a couple guys with guns,” he recalled, “I put it in context that someone got shot in a dispute. I didn’t know it was that type of incident.”

Jim Becker did. The journalist who had covered Jackie Robinson’s first game along with three wars — Korea, Vietnam and the Yom Kippur War — was awakened early by his Associated Press colleague Charlie Erb.

“Charlie got me out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and told me Arab terrorists had seized rooms of the Israeli Olympic team,” said the 96-year-old Becker, who now lives in Honolulu. “I could see out the window of the AP building, which was 200 yards away from the Olympic village, and could see guys with masks with rifles. I spent the next 36 hours on the typewriter.”

Meanwhile, Team USA practiced in virtual ignorance of what was happening, even as official competitions were stalled. Bantom learned about the hostage situation only after calling home to the United States.

“The USA team used to go to an army base and train,” said Bantom. “This time they kept us there and didn’t bring us back.

Very little information was given to us about what was going on

“Very little information was given to us about what was going on,” he continued. “When we got back at the beginning of the evening we were held outside the village because they were arranging for the hostages. We saw helicopters rise out of the village. It was then I was able to call home and find out from people here what was actually going on.”

The players eventually got within eyesight of the hostages.

“That afternoon when terrorists marched the Israelis out, we were 50-100 yards away,” said Jones. “I’m thinking, ‘How is this going to end?’”


No one would know for hours. Behind the scenes, the terrorists demanded the release of over 200 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, only to have Israeli prime minister Golda Meir flatly refuse, saying she would not negotiate with terrorists. That left it to the German government to try to work things out.

The terrorists demanded to be transported to Cairo, and German authorities missed multiple opportunities to kill or arrest them en route. Buses brought the attackers and their blindfolded hostages to multiple helicopters, which then brought them to a nearby NATO air base.

Inexperienced sharpshooters planted at the scene were not provided with the correct guns to fire from long range; armored vehicles with backup help got stuck in traffic on the way to the base; and the Palestinians easily discovered that the plane they thought was taking them to Cairo was set up as a trap. After a gunfight with German police, one of the terrorists threw a grenade into one of the helicopters, killing the Israelis inside; another terrorist shot the remaining Israelis in the other helicopter.

“They’re all gone,” sportscaster Jim McKay famously said on an international broadcast, after providing hours of updates.

No one in the Olympic village was aware of the operation, or how it ended.

“The German government put out a fake press release that the hostage release had been peacefully concluded,” said Becker, pressed into duty on the news side that day, though he normally focused on sports. “I was writing that story.

“But I had a reporter [Erb] at the airport who said he had heard gunfire and explosions. So I threw that story away and wrote a bulletin based on what he told me.”

His editor in New York called close to midnight. “They said ‘What you’re writing cannot be true, because we saw Howard Cosell and Jim McKay had gone on TV.’ So they made me write a bulletin that the German government announced the hostage had been peacefully resolved,” Becker said. “In fact, The New York Times’ official history of the Olympics contains the statement that all of us in Munich went to sleep that night believing the hostage exchange had been peacefully concluded.”

When the truth came out by the following morning, finishing the Olympics was the last thing on many of the athletes’ minds.

“Everybody’s initial reaction was ‘Let’s get the hell out of here and go home,’’’ recalled Bantom, who would go on to work for the NBA for 30 years after his playing career. “That was the first time anything like that had happened, where people were taken hostage for political reasons and killed. We were shocked at the time and upset about what happened and fearful what could happen.”

Jones felt the same.


“When we heard what happened that evening we all thought surely we’re going to go home after this,” he said. “But they said they were going to press on.”

“I think it really hardened me a bit to the realities of the world,” Jones continued. “It made me aware of world situations and the animosity. Everything was not kumbaya.”


After holding a memorial ceremony in the victims’ honor, International Olympics Committee President Avery Brundage decided to continue with the rest of the Games.

“Brundage was ticked off because this was going to be his last Olympics and they had messed it up,” said Becker. Brundage had held his position since 1952 and was planning to retire. “Brundage gets up there and says we shouldn’t let politics get involved. Eleven dead athletes, five terrorists and a policeman, and he’s comparing it to politics.”


Japan’s tallest cager Hirofumi Numata (15) apparently fails to block Michael Bantom of US (7) from scoring during the US v Japan Olympic basketball elimination round game on September 3, 1972, in Munich. (AP Photo)
The remainder of the Israeli Olympic delegation left Munich. Five days later, the US basketball team went on to make it to the gold medal game against the Soviet Union, where it lost for the first time in its Olympic history, 51-50, in a controversial finish.

Doug Collins made two clutch free throws with three seconds left to play, giving Team USA a 50-49 lead, but the Russians were given extra opportunities and extra time — thanks to an array of malfunctions and miscommunication at the scorer’s table — and scored a layup in the final moment to win.

“My feeling was if we could honor those people killed by winning a gold medal that would’ve been great,” said Collins, who would go on to become a four-time NBA All-Star and later coach Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

“I just don’t think they would’ve wanted the Games stopped.”

7 th September 1940

World War 11 The blitz:
The German Luftwaffe begins the Blitz, bombing London and other British cities for over 50 consecutive nights.

The History Place - World War II in Europe
The Blitz

The Blitz refers to the strategic bombing campaign conducted by the Germans against London and other cities in England from September of 1940 through May of 1941, targeting populated areas, factories and dock yards.

The first German attack on London actually occurred by accident. On the night of August 24, 1940, Luftwaffe bombers aiming for military targets on the outskirts of London drifted off course and instead dropped their bombs on the center of London destroying several homes and killing civilians. Amid the public outrage that followed, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, believing it was a deliberate attack, ordered Berlin to be bombed the next evening.

About 40 British bombers managed to reach Berlin and inflicted minimal property damage. However, the Germans were utterly stunned by the British air-attack on Hitler's capital. It was the first time bombs had ever fallen on Berlin. Making matters worse, they had been repeatedly assured by Luftwaffe Chief, Hermann Göring, that it could never happen. A second British bombing raid on the night of August 28/29 resulted in Germans killed on the ground. Two nights later, a third attack occurred.

German nerves were frayed. The Nazis were outraged. In a speech delivered on September 4, Hitler threatened, "...When the British Air Force drops two or three or four thousand kilograms of bombs, then we will in one night drop 150-, 230-, 300- or 400,000 kilograms. When they declare that they will increase their attacks on our cities, then we will raze their cities to the ground. We will stop the handiwork of those night air pirates, so help us God!"

Beginning on September 7, 1940, and for a total of 57 consecutive nights, London was bombed. The decision to wage a massive bombing campaign against London and other English cities would prove to be one of the most fateful of the war. Up to that point, the Luftwaffe had targeted Royal Air Force airfields and support installations and had nearly destroyed the entire British air defense system. Switching to an all-out attack on British cities gave RAF Fighter Command a desperately needed break and the opportunity to rebuild damaged airfields, train new pilots and repair aircraft. "It was," Churchill later wrote, "therefore with a sense of relief that Fighter Command felt the German attack turn on to London..."

During the nightly bombing raids on London, people took shelter in warehouse basements and underground (subway) stations where they slept on makeshift beds amid primitive conditions with no privacy and poor sanitation facilities.

Other British cities targeted during the Blitz included; Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Birmingham, Coventry, Nottingham, Norwich, Ipswich, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Newcastle and also Glasgow, Scotland and Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Hitler's intention was to break the morale of the British people so that they would pressure Churchill into negotiating. However, the bombing had the opposite effect, bringing the English people together to face a common enemy. Encouraged by Churchill's frequent public appearances and radio speeches, the people became determined to hold out indefinitely against the Nazi onslaught. "Business as usual," could be seen everywhere written in chalk on boarded-up shop windows#.

By the end of 1940, German air raids had killed 15,000 British civilians. One of the worst attacks had occurred on the night of November 14/15 against Coventry, an industrial city east of Birmingham in central England. In that raid, 449 German bombers dropped 1,400 high explosive bombs and 100,000 incendiaries which destroyed 50,000 buildings, killing 568 persons, leaving over 1,000 badly injured. The incendiary devices created fire storms with super-heated gale force winds drawing in torrents of air to fan enormous walls of flames.

In London, on the night of December 29/30, the Germans dropped incendiaries resulting in a fire storm that devastated the area between St. Paul's Cathedral and the Guildhall, destroying several historic churches. Other famous landmarks damaged during the Blitz included Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the Chamber of the House of Commons. The Blitz climaxed in May of 1941, leaving 375,000 Londoners homeless.

However, the RAF, utilizing newly developed radar, inflicted increasingly heavy losses on Luftwaffe bombers. British Fighter Command was able to track and plot the course of German bombers from the moment they took off from bases in Europe. RAF fighter planes were then dispatched to attack the incoming bombers at the best possible position. As a result, the Luftwaffe never gained air supremacy over England, a vital prerequisite to a land invasion. Failure to achieve air supremacy eventually led Hitler to indefinitely postpone Operation Sealion, the Nazi invasion of England, in favor of an attack on the USSR. The Blitz came to an end as Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe transferred to eastern Europe in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR.

In all, 18,000 tons of high explosives had been dropped on England during eight months of the Blitz. A total of 18,629 men, 16,201 women, and 5,028 children were killed along with 695 unidentified charred bodies.

8 th September 2022


                    Death of Queen Elizabeth 11:
                                                              Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom dies at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. Her son Charles, Prince of Wales, ascends the throne upon her death as Charles III.


BALMORAL, Scotland,  Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch, the nation's figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96.

"The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," the new king, her eldest son Charles, said.

"I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the 73-year-old said in a statement. read more

News that the queen's health was deteriorating emerged shortly after midday on Thursday when her doctors said she was under medical supervision, prompting her family to rush to Balmoral Castle in Scotland to be by her side.

Thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace, in central London, and there was a stunned silence when the flag was lowered to half-mast. The crowd surged to the gates as the notice announcing the death of the only monarch most Britons have ever known was attached to the black iron gates.

Royal officials said King Charles III and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, would remain at Balmoral before returning to London on Friday, when Charles is expected to address the nation and meet Prime Minister Liz Truss. Details of the funeral have not been confirmed. read more

On Elizabeth's death, Charles automatically became monarch of the United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.


The queen, whose husband died last year, had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace had called "episodic mobility problems" since the end of last year, forcing her to withdraw from nearly all her public engagements.

Her last official duty came only on Tuesday, when she appointed Truss prime minister - the 15th of her reign.

"The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world," Truss said outside her Downing Street office where the flag, like those at royal palaces and government buildings across Britain, were lowered.

"Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain – and that spirit will endure," said Truss, who was informed of the death at 4:30 p.m. London time.

The news stunned not only people in Britain, with condolences pouring in from leaders around the world.

"Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement. He ordered flags at the White House to be flown at half-mast

In Paris, the mayor announced the lights of the Eiffel Tower would be turned off in honour of her passing; in Brazil, the Christ the Redeemer statue was illuminated with the colours of the Union Jack and the government declared three days of mourning; and the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council both stood for a moment of silence.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country's relations with Britain have plummeted over the war in Ukraine, extended his condolences, calling it an "irreparable loss".

Queen Elizabeth II, who was also the world's oldest and longest-serving head of state, came to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was just 25.

PLEDGED TO SERVE
She was crowned in June the following year. The first televised coronation was a foretaste of a new world in which the lives of the royals were to become increasingly scrutinised by the media.

"I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust," she said in a speech to her subjects on her coronation day.

Despite reputedly only being about 5ft 3ins tall, she commanded any room she entered. Famed for her bright outfits, she is said to have quipped: "I have to be seen to be believed".

Elizabeth became monarch at a time when Britain still retained much of its old empire. It was emerging from the ravages of World War Two, with food rationing still in force and class and privilege still dominant in society.

Winston Churchill was Britain's prime minister at the time, Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union and the Korean War was raging.

In the decades that followed, Elizabeth witnessed massive political change and social upheaval at home and abroad. Her own family's tribulations, most notably the divorce of Charles and his late first wife Diana, were played out in full public glare.

While remaining an enduring symbol of stability and continuity for Britons at a time of relative national economic decline, Elizabeth also tried to adapt the ancient institution of monarchy to the demands of the modern era.

"She has managed to modernise and evolve the monarchy like no other," her grandson Prince William, who is now heir to the throne, said in a 2012 documentary.

RECORDS
Elizabeth was the 40th monarch in a royal line that followed Norman King William the Conqueror, who claimed the English throne in 1066 after defeating Anglo-Saxon ruler Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.

Her long reign meant she repeatedly broke records for British rulers. When she surpassed the more than 63 years her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria spent on the throne, she said it was not a landmark to which she had ever aspired.

"Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones - my own is no exception," she said.

Her marriage to Prince Philip lasted 73 years, until his death in April 2021, and they had four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.

She never gave a media interview and critics said she came across as distant and aloof.

But for the vast majority of her subjects she was a figure who commanded respect and admiration. Her death marks the end of an era.

"When people around the world spoke of 'the queen', they actually meant our queen," former Prime Minister John Major said. "That was the status she had in every part of the world. It was truly remarkable."

At her death the queen was head of state of not only the United Kingdom but also of Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Opinion polls have suggested that Charles does not enjoy anywhere near the same level of support and there is speculation the loss of Elizabeth may see a rise in republican sentiment, particularly in the other realms.

In some former colonies in the Caribbean, pressure has been rising to remove the monarch as their head of state and for Britain to pay reparations for its involvement in the historical slave trade. read more

"As the role of the monarchy changes, we expect this can be an opportunity to advance discussions of reparations for our region," said Niambi Hall-Campbell, a 44-year-old academic who chairs the Bahamas National Reparations Committee.

Asked in a radio interview if the Queen's death took Australia closer to being a republic, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was not the time to talk about it. read more

"Today's a day for one issue and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II."

9 th Seeptember 1845

Irish famine:
Possible start of the Great Famine of Ireland.


Irish Potato Famine

The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a mold known as Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) caused a destructive plant disease that spread rapidly throughout Ireland. The infestation ruined up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. Because the tenant farmers of Ireland—then ruled as a colony of Great Britain—relied heavily on the potato as a source of food, the infestation had a catastrophic impact on Ireland and its population. Before it ended in 1852, the Potato Famine resulted in the death of roughly one million Irish from starvation and related causes, with at least another million forced to leave their homeland as refugees.

Ireland in the 1800s
With the ratification of the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, Ireland was effectively governed as a colony of Great Britain (until the Irish War of Independence ended in 1921). Together, the combined nations were known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

As such, the British government appointed Ireland’s executive heads of state, known respectively as the Lord Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary of Ireland, although residents of the Emerald Isle could elect representation to the British Parliament in London.

In all, Ireland sent 105 representatives to the House of Commons—the lower house of Parliament—and 28 “peers” (titled landowners) to the House of Lords, or the upper house.

Still, it’s important to note that the bulk of these elected representatives were landowners of British origin and/or their sons. In addition, any Irish who practiced Catholicism—the majority of Ireland’s native population—were initially prohibited from owning or leasing land, voting or holding elected office under the so-called Penal Laws.

Although the Penal Laws were largely repealed by 1829, their impact on Ireland’s society and governance was still being felt at the time of the Potato Famine’s onset. English and Anglo-Irish families owned most of the land, and most Irish Catholics were relegated to work as tenant farmers forced to pay rent to the landowners.

Ironically, less than 100 years before to the Famine’s onset, the potato was introduced to Ireland by the landed gentry. However, despite the fact only one variety of the potato was grown in the country (the so-called “Irish Lumper”), it soon became a staple food of the poor, particularly during cold winter months.

Great Hunger Begins
When the crops began to fail in 1845, as a result of P. infestans infection, Irish leaders in Dublin petitioned Queen Victoria and Parliament to act—and, initially, they did, repealing the so-called “Corn Laws” and their tariffs on grain, which made food such as corn and bread prohibitively expensive.

Still, these changes failed to offset the growing problem of the potato blight. With many tenant farmers unable to produce sufficient food for their own consumption, and the costs of other supplies rising, thousands died from starvation, and hundreds of thousands more from disease caused by malnutrition.

Complicating matters further, historians have since concluded that Ireland continued to export large quantities of food, primarily to Great Britain, during the blight. In cases such as livestock and butter, research suggests that exports from Ireland may have actually increased during the Potato Famine.

In 1847 alone, records indicate that commodities such as peas, beans, rabbits, fish and honey continued to be exported from Ireland, even as the Great Hunger ravaged the countryside.

The potato crops didn’t fully recover until 1852. By then, the damage was done. Although estimates vary, it is believed as many as 1 million Irish men, women and children perished during the Famine, and another 1 to 2 million emigrated from the island to escape poverty and starvation, with many landing in various cities throughout North America and Great Britain.

Legacy of the Potato Famine
With a population significant reduced by 2 to 3 million, and increased food imports after 1850, the Irish Potato Famine eventually ended around 1852. But for those who remained behind in a decimated Ireland, a renewed appreciation was ignited for Irish independence from British rule.

The exact role of the British government in the Potato Famine and its aftermath—whether it ignored the plight of Ireland’s poor out of malice, or if their collective inaction and inadequate response could be attributed to incompetence—is still being debated.

However, the significance of the Potato Famine (in the Irish language, An Gorta Mor, or “the Great Hunger”) in Irish history, and its contribution to the Irish diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries, is beyond doubt.

Tony Blair, during his time as British Prime Minister, issued a statement in 1997 offering a formal apology to Ireland for the U.K. government’s handling of the crisis at the time.

Irish Hunger Memorials
In recent years, cities to which the Irish ultimately emigrated during and in the decades after the event have offered various commemorations to the lives lost. Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Phoenix in the United States, and Montreal and Toronto in Canada, have erected Irish hunger memorials, as have various cities in Ireland, Australia and Great Britain.

In addition, Glasgow Celtic FC, a soccer team based in Scotland that was founded by Irish immigrants, many of whom were brought to the country as a result of the effects of the Potato Famine, has included a commemorative patch on its uniform—most recently on September 30, 2017—to honor the victims of the Great Hunger.

10 th September 1547

Battle of Pinkie:
The Battle of Pinkie, the last full-scale military confrontation between England and Scotland, resulting in a decisive victory for the forces of Edward VI.


Isolated since his break from Rome and Catholic Europe, Henry VIII sought to secure his northern borders though an alliance with Scotland. Henry’s proposal involved the marriage of his son, Prince Edward to the young Scottish Queen Mary.

When the Scottish Parliament rejected Henry’s overtures, he sought to change their mind through a show of force …the so called ‘Rough Wooing’.

When Henry died in 1547, the Duke of Somerset , uncle to the new King Edward VI, was now effectively ruling England as its Lord Protector. Like Henry, Somerset liked the idea of an alliance with Scotland but as previously, the Scots rejected the proposal as it would have meant them having to adopt the Reformation, thus breaking their links with the Papacy.

And so the Rough Wooing would continue, but this time it would get really rough!

Somerset gathered the English army at Berwick before marching his force of around 18,000 men north, along the east coast road to Edinburgh, closely supported by a fleet of 30 warships.

It fell to the Earl of Arran to organise the Scottish defences, who managed to muster an army estimated at 22,000 strong in response to the English invasion. Moving out of Edinburgh, Arran organised his troops on the west bank of the River Esk, blocking Somerset’s march on the Scottish capital. With the Firth of Forth to his left, he sited some of his artillery pieces out into the estuary to keep the English warships at bay.


The main action began on 10th September 1547 with a charge by the English cavalry which was driven off by the Scottish pikemen.

The artillery pieces from both sides were now brought into the action, including the canons from the English ships lying offshore. Battered now from three sides and unable to respond, the Scottish resistance began to crumble.

In the last pitched battle to be fought between English and Scottish armies, the English offered precious little mercy to the retreating Scots. Estimates claim Scottish losses at around 6,000, earning this epic defeat the title of ‘Black Saturday’.

As for the wooing, the infant Queen Mary was smuggled out of Scotland to France, where she would later marry Francis, Dauphin of France, in 1558.

11 th September 2001


9/11 :
The September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks killing 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.


September 11 attacks: What happened on 9/11?

On Tuesday 11 September 2001 suicide attackers seized US passenger jets and crashed them into two New York skyscrapers, killing thousands of people.

The attack remains one of the most traumatic events of the century, not only for Americans but also for the world.

What were the targets?
Four planes flying over the eastern US were seized simultaneously by small teams of hijackers.

They were then used as giant, guided missiles to crash into landmark buildings in New York and Washington.

Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

The first hit the North Tower at 08:46 Eastern Time (12:46 GMT). The second crashed into the South Tower at 09:03.

The buildings were set on fire, trapping people on the upper floors, and wreathing the city in smoke. In less than two hours, both 110-storey towers collapsed in massive clouds of dust.

At 09:37 the third plane destroyed the western face of the Pentagon - the giant headquarters of the US military just outside the nation's capital, Washington DC.

The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 after passengers fought back. It is thought the hijackers had meant to attack the Capitol Building in Washington DC.

How many people died?
In all, 2,977 people (not counting the 19 hijackers) lost their lives, most of them in New York.

All 246 passengers and crew aboard the four planes were killed
At the Twin Towers, 2,606 people died - then or later of injuries
At the Pentagon, 125 people were killed
The youngest victim was two-year-old Christine Lee Hanson, who died on one of the planes with her parents Peter and Sue.

The oldest was 82-year-old Robert Norton, who was on another plane with his wife Jacqueline, en route to a wedding.

When the first plane struck, an estimated 17,400 people were in the towers. Nobody survived above the impact zone in the North Tower, but 18 managed to escape from the floors above the impact zone in the South Tower.

Citizens of 77 different countries were among the casualties. New York City lost 441 first responders.

Thousands of people were injured or later developed illnesses connected to the attacks, including firefighters who had worked in toxic debris.

Who were the attackers?
An Islamist extremist network called al-Qaeda planned the attacks from Afghanistan.

Led by Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda blamed the US and its allies for conflicts in the Muslim world.

Nineteen people carried out the hijackings, working in three teams of five and one of four (on the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania).

Each group included someone who had received pilot training. This was carried out at flying schools in the US itself.

Fifteen hijackers were Saudis like Bin Laden himself. Two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt and one was from Lebanon.

How did the US respond?
Less than a month after the attacks, President George W Bush led an invasion of Afghanistan - supported by an international coalition - to eradicate al-Qaeda and hunt down Bin Laden.

However, it was not until 2011 that US troops finally located and killed Bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan.


Al-Qaeda still exists. It is strongest in Sub-Saharan Africa but even now has members inside Afghanistan.

US troops left Afghanistan after nearly 20 years, stoking fears from many that the Islamist network could make a comeback.

The legacy of 9/11
Flight safety was tightened around the world in the years following 9/11.

In the US, the Transportation Security Administration was created to beef up security at airports and on planes.

It took more than eight months to clean up "Ground Zero" - the site of the fallen Twin Towers.

A memorial and a museum now stands on the site, and buildings have risen up again, to a different design.

The completed centrepiece - One World Trade Center, or "Freedom Tower" - stands even higher (1,776ft (541m) than the original North Tower, which was 1,368ft.

Reconstruction at the Pentagon took just under a year, with staff back in their offices by August 2002.

12 th September 490 B.C

Marathon:
Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.


Battle of Marathon, (September 490 BCE), in the Greco-Persian Wars, decisive battle fought on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica in which the Athenians, in a single afternoon, repulsed the first Persian invasion of Greece. Command of the hastily assembled Athenian army was vested in 10 generals, each of whom was to hold operational command for one day. The generals were evenly divided on whether to await the Persians or to attack them, and the tie was broken by a civil official, Callimachus, who decided in favour of an attack. Four of the generals then ceded their commands to the Athenian general Miltiades, thus effectively making him commander in chief.

The Greeks could not hope to face the Persians’ cavalry contingent on the open plain, but before dawn one day the Greeks learned that the cavalry was temporarily absent from the Persian camp, whereupon Miltiades ordered a general attack upon the Persian infantry. In the ensuing battle, Miltiades led his contingent of 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans to victory over the Persian force of 15,000 by reinforcing his battle line’s flanks and thus decoying the Persians’ best troops into pushing back his centre, where they were surrounded by the inward-wheeling Greek wings. On being almost enveloped, the Persian troops broke into flight. By the time the routed Persians reached their ships, they had lost 6,400 men; the Greeks lost 192 men, including Callimachus. The battle proved the superiority of the Greek long spear, sword, and armour over the Persians’ weapons.

According to legend, an Athenian messenger was sent from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 25 miles (40 km), and there he announced the Persian defeat before dying of exhaustion. This tale became the basis for the modern marathon race. Herodotus, however, relates that a trained runner, Pheidippides (also spelled Phidippides, or Philippides), was sent from Athens to Sparta before the battle in order to request assistance from the Spartans; he is said to have covered about 150 miles (240 km) in about two days.

13 th September 1743

The treaty of worms:
Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.



The Treaty of Worms was a political alliance formed between Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia, signed on 13 September 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession.

It was an ambitious piece of foreign policy on the part of the British government which sought to split the Emperor Charles VII, prince-elector of Bavaria, from French influence, whilst simultaneously resolving the differences between the Emperor, Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.


Contents of the treaty
Under the terms of the treaty, Maria Theresa agreed to transfer to the King of Sardinia the city and part of the duchy of Piacenza, the Vigevanesco, part of the duchy of Pavia, part of the county of Anghiera which lay to the west of Lake Maggiore, and claims to the marquisate of Finale. She also engaged to maintain 30,000 men in Italy, to be commanded by Savoy-Sardinia.

Great Britain agreed to pay the sum of £300,000 for the ceding of Finale, and to furnish an annual subsidy of £200,000, on the condition that Savoy-Sardinia should employ 45,000 men. In addition to this fiscal arrangement, Britain agreed to send a fleet into the Mediterranean.

Under a separate, secret convention, agreed contemporaneously with the Treaty, but which was neither formally ratified nor publicly acknowledged, it was stipulated that Britain would pay Maria Theresa an annual subsidy of £300,000, for as long "as the necessity of her affairs should require."


The terms of the Treaty of Worms relative to the ceding of the marquisate of Finale to Savoy-Sardinia were particularly unjust to the Genoese, since the territory had been guaranteed to them by the fourth article of the Quadruple Alliance of 2 August 1718 between Britain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands.

Criticism
The Treaty of Worms was presented to the Commons on 9 January 1744, and was considered in the entire house on 1 February 1744.

William Pitt
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, speaking in the House of Commons on 1 December 1743 roundly condemned the Treaty in the following statement which occurred during the course of an address of thanks he was giving after the Battle of Dettingen:

I had almost forgotten, sir (I wish future nations may forget), to mention the Treaty of Worms.

I wish that treaty could be erased from our annals and our records, so as never to be mentioned hereafter: for that treaty, with its appendix, the convention that followed, is one of the most destructive, unjust, and absurd that was ever concluded. By that treaty we have taken upon ourselves a burden which I think it impossible for us to support; we have engaged in such an act of injustice toward Genoa as must alarm all Europe, and give to the French a most signal advantage. From this, sir, all the princes of Europe will see what regard we have to justice when we think that the power is on our side; most of them, therefore, will probably join with France in curtailing our power, or, at least, in preventing its increase.

The alliance of Sardinia and its assistance may, I admit, be of great use to us in defeating the design of the Spaniards in Italy. But gold itself may be bought too dear; and I fear we shall find the purchase we have made to be but precarious, especially if Sardinia should be attacked by France as well as by Spain, the almost certain consequence of our present scheme of politics. For these reasons, sir, I hope there is not any gentleman, nor even any minister, who expects that I should declare my satisfaction that this treaty has been concluded.


Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle had this to say on the terms of the treaty:

And so there is a Treaty of Worms got concocted, after infinite effort on the part of Carteret, Robinson too laboring and steaming in Vienna with boilers like to burst; and George gets it signed 13th September [already signed while Friedrich was looking into Seckendorf and Wembdingen, if Friedrich had known it]: to this effect, That Charles Emanuel should have annually, down on the nail, a handsome increase of Subsidy (200,000 pounds instead of 150,000 pounds) from England, and ultimately beyond doubt some thinnish specified slices from the Lombard parts; and shall proceed fighting for, not against; English Fleet co-operating, English Purse ditto, regardless of expense; with other fit particulars, as formerly.

14 th September 1402


Battle of Homildon hil:
Battle of Homildon Hill results in an English victory over Scotland.

Battle of Homildon Hill
Conflict between English and Scottish armies on 14 September 1402 in Northumberland, England

The Battle of Holmedon Hill or Battle of Homildon Hill was a conflict between English and Scottish armies on 14 September 1402 in Northumberland, England. The battle was recounted in Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1. Although Humbleton Hill is the modern name of the site, over the centuries it has been variously named Homildon, Hameldun, Holmedon, and Homilheugh.



Background
During the time leading to the repudiation of the Truce of Leulinghem, both Kingdoms began to raid the other. On 22 June 1402, a small force backed by the Scots government, returning from one such raid, was attacked and defeated by George Dunbar, the Earl of March's son, at the Battle of Nesbit Moor, at which no quarter was given.

Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, arguably the most militarily powerful man in Scotland, and a key part of the Duke of Albany's administration, used the pretext of Nesbit Moor to lead a punitive expedition into England. With Murdoch of Fife, Albany's son, Douglas's army marched as far as Newcastle to avenge the battle. At the head of 10,000 men, he laid waste to the whole of Northumberland.

Battle
March persuaded Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, and his son Henry "Hotspur" to lie in wait for the returning Scots at Wooler. Once Douglas's men had made camp at Milfield, relatively low ground, the English army rushed to attack. The Scots, however, had keen sentries and the army was able to retreat to the higher ground of Homildon Hill and organise into traditional Schiltron formations; Douglas had not learned from the lesson of his great uncle's defeat at the Battle of Halidon Hill seventy years previously. The Schiltrons presented a large target for the English Longbowmen, and the formations started to break. A hundred men, under Sir John Swinton of the Swintons of that Ilk, chose to charge the enemy saying: "Better to die in the mellay than be shot down like deer". All perished. It has been suggested that Douglas hesitated to signal the advance of his main force, and when he did, it was too little too late. Douglas's mauled army met the as yet unbloodied English men at arms, and were routed. Many of Douglas's leading captains were captured, including his kinsman George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus, Thomas Dunbar, 5th Earl of Moray and Murdoch of Fife. Douglas himself was captured having been wounded five times, including the loss of an eye, despite the fact his armour had allegedly taken three years to make.

Aftermath
With so many of the Scots leaders and chivalry taken prisoner, Albany was left in a precarious position militarily if not politically. It was only due to King Henry's internal and Welsh problems that the English did not press home their victory with a full-scale invasion of Scotland. Henry IV was keen that so many able soldiers should not return to Scotland to fight against him, so refused to allow those who held noble captives to ransom them. This act became one of the many grievances that the Percys had with the Crown. In 1403 they allied themselves with Owain Glyndŵr, and went into open rebellion against the English king. Hotspur set his prisoners free, as there was by now no chance of remuneration for them, and many including Douglas decided to join forces with him. Indeed, Douglas fought, and was again badly wounded, at Hotspur's final fight at the Battle of Shrewsbury.

Sir John Mowbray of Barnbougle, Laird of Dalmeny, was knighted by Sir Thomas Erskine at the battle.

As recounted by Shakespeare

Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse.
Stain’d with the variation of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited:
Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk’d in their own blood did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon’s plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith:
And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

---Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 1, act 1, scene 1.

15 th September 1830

Liverpool - Manchester railway opening:
The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens; British MP William Huskisson becomes the first widely reported railway passenger fatality when he is struck and killed by the locomotive Rocket.


The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on 15 September 1830 was a momentous event in the history of travel and transport.

In the dim and distant past I wrote my MA dissertation on the impact of said railway on the landscape and society of Liverpool, and the thing that fascinated me most during my research was the fabulous quotes in the local press from those who supported and marvelled at the railway and those who vehemently opposed it.

The need for the railway
Local businessmen and merchants saw the need for the railway to move raw materials from Liverpool to Manchester to be made into finished goods, and then return these to Liverpool for export around the world.

Goods had moved by road or canal but both methods were susceptible to the weather and were expensive and unreliable. The canal owners had a monopoly on charges and together with some local landowners were staunch in their opposition to the railway plans.

After a couple of false starts with the route, and the opposition, the railway gained Parliamentary approval and work began in 1826. The fact that it only took four years to build, considering the route involved the construction of 63 bridges, the Sankey Aqueduct, the Olive Mount Cutting and the floating of wooden hurdles across five miles of bog at Chat Moss, is quite remarkable!

But what did the people say about that momentous opening day and the early operation of this new-fangled mode of transport?

Opening day
On 17 September the Mercury carried a full history and report on the opening and informed readers that nothing could be more of benefit “to the welfare and prosperity of a nation…than a facility of intercourse between the towns and provinces of which it is composed.”

Fanny Kemble, an actress working in Liverpool at the time had become friendly with George Stephenson and had accompanied him on the footplate. She recorded on the opening day “how strange it is to be journeying on thus, with no visible cause of progress other than the magical machine, with its flying white breath and rhythmical unvarying pace.”

As well as travelling inside the first and second class carriages, passengers could travel in their own [horse drawn] carriages upon carriage trucks if so required and this was referred to by one commentator as “platforms with railway wheels upon which you may drive your carriage... stand still, and be transported as upon a fairy carpet for thirty miles.”

William Huskisson
However successful the railway became its opening day will always be remembered for the death of William Huskisson. Huskisson was a local MP and avid supporter of the railway. He broke the opposition to the railway with his passionate speech to parliament, declaring the railway to be the transport of the future.

Eight carriages set off along the route towards Manchester with crowds che00ering and waving flags. Not everyone was happy and some spectators jeered and threw stones at the passing carriages. However for those on board nothing was going to spoil the excitement of this historic day and at a refuelling stop many of the passengers got out of their carriages and mingled on the track.

Huskisson alighted to talk to the Duke of Wellington and in confusion, as Rocket sped towards him, he fell on to the track. His injuries proved fatal and his untimely demise was reported in the local press thus:

"We would rejoice at the completion of a work of art which is unrivalled throughout the world in its nature, its beauty and utility; we would revel in giving vent to the feeling of national pride and of personal gratification, of which we had the delicious but brief participation with hundreds of thousands of our countrymen on that day... But these feelings, although they are inextinguishable, are overlaid by a weight of sorrow which language cannot describe."

A popular passenger service
Freight services didn’t start on the railway until December 1830, but the passenger service proved extremely popular with 800 people a day travelling by October. By early December the railway had carried around 50,000 passengers.

In the Liverpool Journal a journalist wrote:

"the passengers expressed themselves as being highly delighted with this mode of travelling. We were in conversation last night with a gentleman who had started at twelve minutes past seven o clock in the morning, and was at the breakfast table, in Manchester in about two hours: had devoted the whole day to business, and left at ten minutes past four o clock, and who was in the railroad office in two hours securing a place to return in the morning. The office was crowded last night by persons anxious to obtain seats."

The Penny Magazine in 1833 also expounded the delights of a first trip on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway:

"A pleasurable wonder takes possession of the mind, as we glide along at a speed equal to the gallop of a racehorse. It might be supposed that so great a speed would almost deprive the traveller of breath, and that he could not fail to be unpleasantly conscious of the velocity with which he cut through the air. The reverse is, however, the case; the motion is so uniform, and so entirely free from the shaking occasioned by the inequality or friction of common roads that the passenger can scarcely credit he is really passing over the ground at such a rapid pace."

Many people were still reticent about travelling by locomotive and in Railway Magazine,1835, one gentleman scoffs at the idea of railways covering long distances where he saw inherent dangers:

"Does anybody mean to say, that decent people, passengers who would use their own carriages, and are accustomed to their own comforts, would consent to be hurried along through the air upon a Railroad, from which had a lazy schoolboy left a marble, or a wicked one a stone, they would be pitched off their perilous track into the valley beneath; or is it to be imagined that women, who may like the fun of being whirled away on a party of pleasure for an hour to see a sight, would endure fatigue, misery and danger, not only to themselves but to their children and families, of being dragged through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour, all their lives being at the mercy of a tin pipe, or a copper boiler, or the accidental dropping of a pebble on the line."

Quite an imagination! But looking back this new system of transport must have been quite amazing when you had never travelled faster than walking pace, or by horse and/or carriage.

Railway mania
The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was the impetus for Railway Mania and set the precedent for railway building around the world. It changed perceptions of time and space and revolutionised people’s work and personal lives in an unprecedented way.

Many souvenirs were made and sold to commemorate the opening of the railway and you can see some of them on display in The Great Port gallery in the Museum of Liverpool. Here you can also see Lion locomotive, , built in 1838 to run on the railway as a luggage engine.