Today in history

Reet ,any excuse for a Blackpool weekend this time its the world championship firework display. So
heres weekend's history back Monday around tea time.

20 th September 1973

Tennis, The battle of the sexes:
1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

On Sept. 20, 1973, before a crowd of more than 30,000 at the Houston Astrodome, female tennis star Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a match dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes.”

In the Sept. 21 New York Times, Neil Amdur wrote, “Most important, perhaps for women everywhere, she convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations and that men are as susceptible to nerves as women.”

Mr. Riggs was a 55-year-old former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion who in retirement became a tennis “hustler.” In the early ‘70s, he challenged the top female players in the world to matches and “bolted to national prominence with his blunt putdowns of women’s tennis and the role of today’s female,” reported Mr. Amdur.
Ms. King initially declined Mr. Riggs’ challenge, but changed her mind after Mr. Riggs defeated women’s number one Margaret Court in May 1973. She later explained, “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match. It would ruin the women’s tour and affect all women’s self-esteem.”

Though the match was more of a spectacle than a sporting event, it had enormous symbolic importance. Played just a year after the passage of “Title IX,” an amendment to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which among other things required that women be granted equal access to athletics by high schools and colleges, the match helped legitimize women’s athletics and encouraged girls to take up sports.

21 st September 1809


The Castlereagh-Canning duel:
British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was not entirely inexperienced in duels. As a young man, he had fought one in Ireland, over a girl, with her guardian. Shots were exchanged, but neither man was hurt and by that evening Castlereagh told his alarmed father he had already forgotten the details. The situation in 1809, however, was altogether more serious. With Britain at war with Napoleon, Castlereagh was war minister in the government under the Duke of Portland.
Also in the cabinet was George Canning, as foreign secretary. Canning was devouringly ambitious and for some months he had been intriguing with colleagues and with Portland to get the war minister dropped. This had all been behind Castlereagh’s back and he had no idea of what was going on until September. Outraged at being betrayed by a colleague and apparent friend, he wrote a long letter to Canning, reproaching him for damage to his honour and reputation, and ending: ‘Under these circumstances, I must require that satisfaction from you to which I feel myself entitled to lay claim.’
Receiving this bulky missive, Canning said he would sooner fight than read it and replied: ‘The tone and purport of your Lordship’s letter (which I have this moment received) of course precludes any other answer, on my part, to the misapprehensions and misrepresentations, with which it abounds, than that I will cheerfully give to your Lordship the satisfaction that you require.’
The duel was organised for the following day, at 6am on Putney Heath, where Castlereagh’s second, Lord Yarmouth, owned a cottage. Canning, who had never fired a pistol in his life, wrote his will and a farewell letter to his wife. When the parties reached the appointed spot, his second, his friend Charles Ellis, tried to patch up the quarrel, but in vain, and the seconds agreed the distance and measured out the ground. Ellis was so nervous trying to load Canning’s pistol that Lord Yarmouth did it for him. The first shots both missed and another attempt to compose the quarrel failed because Canning still refused to apologise. His second shot was deflected by a button on Castlereagh’s coat and Castlereagh’s second struck Canning in the thigh. Castlereagh helped Canning limp away and afterwards told his father that Canning’s conduct ‘was very proper on the ground’.
The two men soon adopted a polite civility and Castlereagh would go on to be one of Britain’s greatest foreign ministers, but Canning’s career was badly damaged. It was generally felt that he had behaved thoroughly badly and this was part of the reason why he failed to achieve his ambition to be prime minister until the last few months of his life, in 1827.

22nd September 1892

The Lindal railway incident:
A locomotive shunting, falls into a hole in the ground, leading to the burial of the locomotive.

The Lindal railway incident happened on Thursday 22 September 1892 near Lindal-in-Furness, a village lying between the Cumbria towns of Ulverston and Dalton-in-Furness. A Furness Railway D1 locomotive, No.115, was shunting in sidings when it disappeared into the ground after a large, deep hole opened up beneath it. The D1 was never recovered and still lies buried beneath the railway, though the depth remains a source of speculation.

The story
East of Lindal station on the Barrow-Carnforth route, the two main lines and two goods lines ran along an embankment, with five sidings to the north. The 7am Barrow-Carnforth goods had stopped at the sidings behind Furness Railway locomotive No.115, a D1 class 0-6-0 built by the firm of Sharp Stewart between 1866 and 1885.

The ‘Sharpie’ (as the class were nicknamed) was busy shunting when the driver, Thomas Postlethwaite, saw cracks opening up in the ground right below. Knocking off steam, he jumped for his life, no sooner clear than the earth opened up to expose a sheer-sided hole 30 feet (9.1 m) across and similar in depth. The driver and his fireman stared in disbelief as their locomotive fell into it front first, the funnel and front part embedded, with only the tender remaining visible above the surface. The rails on which the engine had been standing were snapped off and went down with it, while the supporting baulks under the main lines were laid bare. The adjacent up passenger line was left hanging lopsidedly, its ballast having cascaded into the abyss.

23 rd September 1459

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

Battle of Blore Heath - Background:
Open fighting between the Lancastrian forces of King Henry VI and the Richard, Duke of York began in 1455 at the First Battle of St. Albans. A Yorkist victory, the battle was a relatively minor engagement and Richard did not attempt to usurp the throne. In the four years that followed, an uneasy peace settled over the two sides and no fighting occurred. By 1459, tensions had again risen and both sides actively began recruiting forces. Establishing himself at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, Richard began summoning troops for action against the king.

These efforts were countered by the Queen, Margaret of Anjou who was raising men in support of her husband. Learning that Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury was moving south from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire to join Richard, she dispatched a newly raised force under James Touchet, Baron Audley to intercept the Yorkists. Marching out, Audley intended to set an ambush for Salisbury at Blore Heath near Market Drayton. Moving onto the barren heathland on September 23, he formed his 8,000-14,000 men behind a "great hedge" facing northeast towards Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Battle of Blore Heath - Fighting Begins:
The fighting opened with fire from the opposing armies' archers. Due to the distance separating the forces, this proved largely ineffectual. Realizing that any attack on Audley's larger army was doomed to fail, Salisbury sought to lure the Lancastrians out of their position. To accomplish this, he began a feigned retreat of his center. Seeing this, a force of Lancastrian cavalry charged forward, possibly without orders. Having accomplished his goal, Salisbury returned his men to their lines and met the enemy assault.

Battle of Blore Heath - Yorkist Victory:
Striking the Lancastrians as they crossed the stream, they repelled the attack and inflicted heavy losses. Withdrawing to their lines, the Lancastrians reformed. Now committed to the offensive, Audley led a second assault forward. This achieved greater success and the bulk of his men crossed the stream and engaged the Yorkists. In a period of brutal fighting, Audley was struck down. With his death, John Sutton, Baron Dudley, took command and led forward an additional 4,000 infantry. Like the others, this attack proved unsuccessful.

As the fighting swung in the favor of the Yorkists, around 500 Lancastrians deserted to the enemy. With Audley dead and their lines wavering, the Lancastrian army broke from the field in a rout. Fleeing the heath, they were pursued by Salisbury's men as far as the River Tern (two miles away) where additional casualties were inflicted.

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.

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.

25 th September 1983.

The Maze prison escape:
Thirty-eight IRA prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze Prison.

The Maze Prison escape (known to Irish republicans as the Great Escape) took place on 25 September 1983 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. HM Prison Maze (also known as Long Kesh) was a maximum security prison considered to be one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe. It held prisoners suspected of taking part in armed paramilitary campaigns during the Troubles, with separate wings for loyalists and for republicans. In the biggest prison escape in UK peacetime history, 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners escaped from H-Block 7 (H7) of the prison. One prison officer died of a heart attack during the escape and twenty others were injured, including two who were shot with guns that had been smuggled into the prison.

The escape was a propaganda coup for the IRA, and a British government minister faced calls to resign. The official inquiry into the escape placed most of the blame onto prison staff, who in turn blamed the escape on political interference in the running of the prison.

26 th September 1953

Rationing:
Rationing of sugar in the United Kingdom ends.

Sugar rationing ends 71 years ago today.

If you were a child on 25th September 1953 a whole new world emerged that day. Sweets and chocolate became more readily available because eight years after the end of the Second World War sugar rationing came to an end.

During the war sugar was one of dozens of what today we would consider to be everyday food items that was rationed to ensure that everyone got a fair share of a scarce resource. Sugar in 1940s Britain mostly came from abroad and had to be shipped into the country. These ships were a prime target for German’s U-boat wolf packs and many millions of tons of ships and the men who crewed them went to the bottom of the ocean.

But it wasn’t the first time that Briton’s had been denied the sweet taste of sugar because during the First World War the same situation had played out. In February 1917 German submarines sank 230 vessels bringing food and vital supplies into the country. Great Britain very nearly starved. In 1917 the weekly allowance for sugar was just 340 grams. At one stage in the First World War there was only four days’ supply of sugar in the whole of the United Kingdom.

So, when the end of World War Two came it took a very long time to recreate the infrastructure necessary to allow people to freely buy however much sugar they wanted. New crops of Sugar Beet were established across Britain and new plantations of sugar cane were planted around the world.

On 25th September 1953 sugar once again became freely available to everyone. In the 21st century we are now asked to cut back on sugar intake for another reason, other than war, now it is to consider our health.

27 th September 1825

                       Worlds first steam railway:

                        The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened with the engine Locomotion pulling wagons with coal and passengers from Shildon to Darlington to Stockton.

                           Shildon, the cradle of the railway and locomotion No1.

                On 27 September 1825 a small steam locomotive coupled up to a train at Shildon in County Durham. There were officially around 300 ticket holders but many more—possibly twice as much again—had jumped on board. As the train headed eastwards to the port of Stockton, huge crowds gathered to watch its progress. This was a momentous day indeed for this was the first steam-hauled passenger train on a public railway, a journey that would change the world forever.
                         Named Locomotion, the locomotive on that historic day had been the first to be built at the celebrated Stephenson works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but for its working life it was indelibly associated with Shildon—the world’s first railway town—where it will return for the first time in over 150 years as part of ambitious plans to redevelop the town’s railway museum, itself named Locomotion after the history-making locomotive.

Locomotion was not the first steam locomotive, nor did it possess innovative technology. Its significance and fame rests with its involvement on that September day in 1825. However, it also enjoyed a lengthy career on the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) where it was directly associated with Shildon for the majority of its working life. This may come as a surprise to some as the name of the railway on which the locomotive served was, of course, S&DR even though the line itself began near Shildon some distance west of both Darlington and Stockton.

28 th September 1928

Discovery of penecilin:
Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

The way that we treat illnesses has changed a huge amount over the last century.

On 28 September 1928 - 96 years ago - a substance was discovered that completely transformed the history of medicine.

It was called penicillin and it was the world's very first antibiotic - vital for creating medicines to kill bacterial infections.

One of the most interesting things about the drug is that it was discovered almost by accident!

We take a look back at its amazing story.

Where did penicillin come from?
Ninety years ago, doctors weren't able to treat certain conditions that nowadays are much easier to deal with, simply because they didn't have the right medicines.
Something as simple as a sore throat could prove to be fatal if the infection spread to the lungs, and pneumonia and infections after operations used to kill one in every three people who got them.

At the time, a man called Alexander Fleming was a scientist working at St Mary's Hospital in London, carrying out research into the influenza virus.
One day, he went on holiday. When he returned to his laboratory, he discovered something very strange had taken place.

Before he had gone away, he hadn't cleared away all of the dishes of bacteria that he had been working on and a blob of mould had developed in one of his dirty dishes.

But while bacteria was growing everywhere else in the dish, none was growing around the mould.

This told Mr Fleming that something in the mould was killing the bacteria.

He worked out what this substance was and called it penicillin. It was the world's first antibiotic.

29 th September 1904.



Cloth Caps and Cowboy Hats; the Day the Wild West Came to Wigan



On the 29th of September 1904, a small army invaded the cotton manufacturing town of Wigan in Lancashire. Nearly a thousand strong it was a mixture of veteran US soldiers, Lakota Indians, American cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, Arab Spahis (light cavalry), japanese acrobats, wives, consorts and other camp followers. There was also a contingent of teamsters, horse wranglers, carpenters, stage hands, electricians (for the special electric light plants), armourers, cooks and butchers. Together with a convoy of fifty wagons, including a stagecoach, carrying supplies and equipment, they made the trek through the town to Lamberhead Green, a semi rural area just over a mile to the south. It was pure spectacle with the Sioux warriors resplendent in warpaint and eagle feathers, the vaqueros in gaily coloured ponchos and sombreros and the darkskinned Spahis mounted on their spirited chargers. Then came the cowboys wearing stetsons and silver spurred high heeled boots amusing the spectators with rope tricks. And in the vanguard waving gallantly to the crowds lining the roadside, rode Col William Frederick Cody, six feet four and clad in buckskins, thigh length black riding boots and wide brimmed white sombrero. Ex army scout, showman and self-styled killer of Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hair, with cascading curls and well waxed moustache and goatee, at fifty eight still erect astride his prancing horse. It was an entry to make even Caesar blush. Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show was in town.



Arriving at their destination, an area stretching from Lamberhead Green to present day Worsley Hall, an encampment of canvas tents and tipis was erected. Then came the main tent and a number of marquees around a central horseshoe shaped arena. Inhabited by peoples of many nations, it was a town within a town. Two weeks before the Shows arrival hundreds of posters had magically appeared in shop windows, on billboards and vacant walls, heralding the imminent arrival of BUFFALO BILL AND HIS CONGRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS OF THE WORLD! The frenetic schedule included two shows, afternoon and evening (hence the new fangled electric lighting). Admission was priced at one shillings upwards to four with box seats costing five shillings and seven shillings and sixpence. Children under ten were admitted at half price. For a ha'penny you could have a cone filled with popcorn. Programmes and other souvenirs were also on sale. Locals were even allowed to visit the tipis of the Native Americans. Some of those who attended later recalled how they had dressed up in their Sunday best for the once in a lifetime occasion. Some may even have remembered earlier visits to Lancashire by Bill and his Wild West. The famed frontier scout had whooped them up on three previous tours. He had even met Queen Victoria, a huge fan. So the ground was well ploughed.



The Show opened with a review of the entire company who, to the accompaniment of William Sweeney and his Cowboy Band, galloped and paraded around the arena. Then, as the music morphed into The Star Spangled Banner, Buffalo Bill made his dramatic entrance. Mounted on a handsome black steed wearing a silver bridle, a present from Edward Vii back when he was Prince of Wales, with a flourish of his white sombrero he introduced the Congress of Rough Riders of the World who, at his signal entered into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic routine of interspersing concentric circles. Then came the entertainment proper. A panoply of riding and roping and shooting exhibitions performed by the troupe - Cody included. Edwardian Evel Knievel George C. Davis did death defying feats on his bicycle, one of them involving a fiftysix foot jump across a chasm. There were also acrobatics and other spectacular feats. The cavalry and infantry drilled and marksman Johnny Baker showed off his considerable shooting skills. But these were only curtain raisers for the melodramatic main events - frontier vignettes featuring Buffalo Bill as Pony Express rider, Buffalo Bill as buffalo hunter, and Buffalo Bill as the thrilling last minute rescuer of a settlers cabin surrounded by Indians. There was also an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage. Buffalo Bill to the rescue again! And then the high point of the whole spectacle - a re-enactment of Custers Last Stand, the finest hour of Lakota and Cheyenne resistance to white encroachment on their land. The arena echoed with gunfire and the war whoops of triumphant Indian warriors as they wiped out the wasichus. Johnnie Baker, wearing built up boots and a blonde wig, played Custer. The Indians played themselves. Some of them may have even been present at the actual battle. Sitting Bull jnr, son of the chief who had, played the role of his father. For him, like the rest of the Native performers, it was a temporary escape from the grim realities of reservation life. And the pay was good. But of greater importance though, was the opportunity it gave them to present a culture and lifestyle that was fast disappearing, and to relive again the old ways and old victories.



Then it was over. The last shot fired, the last Indian felled, the last settler saved. Buffalo Bill bade the crowded stands farewell and they filtered home with their programmes and souvenirs and memories. In the just dawning century a new medium, made of flickering images, would take on the role of storyteller of the American West, presenting an image that the old scout, both in real life and in fiction, had had a major role in developing. He would even appear before the camera himself. But the movies, captivating as they were, could never deliver the excitement, the experience of being there. You were in the presence of REAL Indians and REAL cowboys and a REAL western hero - Buffalo Bill, attesting to the authenticity of his Frontier tableaux. For Cody himself, the show presented America's, and his own, take on the conquest of the Plains and it's native peoples. He was the most famous American of his day, and the world was wild about the West. But to the hundreds who crowded the canvas covered stands on that long ago day in Wigan, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was never anything more than entertainment and spectacle. A temporary bolt hole out of a coal mine or cotton mill and into another world, albeit one long gone.

What a day that must have been,probably talked abouut for months later.

With many thanks to Ray for the research into this article.

30 th September 1945.

Bourne end rail disaster:
1945 – 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 Beeton:
                                                      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 was a Victorian writer whose 'Book of Household Management' is one of the most famous cookery books ever published.

Isabella Mayson was born on 12 March 1836 in London. She was educated in Germany. In 1856, she married Samuel Beeton, a wealthy publisher and began to write articles on cooking and household management for her husband's publications.

In 1861, the first instalment of her famous 'The Book of Household Management' was published. It was an immediate success, selling over 60,000 copies in its first year of publication and nearly two million by 1868. As well as recipes the book contained advice regarding household management, childcare, etiquette, entertaining and the employment of servants. It was illustrated with coloured engravings on nearly every page and was the first to format recipes in the layout still used today.

Beeton died on 6 February 1865 of an infection following the birth of her fourth child.


               

2 nd October 1942

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

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 September 1981

Maze hunger strike:
The hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.

A hunger strike by Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison in Belfast in Northern Ireland is called off after seven months and 10 deaths. The first to die was Bobby Sands, the imprisoned Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader who initiated the protest on March 1, 1981–the fifth anniversary of the British policy of “criminalization” of Irish political prisoners.

In 1972, Sands was arrested and convicted of taking part in several IRA robberies. Because he was convicted for IRA activities, he was given “special category status” and sent to a prison that was more akin to a prisoner of war camp because it allowed freedom of dress and freedom of movement within the prison grounds. He spent four years there.
After less than a year back on the streets, Sands was arrested in 1977 for gun possession near the scene of an IRA bombing and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Because the British government had enacted a policy of criminalization of Irish terrorists in 1976, Sands was imprisoned as a dangerous criminal in the Maze Prison, south of Belfast. During the next few years, from his cell in the Maze, he joined other IRA prisoners in protests demanding restoration of the freedoms they had previously enjoyed under special category status. In 1980, a hunger strike was called off when one of the protesters fell into a coma. In response, the British government offered a few concessions to the prisoners, but they failed to deliver all they had promised, and protests resumed. Sands did not directly participate in the 1980 hunger strike, but he acted as the IRA-appointed leader and spokesperson of the protesting prisoners.
On March 1, 1981, Bobby Sands launched a new hunger strike. He consumed only water and salt, and his weight dropped from 155 pounds to 95 pounds. After two weeks, another protester joined the strike, and six days after that, two more. On April 9, in the midst of the strike, Sands was elected to a vacant seat in the British Parliament from Fermanagh and South Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Parliament subsequently introduced legislation to disqualify convicts serving prison sentences for eligibility for Parliament. Sands’ protest attracted international attention. On May 5, he died.
After Sands’ death, the hunger strike continued, and nine more men perished before it was called off on October 3, 1981, under pressure from Catholic Church leaders and the prisoners’ families. In the aftermath of the strike, the administration of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed to give in to several of the protesters’ demands, including the right to wear civilian clothing and the right to receive mail and visits. Prisoners were also allowed to move more freely and were no longer subject to harsh penalties for refusing prison work. Official recognition of their political status, however, was not granted.

Early start tomorrow going to Leeds until Sunday , heres Friday and Saturdays history.



                   4 th October 1957


                                   Sputnik 1:
                                                  Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

                                     


History changed on Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball, about 23 inches in diameter and weighing less than 190 pounds. It took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R. space race.

5 th October 1974

The Guildford pub bombings:
Bombs planted by the PIRA in pubs in Guildford kill four British soldiers and one civilian.

The Guildford pub bombings occurred on 5 October 1974 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two 6-pound (2.7-kilogram) gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England. The pubs were targeted because they were popular with British Army personnel stationed at Pirbright barracks. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. Sixty-five people were wounded.

The bombings

Guildford Bombing Memorial
In 1974 a number of pubs in Guildford town centre were known to be "army pubs", frequented by military personnel stationed in the area. These included the Horse & Groom on North Street, The Seven Stars on Swan Lane, and the Three Pigeons on High Street. The Provisional IRA Army Council had authorised attacks in England at a meeting in 1973, and army pubs were viewed as soft military targets.

The bomb in the Horse and Groom, thought to have been planted by a "courting couple" who have never been identified, detonated at 8:30 pm, killing a civilian, two members of the Scots Guards and two members of the Women's Royal Army Corps. The Seven Stars was evacuated after the first blast, and a second bomb exploded at 9:00 pm while the pub landlord and his wife searched the pub. The landlord sustained a fractured skull and his wife a broken leg, and five members of staff and one customer who had just stepped outside received less serious injuries.

These attacks were the first in a year-long campaign by an IRA active service unit who became known as the Balcombe Street Gang – whom police arrested in December 1975 after the Balcombe Street siege leading to their trial and conviction for other murders and offences. A similar bomb to those used in Guildford, with the addition of shrapnel, was thrown into the Kings Arms pub in Woolwich on 7 November 1974. A soldier and a civilian died in that explosion.

The bombings occurred only five days before the October 1974 United Kingdom general election. As all parties felt obliged to respond to the events, they contributed to the speedy and unchallenged passing of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in November 1974.

Good stuff, gassey.................

6 th October 1985

Broadwater farm riots:
Police constable Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.


Thirty nine years ago PC Keith Blakelock was stabbed in the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, north London. Despite numerous investigations no-one has ever been convicted of his murder.

On 5 October 1985 four policemen burst into the home of Broadwater Farm resident Cynthia Jarrett looking for stolen property.

They failed to find any, but Ms Jarrett had a heart attack and died.

Her death was only weeks after riots in Brixton, south London, which happened following the accidental shooting of Cherry Groce by police officers.

On 6 October, following Ms Jarrett's death, her family met with police and demanded an inquiry. They made it clear though that they did not want any kind of public disorder.
At 18:45 GMT that day, however, police were called to Mount Pleasant, Willan Road and The Avenue.

Once there, they were pelted with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs. Cars were overturned and set alight, as were shops and other buildings.
In the hours that followed, up to 500 officers were drafted in, battling with rioters throwing bottles and cans from the walkways within the estate.

At about 22:15 BST, PC Keith Blakelock was repeatedly stabbed and, a court later heard, attempts were made to decapitate him.

PC Blakelock, who was from Sunderland, was trying to protect firefighters tackling a blaze. He died later in hospital.
By midnight, 58 policemen and 24 other people had been taken to hospital.

Police in riot gear occupied the estate for two months after the disturbance, using police dogs, helicopters and surveillance equipment.

In 1987, Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted of PC Blakelock's murder.

However, their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after questions were raised about the way police interviews were carried out.
A second investigation between 1992 and 1994, which offered immunity from prosecution for those in the mob who had kicked rather than used weapons on PC Blakelock, did not result in prosecutions.

Two police interrogators, Det Ch Supt Graham Melvin and Det Insp Maxwell Dingle, were also charged with perverting the course of justice over concerns about fabricating evidence. They were acquitted in July 1994.
Nineteen years later, Nicholas Jacobs, 44, of Hackney, was charged with PC Blakelock's murder.

In April last year, an Old Bailey jury cleared Mr Jacobs by a majority verdict.

Following the case, the Met defended its decision to pursue a conviction against Mr Jacobs, and said it would not be deterred from future investigations.

A force spokesman said the investigation into the murder of PC Blakelock remains open.

7 th October 1988


Free the whales:
A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.

On October 7, 1988, 'Operation Breakthrough' was a rare US-Soviet cooperation to free three juvenile gray whales that became trapped in pack-ice in the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow, Alaska. The whales had become disoriented, confused, and could barely breathe between the sheets of thick ice. A $1 million US-Soviet joint effort commenced at the height of the Cold War, when cooperation was practically unheard-of.

Inupiaq hunter Roy Ahmaogak discovered the 3 whales, and immediately used a chainsaw to cut a path in the ice leading to open water. But temperatures were so brutally cold that the ice reformed overnight, so villagers used de-icing pumps to keep the path from refreezing. A Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavylift helicopter punched holes in the ice using a 5-ton hammer. The whales were given Inuit names Putu, Siku, and Kanik (English names Bonnet, Crossbeak, and Bone).

Rescuers borrowed a barge from Prudhoe Bay to break the ice and clear a path, but the barge became locked in. International media started arriving at the site. The US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration sent a team of whale biologists, and oil companies in the North Slope Field lent their resources to help. The U.S. Department of State requested the help of two icebreakers from the Soviet Union. The 'Vladimir Arseniev' and the 'Admiral Makarov' immediately responded.
'Admiral Makarov' broke apart an ice ridge 400 yards wide and 30 feet thick. 'Vladimir Arseniev' cleared the icy rubble to create a path for the remaining two whales to escape. But when the whales attempted to take the exit path, swarms of journalists scared them, and they swam back. Jagged ice from the rescue effort cut the whales, bloodying the water.

The youngest whale (Kanik) died on October 21, at 9 months of age. Putu and Siku swam away unseen, and Operation Breakthrough was declared a success. However, the whales were reported to be in very poor health, and it is unknown whether they survived.

Gray whales make an annual 10,000-mile migration from their feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to the lagoons of Mexico's Baja California. The whales usually leave Alaska before the sea ice can trap them near the coastal waters. These whales made a mistake by delaying their departure, and scientists criticised the effort as 'disrupting natural mortality.' But at a time of increasing anti-whaling sentiment, Operation Breakthrough occurred because of human's deep affinity for the wellbeing of whales.

Fascinating story, gassey......I seem to remember that......

8 th October 1952.
The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people:

At 08.19 on 8 October 1952 three trains collided with one another at Harrow and Wealdstone Train Station, some 11 miles to the north of Euston Station in London. One of the trains was a local passenger service taking early morning commuters from Tring to Euston, and the other was a passenger service from Perth to Euston. A third train, the 08.00 express travelling from Euston to Liverpool and Manchester ploughed into the wreckage created by the initial collision of the trains travelling from Perth and Tring.
A combination of poor weather (patchy fog), misread signals and inadequate equipment led to a disaster that was only exceeded in scale by the disaster at Gretna Green in 1915, when 227 persons, mostly soldiers heading to the Front, were killed. The carnage of Harrow and Wealdstone can be comprehended if one considers the effects of a crowded passenger train (the Liverpool express) steaming into the shattered remnants of trains already wrecked and with their passengers and their effects strewn across lines. One disaster fed into another disaster. The casualty figures, high enough, would have been higher still were it not for the swift attention of passing detachments of the United States Air Force, who rushed to the scene of the disaster and applied life-saving field techniques learnt in wartime.
The Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, visited the scene of the disaster and praised the efforts of all of those involved in rescue efforts. The disaster is still well remembered today. On 8 October 2012 survivors, eye-witnesses and rescue workers gathered together at the site of the accident and the names of those who did not survive were read out.

9 th October 1834

Ireland's first railway:
Opening of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway on the island of Ireland.

10 facts about the first Irish railway.

1.
When the first Irish railway was opened in 1834, it did not go the whole way from Dublin (Westland Row) to Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), but only to Salthill (now Salthill and Monkstown). It was originally intended to transport the Royal Mail and other goods that came into Kingstown Harbour to Dublin City.

2.
In the first year there was only one station between the termini. Three years later the railway was extended to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) as the Harbour Commissioners had changed their plans concerning the pier where the mail boat would come in. There were also nine stations between the termini as the railway company had realized that transporting passengers led to a higher profit than transporting goods.


3.
Very soon the huge number of passengers meant that the railway had turned into the first ever commuter railway. The daily number of passengers using the train could go into the thousands. Freight was transported either on the roof of the carriages or in boxes under the seats.

4.
For the first fourteen years the railway ran on what now is called the international gauge of 1.435m (4ft8½in). It was only changed to the standard Irish gauge of 1.600m (5ft2in) in 1848, when the line was extended beyond Dalkey.

5.
As the railway ran alongside (and at some points through) the sea, the rail operators decided to build baths at certain points. Among the many tickets on offer, combined tickets went on sale for both the rail journey and entrance to the sea bath.

6.
The first locomotives were surprisingly fast. There was one instance in 1835, when for political reasons an urgent message had to be conveyed from London to Dublin. When this message arrived (by a relay of riders) at Holyhead, it was passed by signal flags to a waiting ship which, braving a storm, brought it across the Irish Sea. As soon as the harbour was in sight the message was signalled again by flags. A waiting locomotive then managed to convey the message on the stretch from Kingstown Harbour to Westland Row in the time of just nine minutes. Today the shortest time for a non-stop train to cover this stretch is eleven minutes.

7.
The ownership of the first Irish railway line has changed a couple of times and so have the names and abbreviations for this railway. The original Dublin & Kingstown Railway (D&KR) in 1848 was taken over by the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow & Dublin Railway (WWW&DR) which in 1860 changed its name first to Dublin & Wicklow Railway (D&WR) and in 1906 to Dublin & South Eastern Railway (D&SER, or DSE). Dubliners translated the shorter version DSE as “Dublin Slow and Easy”.

8.
Now the line is mainly used by the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART), but also by commuter trains from Bray and going on to Drogheda, as well as the intercity trains from Connolly Station to Rosslare Harbour.

9.
There are nine bridges that run across the streets on the Dublin stretch of this railway line. Some of them still in their original position. One of them however, is so low that it since closed for automobiles and only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed to use it. There is just one street bridge over the tracks on the stretch of the first Irish railway.

10.
All five original level crossings still exist to the great annoyance of many car drivers, who feel that nearly half the time of the day the streets are blocked by closed barriers!

10 th October 1957.


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

The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in the United Kingdom's history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire was in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale site on the north-west coast of England in Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria). The two graphite-moderated reactors, referred to at the time as "piles", had been built as part of the British post-war atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No. 1 was operational in October 1950, followed by Pile No. 2 in June 1951.

The fire burned for three days and released radioactive fallout which spread across the UK and the rest of Europe. The radioactive isotope iodine-131, which may lead to cancer of the thyroid, was of particular concern at the time. It has since come to light that small but significant amounts of the highly dangerous radioactive isotope polonium-210 were also released. It is estimated that the radiation leak may have caused 240 additional cancer cases, with 100 to 240 of these being fatal.
At the time of the incident, no one was evacuated from the surrounding area, but milk from about 500 km2 (190 square miles) of the nearby countryside was diluted and destroyed for about a month due to concerns about its radiation exposure. The UK government played down the events at the time, and reports on the fire were subject to heavy censorship, as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan feared the incident would harm British-American nuclear relations.
The event was not an isolated incident; there had been a series of radioactive discharges from the piles in the years leading up to the accident. In early 1957, there had been a leak of radioactive material in which strontium-90 was released into the environment. Like the later fire, this incident was covered up by the British government. Later studies on the release of radioactive material due to the Windscale fire revealed that much of the contamination had resulted from such radiation leaks before the fire.

A 2010 study of workers involved in the cleanup of the accident found no significant long-term health effects from their involvement.

11 th October 1649.

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

The Sack of Wexford took place from 2 to 11 October 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, part of the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars. English Commonwealth forces under Oliver Cromwell stormed the town after negotiations broke down, killing most of the Irish Confederate and Royalist garrison. Many civilians also died, either during the sack, or drowned attempting to escape across the River Slaney.

On arrival, Cromwell offered the garrison terms, which allowed them to leave without their weapons, and guaranteed the town would remain unharmed. Although acceptable to the civilian leadership, they were rejected by Synnot, who sought to delay as agreed at Drogheda. The rains had started, and many of the besiegers were already suffering from dysentery.
The guns opened fire early on 11 October, concentrating on the castle, which was held by a separate garrison, under Captain Nicholas Stafford. Synnot now accepted the original terms, but when his delegation met with Cromwell, they made new demands. These included guarantees of religious freedom, with the garrison retaining their weapons, and the privateers currently in harbour allowed to leave with their goods and ships intact. Cromwell deemed them unacceptable and now lost patience.
In his report to London, Cromwell suggested this was retribution for the killing of Protestants earlier in the rebellion, although he regretted the damage prevented him from using Wexford for winter quarters. His personal responsibility is still a matter of debate; historians including Tom Reilly, Nicholas Canny, and Roger Hainsworth, suggest the assault was launched without his approval, and he was unable to control his troops once the plundering began.

12 th October 1984

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


Forty years ago, at 2.54 am on 12 October 1984, an IRA-planted bomb ripped through the Grand Hotel on the seafront at Brighton, designed to kill the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet. Conservative ministers, MPs, and activists were in Brighton for that year’s party conference and a timed explosive device had been placed under the bath in a room above the one in which Thatcher was staying. The explosion tore a fissure in the front of the hotel several stories high.
Five people were killed in what has been described as ‘the most audacious attack on a British government since the Gunpowder Plot’ and many others were injured. With characteristic defiance the Prime Minister opened proceedings at the conference at 9.30 the next morning. Her speech later in the day referred to the events of the previous night:

‘The bomb attack on the Grand Hotel early this morning was first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent unsuspecting men and women staying in Brighton for our Conservative Conference. Our first thoughts must at once be for those who died and for those who are now in hospital recovering from their injuries. But the bomb attack clearly signified more than this. It was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our Conference; It was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty’s democratically-elected Government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now—shocked, but composed and determined—is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.’