Today in history

29 th June 1613

Globe theatre fire:
The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, burns to the ground.

The Original Globe Theatre Burns Down


In 1597 a certain Mr Allen failed to renew the lease on the land on which the theatre owned by Richard Burbage, the leading actor in a company named ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’, was built. A clause in the lease stated that anything built on the land belonged to Burbage and so when Allen was away over Christmas of that year the theatre was taken down and the timber stored in his yard that he shared with a builder – Peter Streete.



Burbage could not afford to lease a new plot of land and thus offered joint ownership of the company to five other members – including William Shakespeare – for £10. With the money raised from this sale they were able to acquire land just outside the city on the South Bank in Southwark near to the Rose Theatre. The fact that it was just outside the City had the advantage of being free from the authorities, who were not keen on theatres at all.



Come the spring Peter Streete transported the timber across the river Thames and re-built it. It is thought that the first play performed there was Julius Caesar in 1599 and it was a huge success. Other notable plays premiered there were Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, As You Like It and Othello. Ben Johnson was also to write plays for the Globe.



Seating up to 3000 in three stories of seating that were covered there was also an area called the pit – open to the elements. The people here were called ‘Groundlings’ and paid 1 penny. In the summer they were nicknamed ‘Stinkards’ for obvious reasons. The walls of the theatre were made from timber frames that were filled in with smaller slats of wood – like a medieval wattle and daub house – then plastered with mud with cow hair in to hold it together. As funds were low costs were kept to a minimum and instead of using tiles they used reeds for a thatch roof.



Outside the theatre plays were advertised by using a coloured flag. A red flag was used for history plays, a white one for comedies and a black one for tragedies. Above the entrance the words ‘Totus Mundus Agit Histrionem’ were written. This translates as the whole world is a playhouse. At the start of each performance collectors took a box around to collect the admission fees. When they were filled they were taken to a back room off the stage that became known as the ‘Box Office’. Then a trumpet sounded the start of the performance.



On the 29th June 1613 there was a performance of Henry VIII. Cannons were used for the effects. No cannon balls were required just gunpowder and wadding. Unfortunately some of the wadding landed in the reeds of the thatched roof and within one hour the theatre had be burned to the ground. No one was injured other than a gentleman whose breeches caught alight. A bystander using his bottle of beer put these out.



A second Globe was re-built and opened the following year. This time they used tiles and the whole building was more ornate as funds were more readily available. However in 1642 it was closed by the Puritans, who were vehemently against all stage plays, and the theatre was turned into tenement housing. It was not until 1970 when Sam Wanamaker, the American actor and director, set up the Globe Trust to rebuild the theatre, and it rose for a third time. He had been performing Shakespeare in Cleveland, Ohio, and wanted to recreate the original as closely as possible. It took 23 years to get planning permission, funds and find the land. 1000 English oak trees were used to build it using the same techniques and tools that built the original. They also used 6,000 bundles of Norfolk reeds to make the thatch roof. This needed special permission as no house or building had been allowed to be thatched, by law, after the Great Fire of London in 1666.



The original was thought to be round but when the foundations were explored more carefully in the 1980s it was found to be a polygon of 20 sides. The 3rd Globe is as near as they could get it, geographically to the original – just one street nearer the river. The first performance was in 1993 whilst it was still being built. Unfortunately Mr Wanamaker never saw its completion in 1997, as he had died 4 years earlier. Today the Globe attracts hundreds of thousands of people from around the world as well as running many educational programmes and is one of the great success stories of modern theatre.

30 th June 2007
Glasgow airport terror attack:

A Jeep Cherokee filled with propane canisters drives into the entrance of Glasgow Airport, Scotland in a failed terrorist attack. This was linked to the 2007 London car bombs that had taken place the day before.



The 2007 Glasgow Airport attack was a terrorist ramming attack which occurred on 30 June 2007, at 15:11 BST, when a dark green Jeep Cherokee loaded with propane canisters was driven at the glass doors of the Glasgow Airport terminal and set ablaze. It was the first terrorist attack to take place in Scotland since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. The attack took place three days after the appointment of Scottish MP Gordon Brown as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but 10 Downing dismissed suggestions of a connection. A close link was quickly established to the 2007 London car bombs the previous day. Although the doors were damaged, security bollards outside the entrance stopped the car from entering the terminal, where there were 4,000 people, with the potential for many fatalities.

The car's driver was severely burnt in the ensuing fire, and five members of the public were injured, none seriously. Some injuries were sustained by those assisting the police in detaining the occupants.

Both of the car's occupants were apprehended at the scene, and all those injured were taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in nearby Paisley. Within three days, Scotland Yard had confirmed that eight people had been taken into custody in connection with this incident and that in London.

Police identified the two men as Bilal Abdullah, a British-born, Muslim doctor of Iraqi descent working at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and Kafeel Ahmed, also known as Khalid Ahmed, an engineer and the driver, who was treated for fatal burns at the same hospital. The newspaper The Australian alleged that a suicide note indicated that the two had intended to die in the attack. Kafeel Ahmed died from his injuries on 2 August. Bilal Abdullah was later found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 32 years.

These were not good times, but shouldn't be forgotten.

1 st July 2007

Smoking ban in England:
Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.


Since 1 st July 2007 and the introduction of the ban on indoor smoking, UK public indoor areas and businesses have been smoke-free. The laws, properly called the Smoke-free (Excemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007 and the Health Act 2006 , banned smoking in all enclosed public areas, including places such as pubs and restaurants.

Prior to this, smoking had been permitted indoors in most public and work buildings, with concessions made such as smoke rooms and designated smoking areas. In restaurants, patrons would be asked at the entrance if they wished to dine in a smoking or non-smoking part of the dining room, although at smaller establishments, smokers and non-smokers often shared the same space.



Why has the UK banned indoor smoking?

The indoor smoking ban was implemented for the ‘prevention and control of health care associated infections’. The indoor smoking ban was not supposed to be immediately applicable to all enclosed public spaces, however this was changed to a full ban rather than a phased implementation. The final law was approved as an indoor smoking ban on all enclosed public spaces.



Indoor Smoking Ban Timeline: When was Smoking Banned Indoors?

Here’s a closer look at how the indoor smoking ban came to be, as well as the continuing developments on banning indoor public smoking:



November 2004

The government releases a white paper outlining the need for a ban. Initially, the plan was to ban indoor smoking in NHS and government buildings by 2006, in enclosed public spaces by 2007, and in pubs, bars, and restaurants by 2008.



October 2005

The government announced its plans to push on with plans for the ban. This was met with opposition from some MPs, many of whom wanted a total ban on indoor smoking in all enclosed areas, not a phased ban implemented over several years.



January 2006

A free vote was announced among MPs to decide if the bill should be amended.



February 2006

The vote takes place, confirming that a total ban on indoor smoking should come into effect in England.



March 2006

Scotland introduces an indoor smoking ban.



April 2007

Wales introduces an indoor smoking ban, followed by Northern Ireland.



July 2007

The indoor smoking ban was brought into force in England by the implementation of the The Smoke-free (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007.



October 2015

England and Wales ban smoking in vehicles in which a minor is present. Scotland followed suit in December.



Frequently Asked Questions About The Indoor Smoking Ban



Who Implemented the Indoor Smoking Ban?

The ban was initially proposed by Public Health England. Following discussion by MPs, it came into law as announced by the Health Secretary at the time, Patricia Hewitt.



What Year Was Indoor Smoking Banned?

Indoor smoking was banned on 1st July 2007 for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was banned in 2006 for Scotland, while the Republic of Ireland banned indoor smoking in 2004.



How Has the Indoor Smoking Ban Affected Smoking?

The indoor smoking ban meant that smoking cigarettes in enclosed public spaces was no longer allowed. In terms of results, the indoor smoking ban led to reduced smoking incidence. In 2006, 22% of people smoked. By 2019, that number had been reduced to 15%.



Rules Around Indoor Smoking Around the World



UK

In the UK, the indoor smoking ban was first introduced in Scotland, followed by Wales and Northern Ireland, before it was finally enforced in England. Globally, the first indoor smoking ban came into effect in the Republic of Ireland in 2004.



Europe

Within Europe, indoor smoking bans are widely adopted. Generally, they follow the same blueprint as the ban initially implemented by the Republic of Ireland, covering enclosed public spaces. Some European countries differ in their approach; in Germany, some businesses, particularly those part of the hospitality industry, are not required to ban indoor smoking.



Oceania

So, what about Oceania? Australia has laws on smoking, including the banning of smoking in cars where children are present, as well as in all enclosed public areas, with the exception of certain jurisdications which allow smoking in gaming areas of specific hospitality venues as well as in hotel guest rooms. Furthermore, some public outdoor areas are subject to council-enforced smoking bans. The government of New Zealand introduced an indoor smoking ban in 2003 (effective 2004), with the exception of dedicated smoking rooms in rest homes and residential care institutions, and aim to be totally smoke-free as a nation by 2025.



Africa

Laws around indoor smoking vary widely throughout Africa. Nigeria enforces the smoke-free provisions of their National Tobacco Control Act 2015 by imposing duties and/or fines on individuals who smoke in prohibited areas.. Ethiopia bans smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces and public transport.



Asia

In Asia, smoke-free laws vary. Hong Kong introduced a nationwide ban restricting smoking in public places, with certain exemptions, in 2007.] In Mainland China, a national ban on smoking in public spaces was introduced in 2011. By contrast, Japan does not have any official laws banning indoor smoking.



USA

America’s laws on indoor smoking bans vary widely from state to state. States such as New York, Montana, Illinois, California and Washington ban smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars and restaurants, whereas states such as Alabama, Wyoming and South Carolina do not impose statewide smoke-free mandates.



This is just a snapshot of some of the different rules across the rest of the world, ultimately however as of 2021, few countries still allow smoking indoors in public areas.

2 nd July 1937

Amelia Earheart disappears:
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.

What Happened to Amelia Earhart?


Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897. She took up aviation at the age of 24 and later gained publicity as one of the earliest female aviators. In 1928, the publisher George P. Putnam suggested Earhart become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The previous year, Charles A. Lindbergh had flown solo nonstop across the Atlantic, and Putnam had made a fortune off Lindbergh’s autobiographical book We.

In June 1928, Earhart and two men flew from Newfoundland, Canada, to Wales, Great Britain. Although Earhart’s only function during the crossing was to keep the plane’s log, the flight won her great fame, and Americans were enamored of the daring young pilot. The three were honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York, and “Lady Lindy,” as Earhart was dubbed, was given a White House reception by President Calvin Coolidge.

Earhart wrote a book about the flight for Putnam, whom she married in 1931, and gave lectures and continued her flying career under her maiden name. On May 20, 1932, she took off alone from Newfoundland in a Lockheed Vega on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman. She was bound for Paris but was blown off course and landed in Ireland on May 21 after flying more than 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours. It was the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s historic flight, and before Earhart no one had attempted to repeat his solo transatlantic flight. For her achievement, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress. Three months later, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the continental United States.

In 1935, in the first flight of its kind, she flew solo from Wheeler Field in Honolulu to Oakland, California, winning a $10,000 award posted by Hawaiian commercial interests. Later that year, she was appointed a consultant in careers for women at Purdue University, and the school bought her a modern Lockheed Electra aircraft to be used as a “flying laboratory




On March 17, 1937, she took off from Oakland and flew west on an around-the-world attempt. It would not be the first global flight, but it would be the longest–29,000 miles, following an equatorial route. Accompanying Earhart in the Lockheed was Frederick Noonan, her navigator and a former Pan American pilot. After resting and refueling in Honolulu, the pair prepared to resume the flight. However, while taking off for Howland Island, Earhart ground-looped the plane on the runway, perhaps because of a blown tire, and the Lockheed was seriously damaged. The flight was called off, and the aircraft was shipped back to California for repairs.

In May, Earhart flew the newly rebuilt plane to Miami, from where Noonan and she would make a new around-the-world attempt, this time from west to east. They left Miami on June 1, and after stops in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. About 22,000 miles of the journey had been completed, and the last 7,000 miles would all be over the Pacific Ocean. The next destination was Howland Island, a tiny U.S.-owned island that was just a few miles long. The U.S. Department of Commerce had a weather observation station and a landing strip on the island, and the staff was ready with fuel and supplies. Several U.S. ships, including the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, were deployed to aid Earhart and Noonan in this difficult leg of their journey.

As the Lockheed approached Howland Island, Earhart radioed the Itasca and explained that she was low on fuel. However, after several hours of frustrating attempts, two-way communication was only briefly established, and the Itasca was unable to pinpoint the Lockheed’s location or offer navigational information. Earhart circled the Itasca‘s position but was unable to sight the ship, which was sending out miles of black smoke. She radioed “one-half hour fuel and no landfall” and later tried to give information on her position. Soon after, contact was lost, and Earhart presumably tried to land the Lockheed on the water.

If her landing on the water was perfect, Earhart and Noonan might have had time to escape the aircraft with a life raft and survival equipment before it sank. An intensive search of the vicinity by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or their plane.

3 rd July 1938

The Mallard:
World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).

On 3 July 1938, the A4 class locomotive Mallard raced down Stoke Bank at 126mph to set a new steam locomotive world speed record. That record still stands.

The 28th of the 35 A4 class of express locomotives designed by Gresley, Mallard had particular design features to ensure speedy passage on the East Coast Line on which it usually operated. An eight-wheeled corridor tender allowed the crew access to the train behind, so the team could work shifts without stopping the locomotive.

A SHORT HISTORY OF MALLARD 4468
If Rocket’s claim to fame was its exceptional performance in the Rainhill Trials—leading to the success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway—then Mallard marked steam traction’s zenith in attaining its world speed record of 126 mph on 3 July 1938.

Built in March 1938, Mallard is part of the A4 class of locomotive designed by Sir Nigel Gresley when he was Chief Engineer at the LNER. Its innovative streamlined wedge-shaped design bore no resemblance to the preceeding A3 class (of which Flying Scotsman was an example) and was very much a product of 1930s Britain. At this time speed was seen as the ultimate symbol of modernity. The A4 class, aesthetically an example of art deco styling, cut the journey time from London King’s Cross to Newcastle to just four hours.

Until the morning of 3 July 1938, the recently built Mallard appeared to be just another member of the LNER’s express locomotive, however that was the day when Gresley had authorised his team to try and beat the (then) British steam record of 114 mph held by the LMS. Gresley chose experienced driver Joe Duddington, alongside fireman Thomas Bray. The rest of the crew and technical team were only told the true purpose of the run just before the train’s northbound run from Wood Green, North London. The attempt on the record started at Barkston near Grantham, which meant the locomotive would be descending Stoke Bank on the record attempt.

Racing down Stoke Bank, the dynamometer car behind Mallard recorded 120 mph for five miles, which saw off the LMS’s record. However, there was a small window before the crew needed to slow down for the curve at Essendine, so they accelerated even more reaching a peak speed of 125 mph.

Subsequent examination of the dynamometer car record suggested a peak speed of 126 mph, but Gresley declined to mention this as the distance was for less than a mile. At the time the claimed 125mph speed had beaten the world record for steam locomotives established in Germany in May 1935 (a top speed of 124.5 mph). The plaque on the side of Mallard showing the peak speed as 126 mph was fitted to the locomotive after the war.

When the train had braked for the curves at Essendine the force exerted had caused Mallard’s big end bearing to run hot, resulting in the locomotive being removed from the train at Peterborough for repair. However the LNER were masters at press liaison and the speed record still got maximum publicity. Driver Duddington would later record his recollection of the speed record for the BBC in 1944 showing that the 126mph maximum was a well known claim at the time despite Gresley’s reluctance. (Sir Nigel Gresley died in 1941).

Driver Duddington and fireman Bray would carry on working for the LNER, with Duddington retiring in 1944, and Bray becoming a driver after the war.

4 th July 1954

Rationing ends:
Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.


1954: Housewives celebrate end of rationing
Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted.
Members of the London Housewives' Association held a special ceremony in London's Trafalgar Square to mark Derationing Day.

The Minister of Fuel and Power, Geoffrey Lloyd, burned a large replica of a ration book at an open meeting in his constituency.

But the Minister of Food, Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, told a meeting at Bebington in Cheshire he would keep his as a souvenir and praised all those traders and organisations that had co-operated with the rationing system.

For the first time since the war began in 1939 London's Smithfield Market opened at midnight instead of 0600 and meat sellers were doing a roaring trade.

High prices

Although the final step in dismantling the whole wartime system of food distribution comes into effect, it's not all good news.

Butchers are predicting meat prices will soar for the next couple of weeks until the effect of supply and demand cools the situation down.

In February the Ministry of Food stopped controlling the sale of pork and announced it would end all food rationing this summer.

Food rationing began on 8 January 1940, four months after the outbreak of war.

Limits were imposed on the sale of bacon, butter and sugar.

Then on 11 March 1940 all meat was rationed. Clothes coupons were introduced and a black market soon developed while queueing outside shops and bartering for extra food became a way of life.

There were allowances made for pregnant women who used special green ration books to get extra food rations, and breastfeeding mothers had extra milk.

Restrictions were gradually lifted three years after war had ended, starting with flour on 25 July 1948, followed by clothes on 15 March 1949.

On 19 May 1950 rationing ended for canned and dried fruit, chocolate biscuits, treacle, syrup, jellies and mincemeat.

Petrol rationing, imposed in 1939, ended in May 1950 followed by soap in September 1950.

Three years later sales of sugar were off ration and in May butter rationing ended.

Its back to Blackpool early tomorrow for the weekend so illpost
weekends history tonight .


5 th July 1996

Dolly:
Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep—the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell—is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.

Originally code-named “6LL3,” the cloned lamb was named after singer and actress Dolly Parton. The name was reportedly suggested by one of the stockmen who assisted with her birth, after he learned that the animal was cloned from a mammary cell. The cells had been taken from the udder of a six-year-old ewe and cultured in a lab using microscopic needles, in a method first used in human fertility treatments in the 1970s. After producing a number of normal eggs, scientists implanted them into surrogate ewes; 148 days later one of them gave birth to Dolly.

Dolly’s birth was announced publicly in February 1997 to a storm of controversy. On one hand, supporters argued that cloning technology can lead to crucial advances in medicine, citing the production of genetically modified animals to be organ donors for humans as well as “therapeutic” cloning, or the process of cloning embryos in order to collect stem cells for use in the development of treatments for degenerative nerve diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Some scientists also looked at animal cloning as a possible way to preserve endangered species. On the other hand, detractors saw the new cloning technology as potentially unsafe and unethical, especially when it was applied to what many saw as the logical next step: human cloning.

Over the course of her short life, Dolly was mated to a male sheep named David and eventually gave birth to four lambs. In January 2002 she was found to have arthritis in her hind legs, a diagnosis that raised questions about genetic abnormalities that may have been caused in the cloning process. After suffering from a progressive lung disease, Dolly was put down on February 14, 2003, at the age of six. Her early death raised more questions about the safety of cloning, both animal and human. As for Dolly, the historic sheep was stuffed and is now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

6 th July1988


                         Piper Alpha disaster:
                                                       The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life.

     

On July 6, 1988, the Piper Alpha oil platform experienced a series of catastrophic explosions and fires. This platform, located in the North Sea approximately 177 kilometers from Aberdeen, Scotland, had 226 people on board at the time of the event, 165 of whom were killed. In addition, two emergency response personnel died during a rescue attempt. The platform was totally destroyed and led to damages of around 3.4 billion USD.

A release of light hydrocarbon occurred when a pump was restarted after maintenance. Though the personnel starting the pump did not know this, a relief valve in the pump discharge had also been removed for service and a blank
had been loosely installed in its place on the piping flange (which was not readily visible from the pump vicinity). Upon restart of the pump, this flange leaked, producing a flammable hydrocarbon cloud, which subsequently encountered an ignition source. The initial explosion led to an escalating series of crude oil fires (an illustration of what is called the “domino effect”), fuelled by continuing production from adjacent oil platforms.The Piper Alpha platform was at the center of a network of platforms interconnected by oil and gas pipelines. The initial explosion caused oil pipelines on the Piper Alpha platform to rupture, leaking additional oil which fed the fire. The pipelines were fed by oil from other platforms, whose managers assumed that they would be told to shut down their operations if necessary (they were aware of the event on Piper Alpha, but did not know how serious it was). However, the accident had interrupted communications with other oil platforms, and it took a long time for the “please stop” message to arrive.

The intensity of the subsequent fires prevented rescue efforts, either by helicopter or by ship. At the height of the event, natural gas was being burned on Piper Alpha at a rate equivalent to the natural gas consumption rate of the entire United Kingdom.

It took over three weeks for the fires on the remains of the rig to be put out by a company specialized in controlling runaway oil wells.

7 th July 2005

            London transport bombings:
A series of four explosions occurs on London's transport system, killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and injuring over 700 others.
                                                   

Terrorists attack London transit system at rush hour

On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London subways and one bus during the peak of the city’s rush hour. The synchronized suicide bombings, which were thought to be the work of al-Qaida, killed 56 people including the bombers and injured another 700. It was the largest attack on Great Britain since World War II. No warning was given.

The train bombings targeted the London Underground, the city’s subway system. Nearly simultaneous explosions, at about 8:50 a.m., occurred on trains in three locations: between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations on the Circle Line; between the Russell Square and King’s Cross stations on the Piccadilly Line; and at the Edgware Road station, also on the Circle Line. Almost an hour later, a double-decker bus on Upper Woburn Place near Tavistock Square was also hit; the bus’s roof was ripped off by the blast.

The attacks took place as world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were meeting at the G8 summit in  Scotland. In his remarks after learning of the blasts, Blair called the attacks barbaric and pointed out that their taking place at the same time as the G8 summit was most likely purposeful. Later, he vowed to see those responsible brought to justice and that Great Britain, a major partner with the U.S. in the war in Iraq, would not be intimidated by terrorists.

Of the four suicide bombers, three were born in Great Britain and one in Jamaica. Three lived in or near Leeds in West Yorkshire; one resided in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Al-Qaida officially claimed responsibility for the attacks on September 1, 2005, in a videotape released to the al-Jazeera television network.

Two weeks later, on July 21, 2005, a second set of four bombings was attempted, also targeting the city’s transit system, but failed when the explosives only partially detonated. The four men alleged to be responsible for the failed attacks were arrested in late July.

An estimated 3 million people ride the London Underground every day, with another 6.5 million using the city’s bus system.

8 th July 1947

Roswell incident:
Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.


The Roswell incident is a collection of events and myths surrounding the 1947 crash of a United States Army Air Forces balloon near Roswell, New Mexico. Operated from the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Field and part of the top secret Project Mogul, the balloon was intended to detect Soviet nuclear tests. After metallic and rubber debris was recovered by Roswell Army Air Field personnel, the United States Army announced their possession of a "flying disc". This announcement made international headlines but was retracted within a day. Obscuring the true purpose and source of the crashed balloon, the Army subsequently stated that it was a conventional weather balloon.

In 1978, retired Air Force officer Jesse Marcel revealed that the Army's weather balloon claim had been a cover story, but speculated that the debris was of extraterrestrial origin. Popularized by the 1980 book The Roswell Incident, this speculation became the basis for long-lasting and increasingly complex and contradictory UFO conspiracy theories, which over time expanded the incident to include governments concealing evidence of extraterrestrial beings, grey aliens, multiple crashed flying saucers, alien corpses and autopsies, and the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology, none of which have any factual basis.

Despite the lack of evidence, many UFO proponents claim that the Roswell debris was derived from an alien craft, and accuse the US government of a cover-up. The conspiracy narrative has become a trope in science fiction literature, film, and television. The town of Roswell leverages this to promote itself as a destination for UFO-associated tourism.

An interesting and controversial article.

9 th July 1922

Johnny Weissmuller, the minute barrier:
Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'


August 6, 1921—a pioneer embarks on his journey in the pool at the American Athletic Union Championships. Winning all four of the races he entered, he thinks he might give this swimming thing a try.

Johnny Weissmuller, who would go on to famously portray Tarzan in the 1932 film Tarzan the Ape Man, officially entered the competitive swimming ranks in Duluth, Minnesota at the 1921 AAU Championships.

The local newspaper, The Duluth Herald, got word that Weissmuller was someone to watch entering the competition, but surely no one would expect what he ended up accomplishing during his career.

At those AAU Championships in Duluth, a city that was growing rapidly near the turn of the century due to its Lake Superior shipping connection of lumber and iron ore, Weissmuller would defeat current 100-yard freestyle world record holder Norman Ross head-to-head in a time of 55.2 seconds, and also won the 50-yard event.

On 9th July 1922, Weissmuller became the first swimmer in history to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 freestyle (long course meters), clocking a time of 58.6 seconds in Alameda, California. That broke the previous world record of 1:00.4, held by Duke Kahanamoku, who won five Olympic swimming medals between 1912 and 1924.

Weissmuller, also the first man to break five minutes in the 440-yard freestyle, went on to win three gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris in the men’s 100 freestyle, 400 freestyle and the 4×200 free relay, and added a bronze in men’s water polo.

He would win two more Olympic gold medals in 1928 in Amsterdam in the 100 free and 4×200 free relay, and once again was a multi-sport athlete at the Games, competing on the U.S. water polo team that placed seventh.

In total, the swimmer out of the Illinois Athletic Club won 52 U.S. National titles and set 67 world records, and by all indications, never lost a swimming race.

He would go on to a career in film, and became known as the definitive Tarzan, portraying the famous character in 12 different movies from 1932 until 1948.

10 th July1962

Satellite communications,Telstar:
Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

Telstar 1 is a defunct communications satellite launched by NASA on July 10, 1962. It was the satellite that allowed the first live broadcast of television images between the United States and Europe. Telstar 1 remained active for only 7 months before it prematurely failed due to Starfish Prime, a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States. Although the satellite is no longer operational, it remains in Earth orbit.
The idea of transmitting information by means of satellites was hardly new. As early as October 1945, the visionary Arthur C. Clarke published an article talking about it in the specialized magazine Wireless World. His idea was to take advantage of the immensity of space to transmit information, using a satellite system for this purpose. During the Cold War, the shock caused by the successful launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviets increased the United States' interest in aerospace research. Soon thereafter, the Americans began their attempts to launch orbital communications satellites for transmitting telephone, radio, and television signals.

In December 1958, the United States successfully launched its first communications satellite, SCORE. Through it, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a Christmas message to the entire world. However, SCORE stayed in orbit for only a few months, its enormous surface area and very low Earth orbit forcing reentry after only 500 laps around the planet due to aerodynamic resistance. Also, SCORE relied on a passive reflector, which greatly reduced signal strength, since it did not amplify the signal before sending it back to earth.

The start of a new era, and when you think how many satellites there are whizzing round up there today.

11 th July 1962


Telstars first transatlantic transmission:
First transatlantic satellite television transmission.

On 11 July 1962 British television viewers saw pictures beamed live from the US via the Telstar satellite. Raymond Baxter and Richard Dimbleby were on hand to provide commentary, although the precise time of the broadcast was not known in advance. The first pictures, received in Britain just after 1am, were of the chairman of AT&T, Frederick Kappel, and of poor quality, while in France they were picked up clearly. However this landmark transmission marked the beginning of satellite broadcasting, and changed the face of telecommunications.

The technical problems of the first night were traced to a component in the Goonhilly Down aerial - specially constructed by the Post Office - that had been fitted the wrong way round. The following day's transatlantic broadcasts were much more successful, and reported to be so clear as to be indistinguishable from ordinary television. Then the first programmes were beamed the other way, from France to America. Later in the month the BBC took the lead in producing a complex outside broadcast from nine European countries to the US.

Other landmarks achieved by Telstar included the first transatlantic colour transmission, from Britain on 16 July. Today satellite technology has made the most remote parts of the world accessible.

12th July 1963

The moors murders:
Pauline Reade, 16, disappears in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders.

When the newspapers printed details of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's unspeakable cruelty disbelieving readers are said to have wept. And to this day the crimes the evil pair committed still haunt Manchester.

Between 1963 and 1965 Brady and Hindley tortured and murdered five children - Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17 - before burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor. During their trial at Chester Assizes in the spring of 1966, a harrowing 16 minute tape was played to the jury in which Lesley Ann, could be heard pleading for her life.


She could be heard whimpering 'let me go' and 'don’t undress me will you?'. Hindley could be heard telling the girl to 'shut up' while Brady appeared to be taking pictures.

"Please God help me, ah, please, oh," the girl is heard to say before screaming. The press reports were filed from court and a disbelieving public read them and wept.

Brady and Hindley were eventually jailed for life on May 6, 1966, for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Twenty one years later they finally admitted they had also killed Pauline and Keith Bennett. Pauline's body was discovered in 1987, but Keith was never found.

Despite Keith's mum Winnie Johnson writing hundreds of letters to Brady, he refused to reveal her son's whereabouts. She died in 2012 aged 78 having never being able to give Keith the Christian funeral she longed for.

Pauline, from Gorton, disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12, 1963. She got into a car with Hindley - a woman she knew and trusted - while Brady secretly followed on a motorbike. Brady murdered her on Saddleworth Moor and buried her there.

John Kilbride, the eldest of seven children from Ashton-under-Lyne, was snatched, sexually assaulted and murdered on November 23, 1963. His mother Sheila had religiously set the dinner table for her missing son for two years after the murder until his body was found buried on the moors.

13 th July 1985

Live aid:
The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Moscow and Sydney.

39 years ago today, Live Aid took place in London's Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium, in an effort to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine. Organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the iconic concert featured performances from Queen, U2, David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Madonna and many more.

Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday 13 July 1985. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 89,484 people.

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 percent of the world population.

The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated that following the publicity generated by the concert, "humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policy" for Western governments. Geldof has said, "We took an issue that was nowhere on the political agenda and, through the lingua franca of the planet – which is not English but rock 'n' roll – we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus." In another interview he stated that Live Aid "created something permanent and self-sustaining" but also asked why Africa is getting poorer.

The organisers of Live Aid tried to run aid efforts directly, channelling millions of pounds to NGOs in Ethiopia. It has been alleged that much of this went to the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed – and it is also alleged some funds were spent on guns. Although the BBC World Service programme Assignment reported in March 2010 that the funds had been diverted, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit later found "that there was no evidence to support such statements". Brian Barder, British Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1982 to 1986, wrote on his website that "the diversion of aid related only to the tiny proportion that was supplied by some NGOs to rebel-held areas"

I remember it well. Some great performances!

14 th July 1965

First photos of another planet:

Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet. The photographs take approximately six hours to be transmitted back to Earth.

After a few million years of watching Mars from afar, humanity meets the red planet -- not quite in person, but through the eyes of NASA's Mariner 4 satellite.

The half-ton space camera flew past Mars eight months after being shot from Earth on an Atlas rocket, having traveled 325 million miles. It flew within 6,000 miles of the planet's surface, snapping 22 digital photographs before continuing into space. They were the first close-ups ever taken of another planet, and it was only appropriate that the subject was Mars, a source of fascination since the beginning of recorded history.

There were, alas, none of the canals seen by astronomers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, nor evidence of senders of messages heard by Nikola Tesla or Gugliemo Marconi. Indeed, the hazy images of a barren, crater-strewn landscape ended speculation that Mars might plausibly be inhabited by higher life forms. But those low-resolution -- 0.04 megapixel -- images stirred the soul in different ways, and they paved the way for future photo shoots that would reveal a planet every bit as fantastic as imagined.

After leaving Mars, Mariner 4 journeyed to the far side of the sun, and finally returned to Earth's vicinity in 1967. Long after it was expected to break down, the satellite continued to send information about cosmic dust, celestial dynamics and solar plasma. After being put through a series of operations tests, Mariner 4 was shut down Dec. 20, 1967.



Mariners photo of Mars.

15 th July 1799

The Rosetta stone:
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

On This Day In History: Precious Rosetta Stone Found By Napoleonic Expedition To Egypt – On July 15, 1799

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta (today called "Rashid") by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

The Rosetta Stone is a valuable historical document that allows the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

On This Day In History: Precious Rosetta Stone Found By Napoleonic Expedition To Egypt – On July 15, 1799
AncientPages.com | July 15, 2016 | News, On This Day In History
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AncientPages.com - On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta (today called "Rashid") by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

The Rosetta Stone is a valuable historical document that allows the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Image via Wikipedia

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Image credit: Hans Hillewaert - CC BY-SA 4.0

The artifact is inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts regarding the same text:

the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,
the middle portion is in Demotic script, and
the lowest is Ancient Greek.
The irregularly shaped stone was carved in black granodiorite. It was probably displayed within a temple located near the ancient city of Sais.

The discovered part of the stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick.

The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists that it was inscribed by priests honoring the king of Egypt, Ptolemy V, in the second century B.C.

Many scholars worked on deciphering hieroglyphs for several hundred years.

On This Day In History: Precious Rosetta Stone Found By Napoleonic Expedition To Egypt – On July 15, 1799
AncientPages.com | July 15, 2016 | News, On This Day In History
FacebookTwitterFlipboardPinterestEmailShare
AncientPages.com - On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta (today called "Rashid") by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

The Rosetta Stone is a valuable historical document that allows the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Image via Wikipedia

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum. Image credit: Hans Hillewaert - CC BY-SA 4.0

The artifact is inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts regarding the same text:

the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,
the middle portion is in Demotic script, and
the lowest is Ancient Greek.
The irregularly shaped stone was carved in black granodiorite. It was probably displayed within a temple located near the ancient city of Sais.

The discovered part of the stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick.

The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists that it was inscribed by priests honoring the king of Egypt, Ptolemy V, in the second century B.C.

Many scholars worked on deciphering hieroglyphs for several hundred years.

On This Day In History: Precious Rosetta Stone Found By Napoleonic Expedition To Egypt - On July 15, 1799

After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing, Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.

Champollion could read Greek and Coptic, which helped him figure out the importance of the seven demotic signs in Coptic and what they stood for.

Then he began tracing these demotic signs back to hieroglyphic symbols.

Hieroglyphics used pictures to represent objects, sounds, and groups of sounds.

The text on the Rosetta Stone is a tax relief given to the temple priests. It gives them back the tax privileges they had earlier. The complete Greek text in English is about 1600-1700 words in length.

Some scholars believe that several copies of the Rosetta Stone might exist and were made at many temples.

The stone is now in the British Museum in London.

16 th July 1935

Parking charges begin:

16 July 1935: the world’s first parking meter is installed
Today, they are the bane of many a frustrated driver, the first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City on this day in 1935.

You can imagine Reverend CH North's frustration. Having just pulled up in his car in Oklahoma City, he hopped out and rummaged around in his pocket for loose change for the parking meter. Finding none, he ran to the nearest shop to get some.

To his disgust, when he returned to his car, he found he had been given a ticket. It was the first ticket ever given for a parking meter infringement. The year was 1935.

The good reverend wasn't going to take this lying down. He promptly took the parking meter company to court and lost. He thus became the meters' first ever victim.

Two years before that fateful incident, shop owners had been fuming that drivers were hogging the parking spaces outside their shops. This, they complained, prevented other customers from visiting. Banding together, they approached a local newspaper editor, Carl C Magee, who launched a competition to design a timing device to regulate how long drivers were parked.

Engineering professors Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A Hale won the $500 prize for the Black Maria' the first fully operational parking meter. Magee patented a modified design and set up the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company.

On 16 July 1935, just a month before Reverend North fell foul of the spring-loaded machines, the first meters were installed down one side of the road. The affected shop owners were so chuffed that the shop owners on the other side of the road demanded to have parking meters too.

The meters continued to be made in Oklahoma up until 1963, when the factory moved to Arkansas. However, despite changes in design and technology, Park-O-Meter Company meters are still made today under the name of POM.

17 th July 1938

    "Wrong way" Corrigan.
                                     Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

                        On this day: Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan "accidentally" flies to Dublin instead of California
On July 17, 1938, Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan "accidentally" began his transatlantic flight from New York to Dublin.


Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan took off from an airfield in Brooklyn on July 17, 1938, with plans to land in California. Claiming he took a wrong turn, the Irish-American pilot landed in Dublin, Ireland the next day instead.

It has long been claimed that Corrigan flew the Atlantic on purpose because he had been denied permission to do so when the Charles Lindbergh flight aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, of 1927, was still considered a modern miracle.

             Corrigan’s plane, which he had flown in from California the previous day, was so battered it was about to be grounded. After it landed, an inspection revealed over 60 violations including leaky fuel pipes.

Somehow, after a 28-hour flight at a little over 100 miles per hour, he landed at Baldonnel Aerodrome in Ireland, having been given up for lost.
             At take-off at 5:15 the previous morning, he had 320 US gallons of gasoline and 16 US gallons of oil, Corrigan headed east from the 4,200-foot runway of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and kept going.

               Corrigan claimed to have noticed his "error" after flying for about 26 hours. He landed at Baldonnel Aerodrome, County Dublin, on July 18, after a 28-hour, 13-minute flight. His provisions had been just two chocolate bars, two boxes of fig bars, and 25 US gallons of water.

Corrigan's plane had fuel tanks mounted on the front, allowing him to see only from the sides. He had no radio and his compass was 20 years old.

                                     As the journalist H. R. Knickerbocker reported after inspecting the plane: “As I looked over it at the Dublin airdrome I really marveled that anyone should have been rash enough even to go in the air with it, much less try to fly the Atlantic. He built it, or rebuilt it, practically as a boy would build a scooter out of a soapbox and a pair of old roller skates. It looked like it. The nose of the engine hood was a mass of patches soldered by Corrigan himself into a crazy-quilt design. The door behind which Corrigan crouched for twenty-eight hours was fastened together with a piece of baling wire. The reserve gasoline tanks put together by Corrigan left him so little room that he had to sit hunched forward with his knees cramped, and not enough window space to see the ground when landing.”

                  Corrigan was of Irish descent and was thus delighted to have reached the old sod. He returned home to a hero’s welcome including a ticker-tape parade in both New York and Chicago.

                       Corrigan was of Irish descent and was thus delighted to have reached the old sod. He returned home to a hero’s welcome including a ticker-tape parade in both New York and Chicago.

          There is still controversy over Corrigan’s intentions on that fateful day. The manager of Floyd Bennett Field, Kenneth P. Behr, said Corrigan asked him which runway to use, and Behr told him to use any runway as long as he did not fly east.

18 th July 1976

Nadia and the perfect 10:
Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

In her Olympic debut at the tender age of 14, Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic history. The young Romanian's performance at the Montreal Olympic Games launches her into the international spotlight.


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1976

Gymnast Nadia Comăneci scores first perfect “10” in Olympic history

In her Olympic debut at the tender age of 14, Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic history. The young Romanian's performance at the Montreal Olympic Games launches her into the international spotlight.

Comăneci stirred up excitement on the first day of the Montreal games—July 18, 1976—which began with the gymnastics team competition. Her first event, the uneven bars, required every gymnast to compete with the same routine. "I knew I was good at what I was doing, but I didn't know how good I was compared to others," Comăneci recalled. "I added amplitude to every skill." Comăneci executed every element flawlessly. The scoreboards flashed "1.00," because they could only display three digits—no one imaged they would need four. Comăneci was the first gymnast to earn a perfect 10 in Olympic competition.

After her record-breaking score on the uneven bars, Comăneci would notch six more perfect 10s at the Montreal games. Her virtuosic performance also earned her three gold medals, and she became the youngest all-around gold medalist in the history of Olympic gymnastics. An instant media darling, she was featured on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated—all in the same week. Sports illustrated wrote that she was "brilliant and beguiling," with "precision and daring…never seen before." Her coach, the infamous Bela Karolyi, declared that "Nadia has courage."

Comăneci began her gymnastics career as a kindergartner in Romania. Coach Bela Karolyi scouted the 6 year old as a natural talent, and she joined his notoriously severe gymnastics training program. Karolyi, the future coach of the American "Magnificent Seven," coached Comăneci to victory with the Romanian team in Montreal, before defecting to the United States in 1981. Comăneci won World Championship gold medals in 1978 and 1979 and earned two gold medals in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. She retired from competition in 1984.

Romanian authorities subjected Comăneci to intense scrutiny and surveillance after she became a global gymnastics star. She, too, defected from Romania to the U.S. in 1989, where she promotes gymnastics with husband and fellow Olympian Bart Conner.

19 th July 1545

   Mary Rose sinking:
                              The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.

                       What happened on that fateful day, 19th July 1545?
The Mary Rose sank during the Battle of the Solent, a confrontation between French and English troops on the Isle of Wight, as well as a face-off between their respective fleets in the Solent between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth.

The only confirmed eyewitness, a Flemish sailor who escaped from the sinking vessel, claims that the Mary Rose had fired all her starboard side guns and was turning when her sails were caught in a strong gust of wind, pushing the gunports, which had been left open, below the waterline.

     What happened inddeed , below are a few reasons put forward , but form your own opinion.


                          Human error?
Were the officers or crew incompetent?
This was Sir George Carew’s first naval command, so maybe he was unfamiliar with his
new vessel’s capabilities, and he gave an order that endangered the ship? Or perhaps the crew just ignored his orders, or were even unable to understand them, leading to disaster?

It is claimed that the Admiral called out that he had “the sort of men” that he “could not rule”, but this claim comes from his cousin, possibly trying to protect the family name?

                         It has also been suggested that some of the crew came from overseas, causing communication problems. However, it wasn’t unusual for foreign sailors to work on English ships; in the Mary Rose‘s first year at sea, she hosted the trial of a Flemish sailor on one of the other ships in the fleet, the eyewitness mentioned earlier was a Flemish survivor of the sinking, and others recovered from the seabed appear to be from as far as Spain, Italy and even North Africa! If the language barrier was such a big issue, why was this standard across the fleet?

             Bad weather?
Did bad weather take out the Mary Rose?
Did a gust of wind hit the sails at a crucial moment, making the ship unstable? Eye-witness accounts described a sudden breeze as the Mary Rose made a turn, causing her to capsize.

With the gunports opened for battle, the ship could have flooded and quickly foundered. So why had she never foundered before? Perhaps she had simply become too heavy after a recent refit, which had added extra guns to her firepower.

                   Poor design?
Was the Mary Rose badly designed?
Despite what you may have heard, the Mary Rose did not sink on her first time out of harbour. She was 34 years old when she sank, and had travelled hundreds of miles, from Scotland in the north to the Atlantic coast of France in the south, during her career.

While it’s often claimed that the gunports were cut too low, there is no evidence for this. The presence of scuppers along the main gun deck would suggest that they were a decent height above the waterline.
                        While it is true that the ship had a refit in 1536, this refit took place on the Medway, near the river Thames. The Mary Rose would therefore have had to traverse much more turbulent waters than those found in the Solent, so if the ship had been poorly designed, she would have sunk then, rather than in the relatively calm waters between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

Overloaded?

                Had they put too many guns and soldiers on board?
The guns had been put aboard in London, so she’d managed to traverse the English Channel without mishap – so why did she topple in the Solent? Studies of the size and shape of the Mary Rose, and the weight of the guns that were listed as being onboard during the period in which she sank, suggest that while the ship was carrying a large number of guns for a ship of her size, it was still within the safe limit.

She’d also carried large numbers of soldiers before; in 1513 she had been able to transport nearly 1,000 soldiers to Flodden Field in Northumberland, so why would 500, or even 700 as one source claims, make her more unstable?

            The French?
Did the French get a lucky hit with their guns?
A French cavalry officer present at the battle stated that the Mary Rose had been sunk by French guns. A cannonball low in the hull would enable water to flood in, making the ship unstable and leading to her sinking.

Perhaps that was why the ship turned so suddenly. Was she aiming to reach the shallows at Spitbank only a few hundred metres away?

A cannonball made of granite, similar to a type found in France, was found on the main gun deck of the Mary Rose – smoking gun evidence, surely? However, it was found in a shot locker, and the stone is also found in areas of the English West Country.

Were the French trying to justify their failed invasion attempt, which had seen two flagships damaged and the possible loss of a galley, by claiming to sink one of Henry VIII’s flagships?