Today in history

Thanks gassey, have a good weekend

4 th November 1922

Entrance to Tutenkhamun's tomb discovered:
In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.


British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discover a step leading to the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt on November 4, 1922.

When Carter first arrived in Egypt in 1891, most of the ancient Egyptian tombs had been discovered, though the little-known King Tutankhamen, who had died when he was 18, was still unaccounted for. After World War I, Carter began an intensive search for “King Tut’s Tomb,” finally finding steps to the burial room hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings. On November 26, 1922, Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon entered the interior chambers of the tomb, finding them miraculously intact.
Thus began a monumental excavation process in which Carter carefully explored the four-room tomb over several years, uncovering an incredible collection of several thousand objects. The most splendid architectural find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummy of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for more than 3,000 years. Most of these treasures are now housed in the Cairo Museum.

5 th November 1605.


The Gunpowder plot:
Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, where he had planted gunpowder in an attempt to blow up the building and kill King James I of England.


Gunpowder, treason and plot
The men behind the plot were Catholics, a religious group who suffered discrimination during the reigns of the Protestant monarchs Elizabeth I and James I.

Wanting a Catholic in power, the plotters hid nearly a ton of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament. They planned to detonate it at the opening of Parliament – on 5 November.

Fawkes and the gunpowder were discovered – and all of the plotters either killed or executed.

Their sensational failure became known as the Gunpowder Plot – one of the best-known events in British history.
Why did the plotters want to blow up Parliament?
During the 1500s, a religious revolution called the Reformation created a new branch of Christianity, opposed to the old Catholic beliefs. This was Protestantism.

Protestantism became the dominant religion in England. Catholics who didn’t convert were punished.

Led by a Catholic gentleman called Robert Catesby, the 1605 Gunpowder Plot aimed to kill the Protestant King James I and put a Catholic on the throne instead.

The plan centred on the 5 November opening of Parliament. For this ceremony, the king, his son and the Members of Parliament would all be gathered at the Houses of Parliament. One explosion could kill them all.
Who was Guy Fawkes?
Guy Fawkes, also known as Guido Fawkes, was born in York in 1570. After his father died in 1579, his mother married a Catholic, and Fawkes also adopted the religion.

Fawkes became a soldier, fighting in Europe for the army of Spain, a Catholic country. He even tried to persuade the Spanish to invade England.

Fawkes was recruited into the Gunpowder Plot in 1604. Having some experience with explosives, it was his job to plant and detonate the gunpowder.
Why did their plan fail?
The plotters first tried digging a tunnel to hide the explosives in. They changed plans when a House of Lords basement became available to rent.

They moved 36 barrels of gunpowder there, hiding them under a pile of wood.

On the night of 4 November, Fawkes stationed himself nearby, waiting to light the trail of gunpowder which would trigger the explosion.

The plan was derailed when an anonymous letter warning that someone “shall deliver a terrible blow this parliament” was delivered to Lord Monteagle, a Catholic nobleman.

Monteagle raised the alarm, and Fawkes was discovered in the cellar, along with the gunpowder.

Great story, gassey. I didn't realise that religion played such a large part in it.

6 th November 2004.

                                       Ufton Nervet rail crossing tragedy:
                                                                                     An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 150.

                                    Ufton Nervet rail crash: The tragic events which saw level crossing finally replaced by bridge 12 years later.

                                   20 years ago, seven people died and many more were injured when a train travelling through Ufton Nervet ploughed into a car parked on the village's level crossing.

The train carrying around 300 passengers was travelling at 100mph as it hit the car occupied by Brian Drysdale, a chef at Wokefield Park in Mortimer .
                               The car was destroyed, killing Mr Drysdale, and all eight of the train's coaches derailed.

The train's driver Stanley Martin, 54, from Torquay in Devon, and five passengers were killed, and around half of the people on board were injured.

The incident, which happened on Saturday, November 6, 2004, prompted an enormous response from the emergency services and the world's media descended on the normally quiet West Berkshire village.

More than 20 ambulances from five counties and 14 fire crews attended and 61 people were taken to hospital.
                           The car was destroyed, killing Mr Drysdale, and all eight of the train's coaches derailed.

                          Following the tragic incident which made national headlines, the level crossing continued to be the scene of a number of deaths.

In 2009 67-year-old Reading man Thomas Porter died after being hit by a train, as did 60-year-old Gary Provins of Haywood Way, Calcot , in October 2014.
                           In 2010 49-year-old Fareham man Kenneth Greenway was hit and in 2012 David Montague of Woodley was killed when his scooter was hit by a train .

In Mr Montague’s case the coroner said there was not enough evidence to say whether or not his death was deliberate and recorded an open verdict.

Mr Drysdale’s inquest placed the blame for the incident on the Newtown man. A jury recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on the people who died in the crash, and suicide for Mr Drysdale.
                                    It was revealed Mr Drysdale, a heavy drinker, had been struggling with his homosexuality and was waiting for the results of an HIV test when he died.

The inquest heard how he could have been suffering from paranoid psychosis or delusions.

Police also said during the inquest they would have considered charging Mr Drysdale with manslaughter or murder if he had survived.
                                 The driver, Brian Drysdale, 48, of Reading was killed after the train hit his car which was parked on the tracks.

The crash, and the subsequent deaths at the level crossing and work by survivors Jane Hawker and Julie Lloyds prompted a safety review by Network Rail.

The decision was made in April 2015 to remove the level crossing to replace it with a bridge .
                      Work started on the £7 million bridge in April and it officially opened to traffic on Friday, December 16 th 2016, with a ceremony including Robbie Burns, regional director for Network Rail, survivors of the crash, the crews who built the bridge and villagers from Ufton Nervet.
                            Mrs Hawker, who took her first train journey since the crash in 2016, spoke at the event and said afterwards: “This is a new chapter for me, it’s so good to see it actually here, actually open.

“I’m just so pleased the project has actually been completed.”

7 th November 1492

The Enisheim meteorite:
The Enisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.

A Brief History
On November 7, 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage to the New World, a large meteor fell on the town of Ensisheim, Alsace, Austria, in what is now France. Seen as a falling fireball 100 miles away, the meteorite (when it hits the ground, a meteor becomes a “meteorite”) landed safely in a wheat field.

Digging Deeper
The 280 pound rock left a crater 3 feet deep (not bad for a rock that size) and was quickly set upon by curious villagers. Contrary to popular belief, people back then were not a bunch of flat earth believing cretins and apparently knew what a meteor was, although you have to think having a rock that size falling from the sky would get you to wondering! Indeed, many did see it as an omen, but not so much as a supernatural event. Villagers began breaking off pieces as souvenirs but authorities stopped that activity to preserve the meteorite as a gift to King Maximilian I (King of Germany and King of the Romans, and in 1493 he became Holy Roman Emperor).
A regular run of the mill chondrite meteorite (low in iron, high in iron oxide and silicates), triangular in shape, the rock now resides in Ensisheim in the Musee de la Regence, the local museum. Since the 12th Century, many meteorites have been discovered, easily distinguished from local rocks by their iron content. The Ensisheim Meteorite is the oldest documented fall of a recovered meteorite. In prior centuries, meteorites were indeed the subject of supernatural speculation and were sometimes revered. Iron beads made from a meteorite were discovered in Egypt dating back to 3200 BC. Meteorites were used by many people through the centuries as a ready source of iron (not having to be smelted from iron ore), ready to use. Native Americans, including Inuit people used the metal this simple way as cutting tools.

Although stories exist of people or animals killed by falling meteorites, no reliably documented cases exist, although the Ensisheim Meteorite would certainly have killed a person if it had landed on them! Non-fatal meteor strikes of people have happened, but rarely. One boy from Uganda was hit in the head and suffered no serious injury because the meteorite was slowed by passing through banana leaves! Chances are that at least some of the tales of people or animals killed by meteorites are true.

8 th November 1987.


The Enniskillen rememberance day bombing:
Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. eleven people are killed and sixty-three wounded.


On This Day: 11 people killed by IRA bomb in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
Each year, the anniversary serves as both a memorial and a reminder of how far the region has come, and how far it has yet to go in securing lasting peace and reconciliation.
The Enniskillen bombings killed 11 civilians and injured 63 others, marking a turning point in public and international perception of the IRA and its tactics. As people gathered at the town’s war memorial to honor British soldiers who died in World Wars I and II, a bomb placed by the IRA exploded in a building beside the memorial. The explosion sent debris and rubble flying into the crowd.
The blast killed 11 civilians instantly, many of them elderly, including 20-year-old Marie Wilson. Her father, Gordon Wilson, who survived, became a symbol of reconciliation by famously forgiving his daughter's killers in a public statement that garnered worldwide attention.

Among the other victims Dozens were injured, some severely, with lifelong physical and psychological impacts.

Responsibility
The Provisional IRA took responsibility for the attack, initially claiming it had intended to target British security forces at the parade but that the bomb detonated prematurely.
The IRA later acknowledged that the attack had been a mistake, with the high civilian death toll bringing severe criticism even within Irish republican circles. The group’s stated rationale was to disrupt the symbolic British Remembrance Day ceremonies, which they viewed as an endorsement of British rule in Northern Ireland.

The bombing was widely condemned by both nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland, as well as by political leaders in Ireland, the UK, and internationally. Even within the IRA’s support base, the attack was seen as excessive and marked a notable shift in public tolerance for violent tactics, further isolating the IRA.

9 th November 1888.

Jack the ripper's last victim:
Jack the Ripper murders Mary Jane Kelly, becoming his final victim in the Whitechapel murders.

Mary Jane Kelly was an enigmatic figure with a mostly unverified story. What was clear, though, was the horrifying nature of her murder.

Jack the Ripper’s last victim was as mysterious as the notorious serial killer himself. Mary Jane Kelly, generally considered the fifth and final victim of the Victorian serial killer, was found dead on November 9, 1888. But little of Mary Jane Kelly’s life is known — and even then, it is nearly impossible to verify any of it.
Even her name was something of a mystery. In addition to Mary Jane Kelly, she went by Maria Jeanette Kelly, Fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary, and Black Mary. There is little documentary evidence to confirm — or disprove — any claims about Kelly’s life, most of which come from her last lover, Joseph Barnett.

What can be confirmed is that Mary Jane Kelly’s mutilated body was discovered in a room she leased on Dorset Street in East London in the Spitalfields area, a slum frequently occupied by prostitutes and criminals. She is considered the final canonical victim of Jack the Ripper, and her murder was certainly the most gruesome.
On November 8, 1888, Barnett visited Kelly for the last time. He stayed with her for roughly an hour, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., while she was spending time with a friend named Maria Harvey. Barnett occasionally would give Kelly money during his visits, but on this night he had none to give.
He and Harvey left the apartment around the same time, with Barnett returning to his lodging house to play cards until roughly 12:30 a.m. Shortly after, Mary Jane Kelly was seen at the Ten Bells public house with another woman, Elizabeth Foster, and she was later seen drinking with two others at the Horn of Plenty pub on Dorset Street.

Her whereabouts for the rest of the evening are largely unknown. Some say they saw her drunk with another prostitute at around 11:00 p.m., and a neighbor claimed to see her with a short man in his thirties, while others said Kelly could be heard singing in the wee early hours the next morning.
Sometime before noon on November 9, 1888, Kelly’s landlord sent his assistant to collect Kelly’s rent. When he knocked, she didn’t respond. Looking through the window, he saw her bloody and mangled body.

The police were notified, and once they arrived, the door was forced open. The scene was excruciating.
In the practically empty room, Mary Jane Kelly’s body was in the middle of the bed, her head turned. Her left arm, partially removed, was also on the bed. Her abdominal cavity was empty, her breasts and facial features were cut off, and she was severed from her neck to her spine. Her dismembered organs and body parts were placed in different areas around the room, and her heart was missing.
The bed was covered in blood and the wall by the bed was splashed with it.

Mary Jane Kelly was about 25 years old when she was murdered, the youngest of Jack the Ripper’s victims. She “usually wore a black silk dress, and often a black jacket, looking shabby genteel in her attire, but generally neat and clean.”

She was buried on November 19, 1888, in East London at a cemetery called Leytonstone.

10 th November 1871

                  When Stanley met Livingstone:
                                                       Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

                                Famous for having found the great missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone on the shores of Lake Taganyika and immortalised as the utterer of perhaps the four most quoted words of greetings of all time – ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ – Henry Morton Stanley was himself a man who characterised the great wave of exploring fever that gripped the nineteenth century. Yet his life and achievements are too little known and even his nationality has been mistaken.
Often thought of, and as portrayed as, an American, Stanley was born in Denbigh, Wales. Brought up in a workhouse, he fled to America in his teens and began his varied and exciting life by fighting as a solider – on both sides – during the American Civil War and working as a journalist. It was this last job which led to the event which made him famous: he was commissioned by the New York Herald to find missionary and explorer Dr Livingstone (of whom little had been heard since his departure for Africa in 1866 to search for the source of the Nile).

                   Finding David Livingstone
The 236th day out from Bagamoyo and 51st day from Unyanyembe, 10 promised ‘a happy and glorious morning, the air is fresh and cool’ and Ujiji only a six-hour march away. Towards mid-morning, the caravan approached the summit of a steep mountain and from the top they gazed down on Lake Tanganyika – the end of their journey. Stanley insisted that the caravan move quickly ‘lest news of our coming might reach the people of Ujiji before we come in sight and are ready for them’.

They descended and saw 500 yards below the lakeside settlement where Dr David Livingstone was last known to have resided. All thoughts of the distance marched, hills ascended and descended, forests, jungles, thickets and swamps traversed, hot sun, blistered feet, fevers, dangers and difficulties now vanished. Was the old Scottish doctor down there? Had word of Stanley’s arrival travelled ahead and the old man fled from sight? Or had he died in Africa’s heat, from disease or from a multitude of hardships encountered trudging across the ‘dark continent’ (the term Stanley coined to refer to Africa).

Stanley gave the order: ‘Unfurl the flags and load your guns!’

‘We will, Master, we will,’ the men responded eagerly.

‘One, two, three – FIRE!’ A volley from fifty guns announced that Stanley’s caravan had arrived at Ujiji. The American flag was held high by one of the tallest men and the caravan marched down, to be greeted by hundreds of people coming from their homes wondering what all the noise was about. They surrounded the caravan and shouted words of welcome: ‘Yambo, yambo, bana! Yambo, bana! Yambo, bana!’

The crowd parted to let them through. ‘Good morning, sir’ said a voice in English. Stanley swung around, startled to hear English spoken from among a sea of black faces. A man dressed in a long white shirt and with a turban around his head was smiling. ‘Who the mischief are you?’ asked Stanley.

The smiling man replied: ‘I am Susi, the servant of Dr Livingstone.’

‘What! Is Dr Livingstone here?’
                      ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Sure, sir, sure. Why, I leave him just now.’

‘Good morning, sir,’ said another voice.

‘Hello,’ said Stanley. ‘Is this another one?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Well, what is your name?’

‘My name is Chuma, sir.’

‘And is the doctor well?’

‘Not very well, sir.’

‘Where has he been so long?’

‘In Manyuema.’

‘Now, you Susi, run and tell the doctor I am coming,’ ordered Stanley, whereupon Susi darted off like a madman.

The crowd was now so dense that movement was difficult. Susi returned and said the doctor was surprised to hear that a white man was approaching and he had returned to find out his name. Ahead stood a large tembe, a house constructed from mud, wood, palms and other native materials. In front of it was a group of Ujiji’s Arab merchants. Behind them, standing on a verandah, was an elderly white man wearing a blue cap. Was it the man? Stanley confessed: ‘What would I not have given for a bit of friendly wilderness, where, unseen, I might vent my joy in some mad freak, such as idiotically biting my hand, turning a somersault, or slashing at trees, in order to allay those exciting feelings that were well-nigh controllable. My heart beats fast, but I must not let me face betray my emotions, lest it shall detract from the dignity of a white man appearing under such extraordinary circumstances.’
                 Stanley did what he considered most dignified in the circumstances. ‘I pushed back the crowds, and, passing from the rear, walked down a living avenue of people, until I came in front of the semicircle of Arabs, before which stood “the white man with the grey beard”.’ The supreme moment in Stanley’s life was now only seconds away. With little Kalulu just a few feet behind, the 30-year-old American reporter slowly advanced in the noon sunshine, noticing that the 59-year-old white man was pale ‘wearied and wan, with grey whiskers and moustache, and wearing a bluish cloth cap with a faded gold band on a red ground round it, and has on a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of grey tweed trousers.’

Here, at last, was the object of his search. What should he say to him? ‘My imagination had not taken this question into consideration before. All around me is the immense crowd, hushed and expectant, wondering how this scene will develop itself.’ Stanley decided to exercise restraint and reserve, resisting the temptation to run to him, admitting that he is ‘a coward in the presence of such a mob – would have embraced him, but that I did not know how he would receive me; so I did what moral cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thing – walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said: “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”’*

                       ‘Yes,’ said he, with a cordial smile, lifting his cap slightly, speaking his first words to a white man for six years.

The two men replaced their hats and shook hands. Stanley then blurted out: ‘I thank God, doctor, I have been permitted to see you.’
‘I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you,’ the doctor answered.

One of the biggest news stories of the nineteenth century had just broken.

11 th November 1918.

                                  World War 1 and Armastice:
                                                  World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.

                               At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation or exposure.
                  On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
                      On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.

For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
             The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front—the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium—the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.
                       In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, 1918.

World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict—the Treaty of Versailles of 1919—forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.

12th November 1912.

Scott of the Antarctic
The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

Nov. 12, 1912: Scott's Polar Odyssey Comes to Its Official End
A search party discovers the bodies of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and two others in his Antarctic expedition, eight months after they perished on the Ross Ice Shelf on the return leg from the South Pole.

The bodies of Scott, his old friend Dr. Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers lay three abreast inside their tent, which was nearly buried in a snowdrift. The search party, led by Lt.-Surgeon Edward Atkinson, recovered Scott's diary and other documents, performed a burial service, then collapsed the tent over the bodies and built a snow cairn to mark the grave.
From his earliest days as a Royal Navy midshipman, Scott seemed destined for greatness. Despite being a small, sickly and coddled child, Scott took to the rigors of navy life, attracting the attention of his superiors and rising quickly through the ranks. Nevertheless, he was already looking for ways to expand his horizons when Sir Clements Markham started filling his head with the idea of polar exploration.
Scott got his first taste as a member of the Discovery expedition of 1901-04, where he served as naval commander. It was during this expedition, which focused primarily on advancing scientific knowledge of the Antarctic, that Scott became acquainted with Ernest Shackleton, the man he would come to consider his chief rival to claim the pole.

It was a difficult expedition, and some of the problems -- the dogs, for example, performed poorly -- would color Scott's decisions when he began putting together his own expedition to reach the South Pole.

In the end, a number of factors contributed to the ultimate failure of Scott's expedition, but his muddled transport situation -- he chose to rely on ponies and three unproven motor sledges to move men and supplies -- may have been the fatal one. The sledges were difficult to maintain and quickly broke down, while the ponies -- although Siberian-bred -- were not up to the killing Antarctic cold.

Scott brought dogs, but reluctantly. He remembered the teams from the Discovery expedition, so was disinclined to rely on them. Their presence, therefore, accomplished little besides compounding the feeding problem.
In any case, Scott's five-man polar party reached the South Pole on Jan. 18, 1912. What should have been a moment of supreme triumph was instead a crushing disappointment with the discovery that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him by five weeks.

Amundsen, who had informed Scott only very late that he, too, was making for the pole, used rugged Greenland dogs exclusively as he advanced from the Bay of Whales to 90 degrees South.

All five men in Scott's polar party died on the ice returning from the pole. In addition to those found in the tent, Capt. L.E.G. Oates and Petty Officer Edgar Evans had died en route. Their bodies were never found.

All in all, 1912 was a tough year for British know-how. Scott's technology certainly failed him, and his death preceded the sinking of the Titanic by only two weeks.

13 th November 1954.

Rugby Leagues first world cup:
Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.

The 1954 Rugby League World Cup was rugby league's first World Cup and was held between 30 October and 13 November and hosted by France and was won by Great Britain who beat France in the final at the Parc des Princes in Paris. As it was the first official World Cup of either rugby code it was officially known as the Rugby World Cup.

Five nations were invited to compete: Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand and USA (However the USA would withdraw before the tournament began).

The prime instigators behind the idea of holding a rugby league world cup were the French, who were short of money following the seizing of their assets by French rugby union in the Second World War.

The first Rugby League World Cup was an unqualified success. It was played in a uniformly good spirit, provided an excellent standard of play and was a fitting celebration of France's 20th anniversary as a rugby league-playing nation. The trophy, which was donated by the French, was worth eight million francs