Today in history

27 th May 1975

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

The horror of the Dibbles Bridge coach crash and the 33 victims who will never be forgotten.

It remains the worst accident in British motoring history.

It happened at 4pm on May 27, 1975, when a coach carrying women on a day trip from Thornaby-on-Tees to the Yorkshire Dales careered down a steep bank on the B6265 road, Dibble’s Bridge, near Hebden.

The vehicle plunged 16ft (5m) off the bridge in North Yorkshire, landing in a garden and crushing those on board, including the driver. The majority - 33 of the 46 - people on board died in the horrific accident and not a year goes by where Thornaby-on-Tees doesn't fall silent to remember the names of those that perished.

A plaque in the pavilion of the Teeside town, where most of the travellers came from, remembers those that died and in 2015, a 40th anniversary memorial service was held in St Paul’s Church.

Another plaque was unveiled in 2018 by the owner of a funeral directors on Lanehouse Road, which is where the coach of hopeful visitors to the Yorkshire Dales set off from on that fateful day, having paid their £2 entry fee.

The pensioners were on a mystery tour organised by a former mayor of the town Dorothy White and heading in their yellow coach for Grassington where they were to have tea; having already visited Ripon and Knaresborough.

But disaster struck just short of their destination.

On an exceptionally steep downward slope on the B6265 between Pateley Bridge and Hedben the stand-in driver Roger Marriott missed a gear, and when he tried to slow the coach with his brakes they rapidly overheated and failed.

The coach failed to negotiate a sharp right hand bend at the bottom of the one-in-six gradient Fan Carl Hill, tore through a three-foot high stone parapet of Dibbles Bridge and landed on its fibreglass roof in a garden 17 feet below. The sides of the coach buckled on impact and the roof of the coach crumpled uselessly.

Thirty three people died in total, including Mr Marriott, who told those who arrived first on the scene what had happened whilst he was still trapped. His claim that the brakes had failed, made as his shirt and tie were being loosened so that he could breathe easier, would be confirmed by experts later during the inquest.

Rescuers were quickly on the scene and, for three hours, worked with cutting equipment, jacks and cranes to free the victims. A fleet of ambulances, with a police escort, ferried the dead and injured to Airedale Hospital, where a casualty bureau was set up. Two hospital chaplains waited for the relatives of the victims to arrive and pathologists worked through the night to identify the dead.

One of those first on the scene was then-25-year-old Lincoln Seligman, who had rented Dibbles Bridge Cottage for the Spring Bank Holiday and visited from London.

Recollecting to YorkshireLive 45 years on, Mr Seligman explained that he had been having a BBQ and went inside just before the coach landed in the cottage garden.

He said: " There was a huge noise and then complete silence until people began crying out.

"I think the main problem was that it was such an old coach. When it had turned upside down the weight of the engine and everything underneath crumbled in on itself and down on the occupants."

He recalled that the fact it was a bank holiday meant that the emergency workers were not at full capacity and so it took a "matter of hours" before the police, ambulance and other services arrived to help.

Mr Seligman and a number of other civilians helped the occupants get out of the coach but he recalled that it was too late for some.

Reflecting on that day, he said: "It's the kind of thing you never forget and it changes your expectation and anticipation of things as you can see what can happen all too easily."

Acting sergeant John Middleton arrived after the accident and said at that time the driver was alive, but unconscious. "I could see that it was hopeless to help him or try to remove him," he said.

"After leaving the driver, I went to the middle of the coach - at this time the centre window was still intact and behind the window was a woman who was quite conscious but whose foot was trapped."

PC Middleton smashed the window and freed the woman using jacks.

Police later praised local people for their help, which had included re-routing the traffic.

The crash was survived by 13 of the pensioners on board. They, and nearly 1,000 others, squeezed into a memorial service at Thornaby Methodist Church, to pay their respects. A disaster fund set up by the Mayor of Stockton raised thousands.

It took experts several weeks to confirm what Mr Marriott had said in the first place: the brakes had failed. At Skipton Magistrates’ Court, Norman Riley, the owner of the coach, pleaded guilty to using a vehicle on which the braking system was not properly maintained. He was fined £75.

An inquest jury returned verdicts of accidental death on the victims. The coroner, James Turnbull, summed up the scale of what had happened.

“This has been described as Britain’s worst motor disaster,” he said. “If it is true, let us all hope that it always retains that title.”

28 th May 1907

The TT races:
The first Isle of Man TT race is held.

28 May 1907 – First Isle of Man TT
The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy is one of the few remaining untamed road races on the planet. If you were to pitch it anew in the year 2021 you’d be laughed right out of the planning meeting; fatalities have averaged more than one a year since the first race in 1907. Yet year after year, it attracts an enormous roster of both road-racing specialist riders and enthusiastic fans; there really is nothing quite like it.

While the name is the same, the TT has nevertheless changed significantly over the years. That first event, which took place on May 28, 1907, was held not on the Snaefell Mountain Course as it is today, but a smaller circuit of just under 16 miles known as the St John’s Short Course, based around the eponymous town located between Douglas and Peel.

There was a single race of ten laps, comprising two classes – one for single-cylinder motorcycles and the other for twins. A total of 25 riders set off in pairs, and much as today’s TT classes are required to stop for fuel during the longer races, the first TT included a compulsory 10-minute “replenishment” stop.

If that sounds excessive for a race of around 158 miles, then remember these early machines could be as recalcitrant as the horses they replaced. Punctures were common, and for a rider named Oliver Godfrey, the rest stop was less than restful when his five-horsepower Rex caught fire.

Charles Collier won the single-cylinder race on a Matchless, averaging 38.21mph over four hours and eight minutes – nearly 100mph slower than Peter Hickman’s TT lap record set in 2018.

His counterpart on the twins, Rem Fowler on a 5hp Peugeot-engined Norton, might have missed out on his own victory were it not for the encouraging words of a spectator. Fowler’s bike suffered multiple problems with spark plugs and drive belts, and skittered down the road when a tyre burst at high speed.

Ready to retire, he was informed that he was over 30 minutes ahead of the next competitor, and struggled home with an average speed of 36.22mph – plus a fastest lap of nearly 43mph. The speeds might have been tame, but it seems the herculean effort needed to win the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy hasn’t changed a bit.

Thanks Gassey - interesting stuff.

It's about to get bonkers here just a few miles from Heysham Ferry Terminus!

29 th May 1985

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

Heysel Stadium disaster

Heysel Stadium disaster, in which a crush of football fans resulted in 39 deaths and some 600 injuries. It occurred on May 29, 1985, during a match between Liverpool FC and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. The disaster was blamed on hooliganism, mistakes by officials, and structural issues with the stadium.

The match was the 1985 European Cup Final, featuring Liverpool—the champions of England and European Cup holders—and Juventus—the champions of Italy and holders of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. The two teams were at the height of their powers and had international players in every position. Television viewers across Europe tuned in for a highly anticipated match, but what they saw instead was a slowly unfolding tragedy that formed a terrible backdrop to an increasingly irrelevant game.

It was treated like any other big final. Tickets were allocated to the two sets of fans, and they were to be separated by a neutral section. Officials from both clubs had warned that many, mainly Belgians, in the neutral section were likely to sell their tickets to partisan fans. There was a history of violence between English and Italian clubs. The 1984 final in Rome had ended in acrimony when Liverpool defeated the local club Roma on penalties. Roma fans, the police, and local hoteliers had all turned on Liverpool fans, who were forced to seek refuge in the British embassy.

Liverpool supporters considered Heysel an opportunity for revenge. The neutral section quickly filled with mainly Italian fans, and all that separated them from the Liverpool section was a flimsy fence. Taunts started, and then objects began to fly. The fence was quickly breached, and the Liverpool fans advanced. Panic erupted as Juventus supporters and others in the neutral section tried to retreat, only to find their way blocked by a concrete wall. The pressure proved too much, and the structure gave way, crushing the trapped Italian fans and others. Ultimately 39 fans were killed—the majority of whom were Italian—and hundreds of other spectators were injured. Fearing mayhem if the match was canceled, Juventus and Liverpool ended up playing, and Juventus won, 1–0.

Blame for the tragedy was partly attributed to Heysel Stadium, which was more than 50 years old. It had failed inspections, and the threat of closure meant that little was spent on maintenance. Another contributing factor was a decision by local police to get unruly fans into the stadium early, rather than arrest them. Hooliganism also played a large role, and English clubs were banned from playing in Europe for five years. In addition, 14 Liverpool fans were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison, though they ultimately only served about 12 months.

30 th May 1381

Beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England.

England as a nation has largely escaped the era-defining revolutions of France, Germany and Russia. In 1381 however, centuries of feudal serfdom and a changed social situation lead to a widespread revolt of the downtrodden peasants across the country.

Though the revolt was defeated by the King’s forces, it was certainly the instigator of social change in Medieval England, and has been referenced by left-leaning historians and politicians ever since.

Just as the outbreak of World War One allowed the Russian revolution to happen, decades of war and plague changed the status quo in England to a degree where revolt was possible and widespread.

Aftermath of a devastating pandemic
The Black Death saw terrible waves of plague sweep Europe: England’s population was ravaged, with somewhere between 30 and 50% of the population dying.
As a result of this, the peasantry – who had previously been kept under a system of serfdom which greatly restricted their freedom – became more scarce and had more land available to them. Their labour had increased value, and they demanded higher wages. As a result, they had privileges that their fathers could never have dreamed of.
The nobility disliked the shifting of the status quo and tried to greatly restrict the goods that peasants could buy as well as other freedoms that they now enjoyed – but they could not undo the fundamental shift in class relations
In addition, England and France had been engaged in the Hundred Years War since 1337, and most of the financial burden of the war fell upon the peasantry in the form of the hated poll tax.

Finally, the wise and popular King Edward III died in 1377, leaving the throne to the boy-king Richard II and his despised regent John of Gaunt, who had already almost been lynched by angry crowds in London.

Tensions boil over
The revolt is judged to have broken out in Essex on 30 May, when MP John Bampton arrived to investigate non-payment of poll tax. The south-east of England had always been its wealthiest region, and as a result there were very few unpaid serfs there and the peasants enjoyed a better quality of life than elsewhere.

It was therefore the hotbed of the many radicals who had emerged following the Black Death. On 1 June Bampton gathered the headmen of several Essex villages together to explain the shortfall, and they arrived with large crowds brandishing various weapons.

Edward III had armed the peasantry and insisted on longbow practice for the fight against the French, and these men were not to be messed with. When Bampton attempted to arrest one recalcitrant village leader he and his men were set upon and though the MP escaped at least three of his entourage were killed.

By 4 June the now-lit fires of revolt were spreading across Essex, and delegations were sent to the neighbouring counties of Kent and Suffolk asking them to join in.

In Kent in particular they needed little invitation, after an escaped serf called John Belling was imprisoned the local villages had already exploded with anger and stormed Rochester Castle, where he was being held.

March to the capital
On 7 June they elected a leader called Wat Tyler at the town of Maidstone – a tough and charismatic man whose origins are mysterious but who appears to have fought in France as one of the renowned English longbowmen.
Now it had a leader with clear aims, the revolt gathered momentum and purpose. Tyler’s first move was marching on the castle-town of Canterbury, where the Archbishop was deposed, the jails emptied of prisoners and many of the King’s known supporters dragged out of their houses and murdered.

By 12 June the rebels from Kent, Essex Suffolk and Norfolk had been coordinated, and they had reached the outskirts of London in their thousands.

The rebels were loyal to the King, who had now taken refuge in the Tower of London, but demanded the abolition of serfdom and the downfall of the feudal system that kept them separated by many social rungs from their monarch.
The main targets of their hatred were the church leaders and the aristocracy, and Tyler’s friend – the radical cleric John Ball – addressed his men and coined the famous phrase:
“when Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?”

The King’s options were limited at this stage. His armies were busy in Ireland, France and the Scottish border, and it would be difficult to put down the revolt by force.

Negotiations
Richard decided that he ought to meet the rebels, but the attempted talks failed when he lost heart and refused to get out of his boat onto the bank where their men were waiting.

After this, the mob decided that negotiations were worthless and marched through the open gates of London, where many of the locals joined them. There they repeated their antics in Canterbury on a far larger scale, and the Londoners attacked the houses of Flemish immigrants who they felt were taking all the best jobs.

Soon events were badly out of hand as important buildings were burned and ransacked, and Flemings and aristocrats were murdered and left to rot in the streets. Now under siege in the tower, the King finally met the rebels face-to-face at Mile End, accompanied by only a small bodyguard to show his peaceful intentions.

There he agreed to the abolition of serfdom, and charters confirming this were distributed across the country. The Tower fell to the rebels during the negotiations, and many of John of Gaunt’s hated men were publicly beheaded, though the King’s female family members were spared.

Satisfied with the decree over serfdom, most of the rebels from Essex went home at this point, but Tyler’s die hard group of Kentishmen remained and continued to burn loot and murder their way through the city.

The Smithfield meeting
Another meeting between the rebel leader and the King took place at Smithfield on 15 June and this time Richard brought a substantial force of armoured men with him, though it was still dwarfed by the force of thousands of grim-faced rebels facing him.

At this meeting Tyler treated the King with condescension and rudeness, and an argument between him and the Richard’s men got out of hand, leading to the Kentish man’s death in a sudden brawl with the Mayor of London and the King’s Squire.

Violence almost ensued as the incensed rebel archers knocked their bows, but the fourteen-year-old King then showed exceptional personal bravery by exposing himself to their bows and demanding that they stand down. Unwilling to kill their King, the peasants backed down, and Tyler’s head was displayed on a pole in London.

The violence did not end there, but the most immediate threat did. Other revolts occurred in the east of England, the north and the west country, and though much looting (including that of Cambridge University) occurred, the King summoned an army out of loyal men in London, and the remaining die-hard rebels were defeated in a pitched battle at North Walsham in late June.

Though the decree abolishing serfdom was repealed, the revolt did change the position of the peasants. The government was now wary of squeezing them for cash, and Poll Tax was abolished.

In practice, serfdom died quickly, and many serfs were allowed to purchase freedom from their Lords for a manageable price. Peasant opinions gained more weight, and in this sense the revolt can be judged to be a success.

A bit of a long one Gassey !!! LOL, but stuff I didn't know

31 st May 1859

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

                   BIG BEN GOES INTO OPERATION IN LONDON

The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen's Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on this day in 1859. After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster – the headquarters of the British Parliament – in October 1834, a standout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

While many clockmakers dismissed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expertise in horology, or the science of measuring time. Denison's design, built by the company E.J. Dent & Co., was completed in 1854; five years later, St. Stephen's Tower itself was finished. Weighing more than 13 tonnes, its massive bell was dragged to the tower through the streets of London by a team of 16 horses, to the cheers of onlookers.

Once it was installed, Big Ben struck its first chimes on 31 May 1859. Just two months later, however, the heavy striker designed by Denison cracked the bell. Three more years passed before a lighter hammer was added and the clock went into service again. The bell was rotated so that the hammer would strike another surface, but the crack was never repaired. The name "Big Ben" originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist about how Big Ben got its name.

Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London Commissioner of Works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind. Even after an incendiary bomb destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons during the Second World War, St. Stephen's Tower survived, and Big Ben continued to function.

Its famously accurate timekeeping is regulated by a stack of coins placed on the clock's huge pendulum, ensuring a steady movement of the clock hands at all times. At night, all four of the clock’s faces, each one 23 feet across, are illuminated. A light above Big Ben is also lit to let the public know when Parliament is in session.

The bell is cracked !!!, I suppose it would've cost a fortune to recast another one.

ramiejamie wrote:The bell is cracked !!!, I suppose it would've cost a fortune to recast another one.

It was cracked twice Ray

When was Big Ben built?
The Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire in 1834. In 1844, it was decided the new buildings for the Houses of Parliament should include a tower and a clock.

A massive bell was required and the first attempt (made by John Warner & Sons at Stockton-on-Tees) cracked irreparably. The metal was melted down and the bell recast in Whitechapel in 1858.

Big Ben first rang across Westminster on 31 May 1859. A short time later, in September 1859, Big Ben cracked. A lighter hammer was fitted and the bell rotated to present an undamaged section to the hammer. This is the bell as we hear it today.

1 st June 1495

   First scotch Whisky:
                                A monk, John Cor, records the first known batch of Scotch whisky

                  1495: How was the First Scotch Whisky Made?

The word "whisky" comes from the Celtic term "uisge beatha", which means "water of life". Originally, Scotch whisky was produced exclusively from barley, and only in the 18th century did the introduction of wheat and rye begin.
On this day in 1495, the production of Scotch whisky was mentioned in written records for the first time in history.

According to that record, the first whisky was produced by the monk John Cor of Lindores Abbey.

At that time, Scotland was still a Catholic country and Lindores Abbey was a Benedictine Tironensian abbey along the eastern sea coast of Scotland. According to the record, the Scottish King James IV personally donated about 580 pounds of malt to the abbey, from which the monk John Cor distilled whisky.

The monastery had fresh water from a nearby spring. In the documents, whisky was called by the Latin name “Aqua Vita” (“water of life”). The word “whisky” comes from the Celtic term “uisge beatha”, which also means “water of life”.

Originally, Scotch whisky was produced exclusively from barley, and only in the 18th century did the introduction of wheat and rye begin.

Today, the original whisky made ​​from barley in Scotland is called “malt whisky”, and the most appreciated kind is the so-called “single malt whisky”. Only barley, water and yeast are required for producing such whisky.

First, the barley is soaked in water to germinate and release the so-called barley malt, that is maltose (a type of sugar). Maltose is then ground and dissolved in water, and the yeast is then added to it. Fermentation occurs, wherein the alcohol is released. This liquid is then distilled, and the product is then placed in oak barrels.

Each “single malt” whisky in Scotland must age for at least three years in oak barrels. Whisky is often held in the barrels much longer, which is then marked on the bottle (i.e. “aged 12 years”).


If the whisky is bottled from a single barrel, it is labeled “single cask” or “single barrel”. In addition to the aforementioned “single malt” whisky, which is the most appreciated, there is also “blended malt” (obtained by mixing various barley distillates), “single grain” (obtained from distilled wheat or ray), “blended grain” (a mixture of distilled wheat and rye), and ordinary “blended” (obtained by mixing all mentioned options).

Good stuff Gassey. I do like a good single malt. My current tipple is the most excellent anCnoc 12

2 nd June 1953

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

On June 2, 1953, Queen Elizabeth II is formally crowned monarch of the United Kingdom in a lavish ceremony steeped in traditions that date back a millennium. A thousand dignitaries and guests attended the coronation at London’s Westminster Abbey, and hundreds of millions listened on radio and for the first time watched the proceedings on live television. After the ceremony, millions of rain-drenched spectators cheered the 27-year-old queen and her husband, the 31-year-old duke of Edinburgh, as they passed along a five-mile procession route in a gilded horse-drawn carriage.

Elizabeth, born in 1926, was the first-born daughter of Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, the second son of King George V. Her grandfather died in 1936, and her uncle was proclaimed King Edward VIII. Later that year, however, Edward abdicated over the controversy surrounding his decision to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee, and Elizabeth’s father was proclaimed King George VI in his place.

During the Battle of Britain, Princess Elizabeth and her only sibling, Princess Margaret, lived away from London in the safety of the countryside, but their parents endeared themselves to their subjects by remaining in bomb-damaged Buckingham Palace throughout the German air offensive. Later in the war, Elizabeth trained as a second lieutenant in the women’s services and drove and repaired military trucks.

In 1947, she married her distant cousin, Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark who renounced his titles in order to marry Elizabeth. He was made duke of Edinburgh on the eve of the wedding. The celebrations surrounding the wedding of the popular princess lifted the spirits of the people of Britain, who were enduring economic difficulties in the aftermath of World War II. Their first child, Prince Charles, was born in 1948 at Buckingham Palace. A second, Princess Anne, was born in 1950. On February 6, 1952, the royal couple were in Kenya in the midst of a goodwill tour when they learned the king had died.

Elizabeth was immediately proclaimed Britain’s new monarch but remained in seclusion for the first three months of her reign as she mourned her father. During the summer of 1952, she began to perform routine duties of the sovereign, and in November she carried out her first state opening of the Parliament. On June 2, 1953, her coronation was held at Westminster Abbey.

The ceremony at Westminster was one of pomp and pageantry, and the characteristically poised Elizabeth delivered in a solemn and clear voice the coronation oath that bound her to the service of the people of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth. In the procession through the streets of London that followed, Elizabeth and her husband were joined by representatives from the more than 40 member states of the Commonwealth, including heads of state, sultans, and prime ministers. British troops like the Yeomen of the Guard were joined by a great variety of Commonwealth troops, including police from the Solomon Islands, Malaysians in white uniforms and green sarongs, Pakistanis in puggaree headdresses, Canadian Mounties, and New Zealanders and Australians in wide-brimmed hats. After the parade, Elizabeth stood with her family on the Buckingham Palace balcony and waved to the crowd as jet planes of the Royal Air Force flew across the Mall in tight formation.

In seven decades of rule, Queen Elizabeth II’s popularity hardly subsided. She traveled more extensively than any other British monarch and was the first reigning British monarch to visit South America and the Persian Gulf countries.

Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022 at the age of 96. At the time of her death she was the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her eldest son Charles ascended to the throne and was coronated as King on May 6, 2023. His wife, Camilla, became Queen.

Thanks for that Gassey.
I remember it well, my Grandma bought a telly specially for the occasion.
TV's were few and far between in those days and our house was packed with all the neighbours.
A truly great event that I think was the first televised coronation.

3 rd June 2017

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


Terrorists attack London Bridge

During one horrific 8-minute period on June 3, 2017, eight people were killed as a band of terrorists drove a van through a pedestrian walkway on the London Bridge. The men then exited, armed with pink steak knives, and proceeded to slash and stab people in a nearby market.

The attack was the third to take place in London in 2017.

Just minutes before 10 pm a van filled with three attackers inconspicuously crossed the London Bridge twice. When it reached the end of the bridge the second time, the van made a U-turn, mounting the pavement and mowing down pedestrians.

At the end of the bridge, the terrorists crashed into a nearby pub, where they exited with knives taped to their wrists and fake bombs strapped to their bodies. The men ran from the vehicle, slashing and stabbing through the Borough Market as they screamed “This is for Allah.” They randomly entered bars and restaurants, stabbing whoever came into their path. People tried to fight them off, throwing crates, chairs and glasses, but in the end, 48 people were injured.

By 10:15 all three terrorists had been killed by authorities.

The terrorists were found to be Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, a British citizen born in Pakistan who is believed to have been the leader of the attack; Rachid Redouane, 30, who said he was Moroccan and Libyan; and Youssef Zaghba, 22, a Moroccan-Italian man. The men are reported to have had large amounts of steroids in their system.

2017 was one of the most intense periods for terrorist attacks in England. Arrests for terrorism-linked offenses rose to a record 379 in the 12 months leading up to the attacks, an increase of 67% from the year before.

4 th June 1913

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

Emily Davison: the suffragette who stepped in front of the king's horse
In June 1913, suffragette Emily Davison was fatally injured after stepping in front of the king's horse during the Epsom Derby. Her death was a landmark event in British political history and became a milestone in the struggle for women's suffrage – but, asks June Purvis, was it an act of suicide?

On 4 June 1913, at the Epsom Derby, the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was standing by the white rail near Tattenham Corner. A flag in the colours of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was tied around her body. As a group of horses fast approached, Davison ducked under the railing and tried to grab the reins of King George V's horse, Anmer.

With great force, Anmer knocked her over, rolled on his back, and kicked her furiously. The jockey, Herbert Jones, fell with the horse but managed to free himself and soon recovered from his cuts and bruises. Emily Davison was not so lucky. She had sustained a fractured skull, severe concussion and internal injuries. She was taken to Epsom Cottage Hospital, where surgeons attempted to relieve pressure on her brain. She never recovered and died four days later.

The Derby incident, reported by all the main newspapers, captured by Pathé news and relayed around the world, has become a defining moment in British political history. Emily Davison has been perpetuated in popular memory as an unbalanced, suicidal fanatic. But was she? And was her death an accident, as the coroner of the day concluded?

Did Emily Davison mean to kill herself?
So was Emily Wilding Davison an unbalanced, suicidal fanatic? The evidence presented here suggests not. As her modern biographers Ann Morley and Liz Stanley argue, she was a sensible woman with a coherent philosophy who deliberately undertook her final militant act, knowing it might have fatal results. Davison probably did not intend to die. After all, she had bought a return ticket to Epsom, indicating that she intended to travel back home. But is that the whole story?

Most present-day assessments, with their secular bias, give little attention to Emily’s religious convictions. Yet Gertrude Coleman, her first biographer, notes that she was “[i]nnately religious,” and “fully convinced that she was called by God, not only to work but also to fight for the cause she had espoused”. Davison was a devout Anglican, a regular churchgoer, and always kept a Bible by her bed. Her own particular motto was ‘Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God’. In the Price of Liberty, published posthumously, she wrote that the “true militant” would willingly sacrifice friendship, good report, love and even life itself to “win the Pearl of Freedom for her sex”. Referring to Christ’s suffering on the cross, she continued: “To lay down life for friends, that is glorious, selfless, inspiring! But to re-enact the tragedy of Calvary for generations yet unborn, that is the last consummate sacrifice of the Militant!”

5 th June 1963

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

Sex, lies and spies: the real history of the Profumo Affair
It was perhaps the biggest scandal in British political history, leading to jail sentences, suicide and the fall of a government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 th June 1944

Operation Overlord, D Day:
1944 – Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY: REMEMBERING THE NORMANDY LANDINGS.

The 6th June marks a significant day in world history. Just after midnight on 6th June 1944, the Allied forces invaded northern France, beginning the largest amphibious military operation in world history. Known as Operation Overlord or D-Day, the invasion marked the Allied assault on Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe’ and changed the course of WWII.

What is D-Day?
Planning for D-Day had begun as early as 1941. By early June 1944, over two million troops from 12 different nations were gathered on British shores in preparation for 6th June.

On the day itself, the largest invasion force ever assembled crossed the English Channel. 7,000 Allied vessels and 160,000 troops pushed into Normandy, northern France. Of that number, around 4,000 Allied men lost their lives, with 6,000 wounded.

Although Allied troops sustained greater losses than German forces, D-Day irreversibly changed the course of WWII, advancing the Allies towards victory.

The historical significance of D-Day
A photograph showing two landing craft at Omaha beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day. Each large ship landed 200 soldiers on the 6th June 1944
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com | Above: A photograph showing two landing craft at Omaha beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day. Each large ship landed 200 soldiers on the 6th June 1944
D-Day commenced the Allied operation to take back Western Europe from Nazi control. The ensuing Battle of Normandy would last into August, costing many more lives on both the German and Allied sides.

Within a year, Hitler would be dead, and his forces diminished. D-Day was a decisive first step in ensuring Allied success in WWII.

Technically, D-Day marked the beginning of Operation Neptune, which was itself the amphibious assault phase of the wider Operation Overlord. In military terms, ‘D-Day' designates the day that an operation will begin. Over the course of World War II, there were many D-Days. However, 6th June 1944 was the largest seaborne invasion in the history of warfare, and the name has therefore come to be synonymous with this historically significant event.

There were a number of reasons why D-Day was such a success for Allied forces. Although German counterattacks were regular, they were infrequent and no match for the Allied invasion.

Equally important was a campaign of deception called Operation Fortitude, which had confused the Nazis for up to a year before 6th June 1944. Its success convinced Hitler that an Allied attack was coming later than planned, leaving the German army unprepared.

The D-Day assault had originally been planned for 5th June 1944, but bad weather caused Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to postpone the invasion by 24 hours. There’s no way of knowing what might have happened had D-Day failed, but its success was a fundamental turning point for the Allied victory in WWII.

Reet ,my son has been given 4 tickets for the Wigan v Warrington cup final by his works . Sooooo me my son and grandson and my sons mate are off to wembley for the weekend , train tickets booked for tomorrow . So heres tomorrows and Saturdays history , should be home Sunday afternoonish


7 th June 1977


Elizabeth 11 silver jubilee:
Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.

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

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

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

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

Sea of Union Jacks

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy gassey.

8 th June 793

The Lindisfarne raid , the Vikings arrival:
Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles.

WHIRLWINDS AND DRAGONS
The first few months of the year 793 were worrying times. Later Anglo-Saxon writers in northern England recalled how ‘immense whirlwinds, flashes of lightning and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air’. They thought these aerial phenomena were portents of imminent disaster.

Sure enough, a great famine followed. But worse was to come. On 8 June,

HOLY ISLAND
This Viking raid on the island of Lindisfarne, just off the Northumbrian coast, was not the first in England. A few years before, in 789, ‘three ships of northmen’ had landed on the coast of Wessex, and killed the king’s reeve who had been sent to bring the strangers to the West Saxon court.

But the assault on Lindisfarne was different because it attacked the sacred heart of the Northumbrian kingdom, desecrating ‘the very place where the Christian religion began in our nation’. It was where Cuthbert (d. 687) had been bishop, and where his body was now revered as that of a saint.

News of the raid quickly reached Alcuin, a Northumbrian scholar living far away in the Frankish kingdom, where he was tutor to the children of the renowned King Charlemagne. Alcuin was aghast at this unprecedented atrocity. As he wrote to Higbald, bishop of Lindisfarne, ‘a place more sacred than any in Britain’:

A VENGEFUL GOD?
Alcuin was particularly worried about why God ‘and so great a company of saints’ had allowed this most holy of places to suffer.

He advised Higbald to examine his conscience to see if there was any reason why God might have allowed such a terrible disaster to happen. ‘Is this the outcome of the sins of those who live there?’ he asked. ‘It has not happened by chance, but is the sign of some great guilt.’ He wondered, too, whether the ransacking of a Christian church by non-believers world lead to ‘greater suffering’. Was Alcuin perhaps implying that he thought he knew why God’s wrath had been visited upon Northumbria?

The Anglo-Saxon chroniclers suggest that he did perhaps have recent sordid events in mind. On 23 September 788, the nobleman Sicga had led a group of conspirators who murdered King Ælfwald of Northumbria. Another chronicle records that in February 793 Sicga had ‘perished by his own hand’. But on 23 April his body was carried to the island of Lindisfarne for burial.

So a man who was both a regicide and had committed suicide had been buried there just six weeks before the Viking pirates struck. Was this the ‘great guilt’ Alcuin referred to? Clearly he thought that the pagan raids were an act of holy vengeance on a sinful people.

‘GREATER SUFFERING’
Whatever it was that had brought about the raid on Lindisfarne, it was certainly only the beginning of ‘greater suffering’. Viking raids increased in frequency around the coast of Britain, Ireland and Francia. By 850 foreign armies were overwintering in England, and by 870 the Danish conquest of the northern, midland and eastern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had begun.

But despite the ferocity of the attack at Lindisfarne, a Christian community survived there. The cult of St Cuthbert became the greatest in the North, moving first to Norham, then in 883 to Chester-le-Street, and thence to Durham in 995.

Christian continuity at Lindisfarne is shown by the religious sculpture made there in the 9th and 10th centuries. This includes the Domesday stone, which vividly depicts on one side a troop of seven uniformed warriors brandishing Viking-style battle-axes and swords. On the other side is a symbolic depiction of Domesday, when – so Christians believe – Christ comes again to sit in judgement on the sins of men.

9 th June 1944

World War 11, the Tulle massacre:
World War II: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.


The Tulle massacre was the roundup and summary execution of civilians in the French town of Tulle by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in June 1944, three days after the D-Day landings in World War II.

After a successful offensive by the French Resistance group Francs-tireur on 7 and 8 June 1944, the arrival of Das Reich troops forced the Maquis to flee the city of Tulle (department of Corrze) in south-central France. On 9 June 1944, after arresting all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, the Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) men ordered 120 of the prisoners to be hanged, of whom 99 were actually hanged. In the days that followed, 149 men were sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where 101 lost their lives. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, and the SD claimed the lives of 213 civilian residents of Tulle.

A day later, the same 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was involved in the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane.

Dreadful stories from a dreadful time in European history.

10 th June1829

The boat race:
The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on the Thames in London.

10 June 1829: the first Oxford and Cambridge boat race
The first ever Oxford and Cambridge boat race took place on the Thames on this day in 1829 – not in London, but in Henley on Thames.

Oxford won the first boat race "easily"
The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race has become one of the highlights of the British sporting calendar. Every year, up to 250,000 people line the banks of the Thames to see the two university crews battle it out on the water. In 2015, 6.8 million people watched the race on TV.

It was started by two old friends from Harrow School, Charles Merivale, a Cambridge student, and Charles Wordsworth (nephew of the poet), who was at Oxford.

On 10 February 1829, Cambridge University Boat Club officially challenged Oxford to a race. And on this day in 1829, the first race took place at Henley in front of some 15,000 spectators. Oxford came out the winners the official record states they won "easily".

It wasn't run again until 1836, this time in London, between Westminster and Putney. It didn't run on the present course, from Putney to Mortlake, until 1845, and became an annual event in 1856, with an official distance of four miles and 374 yards.

It hasn't been entirely without controversy.In 1877, for the only time in its history, the race was judged to be a dead heat. This is still a bone of contention at Oxford, who claim they crossed the line first. But the judge, Honest' John Phelps, didn't have a clear view of the finish, so declared a draw. Oxford maintain he was asleep in his boat at the time. Phelps's great-great-great-great nephew went on to judge the race in 2014 without controversy.

And in 1978, Cambridge sank just before the finishing line.

There have been a few famous faces to row over the years, including actor Hugh Laurie and society photographer Lord Snowdon.

Competing for Oxford in 2010 were Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss, AKA the Winkelvoss twins', who controversially sued Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea for a social networking site. They won $65m. But they lost the boat race.

11 th June 1962.

    Escape from Alcatraz (or was it):
                                   1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

                          Was the Escape from Alcatraz Successful?
A 2013 letter to the FBI, if real, suggests the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris survived one of the most daring—and dangerous—prison breaks of all time.

                             It was one of the most ingenious prison breaks of all time—if it worked. In 1962, inmates and bank robbers Frank Morris and John and Clarence Anglin vanished from Alcatraz, the federal island penitentiary off the coast of San Francisco. They had used sharpened spoons to bore through the prison walls, left papier-maché dummies in their beds and floated away on a raft made from 50 raincoats.

But what happened next has stumped historians for decades. Their bodies were never recovered, leaving many wondering whether they perished in the choppy San Francisco Bay or made it to shore—and freedom.

               In the years since nearly six decades of silence from the men led many to conclude that the escape had met a watery end. The FBI closed its case in 1979, concluding that the escapees were unlikely to have survived a treacherous swim of more than a mile of frigid waters to the mainland.

The Letter from John Anglin

               In January of 2018, CBS San Francisco published an extract of a letter addressed to the FBI that told an altogether different story—and claimed that the criminals had been at large since the 1960s. “My name is John Anglin,” it read. “I escape[d] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I’m 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes, we all made it that night but barely!”

The letter was sent to the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond station in 2013, the broadcaster reported but had been kept under wraps during a long investigation. An FBI laboratory examined the letter for fingerprints and DNA and analyzed the handwriting within, but the results were inconclusive. “So that means yes, and it means no, so this leaves everything in limbo,” security analyst Jeff Harp told CBS.

In the letter, the writer explained that he was the last living member of the trio, with his co-conspirators dying in 2005 and 2008. He offered a deal: If authorities announced on television that he would receive a single one-year jail sentence, in which he could have the medical treatment he needed, “I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke…” The FBI did no such thing and instead repressed the letter.

                   

                 Skepticism and Controversy Surrounding Alcatraz Escape
Federal authorities have been quick to quash any rumors of a successful great escape. In an interview with CBS San Francisco, the U.S. Marshals investigating the case told the broadcaster they considered the lead closed with no merit and a simple hoax from someone hoping to scam and embarrass federal and local authorities. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons say that they drowned once they got off of Alcatraz and their bodies were swept out to the Pacific Ocean—end of story,” National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell said.

The prison was closed permanently in 1963, a year after the men vanished. Today, it plays host to more than a million tourists each year, often drawn to the site by the story of the Anglin brothers, which was adapted for the screen in the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz. John Anglin’s cell, where the men made their exit, is a popular attraction. It’s preserved almost perfectly, with the same gaping hole in its teal-painted wall—but even the scene of the crime offers few answers as to where these great escapees wound up.

I have had the chance to visit Alcatraz. An eerie place. Photo taken in one of the cells.