Today in history

23 rd September 1459

War of the roses :
The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is won by the Yorkists.

The Battle of Blore Heath took place on 23rd September 1459. It is considered by some historians to be the ‘real’ start of the Wars of the Roses. The battle followed a period in which Lancastrian and Yorkist factions had invested in arms and factions had grown stronger, and further apart than ever. With years of disagreements and lords gathering large military retinues, tension was high. Blore Heath saw that tension explode into war. A Yorkist force was intercepted and attacked by a larger force of Lancastrians led by Lord Audley.

Battle of Blore Heath

As tensions mounted both factions built up large armed forces. In September 1459 the Yorkist began moving forces. Salisbury moving south to join with Edward, Earl of March. Salisbury’s son, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, set off with 5000 men towards Warwick.

The Lancastrian faction had forces around both Henry VI and queen Margaret. Both of these attempted to intercept Salisbury’s force. Queen Margaret received word that Salisbury was near her army. She instructed Lord Audley to intercept it.


Audley commanded a force of between 8000 and 14000. They intercepted Salisbury at Blore Heath, near Market Drayton. As the Yorkists had seen Lancastrian banners in the distance, Salisbury could choose his ground. It was a defensive location, with a brook between his lines and those of the Lancastrians.


An attempt at negotiation was unsuccessful. The battle commenced with an ineffective exchange from both sets of archers, Salisbury’s force was deliberately set up out of range. Salisbury then deployed a ruse and withdrew a large number of men from his centre.

Audley was tricked by the ruse. The Lancastrian cavalry charged. The boggy ground ner the brook halted their advance and made them easy targets for the Yorkist archers. Audley fell in the fighting and men switched from the Lancastrian side to that of the Yorkists.

The Lancastrians were in disarray and a victory for the Yorkists was completed after an advance by the infantry.

24 th September 1929

Flying blind .

Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight without a window, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.

1929

On September 24 Lt. Jimmy Doolittle made the world’s first completely “blind” flight—taking off, flying a prescribed course, and landing on instruments only. He was in a Consolidated NY-2 “Husky” biplane with two cockpits. Doolittle flew it from the rear cockpit, which was covered in canvas so that he could not see out. In the front cockpit was a safety pilot, Lt. Ben Kelsey, who could take over if necessary. Kelsey held his hands in the air during the flight to show that Doolittle was controlling the plane.

The main problem blind flight was meant to solve was flying in poor visibility—at night or in bad weather. The airplanes of the time tended to drift, like a car with no one controlling the steering wheel. If visibility was good and the pilot could see the horizon, he would notice if the plane was sliding into a banked turn and could bring it back to straight and level flight. But without that visual information, sensing up from down during a turn was often impossible. The acceleration in three dimensions made it feel as if “down” was toward the cockpit floor even when the plane was severely tilted. The pilot would, however, think the plane was diving during such a turn, and his attempts to counteract the dive would lead to a downward spiral, possibly ending in a crash.

Doolittle’s plane was equipped with the latest instrumentation, including an artificial horizon and a gyrocompass. He took off from Mitchel Field in Garden City, New York, climbed to 1,000 feet, flew an oval course totaling about 15 miles (tracking his position with the help of a radio signal broadcast from the ground), and landed safely. The flight took 15 minutes. Landing was the hardest part, since Doolittle’s altimeter, while extremely sensitive, was accurate to within five feet at best. Without knowing exactly when he would hit ground, he flew the plane at a low angle into a large, grassy field, relying on a set of especially rugged shock absorbers to soften the jolt.

Instruments-only flight allowed aviation to change from a pastime for daredevils into a regular business, running on schedule like a railroad. Later innovations included radio-assisted navigation and communication, automatic pilots (which had been developed in primitive form as early as 1914), and radio-guided landing. Today’s aviation software can essentially fly a plane by itself, with the pilot overseeing the process and taking control when necessary. It’s a lot less exciting than the seat-of-the-pants days, but it’s a lot safer too.

25 th September 1237

The England / Scotland border is set :
England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border.
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Sign marking the border between England and Scotland .

The border round Berwick wasn't settled till 1482
The English and the Scottish have always enjoyed a lively relationship. So, it's all the more surprising that the border between these two nations is one of the oldest still in existence.

Alexander II, King of Scotland, laid claim to
territory in northern England. When England's King John upset his barons and they rebelled against him in 1215, Alexander saw his chance. Allied with the barons and (of course) the French, he dispatched a Scottish army and besieged Dover.

Victory seemed assured for the Scottish king, but then King John pulled off a stunning game changer – he died. The fickle barons declared their grievances resolved and sent the Scots and the French packing. The young King Henry III was crowned at Westminster.

King Alexander returned to Scotland with little to show for his efforts. He didn't get the territory he wanted – instead, he got Henry's sister, Joan, as a consolation prize. On 25 September 1237, the two kings fixed the border with the Treaty of York.

The border more or less stands to this day, with the obvious exception of Berwick-upon-Tweed, retaken for the final time by the English in 1482. The tug of war between England and Scotland has seen the border town change sides 13 times.

But the diplomatic niceties weren't appreciated by everyone. The border reivers – the families who lived in the area either side of the border – carried on their centuries-old custom of pillaging. These people were a thorn in the side of both kingdoms. One of the biggest and fiercest families was the Armstrongs, hailing from what is today Cumbria.

Just one year before the signing of the treaty in 1236, one Adam Armstrong ended up in the dock in Carlisle, charged with killing a man. The clan was held in such fear that he was eventually pardoned.

26 th September 1087

William 11 :
William II is crowned King of England, and reigns until 1100.


William II (Anglo-Norman: Williame; c. 1056 – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third son of William the Conqueror, he is commonly referred to as William Rufus (Rufus being Latin for "the Red"), perhaps because of his ruddy appearance or, more likely, due to having red hair as a child that grew out in later life.William was a figure of complex temperament, capable of both bellicosity and flamboyance. He did not marry nor have children, which—along with contemporary accounts—has led historians to speculate on homosexuality or bisexuality. He died after being hit by an arrow while hunting, under circumstances that remain unclear. Circumstantial evidence in the behaviour of those around him raises strong, but unproven, suspicions of murder. His younger brother Henry I hurriedly succeeded him as king.

Historian Frank Barlow observed William was "[a] rumbustious, devil-may-care soldier, without natural dignity or social graces, with no cultivated tastes and little show of conventional religious piety or morality—indeed, according to his critics, addicted to every kind of vice, particularly lust and especially sodomy." On the other hand, he was a wise ruler and victorious general. Barlow noted, "His chivalrous virtues and achievements were all too obvious. He had maintained good order and satisfactory justice in England and restored good peace to Normandy. He had extended Anglo-Norman rule in Wales, brought Scotland firmly under his lordship, recovered Maine, and kept up the pressure on the Vexin."

27 th September 1875

First passenger/freight and steam railway :
The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened.


Stockton & Darlington Railway
Stockton & Darlington Railway, in England, first railway in the world to operate freight and passenger service with steam traction. In 1821 George Stephenson, who had built several steam engines to work in the Killingworth colliery, heard of Edward Pease’s intention of building an 8-mile (12.9-km) line from Stockton on the coast to Darlington to exploit a rich vein of coal. Pease intended to use horse traction. Stephenson told Pease that a steam engine could pull 50 times the load that horses could draw on iron rails. Impressed, Pease agreed to let Stephenson equip his line.

On September 27, 1825, the first engine ran from Darlington to Stockton, preceded by a man on horseback carrying a flag reading Periculum privatum utilitas publica (“The private danger is the public good”). When the horseman was out of the way, Stephenson opened the throttle and pulled his train of wagons carrying 450 persons at a speed of 15 miles (24 km) per hour.

28 th September 1066

William the conquerer :
William t he Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.

William the Conqueror lands at Pevensey - 28th Sept 1066


956 years ago today in the early morning of September 28th 1066 Duke William of Normandy with a huge invasion force landed on Pevensey beach in Sussex almost unopposed. Only three days previously England's King Harold had defeated King Harald Hardrada of Norway at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, now he had to march his army some 200 miles south to engage William in what was to become the most famous battle in English history, the Battle of Hastings.

It had already been a very long year for both men. The death of King Edward the Confessor had caused a succession problem. William claimed the celibate Edward had pledged the crown to him and that he qualified as heir through bloodline by being the grandson of Edward's maternal uncle. After the death of his father, Harold, on the other hand, had become Edward's viceroy and although having no royal blood claimed Edward had granted him the throne as he lay dying, at which point he was approved by a meeting of the leading nobles of the country.



Harold's year had been fraught with the problem of defending the country against potential attacks from the north and the south. After his estranged brother Tostig had harried the English coastline in the Spring and early Summer his long wait for Duke William's invasion had meant his standing army along the south coast were running out of provisions and so he stood his troops down from coastal duty on September 8th. Within ten days Harald Hardrada was spotted sailing into the Humber and he deployed his forces on a long march north to counter the invasion fleet.



William, by contrast, had spent all Spring and Summer gathering troops, plotting strategy and building ships. By the time he landed at Pevensey it is likely that he did not know whether his opponent was to be King Harold or Harald Hardrada, nevertheless his campaign appears to have been meticulously planned. As dawn broke on the 28th September William sat on the deck of his ship, the Mora, eating a hearty breakfast as the rest of his fleet gathered around just off the Sussex coast.



One particular story tells of how William stepped from his ship, slipped and fell on his hands and knees - those around him saw this as a bad omen, yet he recovered and in getting back on his feet he held two fists full of earthen sand and exclaimed, "see, my lords, by the splendor of God, I have taken possession of England with both my hands. It is now mine, and what is mine is yours."The long beach at Pevensey was ideal for the landing of many men and horses and his troops immediately set about building a wooden fortification within the old Roman fort.








Harold was probably still in York when he heard of William's arrival on the south coast. John of Worcester claims he was busy restoring his depleted troops. His long, arduous march south saw him, no doubt, enlist fresh troops for the battle ahead. It is likely at this point that he arrived in Hereward country at Peterborough and called upon the services of Abbot Leofric who we know fought alongside him against the Conqueror. Unfortunately for Harold Hereward was at that time working abroad as a mercenary soldier after being exiled from England by Edward the Confessor some years earlier. By October 6th Harold had reached London where he began gathering his forces for a major assault on the invader.



For William there had been a testing channel crossing but no great battle or long marches. The day after he landed at Pevensey he moved the majority of his army to Hastings where another fortification was set up on a peninsular which offered a good harbour for his fleet and a strong defensive position should he have to retreat to his ships in the face of an English onslaught. While many of his men harried the surrounding countryside William made no attempt to move out of his defensive position at Hastings and the scene was set for a battle that rings as true in the English psyche today as it did 950 years ago.

29 th September 1885

First electric tram :
The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England.


Blackpool, Lancashire The 29th of September 1885 AD

The first electric tram in Britain was not in one of the great metropolitan centres to serve industry and finance, but in the seaside resort of Blackpool , where the burgeoning tourist industry was putting a strain on the town's transport of horse buses, hackney cabs and landaus.
The inspiration for the revolutionary idea of an electric tramway - others had horse drawn and steam powered trams - came from a demonstration being held in 1884 in The Winter Gardens of an electric railway. The far sighted council, keen on innovations to add to the attraction of the resort, in January 1885 formed a partnership with entrepreneurs which they dubbed The Blackpool Electric Tramway Company, a name from an age when a company title meant what it said.
In those days they worked fast, and the track was laid (and relaid because the first Board of Trade inspection found it wanting) by summer that year. The first two miles of rails ran between Cocker Street and Dean Street on the South Shore, passing Bailey's (now the Metropole ), The Wellington, and Foxhall Hotels.
Though the grand opening was on September 29 1885, trials of the track with horse-drawn vehicles began earlier in the year, and for several weeks before the official opening passengers were given free rides in electric trams testing the track and power supply - fed from a purpose built power station in Blundell Street.
The first system used a power conduit beneath the street, tapped into from the tram via a plough device, but this was unsuited to the seaside location - sand filled it and broke connections, salt attacked it, and water caused regular havoc, so after a few years of struggles with new versions of the conduit the overhead wire system still in use today was adopted.

30 th September 1945

Bourne end rail crash :
The Bourne End rail crash, in Hertfordshire, England, kills 43.

Bourne End Rail Crash


Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire The 30th of September 1945 AD

On a clear autumn morning the Perth to Euston overnight passenger train was speeding through Hertfordshire in fine weather, nearing its destination. The train had been delayed en route, and so the driver was attempting to gain time. That driver, a Mr Swaby, was a man noted for his careful approach, but with a shortage of manpower on the railways – WWII had just ended yet a return to normality was still distant – he had been working for 26 straight days. At about four minutes past nine in the morning the express train raced through a crossover point near Bourne End in Hertfordshire at an estimated 60mph; the spot in question had a limit of 20mph. The diversion from the normal route had been adequately signalled, but it is thought through fatigue the driver failed to notice the change, and he may even have fallen asleep on his feet.
Of the 15 coaches pulled by the train all bar three were derailed, many of them tumbling down an embankment between cuttings, a circumstance that added to the death toll. The emergency services reacted rapidly, and a doctor on the train gave immediate assistance where most needed, but some 43 passengers and railway employees died, 38 at the scene and five later. Both driver and fireman perished in the accident. On top of that figure there were 124 injured or severely shocked by the incident.
In an echo down the ages of more recent accidents there was much speculation after the Bourne End disaster that the Automatic Warning System which was in existence but not fitted to the track in question at this time could or would have prevented the accident.

1 st October 1861

Mrs Beetons famous book :
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management is published, going on to sell 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print until the present day.



Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management is published, going on to sell 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print until the present day
Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, also published as Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book, is an extensive guide to running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton and first published as a book in 1861. Previously published in parts, it initially and briefly bore the title Beeton's Book of Household Management, as one of the series of guide-books published by her husband, Samuel Beeton. The recipes were highly structured, in contrast to those in earlier cookbooks. It was illustrated with many monochrome and colour plates.

Although Mrs Beeton died in 1865, the book continued to be a best-seller. The first editions after her death contained an obituary notice, but later editions did not, allowing readers to imagine that every word was written by an experienced Mrs Beeton personally.

Many of the recipes were copied from the most successful cookery books of the day, including Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families (first published in 1845), Elizabeth Raffald's The Experienced English Housekeeper (originally published in 1769), Marie-Antoine Carême's Le Pâtissier royal parisien (1815), Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747), Maria Eliza Rundell's A New System of Domestic Cookery (1806), and the works of Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805–1876). This practice of Mrs Beeton's has in modern times repeatedly been described as plagiarism.



The book expanded steadily in length, until by 1907 it reached 74 chapters and over 2000 pages. Nearly two million copies were sold by 1868, and as of 2016 it remained in print. Between 1875 and 1914 it was probably the most often-consulted cookery book. Mrs Beeton has been compared on the strength of the book with modern "domestic goddesses" like Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith.

2 nd October 1942

Queen Mary / Curacoa tragedy:
World War II: Ocean Liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally rams and sinks HMS Curacoa, killing over 300 crewmen aboard Curacoa:

Queen Mary – The Curacoa Tragedy
BY JOHN EDWARDS LINERS AT WAR.

On 2 October 1942 an eastbound Queen Mary, carrying nearly 20,000 American troops of the 29th Infantry Division to join the Allied forces in Europe, collided with and sank the British light cruiser Curacoa.

Both ships were following evasive, anti-U-boat zigzagging courses, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Ireland, when Queen Mary cut across Curacoa’s path with insufficient clearance, striking her amidships at a speed of 28 knots and slicing her in two.


HMS Curacoa

Curacoa sank within six minutes with a loss of 338 men out of a crew of 439. Queen Mary, under orders not to stop under any circumstances, continued on to Scotland where she was outfitted with a temporary concrete plug. Hours later, the convoy’s lead escort returned to rescue 99 Curacoa survivors.

The incident was not reported publicly until after the war ended. Soon after newspaper stories about the collision began appearing, the Royal Navy pressed charges against Queen Mary’s owner, Cunard-White Star Line. The High Court of Justice subsequently ruled primarily in favor of the latter, assigning two-thirds of the blame to the Admiralty and one third to Cunard-White Star. Survivors’ families also sued Cunard-White Star.

3 rd October 2013

Lampadusa migrant boat tragedy :
At least 360 migrants are killed when their boat sinks near the Italian island of Lampedusa.



More than 100 people were dead and about 200 missing after a migrant boat caught fire on the perilous sea crossing from Africa to Europe, prompting an outcry in Italy and calls for urgent action by the international community.


In by far the most devastating of what president Giorgio Napolitano called a "succession of true slaughters of innocents" to occur off Italy's coast, at least 114 African migrants, including at least three children, died after their boat sank in waters near the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

Thousands of migrants have died making the journey to Europe's southern borders over the last 20 years, often in dangerously overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels. Human rights campaigners said that the tragedy could easily have been prevented.

"A terrible human tragedy is taking place at the gates of Europe. And not for the first time," said Jean-Claude Mignon, head of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly. "We must end this now. I hope that this will be the last time we see a tragedy of this kind, and I make a fervent appeal for specific, urgent action by member states to end this shame."

The Italian government declared on Friday a national day of mourning as rescue workers continued to search the seas off the Sicilian island in a desperate attempt to find any more survivors. Initial rescue attempts managed to save 159 people but the 20-metre-long boat was believed to have been carrying between 450 and 500 passengers.

As the island's quayside was lined with corpses, hopes for more survivors dimmed. When coastguard divers began an inspection of the area around the wreck, they found 20 more bodies underwater. Asked on Italian radio what help was needed, Pietro Bartolo, chief of health services on Lampedusa, replied: "Coffins. Coffins and hearses."

Giusi Nicolini, the island's mayor, said: "It's horrific, like a cemetery. They are still bringing them out."

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the tragedy should be a spur to action. In Italy Napolitano and government ministers said the time had come for the world to shoulder its share of the burden in the growing problem of migrant boat arrivals.



Angelino Alfano, the deputy prime minister, said: "We hope the EU realises that this is not an Italian but a European disaster." He headed to Lampedusa vowing to "make Italy's voice heard loudly" with José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission.

Napolitano said there was now an "absolute necessity for decisions and actions by the international community and primarily the EU". The integration minister, Cécile Kyenge, told journalists: "It is not the moment to point the blame at anyone, but we will ask countries to each do their bit."

Their message was echoed by Pope Francis, who said: "Let's unite our efforts so that tragedies like this don't happen again. Only a decisive collaboration of everyone can help and prevent them." In impromptu remarks, he added: "The word disgrace comes to mind. It is a disgrace."

The alarm over the unfolding disaster was raised shortly after 6am by fishing boats who noticed a vessel in trouble off the Lampedusa coast near Isola dei Conigli (Rabbits' Island). Lampedusa, where the interior ministry says more than 8,000 migrants landed in the first eight and a half months of this year – out of a national total of more than 17,000 – is just 70 miles from the Tunisian coast.

Alfano said the boat's motor was believed to have stopped working, causing water to come into the vessel and prompting the passengers to burn a sheet to try to attract rescuers. "Once the fire started, there was a concern about the boat sinking and everyone moved to one side, causing the boat to go down," he said. The passengers, mostly Eritreans and Somalians, were just half a mile from the shore.

A young Tunisian man was arrested by Italian police on suspicion of being one of the people smugglers responsible for organising the crossing. Unnamed survivors quoted in the Italian media, who said the boat had left the Libyan port of Misrata two days earlier, said that three fishing boats in the area had seen their vessel was in trouble but had not come to their rescue. Alfano rejected this, saying that the boats nearby had not seen them. "If they had, they would have intervened," he said. "Italians have big hearts."

But Codacons, an Italian consumer group, said it would ask prosecutors to look into the allegations, which it said, if true, would represent a very serious failure.

The controversy echoed a similar tragedy in March 2011, revealed in the Guardian, in which dozens of African migrants en route to Lampedusa died after being apparently ignored by a number of European military units.

Human rights groups have long been calling on Italian and European authorities to rethink their approach to the crossings, which brought about 15,000 migrants to Italy and Malta last year, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees.

Judith Sunderland, senior western Europe researcher of Human Rights Watch, said "the lack of solidarity from the rest of the EU" had caused an "almost utter failure of any proposals for greater burden-sharing". Member states needed to do more to help Italy shoulder the burden, she said, calling also for a "presumption of rescue" policy to be implemented to ensure that any overcrowded migrant boat spotted by passing ships would have to be offered help.

Andrea Iacomini, spokesman for Unicef in Italy, urged Enrico Letta, the prime minister, to go to Europe and demand more co-ordination and help. He urged the interior ministers of all Mediterranean nations to hold an immediate conference focused on how to prevent tragedy from happening again.

"We need to go to Europe and say that there is a humanitarian emergency in Italy. What are we doing about it? … We cannot have the victims on our consciences only afterwards," Iacomini said, claiming the Mediterranean had "become a cemetery. And it will become even more so."

4 th October 1957

Dawn of the space age :
Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.




On October 4th, 1957 at 19:28:34 hours Greenwich Mean Time, Sputnik-1 was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The satellite orbited the Earth for three months and emitting radio signals which were monitored by amateur radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on October 26th, 1957.

Before finally burning up during reentry on January 4th, 1958, the satellite traveled a total of about 60 million km (37.28 million mi) and completed 1,440 orbits around the Earth. Sputnik-1 also helped to identify the density of the atmosphere’s upper layer, provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere, and allowed for the first opportunity for meteoroid detection.

5 th October 1936

The Jarrow march :

This day in history
5 October 1936: the Jarrow Crusade sets off for London
On this day in 1936, 200 men set off on the Jarrow Crusade to march the 300 miles from County Durham to London to demand the government take action on unemployment.



Two hundred men made the 300-mile march from County Durham to London


For over a hundred years from the middle of the 19th century, Jarrow, in County Durham, had been a thriving shipbuilding town. By the 1930s, Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company employed 80% of the town's workforce.

Then the Great Depression hit, and Palmers closed. Unemployment soared to 70%. And with unemployment benefit lasting just 26 weeks, things soon started looking grim. The people of the town wanted the government to do something – many wanted them to build a steelworks to provide employment. And so on 20 July 1936, Jarrow Borough Council decided to present a petition to Parliament demanding that "His Majesty's Government and this honourable House should realise the urgent need that work should be provided for the town without further delay."

The petition was circulated and received 11,000 signatures. A "crusade" – a march the length of the country to London – would be staged to bring the petition, carried in an oak box, to the government.

Some 200 physically fit men (women were not invited to march) were selected from the local population and checked to ensure they could endure the 300-mile walk to London. And on this day in 1936, they set off, a mouth organ band leading the way.

It wasn't the first march of its kind. The National Unemployed Workers' Movement had organised “hunger marches”, including one of 2,000 people in 1932, plus others in 1934 and 1936. But there was a strong scent of Bolshevism about those marches which meant they weren't widely supported. For this one, however, Ellen Wilkinson, Jarrow's Labour MP, threw her weight behind the cause, despite the misgivings of her national party. And her presence ensured huge publicity.

As they wound their way south, the petition was added to, and the marchers received hospitality along the way. They finally reached London on 31 October. And Ellen Wilkinson presented the petition in Parliament on 4 November. But, rather than the petition, it was the coming of war that brought industry back to the town of Jarrow. The shipyards were reopened in 1938, and in 1939, the Consett Iron Company started a steelworks.

6 th October 1854

Newcastle / Gateshead fire :
In England the Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead leads to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.

The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead


Gateshead, Tyne and Wear The 6th of October 1854 AD

Sometime before one o’clock in the morning of October 6 1854 a fire started in the Hillgate district of Gateshead, in the worsted factory of Wilson and Sons. Rapidly out of control the fire spread, growing in intensity for about two hours until the factory began to collapse and material in an adjoining warehouse combusted. A contemporary description paints a vivid picture of sulphur, lead, and tallow “in torrents, like streams of lava” pouring from the windows of the eight-storey building. When this building in turn collapsed burning timbers were thrown onto the roofs of houses nearby. Crowds gathered to observe the conflagration.
But the worst was yet to come: a second warehouse, supposedly fire-proofed with metal floors and pillars, contained a highly combustible mix of naphtha, potash, tallow, soda and sulphur. Fire-brigades tried to prevent the fire reaching and igniting this potential bomb, but in vain. Some men died as they approached the place, asphyxiated by the fumes it was giving off; and it was possibly this gaseous mix that exploded in a massive blast that shook houses in Seaham to the south of Sunderland ; was felt by a ship 10 miles distant; the percussive blast of which snuffed out gas lights as far away as South Shields ; and which in distant pit villages was thought to be an underground explosion in the mines such was the shock it sent through the earth. Flames crossed the Tyne and destroyed property in Newcastle ; stones projected by the Gateshead blast smashed houses and shops on the Newcastle side.
In total 53 people died in the disaster, possibly more as some buildings were blown to smithereens. Some of the watching crowd were mown down by the shock wave; others fighting blazes were buried beneath the debris launched from the building like a volcanic eruption; windows for miles around were smashed into fragments. Streets of houses were gutted, and flames spread inexorably as the fire engines locally had nearly all been incapacitated or had their crews killed or disabled in the blast.
A subsequent inquiry found that contrary to rumour the second warehouse had not illegally stored gunpowder, but that the explosion possibly resulted from water hitting the burning material, creating a cloud of super-rapidly expanding steam.
The entire country was touched by the disaster, which ruined already poor people: £11,000 was raised to help such victims – in all 800 families needed help from the fund.

7 thn October 1917

            The assembly line :
                                        Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving vehicle assembly line.



Today in Engineering History: Ford Launches Moving Assembly Line

On this day in history, October 7, 1913, Henry Ford and his team at the Highland Park automobile assembly plant in Michigan launched the first moving assembly line. It simplified and quickened the assembly of the Ford Model T’s 3,000 parts by breaking it into 84 steps performed by workers as a rope pulled the vehicle chassis down the assembly line.


The new system dramatically reduced the assembly time for each vehicle from 12 hours to approximately 90 minutes. Due to this reduction in time, Ford was able to drop the price of the Model T from $850 to less than $300. By 1927, more than 15 million Ford Model T’s were sold worldwide, accounting for half of all automobiles sold.

The rapid pace of production also allowed Ford to pay his workers higher wages. In 1914, Ford initiated the “$5 workday” to enable his employees to actually purchase the vehicles they manufactured.


The Highland Park plant of the Ford Motor Company in 1922. Image credit: Bernard L. Johnson, Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons

The first Model T was introduced in 1908 and became a rapid success. Ford quickly realized that he would need to move out of the small Ford factory, on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, to a larger facility. He, therefore, bought 60 acres in Highland Park.

In addition to requiring a larger space, Ford also recognized that he would need a better method of manufacturing his vehicles. At the time, most manufacturers built cars one at a time, meaning the chassis stayed in one place during the entire assembly process.

Ford and his assistant Charles Sorensen started experimenting with methods to bring the work to the man, instead of bringing the man to the work. Initially, they tried supporting vehicles on movable benches that were pushed from one workstation to the next. The cars were still mostly handmade, but the process did speed up production.



In April 1913, a production engineer in the flywheel magneto assembly area attempted a novel way of putting his component’s parts together. He had divided the operation into 29 steps, in which workers placed only one part in the assembly before pushing the flywheel to the next employee. This breakthrough inspired a full-fledged moving assembly line, which was launched on October 7, 1913.


Workers on the first moving assembly line put together magnetos and flywheels for 1913 Ford autos in Highland Park, Michigan. Image credit: Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons

The rudimentary assembly line pulled a chassis across the factory floor by a rope and windlass. Vehicle parts and 140 workers were stationed along the 150-foot line to attach parts as the winch dragged the chassis along the floor. By using the system, production time for one vehicle dropped from about 12 hours to just under six hours.

The method was improved with a power-drive “endless” conveyor system, and by 1914 the time to assemble one vehicle fell to about 90 minutes.


On this day in history, October 7, 1913, Henry Ford and his team at the Highland Park automobile assembly plant in Michigan launched the first moving assembly line. It simplified and quickened the assembly of the Ford Model T’s 3,000 parts by breaking it into 84 steps performed by workers as a rope pulled the vehicle chassis down the assembly line.

The new system dramatically reduced the assembly time for each vehicle from 12 hours to approximately 90 minutes. Due to this reduction in time, Ford was able to drop the price of the Model T from $850 to less than $300. By 1927, more than 15 million Ford Model T’s were sold worldwide, accounting for half of all automobiles sold.

The rapid pace of production also allowed Ford to pay his workers higher wages. In 1914, Ford initiated the “$5 workday” to enable his employees to actually purchase the vehicles they manufactured.


The Highland Park plant of the Ford Motor Company in 1922. Image credit: Bernard L. Johnson, Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons

The first Model T was introduced in 1908 and became a rapid success. Ford quickly realized that he would need to move out of the small Ford factory, on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, to a larger facility. He, therefore, bought 60 acres in Highland Park.

In addition to requiring a larger space, Ford also recognized that he would need a better method of manufacturing his vehicles. At the time, most manufacturers built cars one at a time, meaning the chassis stayed in one place during the entire assembly process.

Ford and his assistant Charles Sorensen started experimenting with methods to bring the work to the man, instead of bringing the man to the work. Initially, they tried supporting vehicles on movable benches that were pushed from one workstation to the next. The cars were still mostly handmade, but the process did speed up production.



In April 1913, a production engineer in the flywheel magneto assembly area attempted a novel way of putting his component’s parts together. He had divided the operation into 29 steps, in which workers placed only one part in the assembly before pushing the flywheel to the next employee. This breakthrough inspired a full-fledged moving assembly line, which was launched on October 7, 1913.



The rudimentary assembly line pulled a chassis across the factory floor by a rope and windlass. Vehicle parts and 140 workers were stationed along the 150-foot line to attach parts as the winch dragged the chassis along the floor. By using the system, production time for one vehicle dropped from about 12 hours to just under six hours.

The method was improved with a power-drive “endless” conveyor system, and by 1914 the time to assemble one vehicle fell to about 90 minutes.

8 th October 1952

Railway disasters :
The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people.

Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash 1952
PETER CLEMENTS 9TH JULY 2020 HEALTH & SAFETY
Welcome to our blog series looking at the causes and consequences of well known disasters. This blog looks at Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash 1952.

The Incident
The Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash occurred on 8th October 1952 at Harrow and Wealdstone Station in Middlesex. Three trains collided in the early morning rush hour, resulting in the loss of 112 people with 340 injured and 88 needing to be detained in hospital.

A local train carrying approximately 800 passengers was running seven minutes late due to fog. The Perth Express hit the local train from the rear at a speed of 50-60 mph, having passed a coloured light signal and two semaphore signals set to danger, bursting through trailing points of the cross over from the slow lines set for the local train. The local train was driven forward 20 yards and the three rear coaches were telescoped, destroying them. The first two vans and three coaches of the Perth train piled up behind and above the local train.

The wreckage from the first collision spread across the adjacent line and a few seconds after the first collision, the northbound express to Liverpool, travelling at about 60 mph, struck the derailed Perth train resulting in the first two carriages of the Liverpool train mounting the platform.

The Causes
An enquiry found that the driver of the train from Perth had passed a caution signal and two danger signals before colliding with the stationary train.

As the driver and fireman were both killed in the accident it was never established why this happened.

The Lessons
As far back as this accident, we are aware of the need for warning drivers that they had passed a signal at caution or danger. It propels the need for an automatic warning system, but this was to be a five year plan. But it was going to be many years and more accidents and deaths before it was taken seriously.

It was after the Ladbroke Grove 1999 collision that the H.M Railway Inspectorate published their assessment report multi-SPAD signals, (signal passed at danger).

While automatic safety systems can greatly reduce risks, rail and other industries such as construction and manufacturing must also build a safety culture where everyone plays their part.

9 th October 1986

Phantom :
The Phantom of the Opera, eventually the second longest running musical in London, opens at Her Majesty's Theatre.

The Phantom of the Opera
Running at Her Majesty’s Theatre since 9 October 1986, The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most popular and beloved musicals in the world. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hit has won both Tony and Olivier Awards, and broke Broadway’s record for longest running musical by thousands of performances. The modern classic is based on Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name, where a disfigured musical genius lurks unseen in Paris’s opera house. He has taught orphaned soprano Christine to sing from a young age, but she and the rest of the company believes him to be a spirit. His unrequited love for her leads to tragedy, adventure and eventual remorse. Stunning design, technical effects and Lloyd Webber’s score have brought this unforgettable story to life each night, capturing the hearts and minds of West End audiences for decades.

Its also Phantom of the Peers Birthday today (Lolly)

10 th October 1957

Nuclear accidents :
The Windscale fire results in Britain's worst nuclear accident.


The Windscale plant fire accident on October 10, 1957 was Britain’s most severe nuclear accident. The Windscale nuclear reactor plant was producing plutonium for the UK to make its atomic hydrogen bombs. Britain used the first explosive material to test its first atomic weapons in Australia. The test was done on October 3.

How The Fire Started
The Windscale plant had two nuclear reactors. After a routine heating of the first reactor, the graphite control block lost control and the adjacent uranium cartridges ruptured. Uranium released from the rupture began to oxidize, releasing radioactive debris. The result was a fire. The flaring fire burned for over 16 hours before it was successfully put out.

The Aftermath
The reactor core was left with around ten tons of radioactive energy. The fire effects were not felt just in the plant; the atmosphere was also affected. A lot of radioactive iodine was released into the air. As a result, no one could even sell milk produced within 200-square-mile of the plant.

Eventually, the radioactivity caused over 190 cancer cases, with over 100 of the cases being fatal.

A Second Fire?
After a few years, it was noticed that something was going on when around 2,000 to 3,000 employees of Calder Hall and Windscale returned home. On the gates of both Windscale and Cedar, security guards were placed but without restrictions on the fences.

Soon it became clear what was happening. The uranium cartridges’ temperature rose to 500 degrees centigrade, nearly double the average temperature. The rapid oxidation of uranium caused radioactive particles in the form of vapor to escape through filters on the chimney top

11 th October 1649

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



On 11 October 1649, Oliver Cromwell’s Army stormed and sacked the Irish Royalist city of Wexford, allegedly whilst the defenders were trying to negotiate a surrender. It is remembered in Ireland as one of the worst atrocities in their history.

Oliver Cromwell was the most influential General of the English Civil War, famous for creating the New Model Army and decisively defeating King Charles I at Naseby in 1645. However, his fighting career didn’t end with the final defeat of the King.

Resistance in Ireland
Ireland still held Royalists, who had recently allied with the local Confederate rebels, and the these combined forces were preying on Parliamentary shipping. Cromwell was not a man to sit my and let this happen and in August 1649 he landed in Ireland with a highly trained army of Civil War veterans.


Wexford, a seafaring settlement on Ireland’s east coast, had been a thorn in Parliament’s side for eight years since the Irish rebellion of 1641. It could not have done anything more to offend Oliver Cromwell than eject its Protestants, which it did in 1642, leading to 80 of them drowning. Finally, it was the hub of Royalist Privateers and perilously close to the English mainland.

So infamous were the Wexford raiders that if Cromwell’s ships caught them they were thrown overboard with their hands tied. In response, the 170 English prisoners in the town were threatened with summary execution. For all these reasons Wexford was a crucial target for Cromwell’s invading army, and after taking Drogheda in September his troops arrived at the walls of the town on 2 October.



Oliver Cromwell - the only commoner to have become Britain's head of state - has puzzled biographers for centuries. He was a complex character, courageous but at the same time devious and self-serving. But the Cromwell who comes through in his own speeches and writings does not give us the full picture.

Playing for time
Cromwell’s army consisted of roughly 6000 men, and crucially he had with him eight heavy siege guns designed for destroying the walls of a town. The garrison, meanwhile, was Irish and by the time the city was stormed on 11 October its commander David Sinnot had bolstered its numbers to 4,800.


Knowing that the Duke of Ormonde’s main Royalist army was close at hand, Sinnot knew that he only needed to play for time. After the sacking of Drogheda, however, the civilians were demoralised and demanded that Sinnot surrender. As a result he entered into negotiations with Cromwell, making demands that he knew would not be accepted to play for time.

Cromwell, predictably, dismissed the ideas that he would let the Catholic garrison and their privateer go with all their weapons. While these negotiations were carried out his siege guns opened two breaches in the city walls, opening the way for an attack should he order it.

While negotiations continued on 11 October Cromwell’s troops suddenly stormed the vulnerable town. Cromwell denied giving the order, but chaos ensued as the Parliamentarian troops flooded into Wexford. The town’s castle was inexplicably surrendered without a fight by its English Royalist captain, Stafford, and after this any notion of a fight was over.




A massacre ensues
Irish troops fled from their stations in panic and were then pursued and often massacred by Cromwell’s men. Many more tried to cross the nearby river Slaney to escape the orgy of violence unfolding in the town, but most, including the governor Sinnot, drowned or were shot as they tried to swim.


Violence in the town grew out of hand, spreading to its civilian population and the buildings as well as the survivors of the garrison. By the end of the day 2000 soldiers and 1500 civilians had been killed, at the cost of just 20 of Cromwell’s men.

Such a massacre of innocents remains a serious stain on Cromwell’s reputation. Though he did not give the order explicitly, he did little to halt the violence. This can be compared to Henry V during the Agincourt campaign, who famously hanged his men for stealing even minor items of loot.


The story of Oliver Cromwell's head is perhaps the most bizarre, yet least well known, of all tales from English history. From regal burial, to exhumation and decapitation, this relic of our only non-royal ruler has travelled a most peculiar path.

Cromwell in fact justified the actions of his men by arguing that they were merely taking revenge for the treatment of Protestants in the town and the actions of the privateers that it sheltered. Other historians have argued on the other hand that though this was brutal it was simply what happened in warfare at the time. The debate continues.


One thing that is certain is that the sack was somewhat counterproductive for Cromwell’s army, as they damaged the port so much as to make it unusable: it did also prevent Royalists using the port to land in Ireland though. The sack is also said to have had a psychological effect on the Irish and Royalist armies.

Ormonde observed shortly afterwards that terror that Cromwell’s men inspired encouraged other garrisons to surrender without any attempt at resistance, and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland was well underway by the end of 1649, as Parliamentarian forces controlled the provinces of Munster and Ulster.

12 th October 2019
They're getting faster :
Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.


The Kenyan, 34, covered the 26.2 miles (42.2km) in one hour 59 minutes 40 seconds in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria on Saturday.

It will not be recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and he used a team of rotating pacemakers.

"This shows no-one is limited," said Kipchoge.

"Now I've done it, I am expecting more people to do it after me."

Reaction to 'super-human' marathon feat
Kipchoge expects repeat of marathon feat

Report
The Olympic champion - who holds the official marathon world record of 2:01:39, set in Berlin, Germany in 2018 - missed out by 25 seconds in a previous attempt at the Italian Grand Prix circuit at Monza in 2017.

Knowing he was about to make history on the home straight, the pacemakers dropped back to let Kipchoge sprint over the line alone, roared on by a large crowd in the Austrian capital.

The four-time London Marathon winner embraced his wife Grace, grabbed a Kenyan flag and was mobbed by his pacemakers, including many of the world's best middle and long-distance runners.

Kipchoge, who compared the feat to being the first man on the moon in build-up to the event, said he had made history just as Britain's Sir Roger Bannister did in running the first sub four-minute mile in 1954.

"I'm feeling good. After Roger Bannister made history, it took me another 65 years. I've tried but I've done it," said the Kenyan.

"This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful world."


How to run a marathon in less than two hours
With a leading pace car beaming green lasers on to the road to indicate the required pace of 2:50 per kilometre, Kipchoge never went slower than 2:52.

To break the mark, he had to run 100m in 17.08 seconds 422 times in a row at a speed of 21.1kph (13.1 mph).

He was 10 seconds ahead of schedule at the halfway mark, before appearing to slow with a few 2:52 kilometres, only to regain the pace and kick on in the final stages.

Kipchoge was assisted by a team of 42 pacemakers, including Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz, Olympic 5,000m silver medallist Paul Chelimo and the Ingebrigtsen brothers Jakob, Filip and Henrik.

They rotated in and out, running in formation around Kipchoge, with former 1500m and 5,000m world champion Bernard Lagat anchoring the final leg.

"They are among the best athletes in the world - so thank you," added Kipchoge. "I appreciate them for accepting this job. We did this one together."

Kipchoge's coaches delivered him water and energy gels by bike over 4.4 laps of a 5.97-mile course in the city's Prater park, instead of having to pick refreshments up from a table as in normal competition marathons.

These aids are not allowed under the rules of the IAAF, athletics' world governing body, which is why it will not recognise this feat as the official marathon world record.

'That was super human'

The attempt was funded by petrochemicals company Ineos - owned by Britain's richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe - which also sponsors the cycling team of the same name.

The location was selected because of the favourable climate, excellent air quality and almost completely flat terrain, with only 2.4 metres of incline across the route.

At Kipchoge's request, the course - consisting of two 2.67-mile stretches and two small loops at each end - was lined with spectators, unlike his previous attempt in Nike's Breaking 2 project in Monza.

Nike also provided Kipchoge with a new model of the shoe that has been worn by athletes running the five fastest marathons in history.

The Ineos team selected the start time of 07:15 BST after assessing weather conditions in Vienna this week.

"That last kilometre where he actually accelerated was super human," said Ratcliffe.

"Everything has to go right to do this. It's so nice to see the 'pacers' be part of this - they are just so full of enthusiasm."

Kipchoge's coach, Patrick Sang, said "everything went perfectly right" in this attempt.

"He has inspired all of us and shown that we can stretch the limits in our life," he added.

"For the sport, it is a challenge to other young athletes that they can perform better than they think. For humanity, it shows you can move to another level.

"History has been made. It's unbelievable."

13 th October 2010

Cilean miners rescue :

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

Chilean miners are rescued after 69 days underground
On October 13, 2010, the last of 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground for more than two months at a caved-in mine in northern Chile, are rescued. The miners survived longer than anyone else trapped underground in recorded history.

The miners’ ordeal began on August 5, 2010, when the San Jose gold and copper mine where they were working, some 500 miles north of the Chilean capital city of Santiago, collapsed. The 33 men moved to an underground emergency shelter area, where they discovered just several days’ worth of food rations. As their situation grew more desperate over the next 17 days, the miners, uncertain if anyone would find them, considered suicide and cannibalism. Then, on August 22, a drill sent by rescuers broke through to the area where the miners were located, and the men sent back up a note saying, “We are fine in the refuge, the 33.” Food, water, letters, medicine and other supplies were soon delivered to the miners via a narrow bore hole. Video cameras were also sent down, making it possible for rescuers to see the men and the hot, humid space in which they were entombed. As engineering and mining experts from around the world collaborated on the long, complex process of devising a way to bring the 33 men up to the surface, the miners maintained a system of jobs and routines in order to keep up morale.


Rescuers eventually drilled and reinforced an escape shaft wide enough to extract the men, one by one. (Employees of a Pennsylvania-based drilling-tool company played a role in drilling the rescue shaft.) On October 12, the first of the miners was raised to the surface in a narrow, 13-foot-tall capsule painted white, blue and red, the colors of the Chilean flag. The approximately 2,000-foot ascent to the surface in the capsule took around 15 minutes for each man.

The miners were greeted by a cheering crowd that included Chile’s president, Sebastian Pinera; media from around the world; and friends and relatives, many of whom had been camped at the base of the mine in the Atacama Desert for months. Millions of people around the globe watched the rescue on live TV. Less than 24 hours after the operation began, all 33 of the miners, who ranged in age from 19 to 63, had been safely rescued. Almost all the men were in good health, and each of them sported dark glasses to protect their eyes after being in a dimly lit space for so long.

The rescued miners were later honored with trips to a variety of destinations, including England, Israel and Florida’s Walt Disney World, where a parade was held in their honor.

13 th October 1913

Senghenydd pit disaster :
Senghenydd colliery disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident, claims the lives of 439 miners.


At 8.00am on Tuesday 14 October 1913 a huge explosion rocked the tiny town of Senghenydd, to the north of Caerphilly. It came from the coal mine belonging to the Universal Colliery, the most significant employer in the area, and before the hour was out it was clear to everyone, miners and their families alike, that what had happened was a disaster of major proportions.

The explosion, and subsequent release of poisonous gas, killed 439 miners, making the Senghenydd pit disaster the most lethal and tragic mining disaster in British history. On that morning nearly 950 men had been working below ground, and many of them were killed or injured before they even knew what was happening.

The Universal Steam Coal Company (a subsidiary of Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries) had sunk the first shaft at Senghenydd in 1891, full production using two shafts - the Lancaster and York - beginning five years later. In the years leading up to World War One there was an unprecedented demand for Welsh coal, most of it being used to fuel the battleships of the Royal Navy. And Universal, privately owned and privately run, like all of the other south Wales collieries, prospered.

The explosion that brought about the disaster was probably caused by an electrical spark from something like the electric signalling gear igniting methane gas, firedamp as it was known. As if that wasn't enough, the firedamp explosion caused coal dust lying on the floor of the mine to rise and this also caught fire and exploded in a gigantic roar. The shock wave promptly caused more coal dust to rise into the air and this also then ignited. In effect, what happened was a series of self-fueling explosions.

The explosions were so violent that the cage of the Lancaster pit was even blown back up the shaft to wedge in the pithead winding gear. A bandsman standing close by was decapitated by a piece of flying wood.

The fires spread through most of the underground workings, quickly followed by afterdamp. These were gasses formed by the explosion, waves of carbon monoxide, that ensured those miners who had escaped the explosion would be suffocated due to lack of oxygen unless they could quickly get to the surface.

Rescue teams from places such as Crumlin and Aberdare were rushed to the scene but attempts at getting the men out were hampered by fallen debris, by a series of roof falls and by raging fires. One of the rescuers was caught and killed in one of these roof falls but, regardless of the cost, the men worked on.

And they did manage to find men and boys still alive in the wreckage, the families of the Senghenydd miners greeting each successful escape with joy and with the belief that their own loved ones would soon be brought to the surface. However, as the days wore on, survivors grew fewer and the carrying out of bodies became the norm.

The rescue attempts lasted for three weeks although, by then, the chances of finding anyone alive had long since gone. Some of the bodies had been so badly mutilated in the explosion that they could only be identified by certain items of clothing they were wearing. One man was recognised by his new boots, worn for the first time that day; another - a young boy - by the patch his mother had sewn onto his jacket only a few days before.

It was estimated that over 1,000 people in the area were bereaved by the Senghenydd disaster. Certainly nearly all of the families in the town were touched, in one way or another. And yet, despite the resulting enquiry finding numerous faults that could be laid at the door of the owners and managers, when compensation and fines were levied they came to a derisive £24 - in total! As one newspaper commented, that meant that miners lives were worth just £0 .. 1 .. 11 - a sum that, these days, would equate to no more than six pence.

Universal Colliery was back in use by the end of November 1913 and full production was again achieved by 1916. The mine was not to last much longer, however, workmen and staff being given just one day's notice of closure in March 1928. Although the site was later acquired by Powell Duffryn in order to give extra ventilation to their Windsor Colliery, the Senghenydd shaft was finally filled in 1979.

There are several memorials to the men and boys who lost their lives at senghenydd, one at Nant y Parc Primary School which now stands on the site of the mine. There is another at the local comprehensive and a clock in the square at Senghenydd also commemorates the disaster.

But the real tragedy of Senghenydd does not lie in just the 1913 disaster. Proving that the old adage "lightning does not strike twice in the same place" is a mere fallacy, twelve years earlier, on Friday 24 May 1901, the same colliery had experienced its first disaster. At 5.00am on that day an explosion decimated the mine and killed 81 men. There was just one survivor pulled from the mine shaft.

The history of Wales and its industrial past is full of tragedy, human grief and loss. But none of the disasters that have befallen the country are worse than the Senghenydd mining disaster when tragedy struck the same village and the same community, not once but twice within the space of a dozen years.

15 th October 1888

From hell letter :
The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.


Today, there are only three Jack the Ripper letters that investigators believe may be credible. But only the "From Hell" letter was sent along with a human kidney.





A photograph of the original ‘From Hell’ letter that was sent to George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on October 15, 1888. The letter itself has since been lost.

Between Aug. 31 and Nov. 9, 1888, London police found five prostitutes mutilated and murdered within one square mile of each other. These are the Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper.


During this time period, hundreds of letters flooded police stations and Scotland Yard claiming ownership of the crimes. All but three were determined to be hoaxes. But of those one stood out for its chilling content. It has since become known as the “From Hell” letter.

Named after its first line, the letter was sent to George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. Lusk was horrified to receive it. The writer claimed to have just killed again and eaten half of the victim’s kidney.

Worse, included with the letter was said to be the preserved other half. It also promised to send the murder weapon. But the real reason the letter remains convincing is that two weeks prior, a woman named Catherine Eddowes was found dead in Whitechapel — and her kidney was gone.


Previous Correspondence And Murders
By the time the “From Hell” letter was postmarked on October 15, 1888, four victims were attributed to the man — Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, and Catherine Eddowes. (A fifth victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was killed Nov. 9.) Nichols, the first, was found dead on Aug. 31.


All four women had their throats cut and their bodies mutilated in a manner indicating the killer had anatomical knowledge. Public uproar at authorities for failing to catch the man who was “ripping” up women was followed by a letter to the Central News Agency on Sept. 27.

Since dubbed the “Dear Boss” letter, it was signed “Yours truly, Jack the Ripper” — forever cementing the name into history. It was followed by a second letter, now known as the “Saucy Jack” postcard, on Oct. 1.


Both letters were given to police, who publicized them in the hope that it would lead to tips. But the letters’ release only led to a barrage of unconvincing hoax letters. Then George Lusk received one that was nothing like the fakes.

Jack The Ripper’s ‘From Hell’ Letter
George Lusk had formed the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee after Chapman, the second victim, was found mutilated on Sept. 8. He and several businessmen were desperate to help police catch the killer, the presence of whom hampered their nightly business.



Lusk opened his mail on Oct. 16 to find an unusual letter. It came with a small box wrapped in brown paper. Inside was a human kidney that showed evidence of having been preserved in spirits. The writer claimed to have fried and eaten half of the kidney and preserved the other half to send to Lusk.

The full text reads:

From Hell
Mr. Lusk
Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer.
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk

Seemingly, the letter could have only come from Jack the Ripper. But even faced with this gruesome and ominous sight, Lusk wasn’t convinced it was authentic. He thought it could have been sent by a medical student playing a prank and kept the letter a week before sharing it with police.


Is The ‘From Hell’ Letter Authentic?
Written in red ink, the letter contained several spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. To police, this suggested an uneducated writer. However, several silent letters were included, like the k in “knif[e]” and the h in “whil[e],” which suggested at least some formal education, and perhaps intentional misspellings.


Furthermore, police had publicized the mutilation of Catherine Eddowes — who was found disemboweled on September 30 with her kidney removed — suggesting anyone could have made this prank horribly real.



In 1888, there was no scientific manner to verify whether the kidney belonged to Eddowes or not. All that could be determined was that the kidney was that of an adult human with alcohol dependency and came from the left side of the body, leaving investigators at a dead end.

Experts in handwriting analysis believe the “From Hell” letter was written by a different person from whoever wrote the “Dear Boss” and “Saucy Jack” letters, which appear to have the same author. And Andrea Nine of the University of Manchester goes further.

Nine believes the first two letters were written by somebody who worked for the press, as the language used in them seemed to emulate the wording in the “Moab and Midian” letter — which was never made public and only ever seen by members of the Central News Agency.

Unfortunately, the “From Hell” letter went missing from police archives shortly after it was documented and photographed and is still missing today, ruling out any chance of modern analysis.




From Topdust
And to this day, Jack the Ripper’s identity remains unknown, allowing over 100 years of speculation to continue over which suspects, if any, put their hand to paper to write a letter “From Hell” and send it to George Lusk.

16 th October 1793

Execution :
French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed:


Marie Antoinette is beheaded
Nine months after the execution of her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette follows him to the guillotine on October 16, 1793.

The daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, she married Louis in 1770 to strengthen the French-Austrian alliance. At a time of economic turmoil in France, she lived extravagantly and encouraged her husband to resist reform of the monarchy. The increasing revolutionary uproar convinced the king and queen to attempt an escape to Austria in 1791, but they were captured by revolutionary forces and carried back to Paris. In 1792, the French monarchy was abolished, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were condemned for treason.


https://www.history.com/news/marie-antoinette-death-myths-execution-ballads