The date of Alex Ferguson's first match as manager of Manchester United. It didn't prove to be the best of starts with a 2-0 First Division defeat at the Manor Ground home of Oxford United. I think that the smartest person that day was the fan who got hold of Fergie's team-sheet for the match - in June 2013 he sold it at auction for a mahoosive £19,000! Not bad for a scrappy bit of paper on which the manager had listed his team for that fixture - Chris Turner, Mike Duxbury, Arthur Albiston, Kevin Moran, Paul McGrath, Graeme Hogg, Clayton Blackmore, Remi Moses, Frank Stapleton, Peter Davenport, Peter Barnes with the one sub being Jesper Olsen.
1605 Robert Catesby, the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters,was killed by gunshot, along with other conspirators at Holbeche House, on the border of Staffordshire.He was buried close by but the bodies of Catesby and fellow conspirator Percy were exhumed and decapitated and Catesby's head was placed on the side of the Parliament House.
1656 The birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician best known for the comet named after him and for his work predicting its orbit. He also produced the first meteorological chart.
1745 Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of 5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden (16th April 1746).
1802 The birth of Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works at the time of Big Ben’s installation in the tower at the Houses of Parliament. The famous 13 ton bell is named after him.
1847 Bram Stoker,Irish author remembered for the classic, 'Dracula', was born.
1866 Herbert Austin, later Baron Austin, English motor car manufacturer, was born.
1920 Rupert Bear made his first appearance in the Daily Express. Rupert Bear Annuals have been produced since 1936 and are still in production today.
1939 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich
1958 Melody Maker published the first British album charts.
1960 John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon who was the incumbent Vice President.
1965 The bill abolishing the death penalty became law.
1967 BBC Radio Leicester (the first of the new breed of BBC Local Radio stations) began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from a transmitter located on Gorse Hill above the city centre.
1974 Covent Garden ceased to be the location of London’s famous flower and vegetable market as it moved across the Thames, leaving the old warehouses and Floral Hall.
1987 An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people.
1987 Cricket World Cup, Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India: David Boon scores 75 as Australia beats England by 7 runs for their first title.
1992 Nigel Mansell in a Williams crashes during the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide but wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 52 points; Mansell won record 9 GPs during the season.
2016 Republican Donald Trump is elected President of the United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton, who received 2.9 million more votes.
1541 Queen Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's fifth wife) confined in Tower of London.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte pulls off a coup and becomes the dictator of France under the title of First Consul.
1888 At 3:30 a.m. in London's Whitechapel, 25-year-old Mary Kelly became Jack the Ripper's last known victim. The 'Ripper' was never caught, but the nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End of London and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished.
1904 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes.
1907 The Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough gem-quality diamond yet found, was presented by the Transvaal to King Edward VII,on his birthday. The largest polished gem from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa.It was the largest polished diamond in the world until 1985.Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Royal Sceptre which was originally made for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661,but was redesigned after the discovery of the Cullinan Diamond.
1915 The first Women's Institute (WI) meeting in England was held in the main bar of 'The Fox Goes Free' public house at Singleton in West Sussex.
1961 Brian Epstein went to a lunchtime session at The Cavern in Liverpool to see for himself why his record shop was receiving so many requests for records by a group (the Beatles) that had apparently made none. He later became their manager.
1966 John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an avante-garde art exposition at Indica Gallery in London.
1970 The Goodies make their television debut on the BBC.
1984 Larry Holmes TKOs Bonecrusher Smith in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1992 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud set out on their unassisted crossing of the Antarctic. For 97 days they fought pain, starvation and snow blindness until they were eventually airlifted out after completing the first and the longest, unsupported journey in Polar history. They walked more than 1,350 miles across some of the most hostile terrain in the world, averaging more than 14 miles a day at temperatures as low as -45°C.
1996 Evander Holyfield upsets Mike Tyson in 11th-round knockout in Las Vegas to regain WBA heavyweight boxing title; second boxer, after Muhammad Ali, to win a heavyweight title 3 times.
The UK release of the controversial comedy film Monty Python's "Life of Brian".
Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin). It was also directed by Jones. The film tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as—and next door to—Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.
Following the withdrawal of funding by EMI Films just days before production was scheduled to begin, long-time Monty Python fan and former member of the Beatles, George Harrison, arranged financing for Life of Brian through the formation of his company HandMade Films.
The film's themes of religious satire were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Thirty-nine local authorities in the United Kingdom either imposed an outright ban, or imposed an X certificate.Some countries,including Ireland and Norway,banned its showing, with a few of these bans lasting decades.The filmmakers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters in Sweden reading, "So funny, it was banned in Norway!".
The film was a box office success, the fourth-highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom in 1979, and highest grossing of any British film in the United States that year. It has remained popular and was named "greatest comedy film of all time" by several magazines and television networks,and it later received a 95% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus, "One of the more cutting-edge films of the 1970s, this religious farce from the classic comedy troupe is as poignant as it is funny and satirical." In a 2006 Channel 4 poll, Life of Brian was ranked first on their list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films.
Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason.To get it off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his own family and from the parents of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim.The first issue was released on November 9, 1967 and featured John Lennon in costume for the film How I Won the War on the cover.It was in newspaper format with a lead article on the Monterey Pop Festival.The cover price was 25¢ (equivalent to $1.92 in 2016) and it was published bi-weekly.
On the 9 November 1989, the Border separating Western from Eastern Germany was was opened, allowing citizens from both west and east to cross freely through checkpoints.
The wall was built in the dead of night on 13 August 1961 by communist East Germany and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West.
Why was the wall built?
At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union. The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin.
In 1949, the three zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union formed East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).
This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin, a major city in Germany, located located in East Germany. The split of Berlin resulted in an island in the midst of the sea of East Germany.
Mass Emigration
Living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different with Germans living in the West being better off. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. Over 2.5 million people emigrated from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border.
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
Just past midnight on the night of 12-13 August 1961, the Berlin Wall was built around West Berlin
The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany.
Guarded Wall
The Berlin Wall shut off access to West Berlin for East Germans. It also made it difficult for people to get out of West Berlin. The wall was heavily guarded and around hundred people were killed and many more were seriously wounded trying to cross the wall. The last person to be killed was Chris Gueffroy on the 2nd June, 1989.
Aberdeen's Dean Windass had the distinction of being sent off three times in the SPL match against Dundee United at Tannadice Park. Two bookings saw him shown the first red card with the second being for dissent when he made his displeasure known to referee Stuart Dougal. On his way to the tunnel he took his frustrations out on a corner flag for which he was sent off for the third time. That was a total of 22 penalty points for which he received a 6-match ban plus a club fine of 2 weeks wages.
Football On This Day – 9th November 2000.
The day after an Old Trafford crowd of 66,776 had seen Manchester United beat Dynamo Kiev 1-0 to narrowly qualify from their Champions League group United captain Roy Keane criticised the poor vocal support the team had at the match. His main complaint was directed to the fans in the hospitality boxes with Keane saying 'they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch.' From then on people in hospitality boxes became the prawn sandwich brigade while Roy Keane couldn't escape the association with the crustacean - years later many shops gave buyers of his newly published autobiography a free prawn sandwich!
Microsoft Windows was announced by Bill Gates on November 10, 1983.
On 10 November 1983 Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows,a next-generation operating system that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multitasking environment for IBM computers. It was known as Windows 1.0.
The first independent version of Microsoft Windows,version 1.0, released on November 20, 1985, achieved little popularity.The project was briefly codenamed "Interface Manager" before the windowing system was implemented.Rowland Hanson,the head of marketing at Microsoft,convinced the company that the name Windows would be more appealing to customers.
The first version of Microsoft Windows included a simple graphics painting program called Windows Paint; Windows Write,a simple word processor; an appointment calendar; a card-filer; a notepad; a clock; a control panel; a computer terminal; Clipboard; and RAM driver.
In 1867, Henry Morton Stanley became special correspondent for the New York Herald and two years later would be sent to Africa in search of the legendary explorer David Livingstone.
Livingston had been following his obsessional search to find the sources of the Nile River and no one had heard from him for three years.
Stanley got to Zanzibar in 1871 and headed out on a 700 mile trek through tropical rainforest.
Because the Herald had not sent the money promised for the expedition he borrowed it from the US Consul.
He used this cash to hire over 100 porters for the expedition.
The trip did not go well.
During the 700-mile expedition through the tropical forest,his thoroughbred stallion died within a few days after a bite from a tsetse fly.Many of his porters deserted and the rest were decimated by tropical diseases.
Seven months after arriving in Zanzibar Stanley found Dr Livingstone.He found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on 10 November 1871, greeting him with the now famous words "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone responded, "Yes", and then "I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
An illustration from Henry Morton Stanley's 1872 book "How I Found Livingstone"
1983 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler retains world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous points decision over Roberto Durán at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas; first time Hagler taken the distance as champion.
1847 The passenger ship Stephen Whitney was wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster resulted in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
1871 Henry Morton Stanley, (Welsh journalist and explorer) having been sent out to Africa by his newspaper to find the Scottish missionary David Livingstone,finally made contact with him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika with the immortal words, ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
1908 1st Gideon Bible put in a hotel room.
1924 Dion O'Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio's gang, sparking the **** gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
1940 Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
1958 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the water speed record of 248mph on Coniston Water.
1960 Bookshops all over England sold out of Penguin's first run of 200,000 copies of the controversial novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1968 England and Yorkshire fast bowler Fred Trueman announced his retirement.
1980 Outspoken left wing MP Michael Foot defeated Denis Healey in a shock result to become the new leader of the Labour party.
1986 The legendary jockey, Sir Gordon Richards, died aged 82.
1990 John Hughes' film "Home Alone" directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin premieres in Chicago.
1991 South Africa's 1st cricket international since 1970 - one-day v India.
On November 10,1885, Paul Daimler travelled with his father in the "riding car"—the world's first motorcycle—from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim.
The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885.
Gottlieb Daimler – First Gas Engined Motorcycle.
German, Gottlieb Daimler invented the first gas-engined motorcycle in 1885,which was an engine attached to a wooden bike.That marked the moment in history when the dual development of a viable gas-powered engine and the modern bicycle collided. Gottlieb Daimler used a new engine invented by engineer,Nicolaus Otto.Otto invented the first “Four-Stroke Internal-Combustion Engine” in 1876. He called it the “Otto Cycle Engine” As soon as he completed his engine, Daimler (a former Otto employee) built it into a motorcycle.
U.S. Route 66 is established from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California 2,448 miles.
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 also known as the Will Rogers Highway,the Main Street of America or the Mother Road,was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year.The highway,which became one of the most famous roads in the United States,originally ran from Chicago, Illinois,through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles.
US 66 served as a primary route for those who migrated west,especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and the road supported the economies of the communities through which it passed.People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway,and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
US 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, but was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985 after it had been replaced in its entirety by segments of the Interstate Highway System.Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been communally designated a National Scenic Byway by the name "Historic Route 66", returning the name to some maps.Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into their state road networks as State Route 66.The corridor is also being redeveloped into U.S. Bicycle Route 66, a part of the United States Bicycle Route System that was developed in the 2010s.
The burials of unknown soldiers take place simultaneously in Westminster Abbey, London, and at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
The Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey exactly 100 years ago, on 11 November 1920.
Like the two-minute silence,which had originated from a custom started in South Africa during the First World War,the totemic significance of this single unidentifiable corpse, caught public imagination.
The war had decimated the population.
Almost every village, town and hamlet lost young men in the trenches of the Western Front,to German machine guns, gas and artillery shells.
Many dead were never found or,if they were,they could not be identified because the British Army used leather identity tags,which rotted.
Mothers,wives,families and friends often had nothing tangible to mourn but a telegram, some medals and a letter from the king.
It was the Reverend David Railton who had the idea of selecting a single dead soldier to represent the multitude of these vanished lives.
Railton had been a military chaplain in the war and carried enduring memories of the impact it had on those caught in the fighting. He believed that if the nation accorded the highest honour to one nameless corpse, it did so for them all.
Railton proposed the idea to Bishop Ryle, who was the dean of Westminster Abbey, which was known as the "Parish Church of the Empire".
The dean took the idea to Lloyd-George, then prime minister,who saw the power of this symbol and persuaded the reluctant King George V.
Enormous precautions were taken to ensure the soldier could never be identified.
Working parties went to the battlefields of Ypres, Cambrai, Arras, Aisne, Somme and the Marne, recovering a random "unidentified soldier" from each.
The six sorry corpses were taken in plain coffins to a chapel, near Arras.
Blindfolded and at midnight, Brigadier Wyatt entered the chapel and placed his hand upon one of the coffins.
This chosen coffin was transported to Boulogne, where it was placed within an oak casket made with timber from Hampton Court Palace and banded with iron. On top was placed a crusader's sword, given by the king.
HMS Verdun was prepared to convey the Unknown Warrior to Dover and all the way to London,the public turned out to salute and show their respect.
On the second anniversary of the Armistice, which silenced the guns at 11 o'clock, on 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, a state funeral for the Unknown Warrior took place in London.
The king walked behind the Unknown Warrior's gun carriage to Westminster Abbey,as the chief mourner.
This was emblematic because,to any grieving family,this could be their son and here was the king emperor showing the highest respect for their death and sacrifice. After all,the call to join up throughout the war was "for king and country".
King George V placed a wreath on the coffin at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day 1920
The Unknown Warrior lying in state in the Abbey on 11 November 1920.
One hundred holders of the Victoria Cross provided an honour guard and the burial took place just inside the west door of Westminster Abbey.
The grave still dominates the entrance,marked by a slab of black Belgian marble and inscribed with a description in brass letters.Standing on it is forbidden.Its edge is marked with poppies.
To emphasise that this is an ordinary soldier,the final line on the inscription is the most poignant.
The grave symbolises the thousands of men whose bodies never came home.
"They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and toward this house."
Nearby still hangs the Union Flag that Reverend David Railton placed over the coffin for its procession from the battlefield to Westminster Abbey.
1620 The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship in what is now Provincetown Harbour near Cape Cod. It was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony and was written by those who had fled to America in the ship the Mayflower to escape religious persecution from King James VI of Scotland (James I of England).
1724 The highwayman Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, was hanged in London.He had attracted attention for attacking the nation's leading policeman and 'Thief Taker' Jonathan Wild with a pocket knife.The policeman was also a successful gang leader and became the most infamous criminal in Britain during the 18th century.The attack by Blake left Wild incapacitated for weeks and his grip over his criminal empire started to slip during his recuperation.Like Blake, he too was later hanged for his crimes.
1880 Australian Bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
1887 Work started on building the Manchester Ship Canal at Eastham, Merseyside. At one time the Manchester end of the canal ended at an area now known as Salford Quays,a residential area with shopping precincts and home to the Lowry Theatre,the Imperial War Museum North and the TV studios Media City.
1918 At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended; a war that had lasted for 4 years and 97 days. Germany, bereft of manpower,supplies and food,signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.The war left 9 million soldiers dead and more than 21 million wounded,with Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives.In addition,some 6 million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
1919 Britain introduced a two minute silence at 11:00 a.m. to remember those who died in World War I.
1920 Great Britain's monument to her war dead, the Cenotaph in Whitehall, designed by Edwin Lutyens, unveiled.
1920 The burials of unknown soldiers take place simultaneously in Westminster Abbey, London, and at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
1921 The first British Legion Poppy Day.
1926 U.S. Route 66 is established from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California 2,448 miles.
1946 Stevenage was officially designed as Britain’s first New Town, one of ten which were planned to relieve London’s post-war housing problems.
1953 The BBC television programme Panorama was first broadcast.
1954 Thousands of elderly people took part in a rally in London calling for an increase in their pensions.
1965 The Rhodesian Government, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, illegally severed its links with the British Crown.
1966 NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12.
1972 Rugby League World Cup, Stade de Gerland, Lyon, France: Australia and Great Britain draw 10-10; Great Britain awarded the Trophy.
1983 1st US cruise missiles arrive in Great Britain.
1987 Irises, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh was sold for £27m at Sotheby's,a world record at that time for a work of art.
1987 Football striker Mark Hughes plays for Wales and Bayern Munich in 2 countries on same day; appears for Wales in 2-0 European Championship loss to Czechoslovakia in Prague, then jets to Munich for 3-2 Cup win over Borussia.
1997 Britain's Labour Party admitted to accepting a £1m donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, but claimed it would be repaid and that it had nothing to do with the Government's decision to exempt motor racing from the ban on tobacco-related sports sponsorship.
Bayern Munich and Wales: Mark Hughes' two games in two countries in one day.
On 11 November 1987 Hughes played matches for Wales and Bayern Munich in two countries on the same day.
It included a crucial European Championship qualifier against Czechoslovakia, a private jet flight across Europe, a dash in a Lada car and a German Cup second-round replay against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Hughes and Wales were hoping to qualify for the 1988 European Championship finals.
They lost 1-0 in Denmark the previous month - their first defeat of the campaign - and needed to win in Czechoslovakia to secure qualification for the following summer's finals in West Germany.
They faced a talented Czech side managed by the great Josef Masopust and which featured the likes of Ivo Knoflicek, a young Tomas Skuhravy and future West Ham United goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko.
Wales manager Mike England's preparations were far from ideal.
In the era before international breaks, the Football League would only sanction games to be postponed that involved England internationals, meaning the Wales boss spent an anxious weekend awaiting news of any injuries.
So while club versus country issues were all too common for Wales' beleaguered manager, the then 24-year-old Hughes managed to satisfy both parties on this occasion.
Hughes joined Bayern Munich early in November 1987 on a season-long loan from Barcelona, and the German giants' cup game at their Olympiastadion home was kicking off a few hours after Wales' game in Prague on Wednesday, 11 November.
Hughes recalled in a 1989 BBC Wales interview that the idea of playing in the two games was hatched by Bayern's colourful general manager Uli Hoeness, a World Cup winner with West Germany in 1974.
"He knew I was playing for Wales on the Wednesday night, the same night as this big cup game," Hughes said.
"In passing he said 'what time is the game?' And I said, 'I think it's about half past three, four o'clock'.
"From that moment on he was making phone calls and came back into the room and said, 'I think you may be able to play for us the same night'.
"I thought he was just kidding but obviously he wasn't, so he organised everything."
Hughes linked up with his national side and played the full 90 minutes in Prague.
Despite dominating the game, Wales were out of luck at the Letna Stadium and were undone by goals by Knoflicek and Michal Bilek.
Wales' hopes of qualifying were over yet again and Hughes, still in full kit, was driven to a private jet that flew him to Germany.
"There was a Lada to whisk us off after the match," Hughes added. "I had to get changed into my kit on the plane."
Hughes arrived at the Olympiastadion and came on as a substitute early in the second half, with the home side trailing 1-0.
"It seemed to buck up the team and bucked up the crowd and it was good for me personally to warm myself to the crowd," said Hughes, who had only made his Bayern debut the previous Saturday.
"It was a masterstroke from Mr Hoeness."
Bayern came back to beat Borussia 3-2 in extra time to advance in the competition.
First Flight from England to Australia by Australians.
In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia.Of the six entries that started the race,the winners were pilot Ross Smith,his brother Keith Smith as co-pilot and mechanics James Bennett and Wally Shiers,in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber.
The Competition.
In early 1919, the Commonwealth Government of Australia offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first flight from Great Britain to Australia,under specific conditions.In May 1919, Billy Hughes,Prime Minister of Australia and Senator George Pearce,Minister for Defence (Australia),in consultation with the Royal Aero Club,stated that valid aircrews must all be Australian nationals,the aircraft must have been constructed in the British Empire and the journey must be completed within 720 consecutive hours (30 days) and be completed before midnight on 31 December 1920.The departure point must be either Hounslow Heath Aerodrome (for landplanes) or RNAS Calshot (for seaplanes and flying boats),with reporting points at Alexandria,Singapore and final destination in the region of Darwin.Each flight was to take place under the competition rules of the Royal Aero Club,that would supervise the start and control the competition generally.
Contestants.
Sopwith Wallaby.
At 11.44 a.m. on 21 October 1919,Captain George Campbell Matthews AFC as pilot and Sergeant Thomas D. Kay as mechanic,took off from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in a Sopwith Wallaby (G-EAKS). Bad weather caused delays at Cologne and Vienna,then they were imprisoned as suspected Bolsheviks in Yugoslavia,with further delays due to snow at Belgrade.A cracked engine cylinder at Constantinople and bad weather at Aleppo caused more delays.Finally,on 17 April 1920,the Wallaby crashed on landing at Grokgak, on Bali.Matthews was slightly injured.
Vickers Vimy
Vickers entered a converted Vimy bomber (G-EAOU) (the registration being whimsically said to stand for "God 'elp all of us"),crewed by Captain Ross Macpherson Smith with his brother Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith as co-pilot and mechanics Sergeant W.H. (Wally) Shiers and Sergeant J.M. (Jim) Bennett.The Vimy left Hounslow Heath at 8.30 am on 12 November 1919.It flew via Lyon, Rome, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon racecourse, Singora (Songkhla) (in Siam unscheduled in heavy rain), Singapore, Batavia and Surabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to make use of a temporary airstrip made from bamboo mats,reaching Darwin at 4.10pm on 10 December 1919.The flight distance was estimated as 11,123 miles and total flying time was 135 hours 55 minutes (81.9 mph).The prize money was shared between the Smith brothers and the two mechanics.The Smith brothers each received a knighthood for this exploit and the company presented their aircraft to the Australian government. It is now displayed at Adelaide Airport.
The winning Vickers Vimy.
Alliance P.2.
On 13 November 1919, Lieutenant Roger M. Douglas, MC DCM and Lieutenant J.S.L. Ross took off from Hounslow Heath in an Alliance P.2 Seabird (G-EAOX) named 'Endeavour'. It crashed in an orchard in Surbiton; Ross was killed outright and Douglas died soon after of his injuries.
Blackburn Kangaroo.
A team with a Blackburn Kangaroo (G-EAOW) had selected as navigator the Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.Smith withdrew from the contest and Captain Hubert Wilkins MC took his place.On 21 November 1919,the Kangaroo took off from Hounslow Heath,piloted by Lieutenant V. Rendle with Captain Wilkins, Lieutenant D.R. Williams and Lieutenant Garnsey St. C. Potts as crew. Problems were experienced with the engines and the plane was forced down over France. Repairs were made and the flight continued, still with engine problems. On 8 December 1919, the aircraft crash-landed at Suda Bay, Crete, ending up against the fence of a mental hospital. The crew escaped without injury.
Martinsyde Type A.
On 5 December 1919, Captain Cedric E. Howell and Lieutenant George Henry Fraser left London in a Martinsyde Type A Mk.I (G-EAMR) aircraft. On 9 December, the aircraft disappeared near Corfu. The wreckage and Howell's body were found offshore, but Fraser's body was never found.
Airco DH.9.
On 8 January 1920, Airco DH.9 (G-EAQM), piloted by Lieutenant Ray Parer,with co-pilot Lieutenant John C. McIntosh, took off from Hounslow Heath. The aircraft completed the flight,the first by a single-engined machine, in an epic 206 days later on 2 August 1920, earning Parer the sobriquet "Battling Ray". Although outside the time limit, the crew was awarded a consolation prize of £A1,000, second only to the Vimy. The DH.9 has been restored and placed on display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra.The story is detailed in the book Flight and Adventures of Parer and McIntosh written by Emily Charnwood and first published in 1921. The machine is labelled PD after its sponsor, millionaire Peter Dawson, a whisky manufacturer, who financed the purchase of the machine and much of the journey. Ray Parer later took part in a similar journey, the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race in 1934.
Comments
The date of Alex Ferguson's first match as manager of Manchester United. It didn't prove to be the best of starts with a 2-0 First Division defeat at the Manor Ground home of Oxford United. I think that the smartest person that day was the fan who got hold of Fergie's team-sheet for the match - in June 2013 he sold it at auction for a mahoosive £19,000! Not bad for a scrappy bit of paper on which the manager had listed his team for that fixture - Chris Turner, Mike Duxbury, Arthur Albiston, Kevin Moran, Paul McGrath, Graeme Hogg, Clayton Blackmore, Remi Moses, Frank Stapleton, Peter Davenport, Peter Barnes with the one sub being Jesper Olsen.
1605 Robert Catesby, the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters,was killed by gunshot, along with other conspirators at Holbeche House, on the border of Staffordshire.He was buried close by but the bodies of Catesby and fellow conspirator Percy were exhumed and decapitated and Catesby's head was placed on the side of the Parliament House.
1656 The birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician best known for the comet named after him and for his work predicting its orbit. He also produced the first meteorological chart.
1745 Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of 5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden (16th April 1746).
1802 The birth of Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works at the time of Big Ben’s installation in the tower at the Houses of Parliament. The famous 13 ton bell is named after him.
1847 Bram Stoker,Irish author remembered for the classic, 'Dracula', was born.
1866 Herbert Austin, later Baron Austin, English motor car manufacturer, was born.
1920 Rupert Bear made his first appearance in the Daily Express. Rupert Bear Annuals have been produced since 1936 and are still in production today.
1939 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich
1958 Melody Maker published the first British album charts.
1960 John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States, defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon who was the incumbent Vice President.
1965 The bill abolishing the death penalty became law.
1967 BBC Radio Leicester (the first of the new breed of BBC Local Radio stations) began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from a transmitter located on Gorse Hill above the city centre.
1974 Covent Garden ceased to be the location of London’s famous flower and vegetable market as it moved across the Thames, leaving the old warehouses and Floral Hall.
1987 An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people.
1987 Cricket World Cup, Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India: David Boon scores 75 as Australia beats England by 7 runs for their first title.
1992 Nigel Mansell in a Williams crashes during the season ending Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide but wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 52 points; Mansell won record 9 GPs during the season.
2016 Republican Donald Trump is elected President of the United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton, who received 2.9 million more votes.
1541 Queen Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's fifth wife) confined in Tower of London.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte pulls off a coup and becomes the dictator of France under the title of First Consul.
1888 At 3:30 a.m. in London's Whitechapel, 25-year-old Mary Kelly became Jack the Ripper's last known victim. The 'Ripper' was never caught, but the nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End of London and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished.
1904 1st airplane flight to last more than 5 minutes.
1907 The Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough gem-quality diamond yet found, was presented by the Transvaal to King Edward VII,on his birthday. The largest polished gem from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa.It was the largest polished diamond in the world until 1985.Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Royal Sceptre which was originally made for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661,but was redesigned after the discovery of the Cullinan Diamond.
1915 The first Women's Institute (WI) meeting in England was held in the main bar of 'The Fox Goes Free' public house at Singleton in West Sussex.
1961 Brian Epstein went to a lunchtime session at The Cavern in Liverpool to see for himself why his record shop was receiving so many requests for records by a group (the Beatles) that had apparently made none. He later became their manager.
1966 John Lennon meets Yoko Ono at an avante-garde art exposition at Indica Gallery in London.
1970 The Goodies make their television debut on the BBC.
1984 Larry Holmes TKOs Bonecrusher Smith in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1992 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud set out on their unassisted crossing of the Antarctic. For 97 days they fought pain, starvation and snow blindness until they were eventually airlifted out after completing the first and the longest, unsupported journey in Polar history. They walked more than 1,350 miles across some of the most hostile terrain in the world, averaging more than 14 miles a day at temperatures as low as -45°C.
1996 Evander Holyfield upsets Mike Tyson in 11th-round knockout in Las Vegas to regain WBA heavyweight boxing title; second boxer, after Muhammad Ali, to win a heavyweight title 3 times.
The UK release of the controversial comedy film Monty Python's "Life of Brian".
Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin). It was also directed by Jones. The film tells the story of Brian Cohen (played by Chapman), a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as—and next door to—Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah.
Following the withdrawal of funding by EMI Films just days before production was scheduled to begin, long-time Monty Python fan and former member of the Beatles, George Harrison, arranged financing for Life of Brian through the formation of his company HandMade Films.
The film's themes of religious satire were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Thirty-nine local authorities in the United Kingdom either imposed an outright ban, or imposed an X certificate.Some countries,including Ireland and Norway,banned its showing, with a few of these bans lasting decades.The filmmakers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters in Sweden reading, "So funny, it was banned in Norway!".
The film was a box office success, the fourth-highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom in 1979, and highest grossing of any British film in the United States that year. It has remained popular and was named "greatest comedy film of all time" by several magazines and television networks,and it later received a 95% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus, "One of the more cutting-edge films of the 1970s, this religious farce from the classic comedy troupe is as poignant as it is funny and satirical." In a 2006 Channel 4 poll, Life of Brian was ranked first on their list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films.
First issue of Rolling Stone published.
Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason.To get it off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his own family and from the parents of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim.The first issue was released on November 9, 1967 and featured John Lennon in costume for the film How I Won the War on the cover.It was in newspaper format with a lead article on the Monterey Pop Festival.The cover price was 25¢ (equivalent to $1.92 in 2016) and it was published bi-weekly.
On the 9 November 1989, the Border separating Western from Eastern Germany was was opened, allowing citizens from both west and east to cross freely through checkpoints.
The wall was built in the dead of night on 13 August 1961 by communist East Germany and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West.
Why was the wall built?
At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union. The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin.
In 1949, the three zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union formed East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).
This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin, a major city in Germany, located located in East Germany. The split of Berlin resulted in an island in the midst of the sea of East Germany.
Mass Emigration
Living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different with Germans living in the West being better off. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. Over 2.5 million people emigrated from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border.
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
Just past midnight on the night of 12-13 August 1961, the Berlin Wall was built around West Berlin
The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany.
Guarded Wall
The Berlin Wall shut off access to West Berlin for East Germans. It also made it difficult for people to get out of West Berlin. The wall was heavily guarded and around hundred people were killed and many more were seriously wounded trying to cross the wall. The last person to be killed was Chris Gueffroy on the 2nd June, 1989.
Aberdeen's Dean Windass had the distinction of being sent off three times in the SPL match against Dundee United at Tannadice Park. Two bookings saw him shown the first red card with the second being for dissent when he made his displeasure known to referee Stuart Dougal. On his way to the tunnel he took his frustrations out on a corner flag for which he was sent off for the third time. That was a total of 22 penalty points for which he received a 6-match ban plus a club fine of 2 weeks wages.
Football On This Day – 9th November 2000.
The day after an Old Trafford crowd of 66,776 had seen Manchester United beat Dynamo Kiev 1-0 to narrowly qualify from their Champions League group United captain Roy Keane criticised the poor vocal support the team had at the match. His main complaint was directed to the fans in the hospitality boxes with Keane saying 'they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch.' From then on people in hospitality boxes became the prawn sandwich brigade while Roy Keane couldn't escape the association with the crustacean - years later many shops gave buyers of his newly published autobiography a free prawn sandwich!
Microsoft Windows was announced by Bill Gates on November 10, 1983.
On 10 November 1983 Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows,a next-generation operating system that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multitasking environment for IBM computers. It was known as Windows 1.0.
The first independent version of Microsoft Windows,version 1.0, released on November 20, 1985, achieved little popularity.The project was briefly codenamed "Interface Manager" before the windowing system was implemented.Rowland Hanson,the head of marketing at Microsoft,convinced the company that the name Windows would be more appealing to customers.
The first version of Microsoft Windows included a simple graphics painting program called Windows Paint; Windows Write,a simple word processor; an appointment calendar; a card-filer; a notepad; a clock; a control panel; a computer terminal; Clipboard; and RAM driver.
Windows 2.0 didn't show up until 1987.
Windows Logos.
In 1867, Henry Morton Stanley became special correspondent for the New York Herald and two years later would be sent to Africa in search of the legendary explorer David Livingstone.
Livingston had been following his obsessional search to find the sources of the Nile River and no one had heard from him for three years.
Stanley got to Zanzibar in 1871 and headed out on a 700 mile trek through tropical rainforest.
Because the Herald had not sent the money promised for the expedition he borrowed it from the US Consul.
He used this cash to hire over 100 porters for the expedition.
The trip did not go well.
During the 700-mile expedition through the tropical forest,his thoroughbred stallion died within a few days after a bite from a tsetse fly.Many of his porters deserted and the rest were decimated by tropical diseases.
Seven months after arriving in Zanzibar Stanley found Dr Livingstone.He found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on 10 November 1871, greeting him with the now famous words "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone responded, "Yes", and then "I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."
An illustration from Henry Morton Stanley's 1872 book "How I Found Livingstone"
Loving your work @lucy4 this is a daily must-read. And after reading it I have to trot off to google & Wiki to remind myself of the finer detail.
Thank you.
1847 The passenger ship Stephen Whitney was wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board. The disaster resulted in the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
1871 Henry Morton Stanley, (Welsh journalist and explorer) having been sent out to Africa by his newspaper to find the Scottish missionary David Livingstone,finally made contact with him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika with the immortal words, ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?'
1908 1st Gideon Bible put in a hotel room.
1924 Dion O'Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio's gang, sparking the **** gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
1940 Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
1958 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the water speed record of 248mph on Coniston Water.
1960 Bookshops all over England sold out of Penguin's first run of 200,000 copies of the controversial novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1968 England and Yorkshire fast bowler Fred Trueman announced his retirement.
1980 Outspoken left wing MP Michael Foot defeated Denis Healey in a shock result to become the new leader of the Labour party.
1986 The legendary jockey, Sir Gordon Richards, died aged 82.
1990 John Hughes' film "Home Alone" directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin premieres in Chicago.
1991 South Africa's 1st cricket international since 1970 - one-day v India.
The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Daimler Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885.
Gottlieb Daimler – First Gas Engined Motorcycle.
German, Gottlieb Daimler invented the first gas-engined motorcycle in 1885,which was an engine attached to a wooden bike.That marked the moment in history when the dual development of a viable gas-powered engine and the modern bicycle collided.
Gottlieb Daimler used a new engine invented by engineer,Nicolaus Otto.Otto invented the first “Four-Stroke Internal-Combustion Engine” in 1876. He called it the “Otto Cycle Engine” As soon as he completed his engine, Daimler (a former Otto employee) built it into a motorcycle.
U.S. Route 66 is established from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California 2,448 miles.
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 also known as the Will Rogers Highway,the Main Street of America or the Mother Road,was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year.The highway,which became one of the most famous roads in the United States,originally ran from Chicago, Illinois,through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles.
US 66 served as a primary route for those who migrated west,especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and the road supported the economies of the communities through which it passed.People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway,and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
US 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, but was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985 after it had been replaced in its entirety by segments of the Interstate Highway System.Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been communally designated a National Scenic Byway by the name "Historic Route 66", returning the name to some maps.Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into their state road networks as State Route 66.The corridor is also being redeveloped into U.S. Bicycle Route 66, a part of the United States Bicycle Route System that was developed in the 2010s.
The burials of unknown soldiers take place simultaneously in Westminster Abbey, London, and at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
The Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey exactly 100 years ago, on 11 November 1920.
Like the two-minute silence,which had originated from a custom started in South Africa during the First World War,the totemic significance of this single unidentifiable corpse, caught public imagination.
The war had decimated the population.
Almost every village, town and hamlet lost young men in the trenches of the Western Front,to German machine guns, gas and artillery shells.
Many dead were never found or,if they were,they could not be identified because the British Army used leather identity tags,which rotted.
Mothers,wives,families and friends often had nothing tangible to mourn but a telegram, some medals and a letter from the king.
It was the Reverend David Railton who had the idea of selecting a single dead soldier to represent the multitude of these vanished lives.
Railton had been a military chaplain in the war and carried enduring memories of the impact it had on those caught in the fighting. He believed that if the nation accorded the highest honour to one nameless corpse, it did so for them all.
Railton proposed the idea to Bishop Ryle, who was the dean of Westminster Abbey, which was known as the "Parish Church of the Empire".
The dean took the idea to Lloyd-George, then prime minister,who saw the power of this symbol and persuaded the reluctant King George V.
Enormous precautions were taken to ensure the soldier could never be identified.
Working parties went to the battlefields of Ypres, Cambrai, Arras, Aisne, Somme and the Marne, recovering a random "unidentified soldier" from each.
The six sorry corpses were taken in plain coffins to a chapel, near Arras.
Blindfolded and at midnight, Brigadier Wyatt entered the chapel and placed his hand upon one of the coffins.
This chosen coffin was transported to Boulogne, where it was placed within an oak casket made with timber from Hampton Court Palace and banded with iron. On top was placed a crusader's sword, given by the king.
HMS Verdun was prepared to convey the Unknown Warrior to Dover and all the way to London,the public turned out to salute and show their respect.
On the second anniversary of the Armistice, which silenced the guns at 11 o'clock, on 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, a state funeral for the Unknown Warrior took place in London.
The king walked behind the Unknown Warrior's gun carriage to Westminster Abbey,as the chief mourner.
This was emblematic because,to any grieving family,this could be their son and here was the king emperor showing the highest respect for their death and sacrifice. After all,the call to join up throughout the war was "for king and country".
King George V placed a wreath on the coffin at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day 1920
The Unknown Warrior lying in state in the Abbey on 11 November 1920.
One hundred holders of the Victoria Cross provided an honour guard and the burial took place just inside the west door of Westminster Abbey.
The grave still dominates the entrance,marked by a slab of black Belgian marble and inscribed with a description in brass letters.Standing on it is forbidden.Its edge is marked with poppies.
To emphasise that this is an ordinary soldier,the final line on the inscription is the most poignant.
The grave symbolises the thousands of men whose bodies never came home.
"They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and toward this house."
Nearby still hangs the Union Flag that Reverend David Railton placed over the coffin for its procession from the battlefield to Westminster Abbey.
1620 The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship in what is now Provincetown Harbour near Cape Cod. It was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony and was written by those who had fled to America in the ship the Mayflower to escape religious persecution from King James VI of Scotland (James I of England).
1724 The highwayman Joseph Blake, alias Blueskin, was hanged in London.He had attracted attention for attacking the nation's leading policeman and 'Thief Taker' Jonathan Wild with a pocket knife.The policeman was also a successful gang leader and became the most infamous criminal in Britain during the 18th century.The attack by Blake left Wild incapacitated for weeks and his grip over his criminal empire started to slip during his recuperation.Like Blake, he too was later hanged for his crimes.
1880 Australian Bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.
1887 Work started on building the Manchester Ship Canal at Eastham, Merseyside. At one time the Manchester end of the canal ended at an area now known as Salford Quays,a residential area with shopping precincts and home to the Lowry Theatre,the Imperial War Museum North and the TV studios Media City.
1918 At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended; a war that had lasted for 4 years and 97 days. Germany, bereft of manpower,supplies and food,signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.The war left 9 million soldiers dead and more than 21 million wounded,with Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary, France and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives.In addition,some 6 million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
1919 Britain introduced a two minute silence at 11:00 a.m. to remember those who died in World War I.
1920 Great Britain's monument to her war dead, the Cenotaph in Whitehall, designed by Edwin Lutyens, unveiled.
1920 The burials of unknown soldiers take place simultaneously in Westminster Abbey, London, and at the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
1921 The first British Legion Poppy Day.
1926 U.S. Route 66 is established from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California 2,448 miles.
1946 Stevenage was officially designed as Britain’s first New Town, one of ten which were planned to relieve London’s post-war housing problems.
1953 The BBC television programme Panorama was first broadcast.
1954 Thousands of elderly people took part in a rally in London calling for an increase in their pensions.
1965 The Rhodesian Government, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, illegally severed its links with the British Crown.
1966 NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12.
1972 Rugby League World Cup, Stade de Gerland, Lyon, France: Australia and Great Britain draw 10-10; Great Britain awarded the Trophy.
1983 1st US cruise missiles arrive in Great Britain.
1987 Irises, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh was sold for £27m at Sotheby's,a world record at that time for a work of art.
1987 Football striker Mark Hughes plays for Wales and Bayern Munich in 2 countries on same day; appears for Wales in 2-0 European Championship loss to Czechoslovakia in Prague, then jets to Munich for 3-2 Cup win over Borussia.
1997 Britain's Labour Party admitted to accepting a £1m donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, but claimed it would be repaid and that it had nothing to do with the Government's decision to exempt motor racing from the ban on tobacco-related sports sponsorship.
On 11 November 1987 Hughes played matches for Wales and Bayern Munich in two countries on the same day.
It included a crucial European Championship qualifier against Czechoslovakia, a private jet flight across Europe, a dash in a Lada car and a German Cup second-round replay against Borussia Monchengladbach.
Hughes and Wales were hoping to qualify for the 1988 European Championship finals.
They lost 1-0 in Denmark the previous month - their first defeat of the campaign - and needed to win in Czechoslovakia to secure qualification for the following summer's finals in West Germany.
They faced a talented Czech side managed by the great Josef Masopust and which featured the likes of Ivo Knoflicek, a young Tomas Skuhravy and future West Ham United goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko.
Wales manager Mike England's preparations were far from ideal.
In the era before international breaks, the Football League would only sanction games to be postponed that involved England internationals, meaning the Wales boss spent an anxious weekend awaiting news of any injuries.
So while club versus country issues were all too common for Wales' beleaguered manager, the then 24-year-old Hughes managed to satisfy both parties on this occasion.
Hughes joined Bayern Munich early in November 1987 on a season-long loan from Barcelona, and the German giants' cup game at their Olympiastadion home was kicking off a few hours after Wales' game in Prague on Wednesday, 11 November.
Hughes recalled in a 1989 BBC Wales interview that the idea of playing in the two games was hatched by Bayern's colourful general manager Uli Hoeness, a World Cup winner with West Germany in 1974.
"He knew I was playing for Wales on the Wednesday night, the same night as this big cup game," Hughes said.
"In passing he said 'what time is the game?' And I said, 'I think it's about half past three, four o'clock'.
"From that moment on he was making phone calls and came back into the room and said, 'I think you may be able to play for us the same night'.
"I thought he was just kidding but obviously he wasn't, so he organised everything."
Hughes linked up with his national side and played the full 90 minutes in Prague.
Despite dominating the game, Wales were out of luck at the Letna Stadium and were undone by goals by Knoflicek and Michal Bilek.
Wales' hopes of qualifying were over yet again and Hughes, still in full kit, was driven to a private jet that flew him to Germany.
"There was a Lada to whisk us off after the match," Hughes added. "I had to get changed into my kit on the plane."
Hughes arrived at the Olympiastadion and came on as a substitute early in the second half, with the home side trailing 1-0.
"It seemed to buck up the team and bucked up the crowd and it was good for me personally to warm myself to the crowd," said Hughes, who had only made his Bayern debut the previous Saturday.
"It was a masterstroke from Mr Hoeness."
Bayern came back to beat Borussia 3-2 in extra time to advance in the competition.
First Flight from England to Australia by Australians.
In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia.Of the six entries that started the race,the winners were pilot Ross Smith,his brother Keith Smith as co-pilot and mechanics James Bennett and Wally Shiers,in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber.
The Competition.
In early 1919, the Commonwealth Government of Australia offered a prize of £A10,000 for the first flight from Great Britain to Australia,under specific conditions.In May 1919, Billy Hughes,Prime Minister of Australia and Senator George Pearce,Minister for Defence (Australia),in consultation with the Royal Aero Club,stated that valid aircrews must all be Australian nationals,the aircraft must have been constructed in the British Empire and the journey must be completed within 720 consecutive hours (30 days) and be completed before midnight on 31 December 1920.The departure point must be either Hounslow Heath Aerodrome (for landplanes) or RNAS Calshot (for seaplanes and flying boats),with reporting points at Alexandria,Singapore and final destination in the region of Darwin.Each flight was to take place under the competition rules of the Royal Aero Club,that would supervise the start and control the competition generally.
Contestants.
Sopwith Wallaby.
At 11.44 a.m. on 21 October 1919,Captain George Campbell Matthews AFC as pilot and Sergeant Thomas D. Kay as mechanic,took off from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in a Sopwith Wallaby (G-EAKS). Bad weather caused delays at Cologne and Vienna,then they were imprisoned as suspected Bolsheviks in Yugoslavia,with further delays due to snow at Belgrade.A cracked engine cylinder at Constantinople and bad weather at Aleppo caused more delays.Finally,on 17 April 1920,the Wallaby crashed on landing at Grokgak, on Bali.Matthews was slightly injured.
Vickers Vimy
Vickers entered a converted Vimy bomber (G-EAOU) (the registration being whimsically said to stand for "God 'elp all of us"),crewed by Captain Ross Macpherson Smith with his brother Lieutenant Keith Macpherson Smith as co-pilot and mechanics Sergeant W.H. (Wally) Shiers and Sergeant J.M. (Jim) Bennett.The Vimy left Hounslow Heath at 8.30 am on 12 November 1919.It flew via Lyon, Rome, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon racecourse, Singora (Songkhla) (in Siam unscheduled in heavy rain), Singapore, Batavia and Surabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to make use of a temporary airstrip made from bamboo mats,reaching Darwin at 4.10pm on 10 December 1919.The flight distance was estimated as 11,123 miles and total flying time was 135 hours 55 minutes (81.9 mph).The prize money was shared between the Smith brothers and the two mechanics.The Smith brothers each received a knighthood for this exploit and the company presented their aircraft to the Australian government. It is now displayed at Adelaide Airport.
The winning Vickers Vimy.
Alliance P.2.
On 13 November 1919, Lieutenant Roger M. Douglas, MC DCM and Lieutenant J.S.L. Ross took off from Hounslow Heath in an Alliance P.2 Seabird (G-EAOX) named 'Endeavour'. It crashed in an orchard in Surbiton; Ross was killed outright and Douglas died soon after of his injuries.
Blackburn Kangaroo.
A team with a Blackburn Kangaroo (G-EAOW) had selected as navigator the Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith.Smith withdrew from the contest and Captain Hubert Wilkins MC took his place.On 21 November 1919,the Kangaroo took off from Hounslow Heath,piloted by Lieutenant V. Rendle with Captain Wilkins, Lieutenant D.R. Williams and Lieutenant Garnsey St. C. Potts as crew. Problems were experienced with the engines and the plane was forced down over France. Repairs were made and the flight continued, still with engine problems. On 8 December 1919, the aircraft crash-landed at Suda Bay, Crete, ending up against the fence of a mental hospital. The crew escaped without injury.
Martinsyde Type A.
On 5 December 1919, Captain Cedric E. Howell and Lieutenant George Henry Fraser left London in a Martinsyde Type A Mk.I (G-EAMR) aircraft. On 9 December, the aircraft disappeared near Corfu. The wreckage and Howell's body were found offshore, but Fraser's body was never found.
Airco DH.9.
On 8 January 1920, Airco DH.9 (G-EAQM), piloted by Lieutenant Ray Parer,with co-pilot Lieutenant John C. McIntosh, took off from Hounslow Heath. The aircraft completed the flight,the first by a single-engined machine, in an epic 206 days later on 2 August 1920, earning Parer the sobriquet "Battling Ray". Although outside the time limit, the crew was awarded a consolation prize of £A1,000, second only to the Vimy. The DH.9 has been restored and placed on display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra.The story is detailed in the book Flight and Adventures of Parer and McIntosh written by Emily Charnwood and first published in 1921. The machine is labelled PD after its sponsor, millionaire Peter Dawson, a whisky manufacturer, who financed the purchase of the machine and much of the journey. Ray Parer later took part in a similar journey, the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race in 1934.