Today in History

[moviequeen1]

1853
elevator inventor, Elisha Otis installs his 1st elevator in NYC at 488 Broadway
1923
Frank Silver&Irving Conn publish their hit song' Yes, We Have No Bananas'
1945
U.S. Navy ships bomb Japanese Island, Okinawa in preparation of Allied invasion
1965
NASA launches Gemini3, with 2 astronauts, Gus Grissom&John Young,the 1st U.S. man space flight
1999
singer/ songwriter, Ricky Martin's single' Livin la Vida Loca' is released sells over 8 million copies
2001
Russian Mir space station breaks up in atmosphere before falling into the S. Pacific Ocean near Fiji
2015
British actor/ comedian, James Corden becomes host of CBS'The Late Late Show' until 2023

 

[Bretrick]

March 24
1945 - Billboard magazine issued its first album chart, naming Nat King Cole's "A Collection of Favorites" as the number 1 LP. Titled "Best-Selling Popular Record Albums", the list initially featured just ten records and was compiled from sales reports submitted by more than 200 retailers across the United States.

1958 - Elvis Presley is sworn in as Private 53310761 for a two-year stint in the US army.

1989 - Oil Tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground at Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 115,000 cubic metres of crude oil.
Loss of wildlife estimates were 250,000 seabirds, nearly 3,000 sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales and billions of salmon and herring eggs.

 

[Furryanimal]

March 24th
1208King John of England opposes Innocent III on his nomination for archbishop of Canterbury.




1877The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames ended in a dead heat. Legend in Oxford has it that the judge, 'Honest John' Phelps, was asleep under a bush when the race finished, leading him to announce the result as a 'dead heat to Oxford by four feet'.



…1877: The British frigate HMS Challenger returns to Southampton, England, thus completing the Challenger expedition that laid the foundation for the science of oceanography .
The HMS Challenger expedition, conducted from 1872 to 1876, was a pioneering oceanographic expedition that marked the birth of modern oceanography. The voyage covered nearly 70,000 nautical miles, exploring the deepest parts of the world’s oceans.

Scientists aboard the Challenger collected data on ocean temperature, currents, marine life, and the composition of the sea floor, vastly expanding human knowledge about the oceans. This expedition is particularly notable for the discovery of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of the Earth’s seabed.

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1878The British frigate HMS Eurydice sank off the Isle of Wight, close to Ventnor, during a heavy snow storm. All but two of the 319 crew and trainees were killed. It was one of Britain's worst peace-time naval disasters. The ship's bell is preserved in St. Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin




1906Census of the British Empire shows the United Kingdom rules one-fifth of the world's landmass


1946Broadcaster Alastair Cooke read his first 'Letter from America' on BBC Radio. His weekly broadcasts continued for more than 50 years.



1951The Oxford boat sank during the University boat race. Cambridge won the rematch two days later.





24 Mar 1962
Mick Jagger and Keith Richard performed their first paid gig when they appeared as Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys at The Ealing Club in Ealing, England. The following month Jagger and Richards saw Brian Jones performing at the same cllub with Alexis Korner as "Elmo Lewis" showing off his slide guitar skills with the Elmore James song 'Dust My Broom'. His stage presence and ability impressed both Richards and Jagger.



24 Mar 1966
Simon and Garfunkel made their UK singles chart debut with 'Homeward Bound.' Paul Simon is said to have written the song at Farnworth railway station, Widnes, England, while stranded overnight waiting for a train. A plaque is displayed in the station to commemorate this, although memorabilia hunters have stolen it many times. The song describes his longing to return home, both to his then girlfriend, Kathy Chitty in Brentwood, Essex, England, and to return to the United States. The song was also a No.5 hit in the US.

 

[Furryanimal]

March 25th


1199King Richard I was wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on 6th April.
Richard spent very little time in England and lived in his Duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest of France, preferring to use his kingdom as a source of revenue to support his armies.
He produced no legitimate heirs and acknowledged only one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac. As a result, he was succeeded by his brother John as King of England.







Flat Holm Light House became operational on 25th March 1738. Flat Holm is a limestone island lying in the Bristol Channel and contains Wales' most southerly point.
I've sailed around it on Balmoral and Waverley.
See next post for more about Flatholm.

First passenger railway line begins operations
On this day in 1807, the first fee-paying passenger railway began operating in Wales. It was eventually known as Mumbles Railway, and it became the longest-running locomotive line in the world. Passengers, however, were an afterthought; the train was designed with industry in mind. By 1823 a 16-person horse-drawn carriage made a trip twice a day along the railway line. After electricity arrived in 1928, double-decker trams began running, and millions of passengers were riding the line annually by the 1940s. After World War II, however, plunging passenger demand could no longer justify costs of operating the line. A funeral (featuring an empty coffin) was held for the line on January 4th 1960.

On 25th March 1811 Joseph Bailey took over the ironworks at Nantyglo and was instrumental in making it one of the great iron-works of the world.
Bailey, from Wakefield in Yorkshire, went to work with his uncle Richard Crawshay, the owner of Cyfarthfa ironworks in Merthyr. After Richard Crawshay's death in 1810 Bailey inherited a quarter share of Cyfarthfa, which he sold to purchase the old ironworks at Nantyglo.
Bailey became a very wealthy man and purchased estates in Breconshire, Radnorshire, Herefordshire and Glamorganshire. He also became MP for Worcester City and Breconshire.

1807The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent, eventually bringing an end to the slave trade
. British merchants transported nearly three million black Africans across the Atlantic between 1700 and the early 19th century.
The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act outlawed slavery itself throughout the British Empire but slaves did not gain their final freedom until 1838.




The Proud Valley starring Paul Robeson and filmed on location in South Wales was premiered on 25th March 1940.
The film tells the story of how a Black American gets work as a miner when he comes to live in Wales and shares the hard way of life experienced in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

1957Six European nations signed the Treaty of Rome thus establishing the Common Market. They were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Holland and Luxembourg.





1965 - It was announced that Jeff Beck would take Eric Clapton's place in the Yardbirds.





1969John Lennon and new wife Yoko Ono staged their 'Beds in Peace' at the Amsterdam Hilton. It lasted until 31st March and each day they invited the world's press into their hotel room, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. It was Yoko's idea to get over their peace message while on honeymoon. Although the press were expecting them to be having sex, the couple were sitting in bed, in John's words 'like angels', talking about peace, with signs over their bed reading 'Hair Peace' and 'Bed Peace'.……
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Flatholm


A timeline history for Flat Holm;
* The island has a long history of occupation from Anglo-Saxon and Viking times.
* It was visited by disciples of Saint Cadog in the 6th century.
* In 1835 it was the site of the foundation of the Bristol Channel Mission, which later became the Mission to Seafarers.
* A sanitorium for cholera patients was built in 1896 as the isolation hospital for the port of Cardiff.
* Marconi used Flat Holm to transmit the first wireless signal over open sea to Lavernock in 1897.
* A series of gun emplacements was built in the 1860s to defend the entrances to Cardiff and Bristol ports.
* On the outbreak of World War II the island was rearmed.
* It is now designated as a Local Nature Reserve, Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area, because of its rare grasslands and plants. It also has significant breeding colonies of the Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull.

 

[Furryanimal]

March 26th


631 Suintila, King of the Visigoths is overthrown after a reign of ten years, by Sisenand, a noble from Septimania


1484William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop's Fables. As far as is known, Caxton was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England. He was also the first English retailer of printed books.





1885'A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles' was the only clue The Times gave to the identity of the woman who was cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. She was the first person to be officially cremated in Britain and was a Mrs. Pickersgill, the first of three cremations that year.






The Pinnacle Club, the UK's only national rock-climbing club for women, was officially inaugurated at a meeting in the Pen y Gwryd Inn, at the foot of Snowdon on 26th March 1921.
The idea for the club was first conceived of by one of its founder members, Emily Kelly (known as Pat), a climbing enthusiast from Manchester. Pat tragically died the following year from head injuries she sustained from climbing Tryfan, in the Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia.
IMG_1743.jpeg

1923BBC Radio started regular weather forecasts.


Fifty years ago today, the Queen sent the first-ever royal email.On March 26, 1976, the Queen visited the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a telecommunications research centre in Malvern, England, and using ARPANET — the computer network that eventually morphed into the current internet — making her the first royal to send an email.

Peter Kirstein, who organized the event, including setting up her personal email account of "HME2," said at the time: "All she had to do was press a couple of buttons," he remembers, "and her message was sent."

A photo of the historic moment shows the Queen tapping the keys on a retro-looking computer.
IMG_1744.jpeg

The email itself was to announce the arrival of a new programming language that had been developed and was headed "A Message from Her Majesty the Queen" and signed off with an informal "Elizabeth R" — the same sign off the Queen has used for all her digital communication afterwards.






1964: After being fitted out as a radio ship the ex-Danish ferry Frederica (as Caroline) sails from Greenore in Ireland destined for an anchorage off Felixstow, Essex.
Later it went to off to The Isle of Man and became Caroline North.



1965: An electric shock from a faulty microphone knocks bass player Bill Wyman unconscious for several minutes during a sound-check for a Rolling Stones concert in Odense, Denmark. Mick Jagger and Brian Jones receive less severe shocks.

 

[Furryanimal]

March 27th








1854Crimean War:- Britain declared war on Russia.



1881Rioting took place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily promotion of rigid alcohol abstinence by the Salvation Army.



1899Italian inventor Marconi achieved the first international radio transmission (a Morse Code message) between England and France.




On March 27, 1900, the Central Line of the London Underground, also known as the “Central London Railway,” officially opened. This was a significant event in the history of London’s transport system, as it expanded the Underground network and helped alleviate the congestion that plagued the city’s streets. The Central Line initially ran from Bank to Shepherd’s Bush and became an important route for commuters traveling across the city.






The opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia occurred in 1932, becoming an iconic landmark.







The
Beeching Axe.
On 27th March 1963, Dr Richard Beeching published his controversial report on the future of British railways entitled 'The Reshaping of British Railways'.

Wales was particularly affected by Beeching axe. Nearly 200 stations were closed including those at Caernarfon, Aberdare, Maesteg, Gorseinon, Bala, Llantwit Major, Amlwch, Dolgellau and Lampeter. The closure of the lines between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth, Afon Wen and Bangor, Bangor and Caernarfon, Ruabon and Barmouth and Pontypool and Neath, meant that it was no longer possible to travel from North to South Wales without going into England..
Some of those have since re-opened.

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The Archers, a popular radio drama that first aired in 1950, faced a brief strike on March 27, 1951. The drama’s cast and crew, protesting against pay discrepancies and working conditions, walked out, forcing the BBC to halt production temporarily. While the strike was short-lived, it shed light on the labor issues within the BBC and the entertainment industry at the time.

The first colour television broadcast in the United States occurred in 1954, marking a new era in television history.


1958: CBS records in the United States announces the invention of stereophonic records, despite Alan Blumlein, then working for EMI in Britain, having already invented a two channel stereo format which he'd patented in 1933.



1964: The radio-ship Caroline anchors off Felixstow, Essex and starts test transmissions with the aim of starting regular programmes the next day.


1978: All You Need Is Cash featuring The Rutles was shown in on BBC-TV. It follows the career of a fictitious British rock group surprisingly similar to The Beatles. The programme was written by Monty Python's Eric Idle, with music by Neil Innes, and included George Harrison in a cameo role as a television journalist.

 

[moviequeen1]

1855
Canadian geologist, Abraham Gesner patents kerosene
1912
U. S. 1st Lady, Helen Taft & Viscountess Chinda, wife of Japanese ambassador plant 2 Yoshino cherry trees on bank of Tidal Basin in Washington,DC
1931
actor/comedian/film maker, Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor
1964
The Great Alaska Earthquake{9.2 magnitude} and resulting tsunami kills 139 people, 2nd largest ever recorded
1991
Scotty Bowman considered the greatest National Hockey League coach is inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame
He continued coaching until 2002. He won 9 Stanley Cups,5 with Montreal Candiens, 3 Detroit Red Wings 1 with Pittsburgh Penquins.When he retired he had 1,244 season wins
2023
the world's oldest tartan is confirmed by experts at National Museum in Scotland to be 500 yrs old after testing material found 40 yrs earlier in a Glen Affic bog

 

[Furryanimal]

March 28th


1800The Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union with England. The Act included joining Ireland to Great Britain to form a single kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.






March 28, 1856, marked the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Crimean War (1853-1856). Britain, along with France, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia, had fought against Russia over the control of territories in the Black Sea region. The treaty redrew boundaries and made important political concessions, including neutralizing the Black Sea to prevent Russian expansion.

1871 – The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris
Following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III, Paris was in a state of unrest. The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871.
It arose from the city’s working-class population’s desire to resist the conservative government of Adolphe Thiers and to implement progressive policies, including the separation of church and state, the abolition of child labor, and the establishment of a citizens’ militia.




On this day in 1919, a law regulating “la fabrication du pain” was passed in France, restricting bakers from working from 10 pm to 4 am. This culminated in a quiet cultural shift in which the traditional French boule—which took hours to prepare—was gradually replaced by the baguette , a long, narrow, bread that could be prepared in a fraction of the time. The French staple eventually became commonplace, and today the baguette is protected as a part of the UNESCOCultural Heritage list.




On this day in 1936, Inge Lehmann upended prevailing theories about the nature of Earth's core. Seven years prior, an earthquake had struck New Zealand. Lehmann studied the waves produced by the quake, which consisted of P and S waves—the former of which pass through all states of matter, the latter of which pass only through solids. Lehmann observed that some P waves had been deflected, as though they had been bent by something solid. Thus she came to the conclusion that the Earth had a solid core—a conclusion that was eventually validated by technology and helped to bolster the study of plate tectonics.




The night of 28th March 1944 was the final air raid on Cardiff during World War II by the Luftwaffe.



On March 28, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march in Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers. The march turned violent when some protesters engaged in looting and vandalism, leading to police intervention. This was one of the few instances where a demonstration led by King saw violence, which deeply troubled him.




Music1967: John Lennon records his lead vocal for ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ for The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Lennon decides he wants to end the song with animal sound effects, and asks that they be sequenced in such a way that each successive animal is capable of scaring or eating the preceding one!

2014: Tickets for Kate Bush's first live shows in 35 years sell out in less than 15 minutes. The 22-night residency at London's Hammersmith Apollo marks the singer's first return to the stage since The Tour Of Life in 1979.


Radio1964: Radio Caroline begins regular broadcasts on 1520kHz - 197 metres from the radio-ship Carolineanchored off the Essex coast.



Pepys
Saturday 28 March 1668
Up, and to the office, where all the morning busy, and at noon home to dinner with my clerks; and though my head full of business, yet I had a desire to end this holyday week with a play; and so, with my wife and Deb., to the King’s house, and there saw “The Indian Emperour,” a very good play indeed, and thence directly home, and to my writing of my letters, and so home to supper and to bed for fearing my eyes.

Our greatest business at the office to-day is our want of money for the setting forth of these ships that are to go out, and my people at dinner tell me that they do verily doubt that the want of men will be so great, as we must press; and if we press, there will be mutinies in the town; for the seamen are said already to have threatened the pulling down of the Treasury Office; and if they do once come to that, it will not be long before they come to ours.

 

[Furryanimal]

March 29th

1461 28,000 people were killed in the battle of Towton, North Yorkshire, during the War of the Roses (Lancaster against York). It is described as 'probably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil'. The Lancastrians, under Henry VI, were crushed and the throne was claimed by Edward IV.



1632The Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.



1644The battle of Cheriton (near Alresford in Hampshire). Sir Ralph Hopton’s 6,000 strong Royalist army faced a Parliamentarian force of 10,000 men commanded by Sir William Waller. It was a major turning point in the English Civil War and resulted in an important Parliamentarian victory that helped shape the future of England.



Another monumental event in British history that occurred on March 29 was the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Charles I’s reign was characterized by conflicts with Parliament over issues such as taxation, religion, and royal authority. His refusal to work with Parliament led to the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642.


1933First Western report on Holodomor famine-genocide: The first Western report on the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine, was published, highlighting the severe conditions and widespread starvation. This report marked a significant moment in raising awareness about the famine, which resulted in millions of deaths. The Holodomor is recognized as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Gareth Jones from Wales.
Click the link.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17503132.2024.2393931



On March 29, 1849, the British officially annexed the Punjab region of India.



On the 29th of March 1895 Dinas Oleu, a gorse-covered hillside in the Mawddach Estuary, became the first property donated to the National Trust. The 4.5 acres of land containing rare species of plants and birds were given to the Trust by Mrs Fanny Talbot, a friend of Octavia Hill and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, two of the Trust's founders.


MARCH 29, 1984
The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis.





1973: Dr Hook And The Medicine Show finally get their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine after their song, 'The Cover of 'Rolling Stone' from their Sloppy Seconds album becomes a hit.

 

[moviequeen1]

1798
Republic of Swizerland forms
1848
Niagara Falls on both sides stops flowing for 30 hrs, due to an ice jam in the river upstream
1951
U.S. citizens, Julius&Ethel Rosenberg are convicted & sentenced to death for being alleged spies for Soviet Union
1976
8 Ohio St National guardsmen are indicted for shooting 4 Kent State students in 1970. A federal judge dismissed the case,he ruled the prosecutors failed to prove the guardsmen intentionally violated students civil rights
2004
Ireland becomes the 1st country to ban smoking in all work places including bars& restaurants

 

[Furryanimal]

March 30th


..
1406On his way to France, (for his safety after his elder brother, David, Duke of Rothesay, was murdered), James I of Scotland was captured at Flamborough Head (see picture) and imprisoned by King Henry IV.
…


On March 30, 1535, Sir Thomas More, a prominent English lawyer, scholar, and statesman, was executed by beheading under the orders of King Henry VIII. More had been a trusted advisor to the king, but he fell out of favor when he refused to accept Henry’s break from the Catholic Church.
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….
On 30th March 1555 Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St David's, was executed by burning at Carmarthen.


Robert Ferrar, originally from Halifax, was an Augustinian monk at Nostell Priory who, because of the Augustinians policy of sending at least one monk from each of their houses to receive an education, became a student at Oxford University.


It was while at Oxford that he came under the influence of reformers and the works of Tindale. He was made prior of Nostell on his return, but still had sympathy for the protestant reformation, so that when the monastery was dissolved in 1539 he received a pension, eventually married and had three children. He was appointed the chaplain to Edward Seymour (the Lord Protector) and then Archbishop Cranmer.


In 1549 he was appointed as Bishop of St David’s, but came into conflict with his parishioners because of his over-zealous policies and was imprisoned until Mary Tudor came to the throne.


Ferrar was now in difficulty; not only was he regarded as a protestant but he was also married. Mary refused to recognise the legality of Ferrar’s marriage and he was deposed of his see. He was tried for heresy and found guilty. He refused to recant and was burned at the stake at Carmarthen on 30th March 1555. It is reported that he met his end with fortitude.

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On 30th March 1555 Rawlins White was burned at the stake on St Mary Street,Cardiff, outside Bethany Church, now part of the James Howell department store, where there is a plaque to his memory, for refusing to denounce his protestant faith.

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1842: Ether is used in anaesthesia the first time in an operation carried out by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient.
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1867 The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, a deal initially criticized as "Seward's folly."
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1870 USA The 15th Amendment was adopted, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race.
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1939 Batman makes his debut in Detective Comics No. 27, introducing the iconic superhero to the world.


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1964The seaside holiday resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by rival gangs of 'mods' and 'rockers'.
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1971 The first Starbucks store opens in Seattle's Pike Place Market, marking the beginning of a global coffeehouse chain.


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1994The West Indies cricket team dismissed England for 46, the lowest total reached by an English side since 1887...


1997Pop group The Spice Girls helped launch Britain's newest terrestrial TV channel - Channel 5...





1967

The photograph for the cover of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was taken at the studio of photographer Michael Cooper in the Chelsea section of London. The cover was designed by the pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, based on an ink drawing by Paul McCartney. Directed by Robert Fraser, 59 cut-outs and 9 wax figures were used, with each Beatle picking some of the images to put in the collage. John Lennon wanted to include Adolf Hitler, but the other Beatles vetoed the idea. Mahatma Gandhi was also left out because record executives feared a backlash from the lucrative Indian record-buying market. The final cost for the photo would be £3000, making it the most expensive album cover ever shot at the time.



1978: The Clash's rehearsal studio at Chalk Farm is raided by armed anti-terrorist police after drummer Nicky Headon and bass guitarist Paul Simonon are reported as being on the roof with a gun. They are charged with criminal damage (and later fined £750) for shooting racing pigeons with an air-gun. The incident would partly inspire their song 'Guns on the Roof' from The Clash's second studio album Give 'Em Enough Rope.

 

[moviequeen1]

1858
pencil with attached eraser is patented by Hyman L. Lipman in Philadelphia
1939
Batman debuts in 27th issue of 'Detective Comics' by DC Comics
1959
Dalai Lama flees China granted political asylum in India
1984
NYC police detective, Robert Cunningham offers waitress, Phyllis Renzo half of his $1 lottery ticket because he didn't have money to leave her a tip. The following day they won $6 million. They both received $3 million, took annuity payments of $280,000 annually. The movie version It Could Happen To You'94 starring Nicolas Cage&Bridget Fonda
1992
64th Academy Awards: movie' Silence of The Lambs' sweeps top categories:
pic/director, Jonathan Demme, actor- Anthony Hopkins, actress- Jodie Foster, adapted screenplay. The other winners were Jack Palance supp actor- City Slickers' Mercedes Ruehl-supp actress' The Fisher King'
2022
actor,Bruce Willis retires from acting, was diagnosed with aphasia.In 2023 diagnosed frontotemporal dementia

 

[Furryanimal]

March 31st
The Poll Tax, introduced on March 31, 1379, was a significant event in English history. This tax was imposed by King Richard II as a means of raising revenue for the crown. The Poll Tax required every adult person, regardless of wealth, to pay a flat-rate tax. This tax was deeply unpopular and led to widespread unrest.The Poll Tax became a major factor in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.



On 31st March 1406 Owain Glyndŵr composed the famous Pennal Letter to the French King, Charles VI, setting out his plans for an independent Wales. Pennal is a village on the north bank of the River Dyfi near Machynlleth. In the letter, Glyndŵr asked for French help in his uprising against English rule and called for recognition of Wales as an independent nation. He also stated his aims for establishing an independent Welsh church and university.




In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra edict, expelling Jews who refused to convert to Christianity.





1862 The opening of Watchet railway station in Somerset.
Now part of the West Somerset Railway.



1912Both the Oxford and the Cambridge boats sank in the annual university boat race.



1889: The Eiffel Tower officially opens in Paris as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. Named after its designer Gustave Eiffel the 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall tower would hold the record as the tallest man-made structure in the world for 41 years, until surpassed by the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1930.



1924The first British national airline, Imperial Airways, was founded at Croydon Airport.


1930: The Motion Picture Production Code (or Hays Code) is instituted, imposing strict moral guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in American films for the next thirty-eight years. It would be replaced by the MPAA film rating system in 1968.



1949Winston Churchill declared that the atomic bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe.




1966Harold Wilson won a sweeping victory in the general election, with a majority of about 100 seats in the House of Commons.



Music1967: Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time during a gig at The Astoria in London as a stunt to gain more media exposure. The part-burned Fender Stratocaster guitar would be sold for £280,000 at a London auction of rock memorabilia in 2008 .



1972The Beatles' Official Fan Club closed down.

 

[Furryanimal]

April 1st
…..
…..April 1st is widely known for April Fools’ Day, a day dedicated to playing practical jokes and pranks. However, the origins of this tradition in Britain are not entirely clear. Some believe it dates back to the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 when France and other Catholic countries adopted the new calendar, but others continued to observe the old one.
People who celebrated the New Year on April 1st were considered fools, and this custom of playing tricks on them became popular over time.By the mid-19th century, April Fools’ Day had become firmly embedded in British culture. Newspapers, radio stations, and even television channels have participated in this tradition, with notable pranks such as the 1957 BBC broadcast of spaghetti growing on trees, which fooled many viewers.
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On 1st April 1401, during Owain Glyndwr's uprising against the rule of Henry IV of England, Rhys ap Tudur and his brother Gwilym captured Conwy Castle after gaining entry disguised as carpenters.







Crockherbtown Station in Cardiff (a short distance north-east of current-day Cardiff Queen Street) was opened on 1st April 1871. It was the main Cardiff station of the Rhymney Railway from Caerphilly but was closed in 1928 with all of its services diverted into an enlarged Cardiff Queen Street station.



1873The British steamer RMS Atlantic ran onto rocks and sank off Nova Scotia, killing 547. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in history until the sinking of the Danish liner SS Norge in 1904.



On April 1st, 1916, the United Kingdom introduced British Summer Time (BST), which involved moving the clocks forward by one hour to take advantage of longer daylight hours during the summer months. This was implemented as a way to conserve coal and energy during the First World War.







On 1st April 1977 Richard Booth, a local second-hand bookshop owner, declared Hay-on-Wye to be an 'independent kingdom' with himself as its king and his horse as prime minister. The publicity stunt subsequently made the town a favourite destination for second-hand book lovers and now hosts a literary festival each year which draws 80,000 visitors over the Whitsun bank holiday.





On 1st April 2007 prescription charges were abolished for NHS patients in Wales.





1955: 29 year-old George Martin becomes head of A&R for EMI's Parlophone label. His first years would be spent recording classical music and plays as well as comedy and novelty records. Later, despite his minimal success with pop music releases, Martin would be introduced to a promising Liverpool group through their manager, a certain Brian Epstein.



1970 John Lennon and Yoko Ono issued a statement to the press that they were having dual sex change operations.