Today in History

1877
The 1st Westminster Dog Show was held with 1,200 dogs and 35 different breeds
1912
film, TV production& distribution company, Paramount Pictures founded
1962
industralist, Oskar Schindler& his wife, Emille are honored for saving 1200 Jews during WWII in a ceremony on Avenue of Righteous in Jerusalem
1976
the 1st steel rollercoaster with a vertical flip 'Revolution' opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain
1999
Nancy Mace becomes the 1st female cadet to graduate from The Citadel, military college in South Carolina. She graduate magna cum laude with business adminstation degree. She became a U.S. Congresswoman in 2020.She's a member of House&Arm Services,Veterans Affairs&Oversight committees
2013
former Prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud sentenced to prison. His sentence was reduced,never went to prison due to his age at the time,76. He served 1 yr of community service at a nursing home in 2014
 
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May 9th





Tintern Abbey was founded on 9th May 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow.
Tintern Abbey is situated on the Welsh bank of the River Wye in the village of Tintern, Monmouthshire. It was the first Cistercian Abbey in Wales and was run by monks from L'Aumône, in the diocese of Blois in France. It provided work for local people who provided it with services and worked on its agricultural land.




That's the way to do it!!
On 9th May 1662, the diarist Samuel Pepys noted seeing a Punch and Judy puppet show in Covent Garden, London. It is Mr Punch's first recorded appearance and is now recognised as his birthday in the UK.
Wales' connection with Punch and Judy,
Llandudno is home to Britain's longest-running Punch & Judy puppet show, founded by Richard Codman in 1860.



On May 9, 1812, Britain’s only Prime Minister to ever be assassinated, Spencer Perceval, died.While Perceval’s shooting took place outside the official context of May 9, the day he died remains significant in British history. Perceval was shot by John Bellingham, a merchant who had a personal grievance with the government.


1896The first 'Horseless Carriage' Show opened at the Imperial Institute in London, when ten engine-powered models went on show to the public. The car was built in Coventry in Britain's first ever car factory.1904The steam locomotive City of Truro (engine number 3440), designed by G .Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works, became the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph.


1965: All four members of The Beatles are in the audience when Bob Dylan plays the first of two sold out nights at London's Royal Albert Hall at the end of his first headline UK tour. The short tour is noted as being his last ever solo acoustic tour.

2013: A video for David Bowie's song 'The Next Day' is pulled off YouTube just two hours after its release for its graphic content. The video shows actress Marion Cotillard bleeding from gruesome stigmata marks and actor Gary Oldman dressed as a bishop punching a beggar. It would be later reinstated with an adult content warning.
 
May 10th



On 10th May 1372 Owain Lawgoch announced in Paris his intention of claiming the throne of Wales.
Owain Lawgoch (Owain ap Thomas ap Rhodri), the grandson of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's brother Rhodri, was directly descended from the Royal House of Gwynedd. In 1370, Owain declared himself Prince of Gwynedd, and with the help of the French assembled a fleet with the intention of sailing for Wales. The ships were split up in bad weather and the invasion was abandoned.
Two years later he tried again, but again the weather turned against him and the fleet reached no further than Guernsey. At this point the English despatched a Scot by the name of Jon Lamb to assassinate Owain and, having infiltrated Owain's band of men, he succeeded in killing him during the siege of Mortagne in 1378. So ended the entire line of Wales’s most illustrious royal house.


1768John Wilkes (English radical, journalist, and politician) was imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton newspaper severely criticizing King George III. This action provoked rioting in London.1773The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.1804William Pitt the younger, British prime minister, returned to office.



On 10th May 1837, 21 men and boys were killed when the Plas yr Argoed Colliery near Mold flooded. Among those killed were the father and two brothers of the novelist Daniel Owen, who is generally regarded as the foremost Welsh-language novelist of the 19th century




On 10th May 1852 tragedy fell on the village of Pontyberem when the Gwendraeth Colliery flooded killing all 26 men and boys on the night shift. It is said that it took 18 months to recover the bodies.




1916Explorer Ernest Shackleton and companions reached the Falkland island of South Georgia after sailing 800 miles in 16 days in an open boat. They were looking for help for the remaining members of their party marooned on Elephant island, Antarctica.



….1954: Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts. However its recording almost fails to take place due to the band's ferry being stuck on a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia.

1971: Jethro Tull play a gig in Denver in a cloud of tear gas after police fire canisters of the gas in an attempt to prevent those without tickets invading the Red Rocks Park amphitheater.
 
May 11th




1685 The death of 18 year old Margaret Wilson, executed by drowning for refusing to swear an oath declaring James VII (James II of England) as head of the church. She died along with Margaret McLachlan. Known as the Wigtown Martyrs they are buried in Wigtown Churchyard.




On May 11, 1713, Finnish residents of Helsinki burned their own capital city to the ground rather than allow the Russian invaders to possess their city during the Great Northern War.


1964 Interior designer and businessman Terence Conran opened his first Habitat Shop in London's Fulham Road.


1967 Britain Ireland and Denmark officially applied to join the EEC.


1971The Daily Sketch newspaper, which was founded in 1909, was published for the last time. It was Britain's oldest 'tabloid' newspaper.

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On this day in 1963, Welshman Greville Wynne, an MI5 agent, was found guilty by a Moscow tribunal of spying for the West. He was sentenced to three years in prison and five in a labour camp. His co-accused, 43-year-old Soviet official Oleg Penkovsky, was given the death sentence and executed by firing squad one week after the trial. This came at the height of the Cold War when relations between the superpowers were particularly strained.

Wynne, from Ystrad Mynach, had acted as a go-between passing on information about Soviet rockets' provided for him by Penkovsky during secret meetings in London, Paris and Moscow. 17 months into his sentence he was exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale. On his release, Wynne was in a poor state of health. He had lost a lot of weight and doctors said his time in prison had left him "emotionally and mentally exhausted".
Wynne went on to write about his time as a spy in a book entitled The Man from Odessa, which was one of the early examples of a book being published about secret work that the government never expected to be made public.
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1964: The Rolling Stones are refused lunch at The Grand Hotel, Bristol, where they were staying because are not wearing jackets and ties.



1974
Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin meet Elvis Presley backstage after The King's performance at the Forum in Los Angeles. After hearing that the trio was in the audience, Presley was overheard telling his band, "Wait a minute... if we can start together, fellas, because we've got Led Zeppelin out there... Let's try to look like we know what we're doing, whether we do or not."
 
May 12th




1536Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton and several other alleged lovers of Anne Boleyn, wife of King Henry VIII, were tried for treason and executed 'On This Day'.


1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon heading to the English Channel (it will prove a disastrous campaign for the Spanish) The Spanish Armada , also known as the “Invincible Armada,” was a fleet assembled and sent out by King Philip II of Spain in 1588. Its primary mission was to overthrow Protestant England, led by Queen Elizabeth I.
The fleet comprised 130 ships and around 30,000 men. It set sail from Lisbon, but the campaign was disastrous for the Spanish. The Armada faced severe weather and robust resistance from the English fleet, culminating in a significant defeat that diminished Spain’s maritime dominance in the world.





32 people were killed in an air raid on Pembroke Dock on 12th May 1941.
During World War II Pembroke Dock, with its aircraft station, barracks and naval oil depot was within easy range of German bombers based in France and a target for repeated air raids.



1945 The publication of the first of the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' series by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. It was entitled 'The Three Railway Engines' and featured Edward, Gordon and Henry. The book quickly sold the initial print run of 22,500 copies and there were a further two print runs by the end of the year. Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage in Hampshire



On 12th May 1999 the office of First Minister of Wales was formed as the leader of the Welsh Assembly. The post was originally known as First Secretary for Wales. From 6th May 2020, the name of the Assembly was changed to Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and is commonly known as the Senedd in both Welsh and English.

….2000: Thieves steal the gates to Strawberry Fields, the Merseyside landmark immortalised by The Beatles song. The 10 foot high iron gates would later be rescued from a local scrap metal dealers in Liverpool and reinstated.
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Radio1964: Radio Atlanta begins regular programmes from the radio-ship Mi Amigo anchored off Frinton, Essex.


1967: In a world exclusive Radio London (Big L) becomes the first radio station to air the new Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
 
12th May

1937 - The coronation of George VI and Queen Elizabeth was held. This was the day that had originally been chosen for the coronation of Edward VIII before his abdication.

1967 The British Government gave the green light to plans to convert Stansted into London's third airport.

1981 A second IRA hunger striker, 25-year-old Francis Hughes, starved to death in the Maze Prison near Lisburn in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. His death came a week after the death of Bobby Sands on 5 May, the first to die in a republican campaign for political status to be granted to IRA prisoners.

2000 Ford confirmed that car production at its Dagenham plant in Essex was to end after more than 70 years.

2001 For the first time ever the FA Cup Final was held outside England when it took place at the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
 
May 13th


1607Riots took place in Northamptonshire and other Midland counties of England in protest at the widespread enclosure of common land.


1607Captain John Smith landed on the coast of Virginia and began the first permanent English settlement in the New World, calling it Jamestown.






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On 13th May 1839 the first of the Rebecca Riots took place at Efailwen near St Clears.

The Rebecca riots took place between 1839 and 1843 in the rural parts of west Wales, mostly in Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire. They were a series of protests made mostly by tenant farmers against the payment of tolls to use the roads. During the riots, men disguised as women attacked the tollgates calling themselves 'Rebecca and her daughters', most likely referring to a passage in the Bible where Rebecca talks of the need to 'possess the gates of those who hate them'.

The 1830's, the period leading up to the riots, were turbulent times. The population of the rural areas of Wales had doubled in the century before the riots and it was hard for them all to earn a livelihood. On top of this, farmers also had to pay a tenth of all their produce to the church.

The last straw was the toll gate system; roads were especially bad in Wales and to remedy this, the government established turnpike trusts, which were made up of trustees (usually local businessmen and landowners) who were responsible for maintaining the roads, which they funded by erecting toll gates. Farmers were especially hard-hit by this as they used the roads to transport their produce. In 1839 a gate was put up at Efailwen to catch farmers who were evading the tolls; there were already twelve gates surrounding Carmarthen and this was seen as a step too far.

The Efailwen gate was destroyed by a large crowd and when it was re-erected a public meeting concluded that there was no need for the gate and it was destroyed for the second time.
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On 13th May 1849, a case of cholera was recorded in Cardiff. It was the beginning of a dreadful outbreak which impacted the ports and mining communities of both South and North Wales, eventually killing over 800 people.

Victims were buried in special locations as it was thought at the time that the corpses carried the risk of contagion. These were often in remote places such as the cholera graveyard of Cefn Golau on a bleak moorland outside the former steel and coal mining town of Tredegar.
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1868A team of Aboriginal cricketers arrived in England to play 47 matches. They preceded a white Australian team by more than ten years.
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On 13th May 1888 Beatrix Potter, aged 22, recorded a train journey to Machynlleth in her diary, complaining how it took four hours to go from Shrewsbury to Machynlleth. She described Machynlleth as a wretched town as hardly anyone could speak English.
Beatrix was more complimentary of the countryside, which she described as beautiful, and the Welsh people who seemed to her to be a pleasant intelligent race, but she also thought they would be difficult to live with.
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On 13th May 1897 radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made history by transmitting a radio signal from Flat Holm to Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan.




1970: The world premiere of The Beatles documentary film Let It Be takes place in New York City. In it the group are seen rehearsing and recording songs for the Let It Be album as well as performing their unannounced rooftop concert – their last public performance.




2007 The first episode of 'Gavin & Stacey', a romantic situation comedy. Filmed mainly in South Wales, locations included Boofy's Chip Shop and Island Leisure Amusement Arcade
, both at Western Shelter on Barry Island. It ran for a total of 20 episodes.
 
May 14th

1847HMS Driver completed the first circumnavigation of the world by a steamship when it arrived back at Spithead on the Hampshire coast.


1856The trial of William Palmer, doctor and poisoner, began at the Old Bailey. Palmer's victims were poisoned with strychnine. They included creditors, at least four of his 14 illegitimate children, his mother-in-law, his wife who had brought him a large dowry, and other relations. Palmer was found guilty and executed in his native Staffordshire.



1894Blackpool Tower first opened to the public who paid a 6d (six pence) entrance fee, six pence more for a ride in the lifts to the top, and a further six pence for the circus.





On 14th May 1896, Garth Pier, Bangor was opened by Lord Penrhyn.

At 1550 feet long it is the second longest pier in Wales after Llandudno pier and stretches just over half way across Afon Menai. Until 1914 a railway ran the length of the pier connecting with the landing stage which handled steamers from Blackpool, Liverpool and Douglas, Isle of Man. After years of neglect and consequent deterioration the pier was finally closed to the public in 1971, and, in 1974 was taken into the ownership of the county council, who proposed to demolish it. However, Bangor City Council bought the pier for one penny in 1982 and organised its restoration, which was completed with the pier's official reopening in 1988.
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On 14th May 1951 the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway was reopened between Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast and Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn, by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society. It is the world's first railway to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers. The line was first used from 1866 to transport slate from the Bryn Eglwys quarry to Towyn.
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2000
May 14
Tom Jones album "Reload" was at the top of the British chart, making him the oldest artist (60) to ever score a UK #1 album with new material. The LP went on to become the highest selling album of his career, with sales of over four million worldwide. Oddly, it was not released in America.


And May 14th is International Dylan Thomas Day
 
May 15th


1213 After years of disagreement and political struggle, King John of England yields to Rome and allows Stephen Langton to return and become Archbishop of Canterbury. The crisis is a major factor that led to the Magna Carta in 1215.



1222 Mongolian leader Genghis Khan meets the leader of the Taoist Dragon Gate sect Master Changchun (Qiu Chuji) at his camp in Parwan near the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan




1568 Mary Queen of Scots spent her last night on Scottish soil here at Dundrennan Abbey The next morning she boarded a fishing boat bound for Workington in England and for imprisonment and eventual execution.


1800 King George III survives a second assassination attempt



in 1928: Mickey Mouse appeared in his first cartoon.
The cartoon was called "Plane Crazy" and was only ever released in a test screening. The film was a black and white silent film; however, it failed to pick up a distributor.


1940
In San Bernadino, California, brothers Maurice (“Mac”) and Richard McDonald opened a drive-in restaurant that gave rise to the fast-food chain McDonald's.


1972 – The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.


On the 15th May 1973 the Llyn Brianne Dam was officially inaugurated by Princess Alexandra.
Llyn Brianne is a man-made reservoir in the headwaters of the River Tywi at Rhandirmwyn above Llandovery, constructed to provide water for Swansea and its surrounding area. It is, in essence, a constructed mountain of crushed rock and clay 300 ft high, blocking the valley. It is the tallest dam in the UK and is the world's largest clay core dam. In 1996 a concrete extension was built, which increased the capacity of the reservoir to 14,200 million gallons. It has a hydroelectric plant, with three turbines producing 4.3Mw – enough electricity to power a small town. It is named after a stream called ‘Nant y Bryniau’, misspelt as Brianne.



May 15 1996
Independent Television in Britain broadcast the earliest known footage of The Beatles, shot in February 1961. That was three years before the group became world-famous. The film, which had no soundtrack, was found in a drawer in a house in Liverpool.
 
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1869
National Women's Suffrage Assn forms in NYC by woman's rights advocate, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, suffragette,Susan B. Anthony
1927
Hollywood, Calif landmark, Roosevelt Hotel opens in L.A. by actors, Douglas Fairbanks, his wife, Mary Pickford& Sid Grauman. It was the site for the 1st Academy Awards ceremony in 1929
1944
Dwight Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill, King George VI discuss plans for D-Day
1963
folk trio, Peter, Paul&Mary win their 1st Grammy award with their version of Pete Seeger's song' If I Had a Hammer'
1981
George Harrison releases single'All Those Years Ago' in the UK a tribute to John Lennon with Ringo Starr on drums, Paul&Linda McCartney on background vocals
2010
Australian sailor, Jessica Watson age 16 becomes the youngest person to sail solo,non stop around the world, took her 210 days
2023
TV personality, Martha Stewart becomes the oldest Sports Illustrated cover model age 81 in the swim suit issue
 
May 16th


1770: 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.

1888: Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing equipment which allows the efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.



For action at Festubert in France on 16th May 1915 Frederick Barter from Cardiff was a recipient of the Victoria Cross. Barter was a Company Sergeant Major in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the First World War when, with eight volunteers, he attacked a German position and captured three German officers, 102 men and 500 yards of trenches, as well as taking 11 enemy mines out of action




On this day 1929 at the first ever Academy Awards, the film Wings, directed by William Wellman (of Welsh descent), won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Wellman was a great-great-great-grandson of Welsh-born Francis Lewis of New York, one of the 56 signatories to the Declaration of Independence.
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1951The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights began between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York and Heathrow Airport in London.1956England's Jim Laker took all 10 Australian wickets for 88 in 46 overs at the Oval.


The Pembrokeshire Coast Path was opened on this day in 1970 by Wynford Vaughan Thomas.
The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a walking path around the coastline of Pembrokeshire from Amroth to St Dogmaels.
* It is 186 miles long.
* There are 90 beaches alongside or across the Path, 41 of which have been awarded Blue Flag Awards.
* 43 Iron Age sites are visible from the Coast Path.
* Its 35,000 feet of ascent and descent is said to be equivalent to climbing Everest
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.....1966: The Beach Boys release their eleventh studio album Pet Sounds in the US.

1984: Ozzy Osbourne is arrested in Memphis, Tennessee for 'staggering drunk' down Beale Street.
 
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