On This Day

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

... 1981 Garret FitzGerald became Taoiseach in a Fine Gael/Labour coalition as Dáil E´ireann assembled for the 22nd time...

Wondered what was in this thread.

I'm glad I read that interesting little factlet Bizarra. Because I hadn't realised how empty, dull, and barren my life had become. In fact, now I know who the Taoiseach was in 1981 - I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction or favour, that everything has become an oasis of light and gaiety filled with laughter and happiness. And I owe it all to you.

- Wish I'd read it sooner. :P

Glad I expanded your knowledge, coz a little knowledge is a dangerous thing :(

I know where you are coming from & appreciate what you say. Problem is, I use an Irish source, which has points of interest relevant to Ireland only. If I use the Google sources, they are far too comprehensive & full of US Sports records.

Caught between a rock & a hard place

[Danny K]

...Problem is, I use an Irish source, which has points of interest relevant to Ireland only. If I use the Google sources, they are far too comprehensive & full of US Sports records. Caught between a rock & a hard place

- That's good enough for me Bizarra. Keep 'em coming. Makes a pleasant change from the deluge of US orientated data, programmes/programs? and suchlike with US Spellings as default ie., color

Take no notice of me; I'm in a mischievous mood today. Maybe because when I was out on my bike this morning (without waterproofs) I got caught in a torrential downpour - soaked right through to me underpants I was, (I know I know - too much information) - either that or I'm overcome with practising the last of my moon-dancing steps.

[Bizarra]

...Problem is, I use an Irish source, which has points of interest relevant to Ireland only. If I use the Google sources, they are far too comprehensive & full of US Sports records. Caught between a rock & a hard place

- That's good enough for me Bizarra. Keep 'em coming. Makes a pleasant change from the deluge of US orientated data, programmes/programs? and suchlike with US Spellings as default ie., color

Take no notice of me; I'm in a mischievous mood today. Maybe because when I was out on my bike this morning (without waterproofs) I got caught in a torrential downpour - soaked right through to me underpants I was, (I know I know - too much information) - either that or I'm overcome with practising the last of my moon-dancing steps.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1450 jack Cade, Irish-born physician, led an insurrection march of 40,000 through Kent to London to protest about laws of Henry VI.

He was later beheaded.

1746 Fresh from his defeat at Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped over the sea to Skye, disguised as an Irish maid, Betty Burke.

1795 A British force landed at Quiberon to aid the revolt in Brittany.

French forces recaptured St Lucia.

1801 Cairo fell to English forces.

1844 Joseph Smith, American religious leader and founder of the Church of Jesus ***** of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in 1830, was killed in Carthage jail in Illinois.

1846 Charles Stewart Parnell, Nationalist Leader, born at Avondale, Co Wicklow.

1859 Mildred Hill, teacher and composer of Happy Birthday To You, was born.

She wrote the song, originally called Good Morning To All, to brighten up morning assembly for children.

It is the most frequently sung song in English and is copyrighted until 2010.

1940 The USSR invaded Romania on the refusal of King Carol to cede Bessarabia and Bukovina; Romania appealed for German aid in vain.

1941 Hungary declared war on Russia.

1944 Allied forces took Cherbourg.

1954 The first nuclear power station opened at Obninsk in the Soviet Union.

1976 Six Palestinian terrorists highjacked an Air France airbus from Athens and forced it to fly to Entebbe in Uganda.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1682 Champagne was invented by Dom Perignon, blind Benedictine cellarman at Hautevilliers Abbey.

1838 Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey, just 19.

During the ceremony, Austrian waltz king Johann Strauss conducted his orchestra outside the London Reform Club, playing God Save The Queen.

1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated with his wife in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo by terrorist Gavrillo Princip, thus precipitating World War One.

1919 A Peace Treaty between German representatives and Allied powers was signed in the Palace of Versailles in northern France, officially ending World War One.

1935 The first Rupert Bear cartoon was drawn by Albert Bestall and appeared in the Daily Express.

Bestall had taken over from Rupert’s creator, Mary Tourtel.

1950 The United States humbled England 1-0 in a World Cup match in Brazil.

1984 After 104 years, the British magazine Tit Bits stopped publishing.

1990 Prince Charles was detained in hospital overnight after breaking his right arm in two places when falling from his pony during a polo match.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1613 The Globe Theatre in London burned down after a cannon was fired during a Shakespeare play and set fire to the straw roof.

1819 Ellen Hanley, 16, known as the Colleen Bawn, went missing from her home in Co Limerick.

Three months later, her body was washed ashore at Moneypoint and a murder hunt began.

John Scanlan, a member of one of the leading families of the county, was convicted and hanged for her murder.

His batman, Stephen Sullivan, was later found to be responsible.

1842 Maurice Davin, first president of the GAA, was born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary.

1905 The inaugural meeting of the Automobile Association (AA) took place at the Trocadero Restaurant in London, attended by 50 motorists.

1912 Irish Labour Party founded in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

1943 US forces landed in New Guinea.

1949 The South African Citizenship Act suspended the automatic granting of citizenship to Commonwealth immigrants after five years, and imposed a ban on mixed marriages between Europeans and non-Europeans the beginning of the apartheid programme.

1956 Actress Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller.

1965 US troops took offensive action for the first time against North Vietnamese forces.

1986 Richard Branson’s boat Virgin Atlantic Challenger II completed the fastest Atlantic crossing in three days eight hours and 31 minutes.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1520 Montezuma II, last Aztec ruler, was killed in Mexico City during the Spanish conquest of Mexico under Cortez.

1596 English expedition under Lord Howard of Effingham and the Earl of Essex sacked Cadiz.

Philip II was prevented from sending an Armada against England.

1782 Spain completed its conquest of Florida.

1837 A British Act of Parliament abolished punishment by pillory.

1846 The Mormons left Nauvoo City on trail for the Great Salt Lake.

1859 The great tightrope walker Blondin crossed Niagara Falls from the US to Canada in just eight minutes.

1915 Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Nationalist, died in New York.

1922 The Siege of the Four Courts - the confrontation which marked the start of the Civil War - ended after three days of bombardment.

The Public Record Office was blown up, causing destruction of the national archives dating back to 1174.

1934 Hitler’s rival Ernst Rohm and hundreds of influential Nazis were murdered by the SS in The Night of the Long Knives.

1936 Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind published.

1960 Alfred Hitchcock’s classic chiller Psycho was premiered in New York.

1965 An India-Pakistan cease-fire was signed.

1974 Mikhail Baryshnikov, Soviet-born ballet dancer, defected while on tour in Canada with the Bolshoi Ballet.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect.

1906, UK: 27 die in a railway accident near Salisbury 1916, Alcohol is prohibited in Michigan, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota: 24 states are now dry in the US.

1920, The German governments surrenders her largest airship L71, to the UK.

1935, 227 people die in floods in Japan.

1946, An atomic bomb is exploded in the Pacific, sinking three ships and damaging 31 out of 73.

1950, Ford launches its Consul and Zephyr range.

1961, Diana, the future Princess of Wales, was born near Sandringham, England.

1969, Britain's Prince Charles was invested as the Prince of Wales.

1980, ''O Canada'' was proclaimed the national anthem of Canada.

1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony.

2000, Vermont's civil unions law, which granted gay couples most of the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage, went into effect.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1566, French astrologer, physician and prophet Nostradamus died in Salon.

1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.

1943, Figures in the UK show that woman’s pay has risen by 80 per cent since 1938.

1947, An object crashed near Roswell, N.

M.

The Army Air Force later insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1961, Author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

1970, Ex-minister Neil Blaney is cleared of gun running charges in Dublin.

1977, Miners in the UK demand £135 for a four-day week, despite appeals from Joe Gormley for pay restraint.

1987, Italian pornography star Ilona Staller is elected to the Italian parliament.

1994, Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar was shot to death in Medellin, 10 days after accidentally scoring a goal against his own team in World Cup competition.

1998, Apologizing to viewers and Vietnam veterans for ''serious faults'' in its reporting, Cable News Network retracted a story alleging U.

S.

commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the war.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1191 Richard I (the Lionheart) married Berengaria, reputed to be extremely ugly.

Although Queen, she never set foot on English soil.

1540 Henry VIII divorced Anne of Cleves, nicknamed The Flanders Mare, and his fourth wife, after six months of marriage.

She at least managed to keep her head.

1819 Elias Howe, inventor of the domestic sewing machine, was born in Massachusetts.

1872 The first doughnut cutter was patented in America by John Blondel.

A sea captain, he is said to have invented the hole so he could slip the doughnut over the handle of the ship’s wheel and enjoy his snack while steering.

1877 Wimbledon staged its first lawn tennis championship, at its original site in Worple Road.

1951 As the McCarthy witchhunts gathered pace in the USA, crime novelist Dashiell Hammett was jailed for contempt when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1955 Bill Haley and His Comets went to No 1 in the US pop charts with Rock Around The Clock.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1776 The American Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia.

It was not fully written or signed until August.

1807 Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier and patriot, born.

1829 The first regular scheduled bus service was introduced in London.

It was horse-drawn and ran between Marylebone Road and Bank.

1840 The Cunard Line began its first Atlantic crossing from Liverpool to Halifax.

The voyage took just over 14 days.

1845 Thomas John Barnardo, Dublin-born philanthropist, born.

In 1867 he started Dr Barnados homes though he never qualified as a medical doctor.

1848 The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

1881 The outlaw William H Bonney, Billy the Kid, was shot dead by lawman Pat Garrett.

1892 James Keir Hardie, standing in the general election at Holytown, Lanarkshire, became the first Socialist to win a seat in the British Parliament.

1900 Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans.

1934 Marie Curie, Nobel Prize-winning scientist who discovered radium, fell foul of her own discovery when she died as a result of over-exposure to radioactivity.

1946 The Philippine Islands given independence by the US.

1976 Israeli commandos ended the Entebbe hostage crisis in a daring raid.

1991 Colombia's President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo lifted state of siege that had been in effect since 1984.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1687 Isaac Newton’s Principia published by Royal Society in England.

1781 Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore, born.

1810 Phineas Taylor Barnum Bethel Conn, circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey), born.

1811 Venezuela, 1st South American country to gain independence from Spain.

1865 William Booth founded Salvation Army in London.

1889 Jean Cocteau France, writer/artist/film maker (Le Potamak), born.

1946 Louis Reard’s bikini swimsuit design debuts at Paris fashion show.

1962 Algeria gains independence after 132 years of French rule.

1975 Cape Verde Is gain independence after 500 years of Portuguese rule.

1977 Pakistan’s army, led by Gen Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, seizes power.

1978 Soyuz 30 spacecraft touches down in Soviet Kazakhstan.

1987 Australian Pat Cash wins Wimbledon, upsets No1 seed Ivan Lendl.

[Raistlin]

Events

1535 Sir Thomas More was beheaded on London's Tower Hill for treason.

1553 Mary I acceded to the throne, becoming the first queen to rule England in her own right.

1685 James II defeated the Duke of Monmouth, claimant to the throne, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last battle to be fought on English soil.

1809 Pope Pius VII, having excommunicated Napoleon, was taken prisoner by the French.

1892 Britain's first non-white MP was elected when Dadabhai Naoraji won the Central Finsbury seat.

1923 The USSR (and its new constitution) formally came into existence.

1928 The first all-talking feature film, Lights of New York, was presented at the Strand Theatre in New York City.

1965 The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night was premiered in London, with royal attendance.

1988 An explosion aboard the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha resulted in the loss of 166 lives.

Births

1796 Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia

1925 Bill Haley, US rock musician

1927 Janet Leigh, US film actress

1935 Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader

1937 Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist

1946 Sylvester Stallone, US film actor

Deaths

1893 Guy de Maupassant, French writer

1932 Kenneth Grahame, Scottish children's author

1960 Aneurin Bevan, British statesman

1962 William Faulkner, US novelist

1971 Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician

1973 Otto Klemperer, German conductor

1993 John Bolton, English astronomer

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1307 Edward I, having conquered the Welsh, died on his way to Scotland to fight Robert the Bruce.

1853 US naval officer Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan, and persuaded her to open trade contacts with the West.

1854 George Ohm, German physicist, died.

1860 Composer Gustav Mahler was born in Kaliste, Bohemia.

1883 Pinocchio was born - in print.

Carlo Lorenzini, under his pen name of Collodi, wrote the cautionary children's story but was paid only 12 weeks' rent for the rights to what was to become one of the world's most popular children's classics.

1890 The first electric chair execution took place in New York.

1922 Cathal Brugha, revolutionary, died of gunshot wounds received two days earlier when shot by Free State Forces in O'Connell Street.

1927 Christopher Stone became the first ''disc jockey'' on British radio when he presented his Record Round-up1929 The Vatican City State, with the Pope as its sovereign, came into being through the Lateran Treaty.

1973 General Seán MacEoin, soldier and politician known as the 'Blacksmith of Ballinalee', died.

1982 An intruder, Michael Fagan, asked the Queen for a cigarette while sitting on the end of her bed in Buckingham Palace.

The incident revealed a serious flaw in Palace security.

1985 The unseeded 17-year-old Boris Becker became the youngest ever men's singles champion at Wimbledon.

1992 Pat Taaffe, jockey who had a long partnership with Arkle, greatest steeplechaser of all time, died.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1776, Col.

John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia.

1889, The Wall Street Journal was first published.

1901, In France speed limit for cars in towns is set at 10km/h 1920, In Ireland, British troops set up roadblocks outside Dublin.

1921, Eamon de Valera agrees to talks with Lloyd George on an Irish truce 1942, British-born actor Cary Grant marries Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton a week after becoming a US citizen.

1968, Britain is promised $2,000 million credit by 12 countries to bolster the pound.

1971, A 19-year old youth is killed the worst rioting in Londonderry in two years.

1997, The Mayo Clinic and the government warned the diet-drug combination known as ''fen-phen'' could cause serious heart and lung damage.

2000, CATHOLICS in Ireland who divorce and remarry must be refused Communion, the Vatican has ruled.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1540, England's King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.

1816, Argentina declared independence from Spain.

1911, In Ireland the King opens the Royal College of Science in Dublin.

1936, In London Prime Minister Baldwin plans to add £750,000 to the dole budget.

1947, The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt.

Philip Mountbatten was announced.

1954, Australian golfer Peter Thomson, at 24, becomes the youngest winner of the British Open championship.

1962, US H-bomb test lights up the night sky from Hawaii to New Zealand.

1982, A Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner, La.

, killing all 146 people aboard and eight people on the ground.

1986, In London, Thatcher restates her opposition to sanctions against South Africa, saying they hurt blacks most.

1997, Boxer Mike Tyson was banned from the ring and fined $3 million for biting opponent Evander Holyfield's ear.

[Bizarra]

AD 138 Hadrian, Roman Emperor who planned the great wall across northern Britain, died.

On This Day Over The Years

1099 Spanish warrior Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar - El Cid - died in Valencia, apparently of grief after defeat by the Moors.

1460 In the Wars of the Roses, the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians and captured Henry VI at the Battle of Northampton.

1509 John Calvin, French religious reformer, died.

1553 Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England at the age of 16 - she lasted only nine days before being arrested and executed.

1834 American artist James McNeill Whistler, who made Chelsea his adopted home, was born in Massachusetts.

1871 Author Marcel Proust - A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) ö was born in Paris.

1900 The Paris Metro opened.

1927 Kevin O'Higgins, Minister for Justice and vice-president of the Executive Council was assassinated.

He was shot by three Republican supporters who chanced to spot him making his way to Mass, unguarded, at Booterstown, Co Dublin.

1954 Gordon Richards rode his last mount - at Sandown - the 21,834th of his near 34-year career.

1958 The first parking meters in Britain were installed in London's Mayfair.

1962 Telstar I, the world's first television telecommunications satellite, was launched in America.

1976 Seveso, in northern Italy, was covered by a cloud of toxic weedkiller leaked from a chemicals factory; crops and 40,000 animals died.

1985 The Greenpeace campaign ship Rainbow Warrior sank in Auckland, New Zealand, after two explosions tore its hull.

[Bizarra]

On this day...

1533 Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII

1740 Jews are expelled from Little Russia by order of Czarina Anne

1781 Thomas Hutchins designated Geographer of the US

1792 Prussia army moves into French territory

1798 US Marine Corps created by an act of Congress

1804 VP Aaron Burr kills Alex Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken

1812 US invades Canada (Detroit frontier)

1818 Keats writes "In the Cottage Where Burns Was Born," "Lines Written

in the Highlands," & "The Gadfly"

1864 Confederate forces led by Gen J Early begin invasion of Wash DC

1868 J C Watson discovers asteroid #100 Hekate

1888 118ø F (48ø C), Bennett, Colorado (state record)

1888 Pennsylvania's Monongehela River rises 32' after 24 hour rainfall

1901 L Carnera discovers asteroid #472 Roma

1905 Black intellectuals & activists organize Niagara movement

1916 1st federal grant-in-aid for state roads enacted

1918 M Wolf discovers asteroid #895 Helio

1921 Mongolia gains independence from China (National Day)

1931 NY Giants beat Phillies 23-8

1934 FDR became 1st pres to travel through Panama Canal

1936 Triborough Bridge linking Manhattan, Bronx & Queens opens

1939 Yanks host 7th All Star Game, McCarthy starts 6 Yanks, AL wins 3-1

1944 Bill Boggs, Phila, TV host/producer (Midday, Morton Downey Jr Show)

1944 NL beats AL 7-1 in 12th All Star Game (Pitts' Forbes Field)

1950 NL beats AL 4-3 (14 inn) in 17th All Star Game (Comiskey Park Chic)

Ted Williams breaks his elbow; 1st extra inning All Star Game

1952 Gen Eisenhower nominated as Republican presidential candidate

1954 1st White Citizens Council organizes in Indianola, Miss

1955 Congress authorizes all US currency to say "In God We Trust"

1955 New USAF Academy dedicated at Lowry AFB in Colo with 300 cadets

1960 Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta & Niger declare independence

1960 NL beats AL 5-3 in 28th All Star Game (Municipal Stadium, KC)

1962 1st transatlantic TV transmission via satellite (Telstar I)

1962 Cosmonaut Micolaev set then record longest space flight - 4 days

1962 Fred Baldasare is 1st to swim English Channel underwater (scuba)

1967 Kenny Rogers forms 1st Edition

1967 Longest All Star Game, NL beats AL 2-1 (15 inn) (Anaheim Stadium, Cal)

1969 David Bowie releases "Space Oddity"

1969 Rolling Stones release "Honky Tonk Woman"

1971 Phillies Deron Johnson 3 HRs caps his 4 in a row

1974 House Judiciary Committee releases evidence on Watergate inquiry

1974 World Football League plays 1st games

1975 L Chernykh discovers asteroid #2489 Suvorov

1977 Medal of Freedom awarded posthumously to Rev Martin Luther King Jr

1978 NL beats AL 7-3 in 49th All Star Game (San Diego Stadium)

1979 US Skylab enters atmosphere over Australia & disintegrates

1980 American hostage Richard I Queen freed by Iran

1981 Sebastian Coe of UK sets record for 1000 m, 2:12.18

1982 Italy beats West Germany 3-1 for soccer's 12th World Cup in Madrid

1983 E Bowell discovers asteroid #3485 Barucci

1984 England's MusicBox begins satellite transmission to Europe

1984 NL beats AL 3-1 in 55th All Star Game (Candlestick Park SF)

1985 Astros' Nolan Ryan, 1st to strike out 4000 (Mets' Danny Heep)

1985 Refurbished Columbia moves overland from Palmdale to Dryden

1986 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway runs 10,000 m in world record 30:13.74

1986 Maricica Puica of Romania runs 2,000 m in 5:28.69 (record for women)

1986 Mary Beth Whitheead christens surrogate Baby M, Sara

1987 Heart's "Alone," single goes #1 for 3 weeks

1988 Mike Tyson hires Donald Trump as an advisor

1989 AL beats NL 5-3, (3rd of last 4 All Star Games) in California

1989 President Ronald Reagan sportscasts the All Star Game

1990 NYC police arrest "Dartman" (stabbed over 50 women with darts)

1991 Total solar eclipse is seen in Hawaii

[Bizarra]

1543 Henry VIII married Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife.

She outlived him and married again after his death.

1730 Josiah Wedgwood, English pottery designer and manufacturer, was born in Burslem, Staffordshire.

1854 George Eastman, US photographic pioneer who founded Kodak, was born in New York State.

He chose the name Kodak because it was easy to remember.

1870 London’s Victoria Embankment, built by Sir J W Bazalgette, was opened by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.

1895 Oscar Hammerstein, lyricist who with Richard Rodgers wrote Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Sound Of music and The King And I, was born.

1910 Charles Rolls, pioneering pilot and co-founder of Rolls-Royce, was killed when he crashed his biplane in a flying competition - the first British aviation victim.

1920 US President Woodrow Wilson officially opened the Panama Canal.

1930 Australia’s Don Bradman set a new Test record with an innings of 334 against England at Leeds.

1969 Tony Jacklin became the first British golfer since 1951 to win the British Open.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1643 In the English Civil War, the Cavaliers scored an early success with victory over the Roundheads at Roundway Down.

1793 Jean Paul Marat, French revolutionary leader, was stabbed to death by Charlotte Corday while in his bath.

1837 Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace, the first monarch to live there.

1922 The France II, the world’s largest sailing vessel, was wrecked off the coast of New Caledonia.

1930 The first World Cup football tournament kicked off in Uruguay.

1939 Frank Sinatra made his first record, From The Bottom Of My Heart, with the Harry James Band.

1947 Europe accepted Marshall Aid, the US financial package to help recovery after the Second World War.

1951 Composer Arnold Schoenberg died in Los Angeles.

As he was born on September 13, 1874, and was superstitious, he always said he would die on his 76th birthday because seven plus six equalled 13.

He died on Friday 13 July 1951, at 13 minutes to midnight, in his 76th year.

1955 Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman hanged in Britain when the sentence for the murder of her lover David Blakely was carried out at Holloway Prison.

1973 The Everly Brothers parted on stage in California when Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off, leaving Don to finish the gig.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1789 The Bastille was stormed by the citizens of Paris and razed to the ground as the French Revolution began.

The only Irishman probably present on that day was James Francis Xavier Whyte, one of the seven prisoners in the fortress.

He had been imprisoned for his insanity, and as soon as the revolutionaries had paraded him through the streets, they locked him up again.

1823 During a visit to Britain, King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his queen died of measles.

1867 Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel first demonstrated the use of dynamite.

1888 The first record company, the North American Phonograph Company, was founded in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by businessman Jesse L Lippincott.

1940 The Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

1958 King Faisal of Iraq was assassinated in a military coup led by General Kassem, and a Republic was established.

1959 Grock, described as the "greatest clown on earth", died in Italy.

The USS Long Beach, the first nuclear warship, was launched.

1969 The first fatality of the present Troubles took place when Francis McCluskey, a 70-year-old farmer, died in a fight between opposing factions outside an Orange Hall in Co Derry.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

862 St Swithin, Saxon Bishop of Winchester, died.

He asked to be buried where rain could fall on his grave.

On the anniversary of the bishop's death, 108 years later, monks decided to move the body, whereupon a sudden deluge began which lasted for 40 days.

Of course, the exhumation was abandoned.

1606 Rembrandt (Harmenszoon van Rijn), Dutch painter, was born.

1795 The Mubikillaise, written by Rouget de Lisle in 1792, was officially adopted as the French national anthem.

1815 Napoleon surrendered to Captain Maitland of the ship Bellerophon at Rochefort.

1865 Dr James Barry, chief medical officer in the British Army, died.

'He', however, was a she and the daughter of Cork painter James Barry.

This fact was only discovered after her death.

As far back as the 1840s, she performed the first successful caesarean section operation in medical history.

1869 Margarine was patented by Hippolyte Mege Mouries in Paris.

1899 Seán Lemass founder member of Fianna Fáil, and Taoiseach from 1959 to 1966 born in Ballybrack, Co Dublin.

1927 Countess Markievicz died, aged 59.

1948 Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in London, having been in existence in America since 1935.

1965 US Mariner transmitted the first close-up pictures of Mars.

1990 In an ongoing campaign of violence, separatist Tamil Tigers massacred 168 Muslims in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1545 The Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives.

It was raised on October 11, 1982 and taken to Portsmouth Dockyard.

1553 Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen and Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant, was sent to the Tower, where she was beheaded on February 12, 1554.

Mary's reign was short - she died in 1558.

1814 Samuel Colt, inventor of the six-shot revolver, was born.

1843 At Wapping Dock, Prince Albert launched the world's largest ship, Brunel's 3270-ton Great Britain.

1848 At a convention in Seneca Falls, New York state, female rights campaigner Amelia Bloomer introduced ''bloomers'' to the world, which she described as ''the lower part of a rational dress''.

1860 Lizzie Borden was born in America, attaining notoriety when she was accused with hacking to death both her father and stepmother.

The charge was never proven.

1896 Novelist AJ Cronin, creator of Dr Finlay, was born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire.

1937 The creator of the immortal Peter Pan, JM Barrie, died.

He was made a baronet for his most famous play.

1983 People searching a clay pit in Surrey discovered fossils of a previously unknown species of carnivorous dinosaur.

1990 MPs voted in favour of permanent televising of the House of Commons.

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

1453 The Hundred Years War ended when the French defeated the English at Castillon.

1798 Henry Joy McCracken, United Irishman, was executed by hanging in Belfast.

He was just 30.

1841 The first issue of the magazine Punch was published in London.

1889 Erle Stanley Gardner, US author and lawyer who created Perry Mason, was born.

1935 George William Russell, poet, theosophist, agricultural economist and essayist, died.

Better known by his pseudonym AE, among his works were The Hero in Man (1909).

1955 Walt Disney’s Disneyland was opened in California.

1959 Billie Holiday, jazz singer - probably the greatest of them all - was arrested on her death bed in hospital for possession of narcotics.

1969 Oh Calcutta, the sex revue devised by theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, opened in New York.

Critic Clive Barnes said the show gave pornography a dirty name.

1975 An international space link-up between US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts took place when they crossed over from their docked spacecraft and shook hands 140 miles above the earth.

1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to use force against Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, to stop them driving oil prices down by overproduction

[Bizarra]

On This Day Over The Years

64AD The great Fire of Rome took place during the reign of Nero.

He played the lyre (not the violin, which had not been invented) and was 50 miles away at his villa in Antium when he heard the news.

1817 Author Jane Austen died at the age of 41.

Doctors were unable to diagnose her illness (she had written that her skin had gone ‘‘black and blue and every wrong colour’’), but medical authorities now believe she died from Addison’s Disease.

1870 The Dogma of Papal Infallibility in matters of faith and morals was proclaimed by the Vatican Council.

1919 The Cenotaph in London’s Whitheall was unveiled.

The First World War memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and would later do double duty for the Second World War.

1925 Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which Adolf Hitler wrote while in jail, was published.

1934 The Mersey Tunnel was formally opened.

1936 The Spanish Civil War began when the army, led by General Franco, revolted against the Republican government.

It lasted three years.