Today in history

29 th August 1930

St Kilda evacuation :
The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.


The islanders of St Kilda were evacuated on 29 August 1930.

The islanders of St Kilda were evacuated at their own request on 29 August 1930. The evacuation came after years of hardship for the islanders, which had seen the population of the island halve to just 37 people in the space of eight years.

The St Kilda archipelago had been occupied by humans for up to 2,000 years but a number of factors, including outbreaks of illness, crop failure and the outbreak of World War I had led to it becoming more difficult for the islanders to maintain their self sufficiency. An increase in curiosity about the islanders and their way of life had also caused problems for the islanders, as tourists sometimes brought with them disease - a visiting ship had brought in cholera and smallpox in the eighteenth century.

30 th August 1916

The rescue from Elephant island :
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 they 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.


Shackleton and Crean went out on the lifeboats and rescued the 22 men. They were taken to the port of Punta Arenas where they were met by cheering crowds and brass bands.


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

31 st August 1997

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


The late Princess Diana often pleaded with paparazzi to give her a break, but they seldom did.

After her death on August 31, 1997, the relentless photographers that dogged her every move were “accused of literally chasing her to her death,” reported CBS News’ Randall Pinkston.

Diana, Princess of Wales, was traveling through Paris in a limo with boyfriend Dodi Fayed, the son of an Egyptian millionaire. They were being chased by photographers, and crashed in a tunnel under the Place de l’Alma.

Fayed and their driver, who later tested positive for alcohol and drugs in his system and was driving nearly twice the speed limit, were killed at the scene. The Princess was rushed to a local hospital, and died after two hours of emergency surgery. She was 36.

Many immediately blamed the paparazzi for going to any means necessary to score a money shot. Just weeks before the accident, tabloids reportedly paid £300,000 for photos of Diana and Fayed vacationing on a yacht.


Diana’s brother Charles Spencer​ called it blood money.

“It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana’s image, has blood on his hands today,” he said after her death.

Even in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, some paparazzi were looking for their biggest payday yet. The editor of a U.S. tabloid told CBS News that worldwide rights to photos taken of Diana trapped in the wreckage were offered to him for one million dollars.

“We refused to buy those pictures, and we issued a challenge to the world press to follow our lead and for no one to publish these pictures,” he said.

Diana, who was deeply beloved​ in Britain and all over the world, was often referred to as the “People’s Princess.” Nearly one billion people worldwide watched her marriage to Prince Charles​ in 1981​. She was known for her charity work with numerous organizations benefitting children, the homeless, the disabled, and people with HIV/AIDS.

“Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her,” Queen Elizabeth II​ said to the nation in an address the week after Diana’s death.


Ironically, it was the public’s adoration and fixation on her that drove the tabloids’ rabid coverage. Her marriage to the Prince of Wales​ was plagued with rumors of infidelity from early on, and their divorce in 1996 put a public strain on her relationship with the royal family -- further fueling speculation about her private life.

As a result, conspiracy theories have surrounded Diana’s death​ almost since the day she was killed. One of the most popular ideas was that the royal family, supposedly embarrassed and angered by the divorce, orchestrated the accident.

Even Fayed’s father, Mohamed​, accused the British establishment of plotting the death of his son and Diana.

Another theory suggested The Princess was pregnant with Fayed’s baby when she died, but it was covered up by medical personnel and the government.

Nearly 20 years after Diana’s death, the media’s interest in the royals​ has not wavered. The on-again-off-again relationship and eventual marriage of her son Prince William to Kate Middleton​, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was covered every step of the way by the British press.

Just last year, Kensington Palace issued a warning to the paparazzi​ targeting their toddler son, Prince George.

Diana and Prince Charles’ younger son, Prince Harry​, survived his fair share of scandalous headlines after drunken nights as a teen and young man. Even Kate’s sister Pippa has been pulled into the fray, her love life constantly examined​ by the press.

1 st September 1878

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

HISTORYTHE 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

The 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.


London The 2nd of September 1666 AD

It would be hard to imagine a greater fire-risk than the City of London in the 1666. The population of 80,000 was crowded into an area limited by the old Roman walls and the Thames , where every spare inch possible was built on in an unplanned and largely unregulated warren of narrow streets. It was commonplace for buildings to be jettied, that is with upper floors overhanging the lower ones, making it even easier for flames to pass from one side of a street to the next. Corruption meant little was done about illegal building materials and methods. London had been suffering from a prolonged drought, with far less rain than usual throughout the entire year.

Though wood and thatch were in principle banned there as building materials, in practice this was ignored. Pitch too was used as a sealing and coating material. Similarly trades where fire was a part of the activity were generally banned, but smithies and glaziers abounded. Only the wealthy merchants and manufacturers could afford stone buildings.

At about midnight on September 2 1666 a fire started in the bakery of one Thomas Farriner (also spelled Farynor at times) in Pudding Lane, and spread through his house before a servant was woken by the flames. The baker and his family escaped, but one maid was too panicked to get out, and became the first victim of the fire.

Before action could be taken to combat the flames they reached stores of hay in the Star Inn on Fish Street Hill. Fanned by a strong wind the conflagration advanced to St Margaret’s church and thence to the warehouses on Thames Street: oil, timber, strong drink, hay and many other items ideal for feeding a fire were engulfed by the spreading inferno.

Politics local and national didn’t help the situation as regards any hopes of fighting the blaze. The Lord Mayor was worried about the possible costs and what people would think were he to take the usual route to combating major fires, that is knocking down houses in its path to deny the fire fuel and a way of spreading. He failed to act decisively, and what made things worse was the City , strongly Parliamentarian during the Civil War a few years previously, was loath to accept help from King Charles II ’s soldiery. The citizens’ fire brigades had little equipment beyond buckets, and by the time Charles did take the situation in hand things had become truly desperate. He sent men in to prevent lynchings of foreigners, about whom rumours had inevitably started. And he later organised markets for the distribution of food (though not food aid, a concept not then thought of) outside the city, when those driven from their homes began to feel the pangs of hunger.

When demolitions began with the intention of creating fire-breaks, it was too late, and the over-crowded areas in any case meant that the flames simply spread via the remains of the houses which had been blown up.

The fire was to last until September 5. When it finally died down more than 13,000 houses had been destroyed, along with almost 90 churches. Thousands were ruined. The loss of life is generally thought to have been low, perhaps less than 20 people, though this may be because bodies were incinerated beyond recognition as bodies in the huge firestorm which created self-sustaining conditions such that wind was sucked into the fire, the oxygen feeding the flames, the flames rising into the sky and drawing more oxygen in at ground level from the edges. The City became in effect a giant incinerator.

Many more probably died of cold and hunger in the aftermath than perished in the flames. One poor man, a poor deluded creature, Frenchman called Robert Hubert, confessed to having started the fire, though he at first said it was begun in Westminster rather than Pudding Lane. After his trial and execution it was discovered he did not arrive in London until two days after the start of the conflagration.

Charles II showed his leadership after the fire, driving a radical redesign of the City which included the commissioning of Sir Christopher Wren to produce St Paul’s Cathedral as we see it today, one of almost 50 places of worship he was to construct in the aftermath of the fire.

The fire is commemorated by a monument at the point where it started, though Pudding Lane of course perished in the flames, and the 61m tall column designed by Wren fittingly stands in Monument Street.

3 rd September 1935

    Land speed records, first 300 mph :
                                 Sir Malcolm Campbell reaches a speed of 304.331 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, becoming the first person to drive an automobile over 300 mph.

 


Sir Malcolm Campbell – first man to exceed 300mph on land

Malcolm Campbell was born on 11 March 1885. The son of a diamond merchant, he soon developed an interest in speed. In 1924 he held the land speed record of 146.16 mph (miles per hour) achieved in an early Bluebird at Pendine Sands, Pembrokeshire. Bluebird became the name given to his machines for attempts on land and water, a tradition carried on in later years by his son Donald. In 1925 the record was raised to 150mph.

Over the next ten years rivalry between Malcolm Campbell and Henry Seagrave meant the land speed world record swapped between the two. Malcolm Campbell became the first man to exceed 300mph on 3 September 1935 on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

Turning from records on land, he took the world water speed record in 1937 with a speed of 129.5mph, which he increased in 1938. Finally on 19 August 1939, at Coniston Water in the Lake District, he achieved a speed of 141.7mph, a record he still held when he died on 31 December 1948, in Reigate.

He was born in Rossmore on Chislehurst Common where he lived until 1894. Between 1895 and 1908 he lived at Norwood in Manor Park Road, Chislehurst.

A commemorative plaque is on Bonchester, a house in Bonchester Close, off Camden Park Road, Chislehurst, where Campbell’s parents lived between 1909 and 1922. There is no evidence that he ever lived there.

4 th September 1998
 
                    Google is born :
                                           Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.

                      Google
On this day in history, September 4, 1998,  Larry Page and Sergey Brin found the Internet search engine Google while they were still the graduate students at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The world’s most successful dot-com search engine was founded after the duo one day created an algorithm to solve a computer task and it ended up searching all the hypertext documents available in cyberspace related to the term. They came up with the idea to create a search tool that will list relevant Web pages by analyzing backlinks" in a hypertext document, or how many times other sites linked to it as opposed to the search engine Hot Bot, popular in the 90s that curated all search results including the irrelevant ones, encyclopedia of world biography reports.

5 th September 1887

Second fire at theatre royal fills 186

A fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, kills 186.


Exeter, Devon The 5th of September 1887 AD

In spite of the previous Exeter Theatre Royal having burned down just two years previously, lessons had not been learned when it came to fire precautions and design for its replacement. Additionally, though the architect Charles Phipps was a specialist in the construction of theatres who had contracted to include the latest safety measures in his plans, he seems to have skimped when it came to the building stage.
The design produced by Phipps was deeply flawed in various ways - a crazy lack of exits; spiral staircases partly blocking corridors; no fire escapes for those on upper floors. For all this the eventual coroner's jury verdict on the disaster was accidental death.
On the night of September 5 1887 the theatre was hosting a performance of Romany Rye, a romantic drama that required many scene changes, thus many curtain backdrops were crowding the flies. To make matters worse, there were backdrops in place ready for the forthcoming panto season. When the gas lighting in the area set one of these backdrops alight a terrible and rapid fire began.
There were between 800 and 900 in the theatre that night. Some 186 people died: many were crushed in the rush to the few exits; some died jumping from high balconies to the streets below; and most horrifically of all those at the rear of the jammed mass fighting to get out of the gallery were burned to death.
The West of England Insurance Company fire engine Little West attended the fire, but water was ineffective against the inferno. A local hero emerged from the tragedy, Robert Pople, who was the landlord of a pub nearby, the New London Inn. Pople brought ladders to the scene and rescued many who were stuck on the roof of a high portico.
Most of the victims were buried in a mass grave at Higher Cemetery in Exeter , but only 68 bodies could be recovered of the 186 known to have perished.
This disaster was one of the events that led to drastic changes in fire regulations and the design of public buildings, and it was also notable for the reaction of the British public, who donated more than £20,000 to support the injured and the families of those who died.

16 th September 1620

The Pilgrims and the Mayflower :
The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America.


On this day in 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower.

In the decades to come, tens of thousands of Puritans would follow them to settle in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven and Rhode Island. They sailed in pursuit of religious freedom, and over the years the foundations were laid for an example that would be admired around the world.

Persecution and expulsion
This was a freedom born out of tribulation.

In 16th century England, believers had experienced dire persecution at the hands of Queen Mary I. Nearly 300 Protestant men and women were burned at the stake during her rule. Many more fled to mainland Europe.

While Elizabeth I’s accession brought relief from violence, those who hoped for a thorough reformation of the Church of England grew increasingly frustrated. Proposals to reform the ceremonial Anglican services were routinely defeated. But rather than tolerate those who objected to religious trappings such as the wearing of vestments or kneeling at communion, Elizabeth enforced compliance. Then, in 1604, Archbishop of Canterbury Richard Bancroft’s anti-dissenting measures saw many Puritan ministers expelled from the Church of England.

As well as facing official opposition from the Establishment, Puritans and Separatists were disliked by the general population. Their distinctiveness led to ridicule by satirists and playwrights, and accusations of hypocrisy.


After years of worshipping in secret, in 1608 many fled to the Netherlands. There they found the religious freedom they were searching for and settled in the university town of Leiden. However, living conditions were poor. Many found the language and culture difficult, and were concerned that their children were growing up ‘foreigners’.

Plans were made for America, and the historic voyage set sail in 1620.

November 2020 marked 400 years since those aboard the Mayflower saw the New World and signed the Mayflower Compact.

Harsh realities
The Mayflower carried people with varying backgrounds and differing religious convictions. As well as those seeking the freedom to worship outside the Church of England, some were simply making the journey for business reasons. Tensions between the two groups led to the Mayflower Compact, a covenant signed by most male passengers to work together for the common good

Among those on board was William Bradford, the future Governor of Plymouth colony. His introduction to life in the new world was abrupt and harsh. Taking on the role following the death of the first Governor, John Carver, Bradford had to manage the difficulties of very different groups of people living closely together. Meanwhile, the Pilgrims’ numbers dwindled rapidly – more than half the colony died in the first winter.

In March 1630 there were more arrivals; emigrants from the Old World, carrying with them a charter from the king, a clear mandate to create a nation.

Among them, the first recorded female published poet, Anne Bradstreet. Ahead of her a life filled with trials: the deaths of three grandchildren, the destruction of her house by fire, and near constant sickness. Yet in her writings, it is the sovereignty of God that shines through, not her personal difficulties.

‘City on a hill’
The Pilgrims didn’t get everything right. Puritans generally believed that “the goal of government in church and state was… to produce godliness”. Their vision was for a Christian covenant community, a “city upon a hill”.

This meant religious freedom was limited in the early days. Disagreement was seen as a threat to the stability of society and had to be dealt with. But the religious liberty eventually established in Rhode Island by Royal Charter in 1663 was the blueprint for freedom in what would later become the United States of America.

In Massachusetts freedom to worship according to your own beliefs gradually became accepted. By the close of the 17th century, New Jersey, Carolina and Pennsylvania were given charters with a degree of religious freedom, although participation in public life was still limited for many years.

Lessons for today
The Pilgrim Fathers’ fervent desire was to be able to worship God freely, yet their early years in America included repeated acts of religious intolerance.

We should be glad that in Britain today, people are not forced to attend church, for example. Even if it means people live as if there were no God or worship a false god, this is the price of true religious freedom. However, believers should still urge the civil authorities to pass laws that uphold biblical standards because we know that they are for the good of everyone – our neighbour as well as ourselves – to the glory of God.

7 th September 1940

world war 11 Beginning of the blitz:


After failing to take out Britain's fighter command in the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe changed tactics. It decided it would terrorise Britain's population into submission. And so on this day in 1940, it began an eight-month campaign of bombing Britain's main cities – 350 bombers crossed the channel and headed for London, where they dropped 300 tonnes of explosives.

Day and night (mainly night) the bombs fell. On that first night, almost 2,000 people were killed or wounded. Within a month, 6,000 were dead, and by the end of the campaign, 40,000 had lost their lives.

In total, London was attacked 71 times. But it wasn't just the capital that suffered. Other cities were targeted too, most famously Coventry, laid to waste on 14 November. The ten-hour raid was the biggest the world had ever seen.


Despite the danger, the Queen Mother spent her days in London – though her nights were spent in the relative safety of Windsor Castle – and took many trips to the East End to survey the damage and lift the spirits of the people. And on 13 September, Buckingham Palace was hit. The bomb "hurtled past us and exploded with a tremendous crash in the quadrangle", wrote the Queen Mother. "I am glad we have been bombed", she said. "Now we can look the East End in the eye."

Though people today talk about the Blitz spirit, it wasn't all stiff upper lips and making do. It led to a big rise in crime, and made a lot of wrong 'uns wealthy. Career criminal Billy Hill was one. “Money was easy”, he said. “The villains were loaded with dough and we were all busy.”

Britain's wartime black market “was the most fantastic side of civilian life in wartime”, said Hill. “Make no mistake. It cost Britain millions of pounds. I didn't merely make use of the black market. I fed it.”

The Blitz finally ended in May 1941, when the bombers headed east to concentrate on softening up Russia for invasion.

8th September 1727

The Burwell puppet show tragedy :

A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.'

On 21 st October, people in a little Welsh village near Merthyr Tydfil will pause and think back, with great sadness,

On October 21, 1966, the world was stunned by the news that a massive landslide at Aberfan had engulfed a farm, houses – and a school. Spoil from a nearby colliery, loosened by water, crashed down the mountainside just as youngsters at Pantglas Junior School were starting their first lessons of the day, and the mix of mud and debris poured into their classrooms. A few children managed to escape, but 116 died, together with 28 adults.


This year, it will be the 297th anniversary of a lesser known tragedy in a similarly small community – in Cambridgeshire. On September 8, 1727, 51 children, and 27 adults, were killed in a horrific fire in a barn at Burwell, where they had crammed in to watch a travelling puppet show. Astonishingly, the door of the barn had been nailed up after they had gone inside.


The shocking story of the Burwell fire in Cuckolds Row is remembered in the graveyard of St Mary the Virgin church, with a memorial depicting a flaming heart. On the tombstone are the words: “To the memory of the 78 people who were burnt to death in a barn at Burwell on September 8, 1727."

The story is told in Burwell's parish register: “At about 9 o'clock on the evening of September 8th 1727, fire broke out in a barn, in which a great number of persons were met together to see a puppet show." The cause of the fire was a lantern with a lighted candle in it, which had been accidentally knocked over, setting fire to straw.

A first-hand report from a survivor claimed many more people than the barn could accommodate wanted to see the show, so the door was nailed shut to prevent anyone else from coming in.

All those who died were buried in the churchyard of St Mary's, and a few months later the man who had been in charge of the lantern was tried at an assize held in Cambridge, but was acquitted.

Nearly half a century later, there was a dramatic conclusion to the terrible tale. A local newspaper reported that an old man living in a village near Newmarket had made a deathbed confession – admitting to starting the fire deliberately.

The newspaper said: “He said he had a burden to disclose. He then confessed that he had set fire to the barn at Burwell on September 8th 1727. He said he was an ostler at the time, and that, having an antipathy to the puppet showman, was the cause of his committing that diabolical action attended with such dreadful consequences."

9 th September 2015

Longest reigning monarch :
Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.

On this day in 2015, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in Britain’s history at the age of 89, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria’s tenure on the throne. According to the UK media reports, while Queen Victoria, reigned for 63 years and 217 days, the queen made history as she witnessed an estimated twelve US presidents, at least twelve British prime ministers, and seven popes during her reign. Queen Elizabeth assumed the thrones in the year 1952, at the age of 25, after marrying Prince Philip in 1947.

In 2015, as she marked the celebrations with “business as usual”, the Queen inaugurated a new train in Scotland. She addressed the cheering public in Scotland and wore her great-great-grandmother’s diamond bow brooch, however, as per reports, she made no mention of Queen Victoria. She thanked her well-wishers and the gatherers, saying, that she was indebted to them and the First Minister, who noted the significance of the day. She thanked many at home and overseas for the touching messages of great kindness. Mentioning her reign as the queen, she said that a long life can pass by many milestones, adding, that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, and Catherine would join her in the celebration at Balmoral in Aberdeenshire later.

10 th September 1547

The 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.


On September 10th 1547 the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh was fought on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh in Scotland. It was the last pitched battle between Scottish and English armies and took place during the wars of the Rough Wooing. The Scottish defeat was so severe that it became known as Black Saturday in Scotland.

At the end of his reign, Henry VIII was keen to marry his young son, Edward to the baby Mary, Queen of Scots. Diplomatic efforts failed as the Scots preferred a French alliance, so Henry invaded Scotland to secure the young queen, sparking the conflict which became known as the Rough Wooing. When Henry died soon afterwards the war was continued by the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset.

Somerset was keen to pursue the policy of pushing Scotland into an alliance by marrying Mary to Edward and hoped to force an Anglican Reformation onto the Scottish church. In September 1547 Somerset led his army into Scotland, supported by a large fleet. He marched along the east coast of Scotland to keep contact with the fleet in order to secure his supplies. His troops were constantly harassed by local horsemen but their advance could not be stopped.

Meanwhile, to the west, Thomas Wharton and the Scottish Earl of Lennox, who chose to support the English invasion, invaded with 5000 men in an intended diversion, burning Annan and taking Castlemilk. The Earl of Arran had raised an army which consisted mostly of local pikemen and some Highland archers. He had some guns although these were not mobile enough to be particularly useful, and 2000 cavalry under the Earl of Home, consisting mainly of Borderers, whose loyalty tended to be somewhat fluid.

Arran decided to make his stand on the west bank of the River Esk to stop Somerset’s march. His left flank protected his left flank and a boggy area was on his right. The Scots constructed basic fortifications to mount cannon and arquebuses, some of which were pointed into the Forth to keep English ships at bay.

Part of Somerset’s army took possession of Fawside Hill to the east of Arran’s position on September 9th and later in the day, occupied the Inveresk Slopes with guns, overlooking the Scottish position. Lord Home, in a dramatic and pointless gesture, led 1500 cavalry towards the English and challenged them. Lord Grey accepted the challenge and led a force of men-at-arms and demi-lancers against the Scots. The Scots were routed and pursued for three miles westwards, depriving Arran of the bulk of his cavalry. During the night further challenges were issued, one from Arran asking that the dispute be settled by single combat between Arran and Somerset and a second for a battle between 20 champions from each side. Somerset rejected both of these anachronistic proposals; he was probably astonished that they had been made at all.

On the morning of Saturday, 10 September, Somerset moved his army to join up with his guns at Inveresk. He realised that Arran had moved his army across the Esk by the Roman bridge and was marching rapidly to meet him. Arran knew that he was badly outgunned in terms of artillery and hoped to force close combat before the English guns had time to deploy. Unfortunately, this advance moved him out of the protection of his guns on the Forth and the Scottish left flank was badly mauled by fire from the English warships.


The Roman Bridge over the Esk where some of the fleeing Scots came under heavy fire (Kim Traynor, Wikimedia)
Thrown into confusion, Arran’s left wing crashed into his centre while on the other flank, Somerset send in his cavalry. The Scottish pikemen drove them back, inflicting heavy casualties onto the cavalry and Lord Grey was wounded by a pike through his throat. Despite this success, the Scottish advance had faltered and their army was now under heavy fire from the warships as well as English artillery and archers. Unable to stand any longer they broke and ran, just as the English cavalry, which had regrouped, joined the battle, preceded by the English vanguard of 300 men under Sir John Luttrell. The fleeing Scots were chased towards the Esk and into the bogs. Many were drowned or slaughtered while trying to escape and the retreat turned into a bloody rout.

The Scottish army was shattered but their government stubbornly refused to come to terms with the English. The young Queen was sent into hiding as Somerset occupied Scottish castles and towns along the border and held large swathes of territory in the Borders and Lowlands. Still the war dragged on, costing men and money, and Somerset was distracted by political problems at home. On 7th August, Mary sailed to France from Dumbarton and French troops were beginning to arrive in Scotland to support their allies. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Norham on 10 June 1551 and the last English troops were withdrawn from Scotland.

Despite the disaster at Pinkie Cleugh, the English failed to achieve their aims and probably felt that the war had resulted in a waste of men and money. The Franco-Scottish alliance went ahead, and Mary was married to the young Dauphin of France. She remained in France until her young husband unexpectedly died in 1560 and suddenly, the marriage of the Scottish queen became, once again, a matter of interest to England, now under the very different rule of her cousin Elizabeth. While the battle’s political consequences were slight, military historians have given it a greater significance as what may be seen as the first ‘modern’ battle on British soil, an idea explored in more detail in this article by Gervase Phillips originally published in Military History magazine in 1997.

A Marcher Lord – a story of the Anglo-Scottish borders
My own introduction to Pinkie Cleugh, which I had never heard of before, was in the first of Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond chronicles A Game of Kings, where the battle is a key point of the story. The battle is significant in A Marcher Lord, set on the Borders during the War of the Rough Wooing where defeat at Pinkie Cleugh sends Will Scott back to his border fortress along with many other loyal Scots to try to hold it against the invading English. I love the Scottish borders and have spent many hours walking the hills and driving through the valleys, my feet in the present and my head very much in the past. There is an excellent battlefield walk which I would recommend to anybody visiting the area, and especially on a misty day as it was when I visited, it is very easy to imagine the sound of guns, the clashing of pikes and swords and the screams of dying men and horses on that Saturday in 1547…

11 th September 2001

The 9/11 terror attacks :
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.


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.

The alleged planner of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. He has been held in US custody at Guantanamo Bay since then, and is still awaiting trial.

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

US troops left Afghanistan this year 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

Battle of 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.

A Brief History
On September 12, 490 BC, an epic battle was fought between the Greeks (primarily Athenians) and the Persian Empire at the plains of Marathon, Greece, about 26 miles from Athens, with the result being a great victory for the outnumbered Greeks and giving rise to the legend of Pheidippides running the long distance to bring news of the victory to Athens, giving the happy word with his dying breaths. The battle marked a turning point in the power struggle between the Greeks and Persians and resulted in a period of Greek sovereignty over their own land.

Digging Deeper
The Battle of Marathon came about as a Persian invasion of Greece was mounted in order to punish and subjugate Athens for that city-state having the gall to incite revolution in Ionia against Persian rule. Persian King Darius I sent an invasion force of 600 triremes carrying 100,000 sailors (which would serve as a reserve land force) along with a main force of 25,000 infantry troops supplemented by 1000 mounted cavalrymen. Additional Persian resources included 200 or more supply ships and 50 or more horse carrying ships. The massive Persian force was to be defended against by only 10,000 Athenian hoplites and an additional 1000 Plataean soldiers. (Plataea being another Greek city.)


The outnumbered Greeks were sure to choose the battlefield wisely, and just as they would at Thermopylae forced the Persians to attack on a narrow front, with mountains and marshes channelizing the Persians and ruining any chance for the Persian cavalry to envelop the Greeks. Greek tactics were to use their “missile troops” (those that threw spears, javelins, arrows and other objects of weaponry) in the middle of an attack on the Persians, thus fooling the Persians into pouring their best troops into the center of the battle. The Greeks then turned both flanks of the Persians and descended upon the Persian center, causing panic and futile attempts at flight. The historian Herodotus reported only about 200 Greeks were killed compared to the loss of about 6400 Persians killed and the destruction of at least 7 Persian ships. Modern historians estimate Greek losses at between 1000 and 3000 dead and Persian losses at perhaps 5000 dead. Either way, the Persians were routed and Athens was for the time saved.

Although superior Persian forces still existed and plans were made to again attack the Athenians, Persian attention was diverted by unrest in Persian held Egypt that required immediate attention, allowing the Greeks a much needed respite. The Battle of Marathon proved Greeks had the ability to beat the mighty Persians and began a string of victories by the Greeks over the Persians. The Battle of Marathon also proved that Athens could be quite successful militarily without the aid of Sparta, a significant development in Greek political relationships.

13 th September 1989


Apartheid in Souyh Africa :
Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu.

Tutu leads biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa



On 13 September 1989 Desmond Tutu led an anti-apartheid march with thirty thousand estimated participants in Cape Town. This march leads to more peaceful marches in Johannesburg and Durban with Anglican bishops at the helm. The marches were organised to fight against the apartheid system, including the freeing of Nelson Mandela and other imprisoned activists. Tutu became the chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after he retired as archbishop of Cape Town in 1996.He is now well known for his contribution, views and experience especially in reconciliation by promoting harmony among all South African.

14 th September 1984

The amazing Joe Kittinger :
Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.


This Day in History: Joseph Kittinger, the Man Who Fell From Space.

On this day in 1984, retired Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger completes a solo balloon flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip was the first of its kind, but it wasn’t even Kittinger’s most challenging feat. Do you know about Kittinger’s stratospheric jump from more than 100,000 feet in the air?


The 1960 feat earned him the moniker “the Man Who Fell from Space.”


Kittinger set a world record for the highest parachute jump that day. It was a record that he held for decades, but he surely considered it a happy side effect of his real goal: to design safe parachute systems for our Air Force pilots who are forced to eject at high-altitudes—and to prove that man could be protected and survive in a space-like environment.


We all know that our military take risks on the battlefield. But Kittinger was one of those who took huge risks off the battlefield, too.


Kittinger’s involvement with Project Excelsior began in 1958, although the real air tests didn’t come until late 1959. That first attempt at jumping from a high-altitude nearly ended in disaster. Kittinger took a balloon up to 76,000 feet, but ran into problems within seconds of making his jump. His small parachute opened only two seconds into his fall. That little parachute was intended to stabilize him and prevent him from going into a fatal flat spin. Instead, it caught him around the neck and created the flat spin it was meant to avoid. Kittinger lost consciousness; he survived only because he had an emergency parachute that opened automatically at 10,000 feet.


Can you believe he went up and tried again, less than a month later? The second jump was a successful one from 74,700 feet. The real test came on August 16, 1960.


Kittinger had much to do to prepare for a ride into the stratosphere, as you can imagine.


“At 4 a.m. I began breathing pure oxygen for two hours,” he would later tell a reporter. “That’s how long it takes to remove all the nitrogen from your blood so you don’t get the bends going so high so fast.” He dressed in a protective suit and worked hard not to sweat. He couldn’t have wet clothes that would freeze on the way up!


Nevertheless, Kittinger ran into a problem at 40,000 feet. His pressure suit wasn’t working on his right hand. If he told the ground crew, they’d abort the test. So he kept going, without reporting the problem. “I took a calculated risk, that I might lose use of my right hand,” he later said.


Finally, after an hour and a half of climbing, Kittinger reached an altitude of 102,800 feet. He was on the edge of space! He disconnected from the balloon’s power supply and silently prayed: “Lord, take care of me now.” Then he jumped.


He looked up and at first thought that the balloon above his head was “just roaring into space.” Then he realized that he was the one moving at a “fantastic rate,” not the balloon. He was going 614 mph by the time he reached 90,000 feet. Kittinger would later describe much of the rest of his fall as “anticlimactic.” The chutes worked as designed and he fell safely to the ground.


Hmm. Anti-climactic to reach the ground safely while testing life-saving equipment for Air Force pilots? Perhaps only a hero such as Kittinger would make such a statement.

15 th September 1830

Opening of the Liverpool / Manchester railway and the first rail fatality :


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, 1830

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in Liverpool and Manchester Railway 18301830, was the first modern, inter-city passenger railway. It was the first to rely exclusively on steam power, run a scheduled passenger service and use a system of signalling. Earlier railways had used horse power, fixed steam engines and locomotives.

The opening of the railway was a momentous occasion, but it was marred by tragedy, when William Huskisson, MP and former cabinet member, was fatally wounded by an oncoming train.

The bill is passed

Parliament gave permission for the new railway to be built in 1826. On 5 May, a bill was passed, ‘An Act for making and maintaining a Railway or Tramroad from the Town of Liverpool to the Town of Manchester, with certain Branches therefrom, all in the County of Lancaster’ . A previous bill had been rejected in July 1825, due to inaccuracies with two surveys. A third survey was accurately completed by Charles Blacker Vignoles. George Stephenson, engineer, was appointed to design and build the line.

Much of the building of the 35-mile line was done by hand by workers with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. It was hard physical labour, under squalid working conditions.The men, nicknamed 'navvies', lived near construction sites, and serious injury and deaths were not uncommon. Edwin Chadwick, social reformer, would later speak out against the plight of rail workers and pressured for legislation for better working conditions and rights.

The Rainhill trials

With the construction almost complete, the 1829 Rainhill trials took place to find the best locomotive (or stationery steam engine which pulled carts by links or cables) for the job. On the third day of the trials, George Stephenson won with his locomotive Rocket, which he had built with his son, Robert. It averaged 12mph, with a top speed of 30mph, and was the only locomotive to complete the trial’s several tasks. Robert Stephenson Company gained the contract to produce locomotives for the line.

The new railway was intended to speedily transport raw materials, goods and passengers between the two towns – Manchester, the centre of the textiles industry, and the key port of Liverpool. It was to be a double track, built to 4 feet, 8.5 inches.

William Huskisson:

Returned as MP for Chichester in 1812 (Gazette issue 16665), Huskisson rose from commissioner of ‘His Majesty's Woods, forests, and Land Revenues’ in 1814 (Gazette issue 16923) to president of the board of trade and treasurer of the Navy in 1823 (Gazette issue 17893). He became secretary of state for war and the colonies and leader of the House of Commons in 1827 (Gazette issue 18393), resigning from this office in 1828. In 1830, he was present at the state funeral of King George IV (Gazette issue 18696).

He was returned as an MP for the borough of Liverpool in 1823 (Gazette issue 18717), succeeding George Canning, a position he held at the point of his death.

The final mention of Huskisson in The Gazette is in December 1830, nearly three months after his death, when he was replaced as an MP for Liverpool, ‘William Ewart, Esq, in the room of the Right Honourable William Huskisson, deceased’ (Gazette issue 18753).

The day of the opening

Huskisson, along with other dignitaries, including Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, attended the opening on 15 September 1830. Eight trains, including the Rocket, took part in the procession. The company’s chief engineer, Stephenson, drove the Northumberland at the lead.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company organised much celebration, timed for the day of its opening, where thousands of spectators gathered, jostling for the best vantage points.

After 17 miles, the engines made a scheduled stop for water. On stepping down from the train at Newton-le-Willows (despite passengers being advised to stay inside the carriage), Huskisson approached the Duke of Wellington to shake hands in a move of reconciliation after earlier disagreements.

Unbeknown to Huskisson, the Rocket, driven by Joseph Locke, was approaching on the adjacent track. "An engine is approaching. Take care, gentlemen!" was heard. Others managed to move out of the way and on to the embankment or back into their carriages, but Huskisson panicked and, clinging to the duke’s carriage door, found himself in the path of the oncoming train. On impact his leg was badly mangled, and he was rushed to Eccles by train, driven by George Stephenson.

There were calls, especially by the prime minister, to cease the day’s events and return to Liverpool. However, a large crowd had gathered in Manchester to see the trains arrive and were becoming increasingly restless. Some were using the public occasion to call for political reforms. Advised that it would be safest to resume, and aware of the bad publicity and unrest if they retreated, they proceeded to the destination, with the mood understandably much subdued (though the reception and banquet was to go ahead). Huskisson died a at around 9pm, having made a will when he was aware that he had been mortally wounded.

The funeral was on Friday 24 September, and almost every business in Liverpool was closed as a mark of respect to Huskisson. The railway went on to be a financial success and ushered in a modern age of travel. Within 20 years there were 6,200 miles of rail in Britain.

Soon to follow were the 1844 Railway Regulation Act , which made provision for less well-off rail passengers, and Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 (Gazette issue 20635), which legislated that railway lines were to be built at a uniform width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches across the country – a legacy of Stephenson’s Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

16 th September 1959


The first photocopier (with fire extinguisher ):
The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

Sept 16, 1959 The First Successful Copier!
Posted on September 16, 2016 by aalim
Can you guess which company introduced the first successful commercial photocopier? It was Xerox.

Xerox has been around for a very long time and they marked their spot in photocopying history when they introduced the first photocopier to the world.

The first successful commercial photocopier which was roughly the size of a desk was introduced by Haloid Xerox on September 16th 1959. Xerox called it the Xerox 914 Photocopier which was broadcast on live television to demonstrate this new machine, first of its kind. It took the Xerox 914 machine around 25 seconds to make one copy which is very impressive at that time considering it was the first ever photo copier in the world.

The launch of the Xerox 914 was a success even though if too many copies were printed during one period of time, it would overheat. This could lead to the machine catching fire if used over a period of time. But Xerox had a solution to this. They attached a small fire extinguisher with every photocopier sold. I know this won’t be acceptable in today’s era. Imagine your brand new iPhone 7 Plus was shipped with a small USB fan, because it was overheating?? How ridiculous would that be.

Take a look below at how the first Xerox photocopier looked compared to today’s newer models

17 th September 1908


Aviation history and the first aircraft fatality :

The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality.



It had only been five years since Orville and Wilbur Wright made their famous flight at Kitty Hawk. By 1908, the Wright brothers were traveling across the United States and Europe in order to demonstrate their flying machine.

Everything went well until that fateful day, September 17, 1908, which began with a cheering crowd of 2,000 and ended with pilot Orville Wright severely injured and passenger Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge dead.

A Flight Exhibition

Orville Wright had done this before. He had taken his first official passenger, Lt. Frank P. Lahm, into the air on September 10, 1908, at Fort Myer, Virginia. Two days later, Orville took another passenger, Major George O. Squier, up in the Flyer for nine minutes.

These flights were part of an exhibition for the United States Army. The U.S. Army was considering purchasing the Wrights' aircraft for a new military airplane. To get this contract, Orville had to prove that the airplane could successfully carry passengers.

Though the first two trials had been successful, the third was to prove a catastrophe.

Lift Off!

Twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge volunteered to be a passenger. A member of the Aerial Experiment Association (an organization headed by Alexander Graham Bell and in direct competition with the Wrights), Lt. Selfridge was also on the Army board that was assessing the Wrights' Flyer at Fort Myers, Virginia.

It was just after 5 p.m. on September 17, 1908, when Orville and Lt. Selfridge got into the airplane. Lt. Selfridge was the Wrights' heaviest passenger thus far, weighing 175 pounds. Once the propellers were turned, Lt. Selfridge waved to the crowd. For this demonstration, approximately 2,000 people were present.

The weights were dropped and the airplane was off.

Out of Control

The Flyer was up in the air. Orville was keeping it very simple and had successfully flown three laps over the parade ground at an altitude of approximately 150 feet.

Then Orville heard light tapping. He turned and quickly looked behind him, but he didn't see anything wrong. Just to be safe, Orville thought he should turn off the engine and glide to the ground.

But before Orville could shut off the engine, he heard "two big thumps, which gave the machine a terrible shaking."

"The machine would not respond to the steering and lateral balancing levers, which produced a most peculiar feeling of helplessness."
Something flew off the airplane. (It was later discovered to be a propeller.) Then the airplane suddenly veered right. Orville couldn't get the machine to respond. He shut off the engine. He kept trying to regain control of the airplane.

". . . I continued to push the levers, when the machine suddenly turned to the left. I reversed the levers to stop the turning and to bring the wings on a level. Quick as a flash, the machine turned down in front and started straight for the ground."
Throughout the flight, Lt. Selfridge had remained silent. A few times Lt. Selfridge had glanced at Orville to see Orville's reaction to the situation.

The airplane was about 75 feet in the air when it started a nose-dive to the ground. Lt. Selfridge let out a nearly inaudible "Oh! Oh!"

The Crash

Heading straight for the ground, Orville was not able to regain control. The Flyer hit the ground hard. The crowd was at first in silent shock. Then everyone ran over to the wreckage.

The crash created a cloud of dust. Orville and Lt. Selfridge were both pinned in the wreckage. They were able to disentangle Orville first. He was bloody but conscious. It was harder to get Selfridge out. He too was bloody and had an injury to his head. Lt. Selfridge was unconscious.

The two men were taken by stretcher to the nearby post hospital. Doctors operated on Lt. Selfridge, but at 8:10 p.m., Lt. Selfridge died from a fractured skull, without ever regaining consciousness. Orville suffered a broken left leg, several broken ribs, cuts on his head, and many bruises.

Lt. Thomas Selfridge was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. He was the first man to die in an airplane.

Orville Wright was released from the Army hospital on October 31. Though he would walk and fly again, Orville continued to suffer from fractures in his hip that had gone unnoticed at the time.

Orville later determined that the crash was caused by a stress crack in the propeller. The Wrights soon redesigned the Flyer to eliminate the flaws that led to this accident.

18 th September 1879

Th'loominatshuns :

The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.

The Illuminations were first shown in 1879 when they were described as 'Artificial sunshine', and consisted of just eight carbon arc lamps which bathed the Promenade. The original event preceded Thomas Edison's patent of the electric light bulb by twelve months. The first display similar to the modern-day displays was held in May 1912 to mark the first British Royal family visit to Blackpool when Princess Louise opened a new section of the Promenade, Princess Parade. The Promenade was decorated with what was described as "festoons of garland lamps" using about 10,000 light bulbs. The local Chamber of trade as well as other local businesses requested Blackpool Council to stage the event in September of the same year. The subsequent event was such a success that in 1913 the council were again asked to stage the Princess Parade lights as an end of season event. With the outbreak of the First World War there were no further displays until 1925 when the lights were again on display and extended to run from Manchester Square to Cocker Square. In 1932 animated tableaux were erected running along the cliffs from North Shore to Bispham, and the Illuminations were extended to its current length running from Starr Gate to Red Bank Road at Bispham.

In 1935 the Mayor of Blackpool, Alderman George Whittaker was due to perform the Switch-on ceremony. When he met Railway Queen Audrey Mosson, 15, he was so impressed by her, he asked her to take his place. 50 years later, in 1985, Audrey was invited back to perform the ceremony alongside actress Joanna Lumley.

The Illuminations were ready to shine in 1939 but the outbreak of the Second World War again interrupted the annual display and post war austerity meant the lights were not switched on again until 1949.


Illuminations on Blackpool promenade

Every year there is also the Festival of Light which features interactive installations and is described as being "a contemporary look at the concept of light and art working together to create entertainment"

19 th September 1991

Otzi the iceman :
Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.

On September 19, 1991, two German tourists were hiking in the Otzal Alps near the Italian-Austrian border when they discovered Europe's oldest known mummy sticking out of the ice.

Otzi, as the iceman is now known, had been naturally mummified by the ice and kept in amazing condition for approximately 5,300 years. Research on Otzi's preserved body and the various artifacts found with it continues to reveal much about the life of Copper Age Europeans.

The Discovery

Around 1:30 p.m. on September 19, 1991, Erika and Helmut Simon from Nuremberg, Germany were descending from the Finail peak in the Tisenjoch area of the Otzal Alps when they decided to take a shortcut off the beaten path. When they did so, they noticed something brown sticking out of the ice.

Upon further inspection, the Simons discovered that it was a human corpse. Although they could see the back of the head, arms, and back, the bottom of the torso was still embedded in the ice.

The Simons took a picture and then reported their discovery at the Similaun Refuge. At the time, however, the Simons and the authorities all thought the body belonged to a modern man who had recently suffered a deadly accident.

Removing Otzi's Body

Removing a frozen body that's stuck in the ice at 10,530 feet (3,210 meters) above sea level is never easy. Adding bad weather and a lack of proper excavation equipment made the job even more difficult. After four days of trying, Otzi's body was finally removed from the ice on September 23, 1991.

Sealed up in a body bag, Otzi was flown via helicopter to the town of Vent, where his body was transferred to a wooden coffin and taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck. At Innsbruck, archaeologist Konrad Spindler determined that the body found in the ice was definitely not a modern man; instead, he was at least 4,000 years old.

It was then that they realized that Otzi the Iceman was one of the most amazing archaeological finds of the century.

Once it was realized that Otzi was an extremely important discovery, two teams of archaeologists went back to the discovery site to see if they could find more artifacts. The first team stayed only three days, October 3 to 5, 1991, because the winter weather was too harsh to work in.

The second archaeology team waited until the following summer, surveying from July 20 to August 25, 1992. This team found numerous artifacts, including string, muscle fibers, a piece of a longbow, and a bearskin hat.

Otzi the Iceman

Otzi was a man who lived sometime between 3350 and 3100 BCE in what is called the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. He stood approximately five feet and three inches high and at the end of his life suffered from arthritis, gallstones, and whipworm. He died at about the age of 46.

At first, it was believed that Otzi had died from exposure, but in 2001 an X-ray revealed that there was a stone arrowhead embedded in his left shoulder. A CT scan in 2005 discovered that the arrowhead had severed one of the Otzi's arteries, most likely causing his death. A large wound on Otzi's hand was another indicator that Otzi had been in close combat with someone shortly before his death.

Scientists have recently discovered that Otzi's last meal consisted of a few slices of fatty, cured goat meat, similar to modern-day bacon. But many questions remain regarding Otzi the Iceman. Why did Otzi have over 50 tattoos on his body? Were the tattoos part of an ancient form of acupuncture? Who killed him? Why was the blood of four people found on his clothes and weapons? Perhaps more research will help answer these and other questions about Otzi the Iceman.

Otzi on Display

After seven years of study at Innsbruck University, Otzi the Iceman was transported to South Tyrol, Italy, where he was to be both further studied and put on display.

At the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Otzi was encased within a specially made chamber, which is kept dark and refrigerated to help preserve Otzi's body. Visitors to the museum can glimpse Otzi through a small window.

To remember the place where Otzi had remained for 5,300 years, a stone marker was placed at the discovery site.

20 th September 1967

Queen launches namesake :
Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at Clydebank, Scotland, by Queen Elizabeth 11.

The Queen launched the new Cunard cruise liner named after her, the Queen Elizabeth 2, at a ceremony on the Clydebank.
Tens of thousands of people crowded the river's banks as the Queen appeared on a platform high against the bow of the 963 ft (293.5 metres) long liner, with Prince Philip and Princess Margaret by her side.

In clear tones, she pronounced: "I name this ship Queen Elizabeth the Second. May God bless her and all who sail in her."

She then pressed the launching button, and a bottle of champagne shattered against the huge bows of the ship.

After a pause, the ship began her journey down into the water. She began slowly, but soon gathered speed, hitting 22mph (34.4 kph) before she entered the water stern-first.

Luxury cruiser

A two-foot (0.6m) high wave rose up and travelled across the Clyde, announcing the arrival of Cunard's latest - and probably last - great luxury cruise ship to be built here.

Her launch comes just a few days after Cunard's other great liner, the Queen Mary, made her last transatlantic crossing to New York.

The 58,000-ton QE2 is now Cunard's only big cruise ship.

Since the early 1950s, when cruise liners carried over a million passengers a year across the Atlantic, sea traffic has almost halved to around 600,000 journeys.

By contrast, the airlines are now carrying over five million people each year.

Changing direction

Shipping companies like Cunard are increasingly turning to the pleasure cruise market as their main source of income.

The new QE2 will be fitted out with just this market in mind, with big deck spaces and four swimming pools.

There are nearly 1,000 cabins, restaurants on the upper decks with sea views, cocktail bars, night clubs and a theatre.

The mammoth liners, like the original Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, were built for speed rather than luxury, and in using them for long, leisurely cruises Cunard has been losing money fast.

The company is hoping to reverse that trend with its first giant cruise ship to be targeted exclusively at the leisure market.

In Context

The QE2 made her maiden voyage to New York on 2 May 1969.

She became the company's flagship, and one of the most famous cruise liners in the world. After extensive refits over the years she is now a byword for the ultimate in luxury at sea.

In 1982, she was requisitioned by the British government as a troop transport vessel during the Falklands War.

She was eventually the only ship offering a regularly scheduled transatlantic service.

She began her last season of sailings to New York in 2003 and was replaced in 2004 by Cunard's biggest passenger liner, the Queen Mary 2. The QM2 has also replaced the QE2 as flagship of the British merchant fleet.

21 st September 1809

Duel on Putney heath :
British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath.

On 21 September 1809, Foreign Secretary George Canning and Lord Castlereagh, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, fought a duel. On the surface, this might not seem extraordinary; the infamous and deadly duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had taken place only five years earlier. But Britain was at war with Napoleon and in the middle of economic chaos. Whatever would possess two members of the government to engage in such cavalier behavior? Answering this question is the purpose of Giles Hunt's biographical and ideological study in political ambition and contrasting success in the age of high politics and war. Organizing the book in chapters that contrast their early lives, education, and political careers, Hunt argues that Canning and Castlereagh came to serve His Majesty's government from two very different paths. On the one hand, Canning's father had been disowned for his choice in marriage, leaving the family bankrupt when he died during Canning's infancy. While his grandfather held estates in Northern Ireland, the young Canning relied upon his uncle and only upon his grandfather's death was his grandmother able to pay for his formal schooling at Eton. Robert Steward, later Lord Castlereagh, on the other hand, descended from an Ulster Scots plantation fortune and the commercial wealth of an Indian nabob. He was born into privilege and grew up at his grandfather's estate, Mount Stewart, experiencing the social and education expectations of his rank. Canning landed a place at Christ Church at Oxford with the assistance of a family friend. Brought up as a Foxite Whig, he became "Pittized" ; the new alliance brought him to the House of Commons for Newton, nominated by the Prime Minister, and soon allowed him to join the Foreign Office under William Grenville. Castlereagh also rejected family political connections to the Whigs. He went to Cambridge rather than Trinity College, Dublin, under the influence of his step-grandfather, Lord Camden. He launched his political career with the calculated choice to govern Ireland "by force" rather than "by reason" , openly opposing Henry Grattan and the Irish Parliament. By 1794, Castlereagh severed himself from Irish politics and embarked upon a political future in Westminster. The drama, Hunt shows, started to manifest itself as early as 1801 when William Pitt resigned and was replaced by Henry Addington over the failure of Catholic Emancipation. When war resumed with France merely a year after the Peace of Amiens, an attempt to bring Pitt back into power divided political loyalties and Canning and Castlereagh assumed leadership roles in the cabinet. When Pitt died in January 1806 his government fell and both men were now in opposition to the Ministry of all the Talents. They should have found common ground, particularly after King George III dismissed the coalition government and asked the aging Duke of Portland to form a government. But others' ambitions were stirring up policy differences, generating criticism, and otherwise undermining one by evoking the name of the other. In the end, Canning was forced to resign and a humiliated Castlereagh challenged him to a gentlemen's duel. Meeting at Putney Heath at five o'clock in the morning on 21 September, the standard gentlemen's resolution could have ended the conflict. Canning, however, did not fire in the air on the first shot, putting Castlereagh in the awkward position of restoring his damaged political reputation by showing "superiority not by trying to kill him, but by shooting him, literally and metaphorically, in the foot" . When Canning aimed for a second shot, Castlereagh shot Canning in the thigh, nearly hitting his femoral artery. What did this all mean? Hunt argues that the duel impacted public opinion, personal reputation, and political legacies, even more so than the political backbiting and squabbling going on behind the scenes. Criticism of the two cabinet ministers dueling during a foreign war was nearly universal. Castlereagh panicked about Canning's wounds and how his reputation would be ruined if the latter died. Canning was sharply criticized for not firing in the air and escalating the conflict. Whatever the personal torment for the participants of the duel, politically it meant a continuation of Spencer...

22 nd September 1934

                          Gresford disaster :
                                                    The Gresford disaster in Wales kills 266 miners and rescuers.

The Gresford Mining Disaster North Wales September 22, 1934

  The Gresford disaster occurred on September 22, 1934, at Gresford Colliery, Gresford, near Wrexham, in North East Wales, when an explosion killed 266 men and boys. Its cause was never proved but an inquiry found that failures in safety procedures and poor mine management were contributory factors. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters. Only eleven bodies were recovered, the rest were left entombed in the colliery's permanently sealed damaged districts.

The good people of Brighouse also did their bit help the families.  
  Messages of sympathy and donations came from all over Britain and from overseas. Over £566,546 was donated during an appeal aided by the press who kept Gresford in the public eye. A relief fund paid allowances to the dead miners' widows, children and dependents.

I am sending you some comics which I wondered if you would distribute amongst some of the children who fathers and brothers were killed in the mine.                                                                                                                                              
Rachel Booth, letter to the Gresford Colliery Disaster Relief Fund

  The Gresford miners who had survived were also in need. With the pit closed, they were all unemployed by the Monday morning. It would not be easy finding a job in economically depressed Wrexham.

  The nation's response to the disaster varied from the political to the personal. Workers, trade unions, businesses, church congregations, schools, community groups and individuals sent in money and gifts in kind. Many people gave what little they had. For many sympathy was tempered by anger at the reality of the miners' working lives. Anger was so strong that many people gave money directly to the miners' union as they feared otherwise it would never reach those in need.

  Anger was felt closer to home. The miners' families wanted answers and, most of all, they wanted the miners' bodies brought up from the Dennis section. They were to be disappointed twice over.

  The good people of Brighouse also did their bit help the families.

Gresford Disaster 22 9. 1934 Brighouse Donation 2.10.1934 0002

                         

Just one example of a single donation to the mayor's fund in Brighouse

  At the Brighouse Borough Council's General Purposes Committee on November 19, 1934 the Town Clerk Mr Ernest Clegg, reported that the Mayor's Fund in aid of the Gresford Colliery Disaster had reached the sum of £320. 6s. 5d and submitted a letter, dated the 8th from the Joint Hon  Secretary (Wrexham) Colliery Disaster Relief Fund intimating that they were directed by the Lord Lieutenant and their committee to convey their heartfelt thanks and sincere appreciation of the steps taken to help the dependants and relatives of the men who lost their lives in the Gresford Colliery Disaster.