Today in history

11 th October 1649


Sacking of Wexford:
Cromwell's New Model Army sacks Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.


The sack of Wexford -Oct 11 1649
1
The Sack of Wexford took place on October 11 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took Wexford town in south-eastern Ireland. The English Parliamentarian troops broke into the town while the commander of the garrison, David Sinnot, was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike. Much of the town was burned and its harbour was destroyed. Along with the Siege of Drogheda, the sack of Wexford is still remembered in Ireland as an infamous atrocity.

Oliver Cromwell was the most influential General of the English Civil War, famous for creating the New Model Army and decisively defeating King Charles I at Naseby in 1645.


However, his fighting career didn’t end with the final defeat of the King. Ireland still held Royalists, who had recently allied with the local Confederate rebels, and the these combined forces were preying on Parliamentary shipping. Cromwell was not a man to sit by and let this happen and in August 1649 he landed in Ireland with a highly trained army of Civil War veterans.

cromwell-letters



The town’s garrison initially consisted of 1500 Confederate soldiers under David
Sinnot. However, the morale of the town was low – perhaps as a result of hearing of the fall of Drogheda (below) on September 11 – and many of the civilians in Wexford wanted to surrender. Sinnot however, appears to have strung out surrender negotiations with Cromwell and was steadily reinforced, bringing his garrison strength up to 4,800 men by the 11th of October.

While negotiations continued on the 11th October Cromwell’s troops suddenly stormed the vulnerable town. Cromwell denied giving the order,

but chaos ensued as the Parliamentarian troops flooded into Wexford. The town’s castle was inexplicably surrendered without a fight by its English Royalist captain, Stafford, and after this any notion of a fight was over. Irish troops fled from their stations in panic and were then pursued and often massacred by Cromwell’s men. Many more tried to cross the nearby river Slaney to escape the orgy of violence unfolding in the town, but most, including the governor Sinnot, drowned or were shot as they tried to swim. Violence in the town grew out of hand, spreading to its civilian population and the buildings as well as the survivors of the garrison. By the end of the day 2000 soldiers and 1500 civilians had been killed, at the cost of just 20 of Cromwell’s men.

12 th October 1984

Brighton hotel bombing:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army fail to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The bomb kills five people and wounds 31.

Brighton hotel bombing

On 12 October, 1984, the Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to assassinate members of the British government at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. A long-delay time bomb was planted in the hotel by Patrick Magee before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet arrived for the Conservative Party conference. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP and Deputy Chief Whip Sir Anthony Berry, and a further 31 were injured. Thatcher narrowly escaped the explosion.

Preparation
During the Troubles, as part of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) regularly engaged in violent attacks, including bombings, against British authorities. While these incidents were largely confined to Northern Ireland, the IRA were known to carry out attacks in England. By the 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had come to the top of their list for assassination.

In October 1984, Thatcher's Conservative Party was scheduled to hold its conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, East Sussex. Patrick Magee, an IRA volunteer, stayed in the hotel under the pseudonym "Roy Walsh" on the weekend of 14–17 September. During his stay, he planted a bomb under the bath in his room, number 629, five floors above Thatcher's suite for the conference. The device was fitted with a long-delay timer made from videocassette recorder components and a Memo Park Timer safety device. IRA mole Sean O'Callaghan claimed that 20 lb (9 kg) of Frangex (gelignite) was used. The device was described as a "small bomb by IRA standards" by a contemporary news report and may have avoided detection by sniffer dogs by being wrapped in cling film to mask the smell.

Bombing
The bomb detonated at approximately 2:54 am (BST) on 12 October. The blast brought down a five-ton chimney stack, which crashed down through the floors into the basement, leaving a gaping hole in the hotel's façade. Firemen said that many lives were probably saved because the well-built Victorian hotel remained standing. Thatcher was still awake at the time, working in her suite on her conference speech for the next day. The blast badly damaged her suite's bathroom, but left its sitting room and bedroom untouched. She and her husband Denis escaped injury. She changed her clothes and was led out through the wreckage along with her husband and her friend and aide Cynthia Crawford, and driven to a Brighton police station.

At about 4:00 am, as Thatcher left the police station, she gave an impromptu interview to the BBC's John Cole saying that the conference would go on as usual. Alistair McAlpine persuaded Marks & Spencer to open early at 8:00 am so those who had lost their clothes in the bombing could purchase replacements. Thatcher went from the conference to visit the injured at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

13 th October 2010

                 Chilean miners rescue:
                                                  The mining accident in Copiapó, Chile ends as all 33 trapped miners arrive at the surface after a record 69 days underground.

                          Chile mine rescue of 2010
   
Chile mine rescue of 2010, also called Chile mining accident of 2010, rescue of 33 workers from the San Jose gold and copper mine on October 13, 2010, 69 days after the mine’s collapse on August 5. The mine, owned by the San Esteban Primera Mining Company, was located in the Atacama Desert of Chile, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the town of Copiapó and approximately 500 miles (800 km) north of Santiago.

The collapse
At approximately 2:00 PM a cave-in occurred at the San Jose mine following warnings of disturbances earlier in the day. The mine, opened in 1889, had been the site of numerous earlier accidents, including an explosion in 2007 that killed three miners. Little was done to improve conditions before the mine was reauthorized for continued excavation by Chile’s National Geology and Mining Service (Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería; Sernageomin) in 2008. Inside the mine at the time of the collapse were 33 workers; 32 were Chilean and one was Bolivian. Most were miners, though several subcontracted workers were also trapped. The mine, which spiraled into the depths of a mountain, was approximately 2,625 feet (800 metres) deep.

Search for survivors
A local emergency squad attempted a rescue that night but was unsuccessful. Following this initial failure, the Chilean government ordered Codelco, the state-owned mining company, to coordinate the rescue effort. On August 7 a second collapse occurred, blocking access to ventilation shafts that might have served as a point of egress for the men had ladders been in place as stipulated by safety regulations. The next day rescue workers began drilling exploratory holes through which they sent listening probes in an attempt to discern signs of life.

The search was further complicated by outdated maps of the mine’s structure. However, on August 22, one of the approximately 30 probes detected tapping, and, when it was drawn to the surface, a note reading “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33” (“All 33 of us are all right in the shelter”) was attached. Thereafter the men were known as “los 33.” A video feed threaded through the small drill hole later confirmed that they were unharmed. The point at which the men were trapped was approximately 2,300 feet (700 metres) from the surface.

Life underground
During the 17-day period the men spent without contact with the surface, they subsisted on a supply of emergency rations intended to last 2 days, taking meals only once every other day. Water was obtained from a spring and from radiators. Some of the men developed fungal infections due to the high humidity and 95 °F (35 °C) heat, and some suffered eye and respiratory problems, but the miners were otherwise unscathed.

By August 23 nutrient gel, water, and communication devices had been fed through the holes to the men. In order to ensure the survival of the workers until they could be extracted, a cadre of experts—ranging from mental health specialists to NASA scientists—was brought to the site, joining an encampment of worried family and friends. As the days progressed, solid food was passed through the channel, as were first aid supplies, exercise routines, and lighting devices.


Rescue
In the meantime, plans for recovering the men continued. Three separate drilling rigs were brought to the site. Two were raise-bore machines, which drill a small hole and then widen it, and one was a piece of equipment normally used in oil and gas prospecting that could drill one wide hole. One raise-borer was American-owned and -operated. The other two machines were Canadian-owned and -operated, with some Chilean assistance. The first hole, dubbed Plan A, was begun on August 30 using one of the raise-bore drills. On September 5, Plan B was initiated using the second raise-borer. Work on Plan C, using the oil drill, started on September 19. The trapped workers split into three groups, each of which worked an 8-hour shift to remove the debris caused by the drilling and to reinforce the walls of the mine.

Though the men were initially expected to remain trapped until December, on October 9 the Plan B drill finally completed a tunnel connecting to an accessible chamber. Two days later the top 295 feet (90 metres) of the 2,050-foot (625-metre) shaft had been lined with metal tubing in preparation for the ascent of the men in a specially designed metal capsule. Late on the night of October 12 a rescue worker was lowered into the mine inside the capsule. Just after midnight the first worker was drawn to the surface. By that evening the last man, a shift supervisor who had organized the men during their time underground, had been rescued. Chilean Pres. Sebastián Piñera greeted the men as they reached the surface and, when the last had emerged from the capsule, led the assembled crowd—whose tent settlement had been dubbed Campamento Esperanza, or Camp Hope—in singing the Chilean national anthem. The carefully choreographed denouement—characterized by some observers as political theatre—was documented by hundreds of journalists from around the world.


Because the San Esteban Primera Mining Company did not have the resources or funds to engineer the rescue, the bulk of the $20 million cost was shouldered by the Chilean government and its companies. In the wake of their rescue, the men were feted both at home and abroad. They were guaranteed six months of health care and flown to international destinations for media appearances and sightseeing tours. Some appeared as motivational speakers. However, as the initial flood of offers and attention died down, the toll the experience had taken on the miners and their families became apparent. Many experienced difficulty in coping with the aftereffects of the trauma, and some family members expressed fears that the miners had been irrevocably changed by the experience. Some of the men began abusing alcohol and drugs. Government-subsidized mental health care was revoked for several men after they missed appointments in order to travel.

In March 2011 a congressional commission placed blame for the collapse on the owners of the mine and on Sernageomin. All but two of the miners filed a collective lawsuit against the government in July of that year, asking for more than half a million dollars each. The owners of the straitened mining company agreed to reimburse the government for roughly a quarter of the rescue costs in March 2012. Prosecutors—who had been investigating the case since 2010—ruled in August 2013 that neither Sernageomin nor the owners of the mine bore any criminal responsibility for the accident, reducing the miners’ legal recourse to civil suits.

An extra bit of history

The Appley Bridge meteorite is a meteorite that hit ground at Halliwell Farm in Appley Bridge, Lancashire, England at around 8:45 PM on Tuesday, 13 October 1914.

https://wigan-peers.forumotion.com/t171-appley-bridge-meteorite?highlight=apply+bridge+meteorite

Battle of Hastings Began 14th Oct 1066.

In 1066 the course of British history changed forever when William, the Duke of Normandy, landed on the southern coast of England and seized the country from its Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson. The French had a long history of claims in England, and in 1002 the English king Aethelred the Unready married the sister of Richard II, the Norman duke.

The Normans weren't the only ones keen on the English throne - the Norwegians, led by King Harald Hardrada, invaded northern England but Harold defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, but at the cost of severely weakening his army immediately prior to William the Conqueror's invasion.

William invaded with around 7,000-12,000 men, and constructed a castle in the area of Hastings. This is where the famous Battle of Hastings would happen, on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed (by an arrow to the eye according to legend - though this is debated among historians) and William marched on London, eventually receiving the capitulation of the English barons and Harold's uncrowned successor Edgar Aetheling.

William was crowned on 25 December 1066 and reigned until 1087. The conquest introduced the Norman language to England, eliminated the English elite, changes to governance and the formal elimination of slavery.

15th October

1964: Khrushchev 'retires' as head of USSR
Nikita Khrushchev has unexpectedly stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union.
The official Soviet news agency, Tass, announced that a plenary meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee had accepted Mr Khrushchev's request to depart "in view of his advanced age and the deterioration of his health".

Mr Khrushchev, who is 70, took over as First Secretary of the Central Committee soon after Stalin's death.

He has held the role of both party leader and prime minister since 1958. These posts will now be divided with 57-year-old Leonid Brezhnev heading the Soviet Communist Party, while 60-year-old Alexei Kosygin, will take the post of prime minister.

The news has come as a shock to Soviet diplomats in London who were unaware that their leader might be unwell.

16 th October 1793

         Princess to guillotine :
                                        French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

                   

Princess to queen to guillotine: the tragic fate of Marie Antoinette


10th May marks the anniversary of the start of the reign of Louis XVI of France and his wife, the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. On that day, the young princess – who came from the court of the Holy Roman Empire court – became queen consort of France, a title envied by many.

With her angelic face and feminine manners, all eyes were on Marie Antoinette as the people wondered what kind of queen she would become: a patron of the arts, a discreet diplomat, a political advisor to her husband, a pious wife and queen? As it turned out, she would go on to become all of the above – and much more. She marked her time in French history unlike any other French consort.

Marie Antoinette was a keen musician – she played the harp and the harpsichord, and was taught in childhood by Gluck – as well as being a singer and an avid supporter of composers such as André Grétry.

Marie Antoinette also became the patron of many artists, such as the female painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, who became the queen's official portrait painter. During her lifetime Le Brun painted 660 portraits and 200 landscapes, and her art can now be found in many museums all over the world, such as the Louvre, The National Gallery in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.


National Trust, Ickworth
The famous painter depicted Marie Antoinette in 30 portraits. One of the more famous pictures reveals the queen to be elegant, regal, and educated, posing with a book in her hand. Today the original is in Versailles.


Marie Antoinette was fascinated with fashion and loved coming up with new dresses and hairstyles, ignoring tradition and making the job of her ladies-in-waiting more difficult than it would usually be.

Between 1783 and 1785, in the grounds of Versailles, she built a hamlet by the Grand Trianon Lake. There she would pretend to be a shepherdess.



Despite her great influence on the arts, Marie Antoinette was often seen as the pawn of her mother, the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa – she was often criticised at the French court and called 'The Austrian' by her detractors.


She soon became a target both at court and beyond and, while at the beginning she was much loved by the French people, her extravagance during a difficult economic time quickly turned this love into criticism.

The more she tried to advise her husband in politics, the greater the criticisms against her became. Pamphlets and libels were printed demonising her, and soon her bad reputation started affecting her husband's.


When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Marie's ambivalent attitude regarding the situation caused much damage to the French monarchy. Advised by her family in Austria to flee, she was torn by her willingness to compromise and her fears of the people's will.

Unfortunately, the royal family chose to flee, which led to the end of the monarchy in France.

Louis XVI was tried for treason and eventually executed on 21st January 1793. His reign will forever be stained by his failure to preserve the monarchy and the Bourbon dynasty, and will always be associated with the French Revolution.


His opponents, the leaders of the French Revolution, now had to rethink the government model. One of the most important figures of the revolution became one of its leading members. Completely obsessed with his ideals of virtue and of a virtuous Republic, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the most controversial figures in French – and world – history. His ideologies allowed France to become the country it is today, and yet his name is associated with the Reign of Terror – a series of massacres and public executions prosecuted by the Committee of Public Safety that Robespierre led with an iron fist.

As for Marie Antoinette – who, as the consort of France, was supposed to have enjoyed a wonderful fate and future – her last moments were far from glamorous. Imprisoned with her children and her ladies-in-waiting, she was eventually tried for treason and executed on 16th October 1793, aged just 37.

Her death caused outrage in the rest of Europe as most of her brothers and sisters were at the heads of other countries and realms. Her sister, Maria Carolina of Naples, promised to avenge her, developing a pure hatred against France for what they did. From an Austrian princess to a French queen consort, no one could have predicted Marie Antoinette's terrible fate.

In her last moments, Marie Antoinette wrote to her sister-in-law, Madame Elisabeth, with whom she had developed a close and genuine friendship over the years.

Her only thoughts went to her children, whom she desperately wanted to protect, even after her death. 'It grieves me very sensibly to leave my poor children; you know that I existed only for them and you, my kind and affectionate sister.'

She advised, 'Let them both reflect on what I have unceasingly taught them, that virtuous principles and the exact performance of every duty, are the first basis of life; that their happiness will depend on their mutual affection and confidence.' She ended her letter with what she wanted her legacy to be: 'Let them never seek to revenge our death.' It was for her wise words and her maternal affection that Marie Antoinette wished her children to remember her.

Sadly, all her children died young except for Marie-Thérèse, who was to become the Duchess of Angoulême.

Even to this day, especially in France, Marie Antoinette remains a controversial figure. In the UK, any association with her – as we have seen with 'Carrie Antoinette' trending on Twitter recently – is not a flattering one. She is remembered for betraying France and for being the cause of all its woes, yet her legacy remains more complex, as her last letter shows.

In the end, Marie Antoinette had her bad qualities, certainly, but she also remained a devoted mother who was taken away from her children and who tried to leave them a legacy of peace and love – if only through her words.


    A big thanks to Lolly for the weekend posts while i was away

17 th October 2000

Hatfield rail crash:




Hatfield rail crash:
The Hatfield rail crash leads to the collapse of Railtrack.


The Hatfield rail crash was a railway accident on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was caused by a metal fatigue-induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70.

The accident exposed major stewardship shortcomings of the privatised national railway infrastructure company Railtrack. Reports found there was a lack of communication and some staff were not aware of maintenance procedures. Railtrack subsequently went into administration and was replaced by Network Rail. The aftermath of the accident saw widespread speed limit reductions throughout the rail network and a tightening of health and safety procedures, the repercussions of which were still felt years later. In 2005, both Railtrack and the contractor Balfour Beatty were found guilty of breaching health and safety laws.

Accident
A Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) InterCity 225 train bound for Leeds had left London King's Cross at 12:10, and was travelling along the East Coast Main Line at approximately 115 mph (185 km/h) when it derailed south of Hatfield station at 12:23.[2] The train was in the control of an experienced driver trainer accompanied by a trainee driver. It had been agreed at Kings Cross that the trainee would drive the 12:10 service to Leeds. The primary cause of the accident was later determined to be the left-hand rail fracturing as the train passed over it.

The train travelled a further 1,000 yards (910 m) after derailment. The leading locomotive and the first two coaches remained upright and on the rails. All of the following coaches and the trailing Driving Van Trailer (DVT) were derailed, and the train set separated into three sections. The restaurant coach, the eighth vehicle in the set, overturned onto its side and struck an overhead line gantry after derailing, resulting in severe damage to the vehicle. The whole incident occurred in 17 seconds.

Four passengers died in the accident and a further 33 were initially reported as injured, three seriously. The number of injured was later revised to over 70.
Two of those seriously injured were GNER staff working in the restaurant coach at the time of the accident. Emmerdale actress Anna Brecon was travelling on the train, and suffered minor cuts and bruises. Another passenger was the television reporter Justin Rowlatt, who said he "watched the carriages skid and whip around on the gravel besides the track".

Crash investigators found the British Rail-designed Mark 4 coaches had good structural integrity and, aside from the restaurant coach, remained intact after the accident. Coincidentally, the locomotive in the crash was also involved in the Selby rail crash (where the leading DVT hit a road vehicle on the track) four months later.

Cause
A preliminary investigation found a rail had fragmented as trains passed and that the likely cause was "rolling contact fatigue" (defined as multiple surface-breaking cracks). Such cracks are caused by high loads where the wheels contact the rail. Repeated high loading causes fatigue cracks to grow. When they reach a critical size, the rail fails. Portions of the failed track at Hatfield were reassembled and numerous fatigue cracks were identified. They contributed to the spalling of the running surface to around five millimetres (0.2 in) deep and 100 millimetres (3.9 in) long.

The problem was known about before the accident; a letter from the infrastructure company Railtrack in December 1999 warned that the existing Railtrack Line Specification was insufficient to guard against this type of fatigue. Replacement rails were made available but never delivered to the correct location for installation.

Since privatisation, Railtrack had divested the engineering knowledge of British Rail to contractors. While it had comprehensive maintenance procedures that might have prevented the accident if followed appropriately, later investigation showed there was a serious problem with the experience and working knowledge of staff. In a subsequent interview, the Zone Quality Standards Manager said, "I do not have knowledge of railway engineering nor railway safety", which was completely contrary to the written requirements for the role. In May 1999, the Head of Track had said that insufficiently-skilled work was causing more rails to break. Railtrack did not know how many other cases of rail fatigue around the network could lead to a similar accident. It consequently imposed over 1,800 emergency speed restrictions and instigated a costly nationwide track replacement programme. The company was subject to "enforcement" by the Rail Regulator, Tom Winsor.

Aftermath
In 2004, Steve Arthur's widow was awarded £1 million damages in the High Court. The families of the other three fatal casualties received damages out of court. A memorial service was held for the victims on the tenth anniversary of the crash in 2010 at St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield. A second service was held near the crash site afterwards. Both were conducted by the Rector of Hatfield, who had attended to casualties and the bereaved in the immediate aftermath of the accident in 2000.

The speed restrictions and track replacement works caused significant disruption on a majority of the national network for more than a year. The disruption and Railtrack's spiralling costs eventually caused the company to enter administration at the insistence of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, and its replacement by the not-for-dividend company Network Rail under Byers's successor Alistair Darling.

Train operating companies were adversely affected by the disruption, losing an estimated 19% of revenue in the year following the crash. Freight operator EWS was cancelling up to 400 trains per week as a result, whilst estimates put Freightliner's resultant losses at £1 million per month. The cost to the entire UK economy of the disruption was estimated at £6 million per day.

The Institute of Rail Welding (IoRW) was set up in 2002 by The Welding Institute (TWI) and Network Rail as a consequence of the recommendations in the investigation report.[30] It provides a focus for individuals and organisations involved in rail welding and facilitates the adoption of best practice.

The aftermath of the crash had long-reaching repercussions in the rail industry. In 2015, at the fifteenth anniversary of the accident, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said a new system for handling maintenance introduced by Network Rail was confusing, and there was the potential for a similar accident. The union's general secretary said that Network Rail needed to act on its concerns, otherwise there would be industrial action.

The Class 91 powering the train involved in the Hatfield rail crash would later be involved in the Selby rail crash four months later, sustaining minor damage. It was repaired again following the accident, and remained in service for a further 20 years, finally being scrapped at Sims Metals Scrapyard in Nottingham in 2021. As a result of its involvement in both accidents, it had gained the unofficial nickname 'Lucky'.

Court case
In 2003, five managers and two companies – Network Rail (as successors of Railtrack) and the division of Balfour Beatty that maintained the track – were charged with manslaughter and breach of health and safety charges in connection with the accident. The managers, Anthony Walker (Balfour Beatty's rail maintenance director), Nicholas Jeffries (its civil engineer), Railtrack's Alistair Cook and Sean Fugill (asset managers for the London North-East zone), and track engineer Keith Lee, all denied the charges. The corporate manslaughter charges against Railtrack/Network Rail and some of its executives were dropped in September 2004, but the other charges stood.

The trial began in January 2005; the judge, Mr Justice Mackay, warned that it could go on for a year. On 14 July, the judge instructed the jury to acquit all defendants on charges of manslaughter. A few days later, Balfour Beatty changed its plea to guilty on the health and safety charges, and on 6 September, Network Rail was found guilty of breaching health and safety law. Network Rail were fined £3.5 million while Balfour Beatty were fined £10 million. All of the manslaughter charges against the executives were dismissed by the judge

18 th October 1922

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


The British Broadcasting Company Ltd (BBC) was a British commercial company formed on October 18, 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom (and anxious to build sales of their products by ensuring that there were radio broadcasts to which their radio-buying customers could listen) and licensed by the British General Post Office. Its original office was located on the second floor of Magnet House, the GEC buildings in London and consisted of a room and a small antechamber. On December 14, 1922, John Reith was hired to become the Managing Director of the company at that address. The company later moved its offices to the premises of the Marconi Company. The BBC as a commercial broadcasting company did not sell air time but it did carry a number of sponsored programmes paid for by British newspapers. On December 31, 1926, the company was dissolved and its assets were transferred to the non-commercial and Crown Chartered British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

19 th October 1989

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

Guildford Four: A Long Wait For Justice.

Every one of the alleged bombers protested their innocence but it took years to get their convictions quashed at the Old Bailey.

Gerry Conlon and the other members of Guildford Four were convicted at the height of Northern Ireland's Troubles, after the IRA carried out a bombing campaign targeting pubs in the mainland UK.

But the deadly attacks in Guildford, Woolwich and Birmingham in 1974 became better known for the huge miscarriages of justices that followed, with the police under huge pressure to catch those responsible.

The plight of the Guildford Four was also highlighted by the 1993 film In The Name Of The Father, in which Conlon and his father Giuseppe were played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite respectively.

Gerry Conlon, Paddy Armstrong, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson were jailed in 1975 for the attack on the Horse and Groom pub in Guildford which killed four soldiers and a civilian and injured scores more.

Mr Hill and Mr Armstrong were also jailed for the Woolwich bombing in which two people died.

In a separate trial, The Birmingham Six - Paddy Joe Hill, Hugh Callaghan, Richard McIlkenny, Gerry Hunter, Billy Power and Johnny Walker - were convicted of the Midlands bombings.

Later Giuseppe, and members of the Maguire family - who became known as the Maguire Seven - were arrested and jailed for possessing and supplying the IRA with explosives.



All those involved protested their innocence and after years of campaigning their convictions were overturned.

In October 1989 the Court of Appeal quashed the sentences of the Guildford Four after they had served 14 years behind bars, amid doubts about the police evidence against them.

An investigation into the case by Avon and Somerset Police found serious flaws in the way Surrey Police handled the case.

However, Giuseppe Conlon died in prison in 1980, still protesting his innocence, and never saw his son released.

His sentence was posthumously overturned by the Court of Appeal along with those of the Maguires in June 1991. The Birmingham Six had their convictions overturned on appeal in the same year.

In July 2000, Prime Minister Tony Blair became the first senior politician to apologise to the Guildford Four.

In a letter sent to Paul Hill's wife - one of the American Kennedy clan - he wrote: "There were miscarriages of justice in your husband's case, and the cases of those convicted with him. I am very sorry indeed that this should have happened."

In recent years Gerry Conlon took up the cause of a number of dissident republicans jailed in Northern Ireland including Marian Price.

She was found guilty of offences linked to paramilitaries, including providing a phone used by the Real IRA hit squad that murdered two British soldiers at the Massereene barracks in Co Antrim in 2009.

He insisted his approach was not politically-motivated but about the right of people to have a fair trial and the right for justice to be seen to be done in public.

20 th October 2022


Shortest serving P.M and the aftermath::
Liz Truss steps down as British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party amid the country's political crisis, serving for 49 days before resigning, serving for the least time of any British Prime Minister [49 days]


British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation outside 10 Downing Street on Thursday 20 th October 2022
LONDON — She campaigned for prime minister as the ideological incarnation of the 1980s Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, as a strong, plain-speaking woman in pearls, who would finally unleash Britain’s true post-Brexit potential by slashing taxes for investors and corporations, and getting the workers to work a bit harder.

The once-triumphalist Liz Truss resigned on Thursday in humiliation, after 45 days in office, becoming not a modern Conservative icon but the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

Truss was brought down by what is widely perceived as her incompetence, her inability to sell her vision — not just to lawmakers from her Conservative Party and the slim numbers of Tories out in the hinterlands, but to the broader electorate and to currency and bond traders in London.

Her ouster also reflects an ongoing identity crisis among Conservatives — fragmentation that led to the agonizing experience of Brexit and leaves open the question of not only who will lead the country, but in what direction.


The front page of the Evening Standard newspaper announces the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Britain is adrift about its place in the world and its relationship to Europe, about how to address soaring inflation and an anticipated recession, and about what to do about issues ranging from immigration to climate change.
#
Truss scrambled to reverse herself and her supply-side, trickle-down plan for growth, quickly jettisoning top ministers and gutting her signature policy, with its tax cuts for high-earners, investors and corporations, funded in the short term by more borrowing and debt.

Boris Johnson idolized Churchill. U.K.’s next leader may look to Thatcher.

The U-turn helped calm bond traders momentarily and boosted the British currency. But it wasn’t enough to save her politically.

“Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she said in front of the prime minister’s residence at Downing Street on Thursday. “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the king to notify him that I am resigning.”

U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Oct. 20 after six weeks in office.
Conservative power brokers are bitterly divided on who should next lead their party and become the third British prime minister in eight weeks.

The Conservative Party plans to pick a new leader by Oct. 28, after voting by the party’s lawmakers in Parliament and an online vote involving the dues-paying party members — less than 0.3 percent of the British population. Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee, the Conservative Party’s parliamentary group, announced a sweeping change to the rules, truncating what is usually a two-month process.

Any Conservative lawmaker can put their name forward, provided they have the backing of at least 100 of their party colleagues in Parliament — a fairly high bar.

Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor of the Exchequer who has twice tried to become prime minister, quickly ruled himself out.

Names bandied about as possible contenders include former finance minister Rishi Sunak, Truss’s main rival in the last leadership race, who warned that her economic policies would end in disaster — a “fantasy land” he called it.

There’s also Penny Mordaunt, the current leader of the House of Commons, who came in third in the last contest and is popular with the Conservative Party faithful — though in snap polling of the broader public most respondents could not name her when shown a photo.

Penny Mordaunt could be the next U.K. prime minister. Few know who she is.

Another option: the return of Boris Johnson. Rumors are building that he could mount a push for the rare role of once-and-future prime minister.

His allies told the British papers that he felt it was in the “national interest” for him to stage a return.


A bookmaker takes bets for who will become the next British prime minister after Liz Truss announces her resignation. Rishi Sunak, Truss's main rival for the prime minister job six weeks ago, is the top choice. (David Cliff/AP)
A lot of voters might not want Johnson or his party to give it another try. The Conservatives have been in power for 12 years and millions of bad headlines. If there were a general election now, they would almost certainly be annihilated. The opposition Labour Party is up 30 points in opinion polls.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who hasn’t had to do much more than sit back and watch his rivals implode, called for a general election “now.”

“The Tories cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,” Starmer said in a statement following Truss’s announcement. “They do not have a mandate to put the country through yet another experiment; Britain is not their personal fiefdom to run how they wish.”

What next for Boris Johnson? Books, columns, speeches, comeback?

But because the Tories, led by Johnson, won a general election in 2019, they don’t have to submit to another vote until 2024. A motion to call for an early election would need at least two-thirds of the votes in Parliament. That would only be possible if the Conservatives support the measure, which they would be loath to do while they are down so far in the polls.

Truss herself should have been safe from another leadership challenge for at least a year. But Conservatives are known for ruthlessly casting aside their leaders. Out went David Cameron for opposing Brexit. Out went Theresa May for failing to get Brexit done. Out went Johnson for a pileup of scandals and for misleading members of his own party, who declared him unfit to govern.

Truss was thrown under the bus for gross mismanagement of the economy, but also because it was quickly clear she wasn’t helping her party regain the trust of voters. YouGov said she was the most unpopular prime minister the organization had ever tracked.

On Thursday, a day after she told Parliament that she was a “fighter, not a quitter,” Truss met with the powerful chair of the 1922 committee, who would have known exactly how many Conservative members of Parliament had issued secret letters of no confidence in her leadership.

Who will replace Liz Truss? Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson among contenders.

At least 16 Conservative lawmakers had gone on the record calling for her to resign, following a chaotic and confusing 24 hours, which saw claims of bullying in Parliament and the resignation of the home secretary and may have been the final straw for the party.

Among the discontented was Conservative lawmaker Gary Streeter, who tweeted, “Sadly, it seems we must change leader BUT even if the angel Gabriel now takes over, the Parliamentary Party has to urgently rediscover discipline, mutual respect and teamwork if we are to (i) govern the UK well and (ii) avoid slaughter at the next election.”

In one impassioned interview Wednesday night, lawmaker Charles Walker spoke frankly about his frustrations. “I’m livid,” he said. “I really shouldn’t say this, but I hope all those people who put Liz Truss in No. 10, I hope it was worth it … because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Truss can be held responsible for six weeks of damage. The previous record-holder for shortest-serving prime minister was George Canning, who lasted 119 days — from April 12, 1827, until his death on Aug. 8, 1827.

In the end, Liz Truss did not outlast a wilting lettuce

“Our lettuce wins as Liz Truss resigns,” declared the Daily Star tabloid, which last week, when things were looking perilous for the leader, began live-streaming a photograph of the prime minister next to a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf life of just 10 days.

News of Truss’s resignation stole the show at the opening of a European Union summit in Brussels, as leaders entering the meetings were asked to weigh in on Britain’s political crisis. There were glimpses of schadenfreude and some sly smiles from leaders who sat on the other side of Brexit negotiations. But leaders mostly kept it classy, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying he hoped Britain “regains political stability very quickly.”

21 st October 1954

Royal visitor in Wigan:
Crowds lined the streets of Wigan, St Helens and Liverpool to cheer the royal visit of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Queen Elizabeth II Visits Wigan in October 1954.

The royal party travelled by train from Euston London, arriving at Wigan North Western station at 10am. It took ten minutes to travel to the first venue of the day, ready for the 20th royal visit to Wigan since 1873.

Until 1 April 1889, Wigan belonged to the English county of Lancashire. Then it became an independent county borough. In 1974, long after the royal visit, Wigan was moved into the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Finally, in April 2011, it became part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The British Pathé audience was not generally concerned about the intricacies of Local Government life, hence the acceptance of Wigan in Lancashire for the film title.

Queen Elizabeth II began the Lancashire tour by officially opening the John McCurdy Hall of the Wigan Mining and Technical College.

The building, designed for up to 3,000 staff and students, cost £200,000 to complete.

Councillor Thomas Signey Merry (known as Tom Merry), was the 707th Mayor of Wigan. He was on hand to assist Her Majesty the Queen in her royal duties.

John McCurdy Hall was named after John McCurdy (1870-1963). He was a well known, widely liked and highly respected figure in Wigan. Born of Irish descent, he set up a pawnbrokers shop in the Scholes district of Wigan. Later, he opened a furniture emporium which is still fondly remembered today by Wigan’s older generation.

Wigan Mining and Technical College later became the Wigan College of Technology. Merged with Leigh College in April 1992, the institution is now Wigan & Leigh College.

The building is now The Parsons Walk annexe for the Wigan & Leigh College. The colliery shaft winding wheel once located here now sits in New Market Street.



With many thanks to Lolly for the research

22 nd October 1962


Cuban missile crisis :
Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

Cuban Missile Crisis

In October 1962, the Soviet provision of ballistic missiles to Cuba led to the most dangerous Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Over the course of two extremely tense weeks, US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev negotiated a peaceful outcome to the crisis.
The crisis evoked fears of nuclear destruction, revealed the dangers of brinksmanship, and invigorated attempts to halt the arms race.

The Cuban Revolution
After waging a successful guerrilla war against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro came to power on January 1, 1959. Castro was not yet a communist, and US policymakers initially took a cautious wait-and-see approach to his regime. Over the course of 1959 and 1960, US-Cuban relations worsened due to Castro’s anti-US rhetoric and radical policies, especially his refusal to hold elections. When it became clear that Castro intended to pursue an alliance with the Soviet Union, President Dwight Eisenhower cut off diplomatic ties to Cuba and began preparing contingency plans for overthrowing Castro and replacing him with someone more amenable to the United States.

As US-Cuban relations deteriorated, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for support. The Soviets signed multiple trade and aid agreements with Cuba, provided Castro with arms and weaponry, and also gave political support to the Cuban Revolution in the United Nations and other international organizations.

Origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis
The origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis lie in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, during which US-supported Cuban exiles hoping to foment an uprising against Castro were overpowered by the Cuban armed forces. After the invasion, Castro turned to the Soviets for protection against future US aggression. The Soviets provided Cuba with nuclear weapons on the condition that the deal would remain secret until the missiles were fully operational.
Khrushchev claimed that his motivation for providing Cuba with nuclear weaponry was to safeguard the Cuban Revolution against US aggression and to alter the global balance of power in favor of the Soviet Union.

In October 1962, US U-2 spy plane flights over Cuban territory revealed the missile installation sites. This discovery inaugurated what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The strategic implications of these weapons were enormous: the missiles could easily reach targets in the United States, including New York City and Washington, D.C.

Aerial view of the missile site in Cuba, 1962. Image courtesy JFK Library.
The Kennedy administration established a naval blockade to prevent any more missiles from reaching Cuba, and in no uncertain terms demanded the immediate removal of the missiles that had already been delivered. The danger of this approach was that if the Soviets refused to remove the missiles, the United States would be forced to escalate the crisis by authorizing air strikes over Cuba to bomb the missile sites. Contingency plans were drawn up for a full-scale invasion of Cuba and a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, in the event that the Soviets responded militarily to Kennedy’s demands.

Negotiating a peaceful outcome
Though Khrushchev initially refused to acknowledge the presence of the missiles in Cuba and declared the US naval blockade to be an act of war, he ordered the suspension of all weapons deliveries currently in transit. Over the course of approximately two weeks, Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated a peaceful outcome to the missile crisis. The Soviets compared their provision of nuclear weapons to Cuba with the stationing of Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which were in range of Soviet territory. Kennedy agreed to remove the missiles from Turkey, and also pledged that the US government would not undertake another invasion of Cuba.
Throughout the negotiations, Khrushchev failed to consult with Castro. For Castro, this was humiliating and seemed to prove that the Soviets prioritized relations with the United States over relations with their own allies. Castro hoped to negotiate the closing of the US naval base at Guantanamo and the cessation of U-2 flights over Cuban territory. Ultimately, Khrushchev agreed to remove all of the nuclear missiles from Cuba, while failing to even broach the subject of Castro’s demands.

Consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Although the Soviets attempted to portray the outcome of the missile crisis as a victory, one of the consequences of the crisis was the ouster of Khrushchev. He was forced into retirement by other Soviet officials who claimed that the missile crisis was proof of Khrushchev’s reckless decision-making and his inability to lead the Soviet Union. Khrushchev’s successor, Leonid Brezhnev, came to power and sought to reduce tensions with the United States.
John F. Kennedy came out of the crisis in a much better position. His calm but firm stance in the negotiations was heralded as great statesmanship, though it is often forgotten that his bungling of the Bay of Pigs invasion had helped lead to the missile crisis in the first place.
The Cuban Missile Crisis also convinced Kennedy of the dangers of nuclear brinksmanship. He and Khrushchev had peered into the abyss of nuclear destruction but had managed to pull back from it. In order to prevent future crises, a Moscow-Washington hotline was set up in the White House to facilitate direct communication between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States.
In August 1963, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed a treaty banning atmospheric and underwater nuclear testing. Nevertheless, the test-ban treaty failed to halt the arms race, as Kennedy simultaneously authorized a massive arms buildup that vastly expanded the US nuclear arsenal and amplified US strategic superiority in the Cold War.

23 rd October 1707

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

First Parliament of Great Britain


Westminster, London The 23rd of October 1707 AD

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

24 th October 1946

Earths first photo:
A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.


1st photo of Earth from space.

Were you alive before we saw Earth from space? If so, you were born on or before October 24, 1946. That was when a group of soldiers and scientists in the New Mexico desert launched a V-2 rocket – carrying a 35-mm motion picture camera – to a height 65 miles (105 km) above Earth’s surface. NASA defines the edge of space as 50 miles (80 km) above the surface. After a few minutes, the camera dropped back to Earth and was destroyed on impact. But the film survived.

Reliving the momentous day
Air & Space magazine tells the story of this major event in space history:

Snapping a new frame every second and a half, the rocket-borne camera climbed straight up, then fell back to Earth minutes later, slamming into the ground at 500 feet per second. The camera itself was smashed, but the film, protected in a steel cassette, was unharmed.

Fred Rulli was a 19-year-old enlisted man assigned to the recovery team that drove into the desert to retrieve film from those early V-2 shots. When the scientists found the cassette in good shape, he recalls, “They were ecstatic, they were jumping up and down like kids.” Later, back at the launch site, “when they first projected [the photos] onto the screen, the scientists just went nuts.”

Before 1946, the highest pictures ever taken of the Earth’s surface were from the Explorer II balloon, which had ascended 13.7 miles in 1935, high enough to discern the curvature of the Earth. The V-2 cameras reached more than five times that altitude, where they clearly showed the planet set against the blackness of space. When the movie frames were stitched together, Clyde Holliday, the engineer who developed the camera, wrote in National Geographic in 1950, the V-2 photos showed for the first time “how our Earth would look to visitors from another planet coming in on a space ship.”



The first photograph of the earth taken from space, October 24, 1946.

25 th October 1415

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

Battle of Agincourt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

26 th October 1881

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

On October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

After silver was discovered nearby in 1877, Tombstone quickly grew into one of the richest mining towns in the Southwest. Wyatt Earp, a former Kansas police officer working as a bank security guard, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil, the town marshal, represented “law and order” in Tombstone, though they also had reputations as being power-hungry and ruthless. The Clantons and McLaurys were cowboys who lived on a ranch outside of town and sidelined as cattle rustlers, thieves and murderers. In October 1881, the struggle between these two groups for control of Tombstone and Cochise County ended in a blaze of gunfire at the OK Corral.

The OK Corral

On the morning of October 25, Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury came into Tombstone for supplies. Over the next 24 hours, the two men had several violent run-ins with the Earps and their friend Doc Holliday. Around 1:30 p.m. on October 26, Ike’s brother Billy rode into town to join them, along with Frank McLaury and Billy Claiborne. The first person they met in the local saloon was Holliday, who was delighted to inform them that their brothers had both been pistol-whipped by the Earps. Frank and Billy immediately left the saloon, vowing revenge.

Around 3 p.m., the Earps and Holliday spotted the five members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral, at the end of Fremont Street. The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired. Though it’s still debated who fired the first shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury’s chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McLaury with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton. When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded. Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills.

Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the shootout, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. A month later, however, a Tombstone judge found the men not guilty, ruling that they were “fully justified in committing these homicides.” The famous shootout has been immortalized in many movies, including Frontier Marshal (1939), Shootout at the O.K. Corral (1946), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), Tombstone (1993) and Wyatt Earp (1994).

27 th October 1936


Edward V111 and Mrs Wallis Simpson:
Mrs Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

The only British sovereign to abdicate voluntarily, Edward stepped down in 1936 to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was king for less than a year.

Edward was born on 23 June 1894 in Richmond, Surrey, the eldest child of the duke of York. He was always known in his family as David, one of many middle names. In 1910, Edward's father became George V and Edward, prince of Wales. He joined the Grenadier Guards in World War One, although he was not allowed to see active service. Throughout the 1920s, Edward undertook extensive foreign tours particularly in the empire, representing his father. These tours, together with Edward's visits to areas of high unemployment and deprivation in Britain during the economic depression of the early 1930s, made Edward very popular.

Edward had affairs with a number of married women in the 1920s, but then met and fell in love with Wallis Simpson, the wife of an American businessman. In January 1936, George V died and Edward became king. In October, Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce from her husband, and it became clear that the new king wished to marry her, against the advice of many of his advisors who did not believe that Edward, as head of the Church of England, should marry a divorced woman. All attempts to find a solution failed and so, on 10 December, Edward signed an instrument of abdication. The following day, after broadcasting to the nation and the empire to explain his actions, he left for Europe. Edward's brother became George VI.

In June 1937, Edward married Wallis Simpson and the couple were given the titles of duke and duchess of Windsor. For the next two years they lived mainly in France. On a visit to Germany in 1937, they had a controversial meeting with Adolf Hitler. After the outbreak of war, Edward was appointed governor of the Bahamas. He remained in this post until the end of the war, when he and the duchess returned to France.

In the remaining years of his life, the duke paid only short visits to England to attend the funerals of family members, and there continued to be much bitterness between the duke and his family. Edward died of throat cancer on 28 May 1972 in Paris, and was buried near Windsor.

28 th October 1664


Birth of the Royal Marines:
The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.

The Royal Marines were formed on this day in 1664
The role of the Royal Marines is defined in their motto: "Per Mare, Per Terram," - "By Sea, By Land"

On this day October 28, 1664 "the Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of foot" was formed at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company, in the City of London.

This "maritime regiment of foot" was to become the Royal Marines when, in 1802, it was given this title by King George III

The role of the Royal Marines is defined in their motto: "Per Mare, Per Terram," "By Sea, By Land."

A light infantry arm of the Royal Navy, marines have been involved in conflict in many theatres of war.

Included in their campaigns are the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, World War I and World War II.

Royal Marines served with distinction at Gibraltar during the Napoleonic Wars with the word "Gibraltar" appearing on their coat of arms.

During the Napoleonic Wars, 'Corps of Colonial Marines' were formed of freed French and American slaves.

At the Battle of Bladensburg, American 'Colonial Marines' fought alongside their regular marine comrades inflicting "the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms" with the U.S. defeat resulting in the capture and burning of Washington.

The burning of Washington was followed by the Battle of New Orleans and their later participation in the capture of Fort Bowyer in what was the last action of the War of 1812.

During the Crimean War three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross, two in the Crimea and one in action against the Russians in the Baltic.

Five Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross in the First World War, one being earned at Gallipoli where the RM were the last to leave the Turkish beaches.

During World 2 Corporal Thomas Peck Hunter was awarded the Victoria Cross for action at Lake Comacchio in Italy, where he lost his life attacking German machine guns single handed in order that his troop escape enemy fire.

Post WW2 Royal Marines have been involved in many actions including Suez and the Falklands campaign

In 2018 there were 6.72 thousand men and 110 women in the United Kingdom's Royal Marines. This elite group 'punches above its weight!'

29 th October 1618


Orf with is' ed:
English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

Why Sir Walter Raleigh Was Beheaded
Four hundred years ago, one of England's famous explorers fell lethally out of favor.

He was a celebrated soldier, a hero on land and sea. He was responsible for the first ever English colonies in the New World. And he wrote poetry that ranks with some of the finest in early modern England. Yet at the age of 66 Sir Walter Raleigh was executed for treason. What caused the downfall of this beloved Renaissance courtier?

For a court favorite, Raleigh actually spent quite a bit of his life locked up in the Tower of London. The first time, in 1592, it was because he’d secretly married his lover, Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Throckmorton, a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I. Bess was already pregnant, which explained both the marriage and the secrecy. Enraged by their plotting behind her back, Elizabeth dismissed Bess and imprisoned both of them in the Tower.

Much popular history, including the film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, has tried to explain this punishment by imagining that the queen was in love with Raleigh. However, this is no evidence for this. Rather, Elizabeth’s anger was justified: for young nobles like Bess who were sent to the royal household the monarch became a kind of surrogate parent, expected to supervise their upbringing and encourage lucrative marriages with other influential nobility. For the couple to ignore the queen’s prerogative here was scandalous.

Nevertheless they were soon released and in a few short years Raleigh had regained the queen’s favor. She awarded him a royal charter to explore the ‘New World’ of the Americas and allowed him to organize the first English colonies in Virginia, named flatteringly after the Virgin Queen herself. That these colonial experiments were an unmitigated disaster, resulting in the ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke, did not dissuade Raleigh and his backers from believing that fortunes lay in the Americas.

He was convinced that El Dorado, the legendary city of gold, was to be found in northern South America, and made a reconnaissance trip to Guyana in 1595. On his return he wrote a fantastical account of it as a paradise rich for the taking, where gold could be plucked easily from the ground, and where the natives were eager to be ruled over by the English. This ridiculous propaganda would tempt more than one monarch to allow Raleigh to travel there in England’s name.

While he remained in Elizabeth’s favor until her death, James VI’s of Scotland’s accession to the English throne as James I meant that Raleigh’s fortunes plummeted. This was largely because James was attempting a diplomatic rapprochement with Spain, England’s longstanding enemy, against whom Raleigh had been a formidable foe. England’s funds were depleted by their endless struggles against Spain’s richer, mightier forces, so James decided it was time to end the rivalry.

The real crisis for Raleigh came when he was falsely implicated in a plot to oust the new king. Called the Main Plot, its aim was to replace James with his cousin Lady Arabella Stuart. The allegation was that Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, was negotiating with a Dutch prince to have the Spanish give him huge sums of money to foment sedition in England. Cobham was to bring the money back via the Channel Island of Jersey, where Raleigh was governor, and together they would use it to overthrow the king.

The claims were ludicrous and based entirely on the word of Cobham, who never testified in front of Raleigh. As for Raleigh, no man in England had made a larger contribution to England’s war with Spain, so the charge that he accepted funds from the Spanish to undermine England’s crown strained credulity.

But James, in his determination to get on Spain’s good side, locked up Raleigh once again in the Tower—this time for 13 years. Although Raleigh had been given a death sentence, his time in the Tower wasn’t quite as bad as it might sound: the aristocracy were imprisoned there because its conditions were much better than in the other prisons of early modern England, where ‘gaol fever’—or typhus—ran rampant. Raleigh lived with Bess there, and she even conceived a son while they were inside.

It was likely Raleigh’s promises of gold that got him released from prison before his sentence could be carried out: in 1617 he was pardoned so that he could once again travel to Guyana in search of El Dorado. But that quest would ultimately prove fatal: during the expedition a detachment of Raleigh’s men (against his orders) attacked a Spanish outpost, an action that directly contravened the conditions of his pardon.

Upon Raleigh's return, the Spanish ambassador, Count Gondomar, demanded that his death sentence from 1603 be reinstated. James had little choice but to obey. On October 29, 1618, a full 15 years after he had been convicted of treason in a sham trial, the famous explorer was beheaded at Whitechapel in London.

In the end, it seems Raleigh’s reputation as Spain’s greatest foe was what undid him: the Spanish were eager to see the downfall of one who had won so many victories against them. Unlike all the legends about him— he didn’t introduce tobacco or the potato to England, nor place his cloak over a puddle for the queen—his reputation as a heroic soldier was, for once, justified.

30 th October 1938

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

Did the 1938 Radio Broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' Cause a Nationwide Panic?
Accounts conflict about how terrified Americans really were by Orson Welles' infamous 1938 "War of the Worlds" Halloween broadcast.

Of the countless adaptations made of H.G. Wells' 1897 science fiction classic The War of the Worlds over the past century, the one that remains most talked and written about to this day was Orson Welles' live radio broadcast on 30 October 1938. It boasted a distinctly modern twist. Keen on cementing his reputation as a theatrical wunderkind (Welles was on the cover of Time magazine only months earlier), the 23-year-old actor-director reworked the plodding Victorian narrative about a Martian invasion of Earth into a gripping faux newscast with real moments of shock and awe.

(Contrary to common nomenclature, Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast was not a "hoax" sprung on an unsuspecting audience. Rather, the show was a regularly scheduled and announced episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio program dedicated to presenting dramatizations of literary works.)

A brief excerpt from the script by Howard Koch shows why Welles' hour-long production of The War of the Worlds is justly regarded as a mini-masterpiece of horror:

ANNOUNCER: We are bringing you an eyewitness account of what's happening on the Wilmuth farm, Grovers Mill, New Jersey. (MORE PIANO) We now return you to Carl Phillips at Grovers Mill.

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen (Am I on?). Ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back of a stone wall that adjoins Mr. Wilmuth's garden. From here I get a sweep of the whole scene. I'll give you every detail as long as I can talk. As long as I can see. More state police have arrived They're drawing up a cordon in front of the pit, about thirty of them. No need to push the crowd back now. They're willing to keep their distance. The captain is conferring with someone. We can't quite see who. Oh yes, I believe it's Professor Pierson. Yes, it is. Now they've parted. The Professor moves around one side, studying the object, while the captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. I can see it now. It's a white handkerchief tied to a pole . . . a flag of truce. If those creatures know what that means . . . what anything means!. . . Wait! Something's happening!

(HISSING SOUND FOLLOWED BY A HUMMING THAT INCREASES IN INTENSITY)

PHILLIPS: A humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror. What's that? There's a jet of flame springing from the mirror, and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on! Good Lord, they're turning into flame!

(SCREAMS AND UNEARTHLY SHRIEKS)

PHILLIPS: Now the whole field's caught fire. (EXPLOSION) The woods . . . the barns . . . the gas tanks of automobiles . . . it's spreading everywhere. It's coming this way. About twenty yards to my right . . .

(CRASH OF MICROPHONE ... THEN DEAD SILENCE)

"Fake radio 'war' stirs terror through U.S."
The broadcast was legendary overnight for supposedly having been too realistic and frightening for its audience. Morning papers from coast to coast reveled in the "mass hysteria" it had caused — even the staid New York Times, whose front-page headline blared, "Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact":

Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid From Mars' — Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy

A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.

The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, "The Shadow," used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.

In Newark, in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid. Some began moving household furniture.

Throughout New York families left their homes, some to flee to near-by parks. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids.

In Providence, Rhode Island, "weeping and hysterical women" swamped the Providence Journal with calls asking for more details of the "massacre."

In Pittsburgh, Associated Press reported, a man returned home in the middle of the broadcast and found his wife with a bottle of poison in her hand, saying, "I'd rather die this way than like that."

In San Francisco, police fielded hundreds of calls from frightened listeners, including one man who wanted to volunteer to help fight the Martian invaders.


When Orson Welles was asked to comment on the hysteria he was blamed for causing, he was incredulous. "We've been putting on all sorts of things from the most realistic situations to the wildest fantasy, but nobody ever bothered to get serious about them before," he was quoted as saying. "We just can't understand why this should have such an amazing reaction. It's too bad that so many people got excited, but after all, we kept reminding them that it wasn't really true."

WABC, which aired the program in New York, issued this statement one hour after the broadcast ended:

For those listeners who tuned in to Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast from 8 to 9 p.m. tonight, and did not realize that the program was merely a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous novel, "War of the Worlds," we are repeating the fact, which was made clear four times on the program, that the entire content of the play was entirely fictitious.

How real was the 'panic'?
For decades, the conventional wisdom based on the sensationalized reporting of the time was that the Mercury Theatre broadcast had indeed spread mass hysteria from one end of the country to the other. By the 2000s, however, sociologists and historians were questioning the true severity of "the War of the Worlds panic." W. Joseph Campbell, an American University professor of communication studies, observed in 2010 that the contemporaneous news coverage was "almost entirely anecdotal and largely based on sketch wire service roundups that emphasized breadth over in-depth detail":

In short, the notion that the War of the Worlds program sent untold thousands of people into the streets in panic is a media-driven myth that offers a deceptive message about the power radio wielded over listeners in its early days and, more broadly, about the media's potential to sow fright, panic, and alarm.

Such data as exist about the listening audience that night support Campbell's thesis. The C.E. Hooper ratings service reported that only 2 percent of national respondents were tuned into Welles' broadcast on 30 October 1938. The rest were either listening to something else (most likely ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn Hour, one of the most popular programs on radio), or nothing at all. Based on the network's own audience survey, CBS executive Frank Stanton concluded that most Americans didn't hear the show. “But those who did hear it," he added, "looked at it as a prank and accepted it that way.”

Recapping the event on its 75th anniversary in Slate, media historians Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow pointed out that few, if any, of the anecdotal reports of hysterical reactions to the program were ever investigated and confirmed:

Wire service reports did relay sensational stories of (unnamed) panicked listeners saved only by the timely intervention of friends or neighbors, but not one newspaper reported a verified suicide connected to the broadcast. Researchers in Princeton’s Office of Radio Research, working under the direction of Cantril, sought to verify a rumor that several people were treated for shock at St. Michael’s Hospital in Newark, N.J. The rumor was checked and found to be inaccurate. When the same researchers surveyed six New York City hospitals six weeks after the broadcast, “none of them had any record of any cases brought in specifically on account of the broadcast.” No specific death has ever been conclusively attributed to the drama. The Washington Post reported that one Baltimore listener died of a heart attack during the show, but unfortunately no one followed up to confirm the story or provide corroborative details. One particularly frightened listener did sue CBS for $50,000, claiming the network caused her “nervous shock.” Her lawsuit was quickly dismissed.

In addition to overblown press coverage, another reason the event went down in history as an instance of "mass hysteria" was the publication of a book in 1940 called The Invasion from Mars. Written by Princeton psychology professor Hadley Cantril, the book purported to explain the War of the Worlds "panic" in sociological terms but suffered from being overly reliant on a skewed report hastily compiled six weeks after the broadcast. On the basis of the report, which Jefferson and Socolow say was "tainted by the sensationalistic newspaper publicity," Cantril estimated that one million listeners had been "frightened" by the show — an impossible number, based on every other known measure of the size of the listening audience. "Worse," Jefferson and Socolow wrote, "Cantril committed an obvious categorical error by conflating being 'frightened,' 'disturbed,' or 'excited' by the program with being 'panicked.'"

Was a small percentage of listeners frightened — and a few even panicked, perhaps — by The War of the Worlds on the night of the broadcast? Clearly, yes. Many of those, it was determined afterwards, had tuned in late and missed obvious clues that it was fiction (and a large percentage of those assumed the U.S. was under attack by Germany, not Mars). But was it an instance of mass hysteria overtaking tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S.? The evidence shows otherwise.

31st October 1973

Mountjoy prison helicopter escape:
Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape. Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escape from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the exercise yard.


Helicopter escape from Mountjoy

At Halloween 1973 in Dublin, one of the most audacious, cleverly planned jail escapes in Irish history occurred when three political prisoners - JB O’Hagan, Seamus Twomey and Kevin Mallon were lifted by helicopter from the exercise yard of Mountjoy Jail’s D Wing at 3.40pm to the cheers of other prisoners and the bitter embarrassment of the 26-County coalition government.


As the hijacked helicopter landed in the yard to collect the three republicans, one screw was heard to shout vainly and ludicrously “shut the gates”.

Another republican prisoner who was incarcerated in Mountjoy at the time of the escape wrote in particular reference to one of the escapees, Seamus Twomey: “One shamefaced screw apologised to the governor and said he thought it was the new Minister for Defence arriving. I told him it was our Minister of Defence leaving.”

In Belfast bonfires blazed in celebration of the event and in Dublin over 300 Garda detectives searched hundreds of homes in a vain attempt to track down the escapers.

A typically downbeat IRA statement referred to the Mountjoy escape at the end of a list of IRA operations against the British crown forces: “Three republican prisoners were rescued by a special unit from Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday. The operation was a comlete success and the men are now safe, despite a massive hunt by Free State forces.”

The escape was a great morale boost for republicans throughout Ireland and abroad and a bitter disappointment for British political and military leaders who were attempting militarily to suppress republican resistance in the Six Counties. It was also a cause of deep embarrassment for the Cosgrave coalition in Dublin, widely regarded as the most repressive 26-County administration since the 1940s. This was a government which was a self-proclaimed ‘law and order’ regime and which was making a particular crusade of suppressing support for the republican cause in the 26 Counties.

On the day following the escape, a conference of 26-County army and Garda security chiefs took place in Dublin. Top of the agenda was how to ensure that such an ocurrence could never take place again. At the same time, a judicial inquiry into the state’s ‘security system’ was initiated by the Dublin government.

The Mountjoy helicopter escape became one of the most celebrated jail breaks of all time and has been immortalised by the highly poular republican ballad The Helicopter Song, which contains the memorable lines “It’s up like a bird and over the prison. There’s three men a missing I heard the warder say”.

The escape of three republican prisoners by helicopter from Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, took place on 31 October 1973, 55 years ago today

1 st November 1512

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

                             CEILING OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL IS EXHIBITED FOR THE FIRST TIME

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time. Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, was born in the small village of Caprese in 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a centre of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist's apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts.

After demonstrating his mastery of sculpture in such works as the ‘Pieta’ (1498) and ‘David’ (1504), he was called to Rome in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chief consecrated space in the Vatican. Michelangelo's epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures are nine panels devoted to biblical world history.

The most famous of these is ‘The Creation of Adam’, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. In 1512, Michelangelo completed the work. After 15 years as an architect in Florence, Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1534, where he would work and live for the rest of his life. That year saw his painting of the ‘The Last Judgment’ on the wall above the altar in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Paul III.

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

                                             

         Ceiling and walls of the Cistine chapel.

2 nd November 1959

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


When Mr. Marples opened the first stretch of M1, the London-Birmingham section of the London-Yorkshire motorway, Britain would have eighty miles of road built for fast motor traffic – eight miles of the Preston by-pass and seventy-two miles of M1 and its attendant feeders.

A hundred years ago our Victorian ancestors could build 400 miles of railway in a year: in twelve years since the post-war plan for motorways was announced in 1947 we have contrived to build eighty miles of new motor road. Legal difficulties in the way of obtaining land, which are often given as an excuse for slow progress, are not a convincing explanation.

Victorian railway promoters had more formidable difficulties to contend with. They had to get acts of Parliament to authorise their routes, and they had to negotiate with landowners in days when the rights of private property were more jealously guarded than they are now. When they had got their land, they had to depend on men with picks and shovels to lay out the track. Perhaps the enterprise of railway companies was spurred by the hope of making money, an incentive that does not animate the public authorities which are responsible for building roads. If this difference between public and private enterprise has any bearing on the snail’s pace of modern British road-building it is an unhappy reflection on our society. It would also be an absurd miscalculation, for roads are among the most profitable of investments that a community can make.

In a study by the Road Research Laboratory and the University of Birmingham it has been estimated that the economic benefits deriving from the stretch of M1 opened to-day will repay its capital cost, together with accumulated interest, in between six and eight years - few major schemes of capital investment can do better than that.

Once a start is made, British civil engineers can get on with the job of roadbuilding as well as most: the London-Birmingham stretch of M1 has been built at the rate of about a mile in eight days, with a bridge every three days. No one can grumble at that (as long as the sad experience of the Preston by-pass is not repeated). The delay is in making a start. The Ministry of Transport has already found numbers for great motor routes from M1 to M6, with an ingenious system of double-figured numerology for the link roads connecting them. Only the roads are missing. No one can say when M1 will be finished. M2 is still described officially as “a possible Channel Ports motorway.” M3 and M4 are to serve Exeter and South Wales - but when? M5 has been “reserved” for a Bristol-Birmingham motorway. M6 (Birmingham-Penrith) has eight miles in use (the Preston by-pass) and a Lancaster by-pass which is due to be opened next year. Most of the proposed great roads are still only lines on a map.

There is useful work in progress on spurs and by-passes at Ross-on-Wye, Maidstone, Maidenhead, Doncaster, Stretford, and a few other places. But at the present rate of roadbuilding it will be another generation before these spurs and by-passes lead to a coherent road system. And given motorways, what is to be done with the traffic in the towns to which they lead? Here there are not even many plans.

In an age of serious contemplation of travel to the moon it seems senseless that no British Government has yet devised means of enabling traffic to move more freely on the ground at home.

3 rd November 1957

Laika,fist animal to orbit the earth:

Laika was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into low orbit on 3 November 1957. As the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, Laika's survival was never expected. She died of overheating hours into the flight, on the craft's fourth orbit.

Little was known about the effects of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and animal flights were viewed by engineers as a necessary precursor to human missions. The experiment, which monitored Laika's vital signs, aimed to prove that a living organism could survive being launched into orbit and continue to function under conditions of weakened gravity and increased radiation, providing scientists with some of the first data on the biological effects of spaceflight.

Laika's death was possibly caused by a failure of the central R‑7 sustainer to separate from the payload. The true cause and time of her death were not made public until 2002; instead, it was widely reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion. In 2008, a small monument to Laika depicting her standing atop a rocket was unveiled near the military research facility in Moscow that prepared her flight. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow.