Today in history

11 th June 1955

Le-Mans disaster:
Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.

The 1955 Le Mans disaster was a major crash that occurred on 11 June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. Large pieces of debris flew into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Levegh, and injuring nearly 180 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, prompting Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from motor racing until 1989, and the country of Switzerland to institute a nation-wide ban on motorsports altogether that lasted until March 2023.

The crash started when Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right side of the track in front of Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin and started braking for his pit stop. Macklin swerved out from behind the slowing Jaguar into the path of Levegh, who was passing on the left in his much faster Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Levegh rear-ended Macklin at high speed, overriding Macklin's car and launching his own car through the air. Levegh's car skipped over a protective earthen berm at 200 km/h (125 mph) and made at least two impacts within the spectator area, the last of which caused the car to disintegrate, throwing him onto the track where he was instantly killed. Large pieces of debris, including the Mercedes' engine block, radiator, front suspension, and bonnet , were sent flying into the packed spectator area in front of the grandstand. The rear of Levegh's car landed on the berm and exploded into flames.

There was much debate over blame for the disaster. The official inquiry held none of the drivers specifically responsible and criticised the layout of the 30-year-old track, which had not been designed for cars as fast as those involved in the crash.

12 th June 1817

                  First "bicycle":
                                      The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.


                          216 years since the father of the bicycle Baron Karl von Drais invented the 'running machine'

216 years ago in Germany Baron Karl von Drais demonstrated his newest invention: the 'draisienne' (which was also known as the 'laufmachine', 'running machine' or 'Vélocipède'), a two-wheeled horseless vehicle propelled by its rider. Cycling UK's Historian Sheila Hanlon explains why without Baron Karl von Drais we would not have the modern bicycle
On 12 June 1817, a crowd gathered along the best road in Mannheim, Germany to watch Baron Karl von Drais demonstrate his newest invention: the 'draisienne', a two-wheeled horseless vehicle propelled by its rider. Drais climbed on and set out for the Schwetzinger switch house, a strategic point along the postal route. Less than an hour later, he was back, having completed the 8-9 mile round trip in a quarter of the usual time. Two hundred years later, we salute Drais and his draisienne as a significant milestone on the long road of innovation leading to the bicycle of today.

           Demonstrations
Drais followed his record-setting Mannheim to Schwetzinger trial run with a second 1817 journey from Gernsbach to Baden over a notoriously steep 800ft hill. Lessing writes that a local policeman clocked von Drais in at 4:00, having completed the trip in one hour at an average of 4 miles per hour, halving the usual travel time and impressing the amateur scientists in attendance.

A more spectacular show of the machine was, however, needed if Drais was to attract a commercial market. In April 1818, Drais organised a draisienne demonstration in Paris’s Luxembourg Gardens hosted by his chasseur (footman), who served as his agent in France. Thousands of spectators paid admission for a glimpse of the machine. Illustrations of the event show women in fancy gowns, well-dressed men, and children lining the park’s paths as draisiennes scoot by.

News of the demonstration reached far and wide. The Morning Chronicle for 10 April 1818 commented in its 'Paris Papers' section that:

"An immense concourse of spectators assembled yesterday at noon at Luxemburg [sic], to witness the experiments with Draisiennes (a species of carriage moved by machinery without horses). The crowd was so great that the experiments were but imperfectly made. The machine, however went quicker than a man at full speed and the conductors did not appear fatigued."

Remarkably, a tandem designed for a female passenger was displayed. The Morning Chronicle continues, “About three a Lady appeared in a Draisienne, conducted by the Chasseur of the Baron de Drais.”

13 th June 1381


The peasants revolt:
In England, the Peasants' Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, comes to a head, as rebels set fire to the Savoy Palace.

The Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
The Savoy Palace, considered the grandest nobleman's townhouse of medieval London, was the residence of John of Gaunt until it was destroyed during rioting in the Peasants' Revolt 0n June 13th 1381. The palace was on the site of an estate given to Peter II, Count of Savoy in the early 1200s, which in the following century came to be controlled by Gaunt's family. It was situated between Strand and the River Thames the Tudor era Savoy Chapel carries on the name, and the present day Savoy Theatre and Savoy Hotel were named in its memory. In the locality of the palace, the administration of law was by a special jurisdiction, separate from the rest of the county of Middlesex, known as the Liberty of the Savoy.



The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years' War, and instability within the local leadership of London.

The final trigger for the revolt was the intervention of a royal official, John Bampton, in Essex on 30 May 1381. His attempts to collect unpaid poll taxes in Brentwood ended in a violent confrontation, which rapidly spread across the south-east of the country. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local gaols. The rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to serfdom, and the removal of King Richard II's senior officials and law courts.

Inspired by the sermons of the radical cleric John Ball and led by Wat Tyler, a contingent of Kentish rebels advanced on London. They were met at Blackheath by representatives of the royal government, who unsuccessfully attempted to persuade them to return home. King Richard, then aged 14, retreated to the safety of the Tower of London, but most of the royal forces were abroad or in northern England. On 13 June, the rebels entered London and, joined by many local townsfolk, attacked the gaols, destroyed the Savoy Palace, set fire to law books and buildings in the Temple, and killed anyone associated with the royal government. The following day, Richard met the rebels at Mile End and agreed to most of their demands, including the abolition of serfdom. Meanwhile, rebels entered the Tower of London, killing Simon Sudbury, Lord Chancellor, and Robert Hales, Lord High Treasurer, whom they found inside.

On 15 June, Richard left the city to meet Tyler and the rebels at Smithfield. Violence broke out, and Richard's party killed Tyler. Richard defused the tense situation long enough for London's mayor, William Walworth, to gather a militia from the city and disperse the rebel forces. Richard immediately began to re-establish order in London and rescinded his previous grants to the rebels. The revolt had also spread into East Anglia, where the University of Cambridge was attacked and many royal officials were killed. Unrest continued until the intervention of Henry Despenser, who defeated a rebel army at the Battle of North Walsham on 25 or 26 June. Troubles extended north to York, Beverley and Scarborough, and as far west as Bridgwater in Somerset. Richard mobilised 4,000 soldiers to restore order. Most of the rebel leaders were tracked down and executed; by November, at least 1,500 rebels had been killed.

The Peasants' Revolt has been widely studied by academics. Late 19th-century historians used a range of sources from contemporary chroniclers to assemble an account of the uprising, and these were supplemented in the 20th century by research using court records and local archives. Interpretations of the revolt have shifted over the years. It was once seen as a defining moment in English history, but modern academics are less certain of its impact on subsequent social and economic history. The revolt heavily influenced the course of the Hundred Years' War, by deterring later Parliaments from raising additional taxes to pay for military campaigns in France. The revolt has been widely used in socialist literature, including by the author William Morris, and remains a potent political symbol for the political left, informing the arguments surrounding the introduction of the Community Charge in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.

14 th June 2017

The Grenfell tower fire:
A fire in a high-rise apartment building in North Kensington, London, UK, leaves 72 people dead and another 74 injured.



On 14 June, 2017, there was a huge fire at Grenfell Tower in west London.

The large block of flats was completely destroyed, and 72 people lost their lives.

Many more were injured, with it later emerging the blaze started on the fourth floor and spread through the building.

The fire was one of Britain's worst modern disasters.

A public inquiry was started in 2017 to look into what happened.


What happened?

Firefighters arrived within minutes of the fire being reported by a resident of the building
Very early in the morning on Wednesday 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in the kitchen of a flat on the fourth floor in Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London.

Firefighters arrived at the scene within six minutes of the fire starting, but it spread extremely quickly throughout the building's 24 storeys.

Mobile phone footage shows it took less than 30 minutes after firefighters had arrived for the fire to reach the top of the building.


It took about 24 hours to get it under control.

As a result of the blaze, 72 people lost their lives and many more were injured.

All those who managed to escape were made homeless, as the building - which had recently been refurbished - was completely destroyed.

It also destroyed homes in the surrounding area.

Experts described the fire as "unprecedented", which means that nothing like it had ever happened before.


What happened afterwards?
In the days and months following the fire, there was a big recovery operation.

Lots of people got involved to try to help those affected by what happened.


Downing Street lit up green
IMAGE SOURCE,PRESS ASSOCIATION
Image caption,
To mark the one-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, buildings across the UK were lit up in green to remember the victims. In this picture, you can see Downing Street - where the UK prime minister is based - lit up in green
Churches, mosques and community centres all offered clothes, food and water, and many members of the public donated items and money.

Figures from the Red Cross suggest 40,000 boxes of items were donated, which 600 volunteers helped to sort through.

By July, nearly £20 million had been raised to help victims.

People sort through donations

Many people donated items to help those who had been affected by the tragedy
A group of stars released a single to help to raise money, which went straight to the top of the iTunes charts.

Six months after the tragedy, a memorial service was held to remember those who had lost their lives and been affected by the tragedy.

Why did the fire happen?
The first thing many people wanted to know after the fire was how it had happened and why it spread up the building so unusually quickly.

Some experts believe that a material used as 'cladding' on the outside of the building played a part in this.

An interim report into the 14 June 2017 was been delayed but due the following week
Cladding is used on buildings to help to protect them from the weather and to make them look nicer.

A public inquiry started in September 2017 looking into what happened on the night of the fire. Part of it will examine the causes - and what, if any, role the cladding and other factors played in making the fire spread so quickly.

What has happened since?
The Grenfell Tower fire led to a UK-wide investigation to find any buildings with similar cladding to that used on Grenfell Tower, to make sure other buildings were safe.

Towns and cities around the country were told to give details to the government about the cladding used on their tower blocks.

Many more people who lived in the same area as the tower had to leave their homes, as their buildings had the same cladding as Grenfell Tower, and experts wanted to check that where they lived was safe.

Checks have also been done to make sure that apartment blocks have the right safety features like smoke alarms and sprinklers.

Other apartment blocks.

Other apartment blocks have been tested following the Grenfell tragedy to make sure that they are safe
A big investigation, called a public inquiry, has also been looking into exactly what happened.

Although the government ordered it, it's been led by an independent chairperson.

On Wednesday 30 October 2019 a report following the first phase of the inquiry was published. This first phase looked at what happened on the night of the blaze.

The report has been described on the inquiry's website as a "substantial document which includes a detailed description of the events of the night of 14 June 2017 as well as the Chairman's findings about the nature of the building, the origins of the fire, its subsequent development, the response of the London Fire Brigade and the steps taken by the other emergency services, all fully supported by references to the evidence."

The report also contains a number of recommendations to the Prime Minister.

The second phase of the inquiry, which started in January 2020, will focus on the wider circumstances of the fire, including the building itself.



The Metropolitan Police also looked into whether or not a crime was committed with what happened.

It is a huge investigation as the incident is so serious.

In June 2019, the force said about 7,100 statements had been taken from witnesses, community and family members, emergency services personnel and others.

15 th June 1996

Manchester bombing:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.

IRA Manchester bomb
The 1996 Manchester bomb: A day that changed our city forever
It was the biggest ever bomb the IRA exploded on the British mainlanland.

On June 15, 1996, the IRA singled out our city to be victim of the biggest bomb it had ever exploded on the British mainland.


It would injure hundreds and leave no building within half a mile unscathed, ultimately triggering a masterclass in city regeneration and a tooth-and-nail fight by the M.E.N. to report the truth.

This was a blast that tore through the heart of Manchester and which, within seconds, would have an impact that would last for two decades.

The day started in blazing midsummer sunshine.

Two hundred miles south in London, anti-terror police were on high alert amid fears the IRA could target the Queen’s Trooping the Colour parade.

Just a few months earlier the Provos had ended a 17-month ceasefire by blowing up a lorry in Canary Wharf, killing two people.

In Manchester things were more relaxed. But police were nonetheless prepared for trouble – as thousands of football fans prepared to pour into town ahead of that afternoon’s Euro 96 match between England and Scotland.


TV crews from across Europe were in town to cover the next day’s Russia v Germany game at Old Trafford. Thousands of shoppers were preparing to hit the streets too, many of them on the look-out for Father’s Day gifts.


The lorry containing the IRA bomb in Manchester in 1996 captured on CCTV
Unknown and unnoticed a white van was already on its devastating journey.

Just before 9.20am, the streets had already begun filling up with crowds when two men in hooded anoraks and sunglasses left a heavily loaded Ford Cargo van outside Marks and Spencer on the corner of Cannon Street and Corporation Street. It was parked on double yellow lines with its hazard lights flashing.


It contained 3,300lbs of homemade explosive, three times the size of the Canary Wharf bomb.

They walked away, ringing an IRA chief in Ireland to let them know the job was done. The pair escaped in a burgundy Ford Granada, later abandoned in Preston.

Three minutes after the van was abandoned, a traffic warden slapped a ticket on it.

Some time after 9.38am a man with an Irish accent called Granada TV, Sky News, Salford University, North Manchester General Hospital and the Garda police in Dublin to warn a bomb would go off in one hour. He gave the location and used a code word known to Special Branch.

On their CCTV camera in Bootle Street station, officers watched in horror as footage was relayed showing people pushing up against and sliding along the side of the van, awkwardly parked on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets.

Officers then began one of the most extraordinary policing operations the country has ever seen: the evacuation of 80,000 people.


At first, they were not keen to go. Mancunians had become used to bomb scares and they had things to be getting on with.

One hairdresser refused to let his clients leave because they still had chemicals in their hair, arguing it would be ‘too dangerous’. A group of workmen wanted to stay put because they were on weekend rates.

Police officer Wendy McCormick found herself telling people in the Arndale: “I don’t want to die because somebody won’t finish their pizza.”

It was a Herculean task, aided by the luck of having extra police on duty for the match. Gradually, grudgingly, people began to move, turning into a flood as word spread that the scare was real. The police cordon extended out and out to a quarter of a mile, until there were no more officers to take it any further.

By 11.10am, the heart of Manchester city centre was deserted. Only one or two people were still within the exclusion zone, having somehow escaped knowledge of the evacuation.


A pair of women working in the Arndale, on their way out for a walk, were only saved because they nipped back inside to get their bags. Two minutes before the blast, they were standing on the bridge directly above it.

Shortly after 11am the army bomb disposal squad – which had hurtled to Manchester down the M62 from Liverpool – was preparing to detonate the device from 200 yards away, just off Cross Street near Sam’s Chophouse.

Inspector Dave Comerford, link man between the police and the army, told colleagues over the radio that there would be two blasts – a smaller one as a remote controlled robot blew a hole in the side of the van, followed by the second, which would disable it.

At 11.16am, the first blast went off. At 11.17am, they ran out of time.


When the bomb exploded, the blast could be heard from 15 miles away. It issued a force so powerful it travelled around 90 degree corners, knocking people to the ground and blowing out virtually every window within half a mile, leaving a 15m crater around it.

Glass rained from the sky: a fine dust followed by shards and eventually a torrent of rubble and debris. From his vantage point on Cross Street, Chief Inspector Ian Seabridge later recalled that there was then a ‘sudden air of stillness’.

Then every alarm in the city centre started wailing.

In Bootle Street police station, the screens showing CCTV pictures of the army operation went black. At Belle Vue ambulance control they heard the boom and the telephone switchboard lit up.

Within five minutes there were 60 calls to every street in the city centre. Five fire engines and 30 firefighters raced to the city centre from across the region. For over an hour afterwards 999 crews toured the city centre to pick up victims.

At Manchester Royal Infirmary they were treating 70 casualties within minutes.


For hours afterwards dazed, confused people staggered out of the city centre to find transport. People as far away as Kendals department store - now House of Fraser - had been injured as the windows blew out, having wrongly believed they would be safe under the store's canopy.

More than 200 people were hurt in the blast. Yet one fact from that day remains breathtaking – and a testament to that heroic policing operation. Nobody had been killed.


Nevertheless, Manchester city centre lay in ruins. Mannequins hung eerily from windows. Historic landmarks such as Manchester Cathedral, Chetham’s School of Music, the Corn Exchange and the Royal Exchange theatre would take years and millions of pounds to restore.


Longridge House, the office block next to Marks and Spencer, would be demolished, while the bus station under the Arndale centre would never reopen.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE 1996 MANCHESTER BOMB
Much of the city centre became a no-go zone for its residents and shopkeepers. Some 700 businesses were affected, wiping out a third of the city centre’s floorspace and leaving the council to leap into action in the days that followed in an attempt to save livelihoods.

By the time then-home secretary Michael Howard and later the Prime Minister, John Major, visited the ravaged city in the days that followed, city leaders were already planning how to get Manchester back on its feet.

16 th June 1883

Victoria hall disaster :
The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England, kills 183 children.


The Victoria Hall Disaster
16th June, 1883, Victoria Hall, Sunderland.

Mr. Fay arrived to almost 2000 of the town’s children with tricks, puppetry and illusions. One such trick involved large amounts of smoke, and many children were sick as a result.

At the end of the show, as Mr Fay began throwing sweets to the children, and those in the gallery, realising they were missing out, ran towards the stairs.

As they reached the bottom they were faced with a very narrow doorway which opened towards them.

The pressure from behind made it impossible to open. Those at the top of the staircase were unaware of this and kept pushing forward. By the time someone arrived to help bodies lay 20 deep.

183 children – 114 boys and 69 girls – aged between seven and ten (one as young as three died). A further 100 were seriously injured.

On hearing about the disaster, Queen Victoria wrote a letter of condolence part of which read, ‘Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God.’

A recently restored memorial – of a grieving mother holding her dead child was placed in Mowbray Park, Sunderland.

Local poet P D Han put together the following complex sestina to remember this tragic account.





To Sunderland Mr. Fay brought his show.
Touring the schools, his audience, children.
The Victoria Hall, “treats be given”.
All would receive a small present inside.
Disaster struck and brought forth tragedy.
A locked door the reason for what happened
Children entranced, on stage magic happened.
Smiles and laughter, such a marvellous show.
A wonderful day spoiled by tragedy.
“This way for presents”, voiced to the children.
Those upstairs did panic, worried inside.
Small treats thrown below, upstairs non given.

Anxious at what presents they’d be given,
And so to the staircase when it happened.
Excited, their hearts beat faster inside.
Joyous presents at the end of the show.
Down the staircase running went the children.
Screams were heard, delight turned to tragedy.


And what resulted from this tragedy?
Children they died, no presents were given.
Air squeezed from lungs, a flood of crushed children.
Trip, fall, and then suffocation happened.
Mr. Fay’s magic, a disastrous show.
Tears came from many, such heartache inside.

A constable nearby helped inside.
Aiding the victim’s of this tragedy.
Who could believe, a sad end to this show.
Sunderland mourned, with sympathy given.
History would not forget what happened.
Death took one hundred eighty three children.

The Queen she wrote “suffer little children”,
“Come unto me”, poor children crushed inside,
“To God’s kingdom”, this should not have happened.
A bolted door did cause this tragedy.
No finger of blame was ever given.
For the awful end to Mr. Fay’s show.


Those poor children dead from this tragedy,
Hearts wept inside, thus a statue given.
To remember what happened at this show.

17 th June 1940


  W.W.11 R.M.S Lancstria :
                                     World War II: RMS Lancastria is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 3,000 are killed in Britain's worst maritime disaster.

The 'Lancastria' - a Secret Sacrifice in World War Two

When the British troop ship 'Lancastria' was sunk in June 1940, some 5,000 people died - but news of the disaster was kept from the British public. Raye Dancocks explains how this has meant that the sacrifice of the ship's crew has not been fully recognised.

In June 1922 the Tyrrenhia took her maiden voyage from Glasgow to Canada. She was an elegant vessel with two masts and a single funnel, and throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s was a ship of peaceful pleasure. No one liked her name - she quickly became known as the 'Soup Tureen' - and in early February 1924 she changed it to the Lancastria. What the fates made of the change, only time would tell - it is supposed to be very unlucky to change a God-given name, and sailors feel that the naming of a ship is as good as a christening.

She was an elegant vessel with two masts and a single funnel, and throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s was a ship of peaceful pleasure.

This is an account of what befell the ship that changed its name, seen partly through the eyes of two survivors of the bombing raid which would sink the Lancastria, taking an estimated 5,000 people to their deaths.

The eyewitness accounts are taken from the BBC South documentary 'Lancastria - a Secret Sacrifice'. The programme includes War Office archive film of the wounded returning home, which was top secret at the time of the disaster.

RMS Lancastria became HMT Lancastria when she was commandeered for war, and her sleek Cunard lines were lost under a coat of battleship grey. During the first few months of war she was busily engaged in cargo and transport duties in the North Atlantic, her massive cargo capacity proving ideal for the task. When the Norwegian campaign began, the Lancastria was set aside for troop-carrying but was kept back until needed to evacuate troops from Harstaad. She returned to Britain with her public rooms crammed with dejected weary soldiers. En route, she was spotted by a high-flying German aircraft and, although they attacked, the bombs missed and she sailed safely home. Was she a lucky ship after all? The troops disembarked at Glasgow and, after transporting men to Iceland, the Lancastria returned to her home port of Liverpool for a much needed refit.

Red Alert
The crew had already been paid off when the telegram came ordering the Lancastria to be ready to sail with Operation Aerial and, together with other vessels, she made for Plymouth where the vessel was given orders to sail for western France. She was guided into the sea lanes of the Loire estuary, and anchored some 10 miles off St Nazaire at about 06.00 hrs on Monday 17 June. It was a beautiful misty summer morning.

Those on the deck of the 'Lancastria' feared the worst...

Almost immediately, exhausted troops and some civilians began to arrive and were given little tickets, like bus tickets, with their cabin and deck number. Some were given spaces in the vast holds of the ship, where they laid down to rest and were asleep in just a few minutes. Throughout the morning troops arrived and seemed to fill every available space. Some had their first hot meal in weeks; some remained on deck watching still more people come aboard. There were units from the Army and RAF as well as civilians - men, women and young children.

At about 13.00 hrs the red alert sounded and a dive bomber was seen to attack the Oronsay which was some distance off. The bomber scored a direct hit on the bridge area, but it did not render the ship unseaworthy. Those on the deck of the Lancastria feared the worst: the enemy was sure to return. By this time the ship had taken some 6,000 people on board and more kept coming. At around 15.00 hrs Captain Sharp decided that enough was enough, but that to sail straight away would court disaster - he would rather wait for an escort.

The final moments
At about 15.50 hrs the enemy returned. Bombs were seen to straddle the ship, one bomb exploding close to the port side, rupturing her almost full fuel tanks. The black oil oozed into the sea, creating a dark, deathly cloud.

They sang in defiance at the tops of their voices 'Roll out the Barrel' and 'There'll always be an England'.

Immediately, the ship began a perilous roll from port to starboard and back again, further bombs struck home, one penetrating the holds that were crammed with troops. Of the RAF personnel aboard - from 73 Squadron and 98 Squadron - very few survived. The ship rolled onto her port side, down by the bow. Those who could, took to the water to try and swim though the black cloud of oil that here and there showed licks of flame.

Non-swimmers took to the water with whatever seemed to be able to keep them afloat. Some lifeboats were lowered but, on many, the davits could not be released because of the angle of the ship. Those still on board what was now an upturned hull watched as the enemy returned to strafe both those struggling for life on the hull and those in the sea. They sang in defiance at the tops of their voices 'Roll out the Barrel' and 'There'll always be an England'. The ship's siren wailed and by 16.10 hrs, in just 20 minutes, the Lancastria slipped beneath the waves.

News blackout
Then there was the silence, a silence louder than the clamour of exploding bombs and guns. So ended the life of a beautiful ship and the lives of thousands of men, women and children. No one will ever know the exact number who died that day - some say there were as many as 9,000 on board by the time the Lancastria was bombed, others estimate 7,000. All we do know is that around 6,000 were on board by 13.00 hrs, and that many more arrived after that. Only 2,447 arrived home.

The rescue began with all kinds of vessels - from small fishing boats to destroyers of the Royal Navy - picking up survivors, more like oily flotsam than people. The bodies of those who died that day were washed up along the French coast during the coming months and were given Christian burials by the French people, who bravely ignored the German presence and cared for the victims as their own.

Churchill immediately hid the news from the public.

Churchill immediately hid the news from the public. In 1940, after Dunkirk, to reveal the truth would have been too damaging for civilian morale. He said, 'The newspapers have got quite enough disaster for today, at least.' Since that time the disaster has never been recognised for what it was - the greatest maritime disaster in Britain's history. More people were killed on the Lancastria than on the Titanic and Lusitania put together.

18 th June 1815

Waterloo:
Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.



The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815.

Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, was at the height of his power. However, the following year, the disastrous invasion of Russia resulted in the loss of the majority of Napoleon's army. In 1813, the War of German Liberation followed by the 1814 invasion of France by the allied armies of Russia, Austria and Prussia brought about Napoleon's abdication. Napoleon was sent into exile on the Isle of Elba but, on 26 February 1815, he escaped from the island in an attempt to reclaim his throne.

By this time Britain had been at war for about 20 years, fighting mainly in Portugal and Spain in the Peninsular War. In 1814, after peace with France, many of the British regiments were sent to fight America which had invaded Canada in 1812. Despite the Treaty of Ghent being signed on 24 December 1814, many of Wellington's veteran regiments were not available to fight when Napoleon returned to power. Consequently Wellington was forced to rely on untried British regiments as well as troops from various states of Germany, Dutch and Belgium, some of whom had been allies of France the previous year. However, Wellington was assisted by a Prussian army under Field Marshal von Blücher, as well as the armies of Russia and Austria (although it would be some time before the latter would be in a position to confront Napoleon, had Wellington and Blücher been defeated).

Sergeant Henry Swan's account of the battle.

The British and Prussian armies clashed with the French in separate battles at Quatre Bras and Ligny on 16 June 1815, after which Wellington retired to the small town of Waterloo. Here he took up a defensive position and prepared to make a stand on 18 June, trusting that the Prussians would return to support him. Wellington's army held off numerous French attacks before the arrival of the Prussians ensured a crushing victory for their combined armies.

Waterloo was not the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars (Leipzig, 1813) or the bloodiest (Borodino, 1812) but it was decisive in that it ended Napoleon's ambitions for ever. Napoleon had been defeated before, but had always managed to recover. This time French public opinion turned against him and he was forced to surrender to the British. He was sent to the island of St Helena, in the middle of the Atlantic, where he died in 1821.

Account book from the parish of St Nicholas, Great Bookham, which lists households of the parish who donated money towards the wounded soldiers and the wives and children of those killed in the battle.It is sometimes said that Waterloo brought almost 100 years of peace to Europe, but this is not true. There would be many wars, including the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) which resulted in the unification of Germany. The First World War meant that Britain was unable to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the battle, since France was now its ally against Prussian militarism.

19 th June 1921

The burning of Knockcroghery:
The village of Knockcroghery, Ireland, was burned by British forces.


The Burning of Knockcroghery

by F. Coyne (Roscommon Historical & Archaeological Society Journal Vol. 3 Page 28: 1990)

The burning of Knockcroghery Village on 19th June 1921, followed wrong information gleaned by British Intellilgence Agents in Athlone. At that time Sean MacEoin "the blacksmith of Ballinalee" - was under sentence of death and a plan was made by volunteers in Westmeath to capture General Lambert, who was then the officer commanding all British troops in the Western Command, hold him as a hostage, and then bargain for Mac Eoin's release.

General Lambert's movements were watched and it was known that he frequently visited friends near the village of Glasson, Athlone. An ambush was laid near Glasson and on the evening of June 17th, General Lambert traveled in a car, driven by his wife, to pay a social call at the house of a friend in Glasson. When the car approached the scene where the Westmeath Volunteers lay in wait, a volunteer officer stepped out on the road and signaled to the driver to halt. The car slowed down and then suddenly gathered speed and attempted to drive through the cordon of volunteers. Shots rang out and General Lambert was killed instantly. His wife, who was unhurt, drove on towards Glasson and the Volunteers dispersed.

In the course of their inquiries, British Intelligence Agents were told that the Volunteers who laid the ambush had come directly across Lough Ree from the Knockcroghery or Gailey Bay side. This information was not correct, but in the early hours of the morning of the 19th June, four lorry loads of Black and Tans, police, and auxiliaries arrived from Athlone in the Village of Knockcroghery. All of them were "under the influence".

They fired shots into the air, banged on the doors of the houses in the village and ordered the inhabitants to get out. The residents of Knockcroghery - men, women and children in their night attire, were driven out into the street. The raiding forces then spilled petrol on the vacated houses and set fire to them, having first looted each house for anything they considered of value. Many of the houses had thatched roofs and in a very short time, the village was ablaze from end to end.

One of the first houses to be visited was that of Parish Priest Canon Bartley Kelly. The Canon, who was in bed, refused to leave and the Tans immediately set his house on fire. Neighbours, who saw his plight, went to the Canon's assistance and rescued him through an upstairs window. They then helped to bring the fire under control, but not before considerable damage was done. The Canon crossed the fields and sought refuge with his friend the Church of Ireland Rector, the late Canon Humphries.

Only two houses, side by side, were untouched. One building, which was owned by the Feeney family, housed John S. Murray's Pub and Grocery Shop. The fact that it also housed the local Post Office saved it from destruction. The other building, a small Pub & Grocery owned by Mrs. Mary "The Widow" Murray was also left alone. She gathered her children around her in the kitchen near the door and refused to leave her home. The Tans threatened to burn the house with her in it. One of the officers took pity on her, ordered his men out and told them to leave her and her family alone. They left the building, helping themselves to some money, cigarettes and tobacco as they went.

Meanwhile, the raiding forces drove up and down the village, 28 firing shots at random, cursing loudly, and laughing at the plight of the people of Knockcroghery. The people were terrified, particularly the children, whose cries of fear added to the terrible scene. The homeless people of the village were given shelter in the houses of friends, neighbours and relations in the district and some of them, along with Canon Kelly, found temporary accommodation with Canon Humphries at the Rectory.

Next morning the extent of the devastation was seen with the advantage of daylight. The sight was horrible to behold. All that was left of each building was a smoking shell. Very little, if anything, could be salvaged from the ruins. Canon Kelly and Canon Humphries resolved to do everything in their power to help relieve the plight of the homeless. They set up a relief committee and sent fund raisers far and wide to collect as much money as they could. In spite of having very little money to spare the people of the area responded magnificently. One good woman gave the only thing she could, a gold sovereign. When the collector was handing in his collection to the joint Chairmen, Canon Humphries spotted the gold coin. Turning to Canon Kelly he asked if he might have it. To which Canon Kelly replied "You can have that one, I have plenty of them". Canon Humphries thanked him and put it in his pocket having first replaced it with a pound note. The total amount collected has long since been forgotten but it went a long way in relieving the hardship of many families.

Rebuilding did not begin for at least another two years until the compensation agreed in the 1921 Treaty came through. Most of the building work was carried out by the Hessions of Roscommon with the Foley's of Ballymurray employed as stonemasons. Many of the houses were never rebuilt, the original owners, either having died in the meantime or gone away for good. The claypipe industry which once thrived in the village was never restarted. The families involved set up alternative businesses as the claypipe was in rapid decline due to the increased popularity of the brier pipe and manufactured cigarettes. The memory of that terrible night will live on in the minds and hearts of Knockcroghery people for a long time to come.

20 th June 1837


Victoria :
Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.

HOW VICTORIA BECAME QUEEN: THE SUCCESSION CRISIS OF 1817

The two longest-reigning monarchs in British history have both been women. Queen Victoria sat on the throne for 63 years, whilst Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years. Ironically, neither woman was expected to rule.

The life of Queen Victoria: A queen in a man's world
Victoria was born fifth in the line of succession whilst Elizabeth was third. However, fate conspired and the winds of change blew in their favour.

Whilst the story of Elizabeth’s rise to the throne is well-known, famously due to the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII, Victoria’s ascension is less familiar but just as fateful. Let us remedy that and uncover the dramatic story of how Victoria came to rule.

The late reign of King George III
In the early 19th century, the monarch was George III, a ruler who had fathered 15 children, 13 of whom made it to adulthood. Although it might seem that the numbers were on his side, as the ageing king neared the end of his life his children had produced just one legitimate heir – Princess Charlotte.

Charlotte was the daughter of George’s eldest son, George IV. In the final nine years of the king’s life, George acted as the Prince Regent as his father became seriously mentally unwell. The Prince Regent’s one and only child was Princess Charlotte, who was born in 1796.

For many years, the country expected her to one day ascend to the throne. When she became pregnant by her husband, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the country rejoiced for Charlotte was a popular figure compared to her father and grandfather.


A succession crisis begins
In 1817, elation soon turned to despair as the princess gave birth to a stillborn son. Then just a few hours later, Charlotte succumbed to a fever and passed away. The nation mourned their deaths deeply, as in one cruel twist of fate two generations destined for the throne had been wiped out.

The British monarchy was thrown into a succession crisis and so a desperate ‘baby race’ among King George’s sons to produce a legitimate heir began.

The candidates line up
Due to their advancing years and separations from their wives, the Prince Regent and Prince Frederick (the second son of King George) were quickly ruled out of the race. King George’s oldest three daughters, Charlotte, Augusta, and Elizabeth were beyond childbearing age and his sixth son, Augustus had married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

This left the King’s third, fourth, fifth and seventh sons as the candidates most likely to sire an heir – William Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, Edward, Duke of Kent, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge.

In case the throne was not enough of an incentive, parliament offered to pay off some of the duke's huge debts if they were to be successful.


Dash for the heir
No less than four marriages occurred in 1818 as the children of King George scrambled to secure the throne for their bloodlines. One of which was a double wedding involving German princesses, as William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen and Edward married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. Adolphus married another German princess, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, during the same month of May.

Ernest Augustus married in 1815 and so had a head start on his brothers. He was able to produce a son who was born on 27 May 1819. As did Adolphus, whose son was born a couple of months earlier on 26 March 1819.



An heir is secured
Beating them all to the post (or ‘throne’ shall we say) was Edward and his wife Princess Victoria. The princess gave birth to a daughter on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace. Since Edward was the oldest brother to have sired an heir, his daughter took precedence in the line of succession.

Only the offspring of Edward’s older brother William could stand in Victoria’s way. However, William and Princess Adelaide were unsuccessful in their attempts to have children as Adelaide suffered multiple miscarriages and two infant deaths.

Baby Victoria
Edward and Victoria’s daughter was christened Alexandrina. Remarked as being ‘as plump as a partridge,’ she was soon known by her middle name, Victoria. Edward was thrilled and proudly boasted that her arrival signified ‘the crown will come to me and my children’.

Edward lived long enough to see his daughter born but not long enough to see himself king. He passed away on 23 January 1820 from pneumonia, just six days before his father would die.

George IV ascended to the throne on 29 January and reigned for the next ten years. During that time, his younger brother Frederick passed away, leaving the third son of George III, William as the next in line. And after him, Victoria.

Victoria’s early life
Victoria spent her first few months surrounded by love and luxury. However, that all changed upon the early demise of her father when she was just eight months old. His insurmountable debts made life difficult for Victoria’s mother. Although desperate and impoverished, she was allowed some rooms in Kensington Palace.

Here, she grew close to John Conroy, a man who had been equerry to her late husband. He soon inveigled his way into her life, becoming a trusted confidant. The pair then conspired to control the young Victoria, believing with absolute certainty that one day she would be Queen and they wished to be the power behind the throne.


Kensington System
As Victoria grew older, life in Kensington Palace became increasingly lonely and oppressive. Small enjoyments in her day came from time spent with her little dog, Dash, and her beloved governess, Baroness Lehzen.

The strict regime that her mother and Conroy enforced, which they called the ‘Kensington System’, was invented to keep Victoria well within their control. Described as a system of bullying and surveillance, Victoria was prevented from ever being by herself. It was a very unhappy childhood.


Victoria becomes Queen
On 26 June 1830, George IV died, passing the throne to his younger childless brother William. William ruled for another seven years before passing away on 20 June 1837. On that day, Victoria ascended to the throne aged 18.

The schemes of her mother and Conroy backfired as Victoria broke free of their grip once she became Queen. One of her first acts was to remove her bed from the room she shared with her mother. She then deliberately chose to make her first public appearance without either of them.

Conroy was dismissed a short while later and Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace without her mother. A new life had begun for the young Queen and the country, as she was heralded as ‘The Nation’s Hope.’

21 st June 2012
Migrant boat disaster:
A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.



2012 Indonesian boat disaster

The 2012 Indian Ocean migrant boat disaster occurred on 21 June 2012, when a boat carrying more than 200 refugees capsized in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and the Australian external territory of Christmas Island. 109 people were rescued, 17 bodies were recovered, and approximately 70 people remain missing. The boat's passengers were all male and were mostly from Afghanistan.The boat was discovered by an Australian Customs and Border Protection Service surveillance plane 109 nautical miles (202 km) south of Java at about 3:00 pm AWST. The boat had sent out a distress call on 19 June, but it failed to identify its location. On 20 June, the boat sent out a second distress call, at which point Australian authorities advised the boat to return to Indonesia. The boat was spotted later that day by a surveillance plane as it continued toward Australian waters. "No visual signs of distress" were observed by the plane's crew. Australian authorities then began to prepare to respond when the boat would enter their territory, but it capsized before leaving Indonesian waters.About 40 survivors were found clinging to the upturned boat, while others were found on floating debris up to four miles (6 km) from the disaster's location. Survivors and bodies of the deceased were transported to Christmas Island aboard the patrol boat HMAS Wollongong. Rescue efforts were coordinated by Indonesian authorities with assistance from Australia. Eight Australian and Indonesian ships, plus five Australian aircraft, were still searching for additional survivors on 22 June. Australian Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare stated that the prospect of finding additional survivors was "increasingly grim", due to rough seas.Human traffickers often disable their boats once they have entered Australian waters and send out distress calls to have their "cargo" picked up. Christmas Island is a popular target for asylum seekers, whose journeys sometimes end in tragedy. In a statement, the U.N. refugee agency said the tragedy "reinforces the need for renewed international solidarity and cooperation to find protection options for people".

A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national boundaries and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the contracting state or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) if they formally make a claim for asylum.

The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the UNHCR. The United Nations has a second office for refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is solely responsible for supporting the large majority of Palestinian refugees.

22 nd June 1948


Windrush:
The ship HMT Empire Windrush brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.



For the Windrush passengers who made their life in Britain, the journey to Tilbury was just the beginning - as Mike Phillips explains.


Introduction
The Empire Windrush's voyage from the Caribbean to Tilbury took place in 1948. Believe it or not, very few of the migrants intended to stay in Britain for more than a few years.

If it hadn't been for the Second World War, the Windrush and her passengers might not have made the voyage at all. During the war, thousands of Caribbean men and women had been recruited to serve in the armed forces.

When the Windrush stopped in Jamaica to pick up servicemen who were on leave from their units, many of their former comrades decided to make the trip in order to rejoin the RAF. More adventurous spirits, mostly young men, who had heard about the voyage and simply fancied coming to see England, 'the mother country', doubled their numbers.

an important landmark in the history of modern Britain

June 22nd 1948, the day that the Windrush discharged its passengers at Tilbury, has become an important landmark in the history of modern Britain; and the image of the Caribbeans filing off its gangplank has come to symbolise many of the changes which have taken place here. Caribbean migrants have become a vital part of British society and, in the process, transformed important aspects of British life.

In 1948, Britain was just beginning to recover from the ravages of war. Housing was a huge problem and stayed that way for the next two decades. There was plenty of work, but the Caribbeans first clashed with the natives over the issue of accommodation. But alongside the conflicts and the discrimination, another process was taking place.

Excluded from much of the social and economic life around them, they began to adjust the institutions they brought with them - the churches, and a co-operative method of saving called the 'pardner' system. At the same time, Caribbeans began to participate in institutions to which they did have access: trade unions, local councils, and professional and staff associations.


Identity
By the start of the seventies, West Indians were a familiar and established part of the British population, and they had achieved more than mere survival. One indication of their effect on British life is the Notting Hill Carnival. the carnival took place in the same streets where West Indians had been attacked and pursued by baying crowds, but it began as a celebration, a joyous all-inclusive testimony to the pleasure of being alive. As it developed, it became clear that here was a British festival where everyone was welcome, and everyone who wished to had a part to play.

Throughout the seventies, the children of the first wave of post-war Caribbean migrants began to develop a 'black culture' which is now part of a black British style shared by Africans, Asians and white young people alike.

The people of the Windrush, their children and grandchildren have played a vital role in creating a new concept of what it means to be British. To be British in the present day implies a person who might have their origins in Africa, the Caribbean, China, India, Greece, Turkey or anywhere else in the spectrum of nations.

The now-familiar debate about identity and citizenship was sparked off when the first Caribbeans stepped off the Windrush. Alongside that debate came the development of arguments about the regions within the United Kingdom - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The British national self-image has been thoroughly remodelled in a very short time. Seen against the deadly agonies associated with ethnic conflicts in other European countries, Britain offers the example of a nation, which can live comfortably with a new and inclusive concept of citizenship. In a sense the journey of the Windrush has never ended.

23 rd June 1976


The Hull arsonist:
A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

A Brief History
On June 23, 1973, British serial arsonist and murderer, Bruce George Peter Lee started a fire that killed a 6 year old boy, his first known victim. The fire, like the next 10 that followed was ruled accidental after investigations, and was not found to be arson and murder until Lee confessed after being caught for an 11th fire.

Digging Deeper
Born Peter Dinsdale in 1960, he had changed his name to Lee in honor of martial arts actor Bruce Lee. The son of a prostitute, Lee was born with a birth defect that left him lame on the right side and with a non-functional right arm, as well as spastic and epileptic. He was brought up in a series of children’s homes and was known as “daft Peter” to his neighbors and co-workers.

In 1979 Lee started the fire that killed his last 2 victims (2 fifteen year old boys). When police investigating the incident found antipathy toward the family that lived in the burned house and toward the boys who died, they questioned local teens to discover what enemies the victim family may have had. Lee was questioned among others and admitted setting the fire. He told police the victims had extorted money from him by threatening to tell police they had sexual contact with the 19 year old Lee. Additionally, Lee had taken a liking to the victims’ sister and had been rebuffed in his advances, as well as ridiculed by the rest of the family.

Lee then stunned police with confessions to the other 10 fires, which had killed 24 other people in addition to the 2 teenagers killed in the 1979 fire. Lee plead not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter for the 26 arson-murders, claiming diminished capacity. Among his victims were a 6 month old baby and 11 elderly men. Many more people suffered burns and injury from smoke inhalation.

Lee was shipped off to Rampton Secure Hospital, and the 11 convictions for the elderly men were later overturned when that fire was ruled accidental. Although Lee was accused of the most murders by a British serial killer at the time, the trial of the “Yorkshire Ripper,” Peter Sutcliffe, going on at the same time took most of the publicity from Lees’s trial.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Lee’s confession had not been voluntary, causing the detective that handled the case to sue for libel, which was settled out of court in the detective’s favor in 1987.

24 th June 1943


The battle of Bamber Bridge:
US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.

This WWII battle wasn't against Nazis. It was between Black and white GIs in England



BAMBER BRIDGE, England — In the early 1980s, a Black maintenance worker in northern England noticed what he thought was termite damage in the wooden facade of a bank.

"I flippantly said to my colleagues, 'You've got big termites!'" Clinton Smith, now 70, recalls. "And they looked at me with complete dismay and said, 'No, they're not termite holes, lad — they're bullet holes.'"

They were bullet holes from a deadly World War II battle in Bamber Bridge, a tiny village in the northern English county of Lancashire. What surprised Smith most was that this battle wasn't against the Nazis. It was between Black and white U.S. soldiers stationed nearby.

When American troops deployed to Europe to fight Hitler, they brought Jim Crow with them. And when Black soldiers stationed in Bamber Bridge stood up to the racism and discrimination, one of them was shot dead, and more than 30 others were court-martialed for mutiny.

Ninety years later, they have yet to be exonerated.

The Battle of Bamber Bridge — which took place 80 years ago this weekend, on June 24-25, 1943 — was a precursor to battles that would unfold on American streets for decades to come, during the Civil Rights era. It horrified the mostly white local villagers, who were unaccustomed to segregation and had befriended their Black guests. But because of wartime censorship, the battle was virtually unknown outside the tiny English village where it happened.

Smith, shocked by what colleagues told him about the origin of the bullet holes he'd spotted that day, vowed to change that — and has spent the past 40 years doing so.

The U.S. military was racially segregated
It wasn't until 1948 — after the war — that the U.S. government banned segregation in the armed forces. Before that, the military largely kept white and nonwhite soldiers apart. Military police were tasked with enforcing segregation rules — even while deployed abroad in the United Kingdom.

"In many places, the Army instituted a policy whereby white troops could go into town Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Black troops could go Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays — to keep them apart," says Gregory Cooke, a Black historian and educator from Philadelphia who helped make a 2013 documentary called Choc'late Soldiers from the USA, about Black U.S. soldiers who fought in World War II.

During the war, Black troops who volunteered for combat roles often had to give up their rank and take a pay cut.

"The Army did not want a Black sergeant commanding a white private," Cooke notes.


For his film, he interviewed Black troops who came from the American South, where there had been lynchings — and deployed to Britain, where they were not in danger of such attacks. He says Black veterans told him that for the most part, "white Brits treated Black Americans as Americans, as allies, as equals — and as human beings."

That was especially true, Cooke says, in the little village of Bamber Bridge, population just 12,000. In 1943, it became the temporary wartime home of the U.S. military's 1511th Quartermaster Truck Regiment, a logistics unit staffed by Black soldiers and commanded by white officers. Because of segregation rules, the latter were housed separately, in the nearby city of Preston.

So it was the Black members of that unit whom the locals got to know best.

"They brought their [Black] culture with them, and their dance, that wicked Lindy Hop!" says Chris Lomax, mayor of South Ribble, the borough that includes Bamber Bridge. "We loved it in this country and we joined in."


Tension had been building between Black and white U.S. soldiers in Bamber Bridge
Days before violence broke out in Bamber Bridge, the U.S. experienced some of its worst race riots to date, in Detroit, from June 20-22, 1943. Dozens of people, mostly Black, were killed. In the days that followed, news of those riots reached Black soldiers deployed abroad — and it contributed to their frustration.

"There was an idea that we should be fighting for democracy at home and abroad, but our situation isn't improving. It's bad at home and it's bad here," says Alan Rice, a Black studies expert at the University of Central Lancashire. "[Black soldiers] keep getting stopped by the military police, and there's also the deep fear of miscegenation in the American military police and the white officer class — who just see it as an incredible danger, the fraternization that's going on between Black soldiers and white women from the local community."

(This was a time of frequent lynchings in the U.S. of Black people like Emmett Till, if they were perceived to have made any sexual advances toward white women.)

In Bamber Bridge, all these tensions erupted into violence at a 17th century thatched-roof pub called Ye Olde Hob Inn. It was a popular watering hole where American troops used to drink with locals, around the corner from the Adams Hall Army camp, where Black U.S. troops stayed.

This account of what happened next is based on NPR interviews with historians, activists and Bamber Bridge residents, some of whom are descendants of witnesses to the battle, as well as archive footage of interviews with those witnesses.

Shots ring out in Bamber Bridge
On the night of June 24, 1943, Pvt. Eugene Nunn, who was Black, returned to Bamber Bridge after driving a military supply truck to nearby Manchester. Around closing time, he stopped for a drink at the pub, while he was still in his field uniform. Two white military police, Cpl. Roy Windsor and Pfc. Ralph Ridgeway, tried to reprimand Nunn for not wearing his dress uniform.

"He's in the wrong uniform, he's got a bottle in his hand — and he's Black," says Rice, the historian.

When the military police confronted Nunn at the pub, fellow Black soldiers and white villagers both rushed to his defense, yelling at the white officers. Nunn hadn't done anything wrong, they said. A crowd of about a dozen people formed, and the two white officers were outnumbered, so they retreated. Then someone threw a beer bottle at them.

"The court-martial transcripts spend more time on the amount of beer covering the American military policemen than they do with the subsequent death and injuries," Rice notes. "I think that says a lot."

The white officers vowed to return with reinforcements — and did so, with a machine gun mounted on their Jeep.

Meanwhile, Black soldiers retreated to their barracks, deliberated about what to do, and then decided to raid the local armory. They then confronted the white military police on Station Street, the main thoroughfare in Bamber Bridge.

But before that, Black soldiers "actually went back along the street, advising the locals with whom they'd built up a good relationship to stay indoors because there's going to be trouble," says Smith, the former maintenance worker who now heads the Preston Black History Group. "That's the relationship that they had."

It's unclear who fired first.

At least 400 shots rang out in Bamber Bridge that night, ricocheting down Station Street for five hours. Eunice Byers, who at age 106 is the battle's last surviving witness, recalls watching gunfire outside her window that night.

When the smoke cleared on the morning of June 25, 1943, a Black soldier — Pvt. William Crossland — lay dead in the street.

The price paid for Pvt. Crossland's death
The U.S. military said Crossland died in crossfire. Witnesses said he was shot in the back. He is buried in an American military cemetery in Cambridge, England, with no cause of death listed.

"Sometimes the most important deaths are not the unknown soldiers. They're the soldiers whose narratives tell us so much about the place we were in and the place we are now," says the historian Rice.

Thirty-five of Crossland's Black comrades were court-martialed, and 28 were convicted of taking part in what the U.S. military labeled as a mutiny. They were given prison sentences of three months to 15 years in prison.

Some later had their sentences commuted, so the military could keep them deployed through the end of the war — when it desperately needed the troops.

But they have never been exonerated.

In 1945, when the war ended, the Black convicts of Bamber Bridge returned home as part of what America calls its "greatest generation." They were unlikely to advertise having been involved in what the military called a mutiny, at a time of patriotic fanfare and celebrations about winning the war.

Cooke, the U.S. historian, has been searching for survivors. About 20 years ago, he managed to find just one — an elderly Black veteran living in Colorado.

"And he refused to talk to me about it. Our conversation lasted like no more than two minutes. People in his family may not have known. If he was court-martialed, it's not something he'd come back and voluntarily talk about," Cooke explains. "I got in touch with him 60 years later, and it was probably like reopening a wound for him."

Survivors of the battle would be at least 100 years old by now.

Healing the wounds of Bamber Bridge
The U.S. military has come a long way since segregation. It now has Black officers in its senior ranks, including generals. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is Black. So is President Biden's nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But it is the residents of Bamber Bridge, not U.S. military officials, who have led a push for justice for the Black Americans who briefly lived here — and for the one who died.

"It was about right and wrong, about working-class solidarity," says Danny Lyons, 38, a local welder who recorded oral histories of his elderly neighbors in Bamber Bridge, who remember the battle. A short film by Lyons will be screened during commemorations for the 80th anniversary this weekend.

"You've got [Black GIs] coming over here, they were away from home, they were missing their families, they were fighting the war against fascism — and they've got all that stuff going on at home," Lyons says. "Basically it's about right and wrong."

Another person who's been pushing for justice for the Black convicts of Bamber Bridge is actually a representative of the U.S. government.

"This story gets told whether we're a part of it or not. So let's be a part of it," says Aaron Snipe, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in London. "We're a strong enough democracy to tell the entire story."

Snipe, who is Black, will represent the U.S. government at an academic symposium about the Battle of Bamber Bridge this Friday, on the eve of its 80th anniversary.

"My grandfather was alive during this time period, he worked on a military base in the United States where German prisoners of war were held, and he used to tell us stories about how the German prisoners of war were treated better than many of the African Americans who worked on this base," Snipe says. "So this is part of our history."

Those who fought in Bamber Bridge may have gone to their graves with the story of their alleged mutiny. So their descendants may know nothing about it. But the names of those Black men are still well-known to villagers in England. They will be remembered in a ceremony on the Bamber Bridge village green this weekend.

"Pvt. Nunn, Pvt. Ogletree, Pvt. Wise, and of course William Crossland. There's an awful lot of potential families out there and they've got a lot to be proud of," Rice says. "Their ancestors stood up against the racism of a segregated army, and also made a great impression on local people here who were very proud to have them in their town."

25 th June 1848

                   Photojournalism:
                                            A photograph taken of the June Days uprising becomes the first known instance of photojournalism.

The First Photograph Ever Used In News.

Everyone has heard the old phrase that a photo is worth a thousand words. Photography has become a ubiquitous part of how people view and consume news in the modern world. Cable news has, literal, twenty four seven coverage of world events that are continuously displayed in photo and video format. Newspapers spent countless hours and dollars finding and framing the perfect photos for their front pages. Today, most people can’t fathom consuming news without photography.

But there was a time when news had no images attached to it, only words. In fact, before photography, most news outlets did not even illustrate the news, they relied on eyewitness accounts and reporting alone.

Early news illustration was akin to modern sketches seen from the inside of courtrooms where cameras are not allowed. They were hastily drawn and colored images depicting large events.

The first illustration in a newspaper did not ship until 1806.

The first photograph to appear in a newspaper was not printed until 1848.

The first ever journalistic photograph
The first ever photograph to be printed alongside print news occurred on July 1st, 1848. The French weekly periodical L’Illustration published the photograph that showed Parisian streets barricaded due to a worker’s strike known as the June Days Uprising. This was a protest that took place from June 22nd to June 26th regarding worker’s rights in France. The weekly newspaper ran from July 1st to July 8th and detailed the events of the strike the week prior.

The first photographs published in newspapers were taken from engravings. A photo had to be developed and then turned into the engraving so that it could be printed in with ink and paper.

Interestingly enough, L’Illustration was also the first newspaper to publish a raw photograph without the engraving as well as the first paper to publish a color photograph in 1891 and 1907 respectively.    

                   
                                                 This is the first photo ever used in journalism.

26 th June 1974

First barcode:
The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

The invention of the barcode can be traced back to the late 1940s, and while it can be seen on just about every product today, it wasn’t a commercial success until the 1980s. The first barcode didn’t look like it does today, either.

In 1948, a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia named Bernard Silver overheard a supermarket chain president asking the dean of his college to come up with a better way to speed up the checkout process at his supermarkets. While the dean didn’t act on the request, Silver thought it was an intriguing idea. He told his friend who was an inventor named Joe Woodland about the idea, and Woodland agreed to try to find a solution.

Woodland began working on the problem in 1948 and even left his graduate school to devote time to reach his goal. He came up with a solution in an unlikely place in 1949. While he was sitting on a beach in Miami, he began to think that Morse Code could be the answer. He started to poke his fingers into the sand, but instead of using dashes and dots, he drew out thick and narrow lines. He then made the lines into a circle.

Woodland joined Silver in Philadelphia and began to work on the new system Woodland had discovered in the sand in Miami. They were eventually granted a patent in 1952 for their idea. But the problem became that the technology wasn’t in place to use their new idea. There wasn’t a computer that could process the new code, and there wasn’t a light bright enough that could discern between the black and white bars.


It would be another 20 years before the technology caught up with what the circular barcode was supposed to do. RCA began researching how customers could have their items scanned at a supermarket to speed up the shopping process. The researchers came across the patent for the circular bar code, or “bull’s-eye,” that had been invented by Woodland and Silver in 1952 and decided to use the barcode in their design.

On July 3, 1972, RCA installed an automated check stand at a Kroger grocery store in Cincinnati, Ohio. While the circular barcode proved successful in the one store, in order to be used nationwide, the barcode would have to be universal.

Next came the daunting task of convincing supermarkets and other retailers to all use the same code for a specific product, and no one could agree what that code might look like. It finally came down to seven companies that bid on what the code would be. They submitted their bids to the Symbol Committee, which was a part of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Universal Product Identification Code and the group that was in charge of coming up with a universal barcode for products.

While RCA had shown that the code could be used successfully, a late bid by IBM upstaged their bid. IBM had no technology in place for a barcode checkout system, and they weren’t familiar with the system RCA had implemented. IBM gave the task of coming up with a new bar code to George Laurer. The specifications from the Symbol Committee were that the barcode had to be a specific size and small, it had to use technology that was readily available, and it had to be read from any direction when placed across a scanner.

Laurer came up with the familiar rectangular barcode we know today. His design won over the circular design of the original barcode and was named the Universal Product Code, or UPC. On June 26, 1974, the UPC barcode was used for the first time in Troy, Ohio, at Marsh Supermarket. The first product that was scanned with the new barcode was a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

The choice of a pack of gum as the first product to be scanned wasn’t just by chance. Clyde Dawson, the head of research and development for Marsh Supermarket, was the first shopper to use the new scanning system, and he picked the gum because he wasn’t sure that a barcode could fit and be read on a product that was so small.

The pack of gum and the receipt from the transaction are on display in the Smithsonian Institution. It took a while for the UPC to catch on, however, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that the UPC on products became widely implemented.

28 th June 1838

                         Coronation:
                                           Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

                  The true story of Queen Victoria's 'botched' coronation in 1838
By Maddison Leach| 3 years ago

When most people think of royal coronations, they imagine scenes of splendour that have been planned down to the second and go off without a hitch.

But according to historians, that's not really how many coronations played out, especially not for Queen Victoria.

Hers was considered the last in a series of "botched" coronations that were poorly rehearsed and, as a result, plagued with mistakes and mishaps.

Victoria was crowned Queen of England on 28 June 1838, just over a month after her 19th birthday and a year after she officially succeeded to the throne following her uncle King William IV's death.

According to Victoria's diaries, she only visited Westminster Abbey – where her coronation was held – the night before the event, and only on the insistence of then-Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.


But historian Roy Strong doubted the young Queen had any clue of how the ceremony was supposed to run, adding no one involved had actually rehearsed.


The lack of preparation left plenty of room for error and Benjamin Disraeli, a politician who attended the ceremony, said the whole thing left a lot to be desired.

"[Those involved in the coronation] were always in doubt as to what came next, and you saw the want of rehearsal," he wrote around the time of the 1838 ceremony.

Even the Archbishop who was leading the ceremony made a mistake or two, Victoria recalling it in her journal.

"The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain," she wrote.

                       
Queen Victoria wearing the clothes and the insignia from her coronation. (De Agostini via Getty Images)

During the coronation, which ran for a whopping five hours, Queen Victoria also changed outfits twice, and the royal family were seen ducking out of the main Abbey and into St Edward's Chapel.

There, they supposedly had "sandwiches and bottles of wine" to munch on during the obscenely long occasion.

Though the ceremony dragged on and there were several blunders throughout, the biggest mistake came when an elderly lord almost sustained a serious injury by falling down a flight of steps.

Queen Victoria recounted the accident in her journal, writing: "Poor old Lord Rolles, who is 82 and dreadfully infirm, fell, in attempting to ascend the steps.

"Rolled right down, but was not the least hurt. When he attempted again to ascend the steps, I advanced to the edge, in order to prevent another fall."


The young Queen's move to protect the ageing lord from a second fall endeared her to the crowd, and to Lord Rolle himself, we're sure.

Thankfully, nothing truly catastrophic happened on the day of the Queen's coronation – though it was a near miss with Lord Rolle.

And the Queen herself seemed happy with the ceremony, writing: "The enthusiasm, affection, and loyalty [of the crowds] were really touching, and I shall remember this day as the Proudest of my life!"

It also ushered in a new era of coronations that were actually planned and rehearsed in advance, likely in an attempt to avoid any awkward blunders like those Victoria endured.

A big apology folks for a mix up , the above (Queen Victoria's coronation) was on  the
  28TH so should be today's post , Soooo todays is yesterdays history


              27 th June 1556

    The Stratford Martyrs:
                                    The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.

                   
June 27, 1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.

The Stratford Martyrs were eleven men and two women who were burned at the stake together for their Protestant beliefs near London (the exact location is disputed), on 27 June 1556 during the Marian persecutions.  A detailed description of the event is in John Foxe's book, The Acts and Monuments. Foxe lists those executed: Henry Adlington, a sawyer of Grinstead, Laurence Pernam, a smith of Hoddesdon, Henry Wye, a brewer of Stanford-le-Hope, William Halliwel, a smith of Waltham Holy Cross, Thomas Bowyer, a weaver of Great Dunmow, George Searles, a tailor of White Notley, Edmund Hurst, a labourer of Colchester, Lyon Cawch, a Flemish merchant of the City of London, Ralph Jackson, a servant of Chipping Ongar, John Derifall, a labourer of Rettendon, John Routh, a labourer of Wix, Elizabeth Pepper of Colchester who was pregnant, and Agnes George of West Bergholt. A further three men, Thomas Freeman, William Stannard, and William Adams, were given a dispensation by Cardinal Pole, the Archbishop of Canterbury, because they had recanted although Foxe is dubious about that. The 16 accused had been brought to Newgate in London from various parts of Essex and Hertfordshire. Beginning on 6 June 1556, at an ecclesiastical tribunal under the direction of Thomas Darbyshire, the chancellor of Edmund Bonner the Bishop of London, they were charged with nine counts of heresy, to which they all either assented or remained silent. All of them were condemned to death and later published a letter detailing their beliefs in rebuttal of a sermon that had been preached against them by John Feckenham, the Dean of St Paul's. On 27 June 1556, the remaining 13 were brought from London to Stratford, where the party was divided into two and held "in several chambers". Here, the sheriff unsuccessfully attempted to persuade each group to recant, by telling them falsely that the other group had already done so.

The executions were said to have been attended by a crowd of 20,000. The exact place of the execution is unknown; the most likely site is thought to have been Fair Field in Bow (then known as Stratford-le-Bow), north of the present day Bow Church DLR station. An alternative suggested location is Stratford Green, much of which is now occupied by the University of East London Stratford Campus. This theory seems to date only from the erection of a monument to the martyrs in the nearby churchyard of the Parish Church of St John the Evangelist in 1879. According to Foxe, "eleven men were tied to three stakes, and the two women loose in the midst without any stake; and so they were all burnt in one fire".

I'd never have known

Lolly , i got that de-ja vu , twilight zone feeling when i put up
events for the 28th i must have moved along the calendar a bit
when i put 27 th in yesterday

29 th JUne 1971

Disasters in space:
Prior to re-entry (following a record-setting stay aboard the Soviet Union’s Salyut 1 space station), the crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurizes, killing the three cosmonauts on board. Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev are the first humans to die in space.


Soyuz 11: Disaster in Space

Space exploration is dangerous. Just ask the astronauts and cosmonauts who do it. They train for safe space flight and the agencies who send them to space work very hard to make conditions as safe as possible. Astronauts will tell you that while it looks like fun, space flight is (like any other extreme flight) comes with its own set of dangers. This is something the crew of Soyuz 11 found out too late, from a small malfunction that ended their lives.

A Loss for the Soviets
Both American and Soviet space programs have lost astronauts in the line of duty. The Soviets' biggest major tragedy came after they lost the race to the Moon. After the Americans landed Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, the Soviet space agency turned its attention towards constructing space stations, a task they became quite good at, but not without problems.

Their first station was called Salyut 1 and was launched on April 19, 1971. It was the earliest predecessor for the later Skylab and the current International Space Station missions. The Soviets built Salyut 1 primarily to study the effects of long-term space flight on humans, plants, and for meteorological research. It also included a spectrogram telescope, Orion 1, and gamma-ray telescope Anna III. Both were used for astronomical studies. It was all very ambitious, but the very first crewed flight to the station in 1971 ended in disaster.

A Troubled Beginning
Salyut 1’s first crew launched aboard Soyuz 10 on April 22, 1971. Cosmonauts Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Yeliseyev, and Nikolai Rukavishnikov were aboard. When they reached the station and attempted to dock on April 24, the hatch would not open. After making a second attempt, the mission was canceled and the crew returned home. Problems occurred during reentry and the ship’s air supply became toxic. Nikolai Rukavishnikov passed out, but he and the other two men recovered fully.

The next Salyut crew, scheduled to launch aboard Soyuz 11, were three experienced fliers: Valery Kubasov, Alexei Leonov, and Pyotr Kolodin. Prior to launch, Kubasov was suspected of having contracted tuberculosis, which caused the Soviet space authorities to replace this crew with their backups, Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, who launched on June 6, 1971.

A Successful Docking
After the docking problems that Soyuz 10 experienced, the Soyuz 11 crew used automated systems to maneuver within a hundred meters of the station. Then they hand-docked the ship. However, problems plagued this mission, too. The primary instrument aboard the station, the Orion telescope, would not function because its cover failed to jettison. The cramped working conditions and a personality clash between the commander Dobrovolskiy (a rookie) and the veteran Volkov made it very difficult to conduct experiments. After a small fire flared up, the mission was cut short and the astronauts departed after 24 days, instead of the planned 30. Despite these problems, the mission was still considered a success.

Disaster Strikes
Shortly after Soyuz 11 undocked and made an initial retrofire, communication was lost with the crew far earlier than normal. Usually, contact is lost during the atmospheric re-entry, which is to be expected. Contact with the crew was lost long before the capsule entered the atmosphere. It descended and made a soft landing and was recovered on June 29, 1971, 23:17 GMT. When the hatch was opened, rescue personnel found all three crew members dead. What could have happened?

Space tragedies require thorough investigation so that mission planners can understand what happened and why. The Soviet space agency's investigation showed that a valve which was not supposed to open until an altitude of four kilometers was reached had been jerked open during the undocking maneuver. This caused the cosmonauts' oxygen to bleed into space. The crew tried to close the valve but ran out of time. Due to space limitations, they were not wearing space suits. The official Soviet document on the accident explained more fully:

"At approximately 723 seconds after retrofire, the 12 Soyuz pyro cartridges fired simultaneously instead of sequentially to separate the two modules .... the force of the discharge caused the internal mechanism of the pressure equalization valve to release a seal that was usually discarded pyrotechnically much later to adjust the cabin pressure automatically. When the valve opened at a height of 168 kilometers the gradual but steady loss of pressure was fatal to the crew within about 30 seconds. By 935 seconds after retrofire, the cabin pressure had dropped to zero...only thorough analysis of telemetry records of the attitude control system thruster firings that had been made to counteract the force of the escaping gases and through the pyrotechnic powder traces found in the throat of the pressure equalization valve were Soviet specialists able to determine that the valve had malfunctioned and had been the sole cause of the deaths."
The End of Salyut
The USSR did not send any other crews to Salyut 1. It was later deorbited and burned up on reentry. Later crews were limited to two cosmonauts, to allow room for the required space suits during take-off and landing. It was a bitter lesson in spacecraft design and safety, for which three men paid with their lives.

At latest count, 18 space fliers (including the crew of Salyut 1) have died in accidents and malfunctions. As humans continue to explore space, there will be more deaths, because space is, as the late astronaut Gus Grissom once pointed out, a risky business. He also said that the conquest of space is worth the risk of life, and people in space agencies around the world today recognize that risk even as they seek to explore beyond Earth.

30 th June 1937

999:
The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.


1937: The World’s First Emergency Telephone Number – 999



This happened in London, and the mentioned number became the first emergency telephone number in the world. Before that, in case of emergency, the typical procedure was as follows: people would dial zero, an operator would answer the phone, and connect the caller to the required service (like an ordinary telephone call).

But operators were busy with ordinary calls, and emergency calls had to wait without any priority. After the introduction of 999 number, the procedure was changed: when people dial 999, a red light and specific sound would suggest that is an emergency call, and operators have to give priority to answering the phone.

But why was the number 999? At the time, people had to turn a telephone dial to get a number. In the dark or in dense smoke, 999 could be dialed by placing a finger one hole away from the dial stop, and rotating a dial to the full extent three times. On the other hand, the number 111 could be dialed accidentally, including when transmission wires made momentary contact produce a pulse similar to dialing.

Today, when people use touchscreen phones, the number 999 is not so good, and can be dialed by mistake. Thus, the emergency number 112 is used in Europe, and 911 in the USA. It is interesting to note that the number 999 is still used in the UK (for emergency calls), in addition to 112.

1 st July 2007

   No smoking:
                     Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.


                     
How has the smoking ban changed our health?

This summer marks 16 years since UK citizens were banned from smoking in enclosed public spaces. Lucy Trevallion looks at how it’s changed our health.

Hazy pubs and cigarette-scented restaurants are now nothing more than a memory. sixteen years ago – on 1 July 2007 – it became illegal to smoke in any pub, restaurant, nightclub, and most workplaces and work vehicles, anywhere in the UK.

The smoking ban had already been introduced in Scotland (in March 2006), Wales and Northern Ireland (April 2007). Breaching the law is punishable by a fine, and millions were set aside to help enforce it.

Toby Green, Tobacco Policy Lead at the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), says the ban was “one of the biggest public health interventions we’ve seen in the last 15 years”.

Before the ban there was a large body of research linking passive smoking to health problems. Studies showed breathing in second-hand smoke increased an adult non-smoker’s risk of lung cancer and heart disease by a quarter, and of stroke by 30 per cent.

Breathing in other people’s smoke is particularly harmful for children because their lungs are still developing, resulting in a higher risk of respiratory infections, asthma, bacterial meningitis and cot death.

What effect did the smoking ban have?
“Directly after the legislation, more people were trying to quit smoking, and more people succeeded because it’s much easier to avoid those situations,” says Hazel Cheeseman, Director of Policy at ASH (Action on Smoking and Health).

Research in the British Medical Journal estimated there were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in the year following the ban – improved air quality and fewer smokers will have contributed to this.

In 2006, 22 per cent of adults smoked, whereas in the latest statistics (2015) 18 per cent did. This is part of a gradual decline in UK smoking rates since 1974, when the government first began gathering this data.

In UK bars before the ban, air pollution from cigarette smoke was much higher than the ‘unhealthy’ threshold for outdoor air quality (set by the US Environmental Protection Agency), a University of Bath study found. Levels in Scottish and Welsh bars were often twice as high as in English bars. After the ban, air pollution in UK bars reduced by as much as 93 per cent.

After the ban, air pollution in UK bars reduced by as much as 93 per cent

“There was concern that if people can’t go to the pub and smoke they might stay home and smoke around their children, but the opposite has been true,” says Hazel. “We’ve seen a great shift to people smoking outside, so most children in the UK now live in smoke-free homes.”

A Glasgow University study showed that, before the smoking ban, the number of hospital admissions of children with asthma was increasing on average by five per cent each year in Scotland. In the three years after the ban, admissions decreased 18 per cent per year.

In the three months after the ban there was a 6.3 per cent drop in the volume of cigarettes sold in England.

As you can in our ten year timeline, the smoking ban is one of a series of moves to discourage smoking. “The ban is part of a trend towards policies that denormalise smoking,” Toby says. “It helped create a shift in culture.”

The BHF is proud to have campaigned to reduce the use and harm of tobacco, working closely with ASH. We’re active members of the Smokefree Action Coalition, and continue to fund research into the link between air pollution and premature death. Hazel says: “The value of the BHF’s continued support and funding cannot be overestimated.”

2 nd July 1937

Amelia:
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight

On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging leg of the global journey: Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, a tiny island 2,227 nautical miles away, in the center of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca was in sporadic radio contact with Earhart as she approached Howland Island and received messages that she was lost and running low on fuel. Soon after, she probably tried to ditch the Lockheed in the ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897. She took up aviation at the age of 24 and later gained publicity as one of the earliest female aviators. In 1928, the publisher George P. Putnam suggested Earhart become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The previous year, Charles A. Lindbergh had flown solo nonstop across the Atlantic, and Putnam had made a fortune off Lindbergh’s autobiographical book We.

In June 1928, Earhart and two men flew from Newfoundland, Canada, to Wales, Great Britain. Although Earhart’s only function during the crossing was to keep the plane’s log, the flight won her great fame, and Americans were enamored of the daring young pilot. The three were honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York, and “Lady Lindy,” as Earhart was dubbed, was given a White House reception by President Calvin Coolidge.


Earhart wrote a book about the flight for Putnam, whom she married in 1931, and gave lectures and continued her flying career under her maiden name. On May 20, 1932, she took off alone from Newfoundland in a Lockheed Vega on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight by a woman. She was bound for Paris but was blown off course and landed in Ireland on May 21 after flying more than 2,000 miles in just under 15 hours. It was the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s historic flight, and before Earhart no one had attempted to repeat his solo transatlantic flight. For her achievement, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress. Three months later, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the continental United States.

In 1935, in the first flight of its kind, she flew solo from Wheeler Field in Honolulu to Oakland, California, winning a $10,000 award posted by Hawaiian commercial interests. Later that year, she was appointed a consultant in careers for women at Purdue University, and the school bought her a modern Lockheed Electra aircraft to be used as a “flying laboratory.”

On March 17, 1937, she took off from Oakland and flew west on an around-the-world attempt. It would not be the first global flight, but it would be the longest–29,000 miles, following an equatorial route. Accompanying Earhart in the Lockheed was Frederick Noonan, her navigator and a former Pan American pilot. After resting and refueling in Honolulu, the trio prepared to resume the flight. However, while taking off for Howland Island, Earhart ground-looped the plane on the runway, perhaps because of a blown tire, and the Lockheed was seriously damaged. The flight was called off, and the aircraft was shipped back to California for repairs.

In May, Earhart flew the newly rebuilt plane to Miami, from where Noonan and she would make a new around-the-world attempt, this time from west to east. They left Miami on June 1, and after stops in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, they arrived at Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. About 22,000 miles of the journey had been completed, and the last 7,000 miles would all be over the Pacific Ocean. The next destination was Howland Island, a tiny U.S.-owned island that was just a few miles long. The U.S. Department of Commerce had a weather observation station and a landing strip on the island, and the staff was ready with fuel and supplies. Several U.S. ships, including the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, were deployed to aid Earhart and Noonan in this difficult leg of their journey.

As the Lockheed approached Howland Island, Earhart radioed the Itasca and explained that she was low on fuel. However, after several hours of frustrating attempts, two-way communication was only briefly established, and the Itasca was unable to pinpoint the Lockheed’s location or offer navigational information. Earhart circled the Itasca‘s position but was unable to sight the ship, which was sending out miles of black smoke. She radioed “one-half hour fuel and no landfall” and later tried to give information on her position. Soon after, contact was lost, and Earhart presumably tried to land the Lockheed on the water.

If her landing on the water was perfect, Earhart and Noonan might have had time to escape the aircraft with a life raft and survival equipment before it sank. An intensive search of the vicinity by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy found no physical evidence of the fliers or their plane.

3 rd July 1938

Steam train speed records:
World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h)

On This Day: Mallard Breaks Steam Locomotive World Speed Record



Mallard breaks steam locomotive world speed record
On 3 July 1938, the A4 class locomotive Mallard raced down Stoke Bank at 126mph to set a new steam locomotive world speed record. That record still stands.

Built in Doncaster in March 1938, Mallard was one of thirty-five A4 Pacific class locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, Chief Engineer for LNER.

The A4 class were introduced in 1935. The first batch consisted of four locomotives which were painted silver-grey, the first of which was “Silver Link”. By 1938 the standard colour for streamlined LNER locomotives was garter blue, with locomotives being repainted as they came through workshops for maintenance.

Its innovative streamlined wedge-shaped design bore no resemblance to the preceding A3 class, with speed was seen as the symbol of modernity in the 1930s. The A4 class cut the journey time from London King’s Cross to Newcastle to four hours.

Nigel Gresley and his team at LNER had been working to implement changes to Mallard to not only beat the then British steam record of 114 mph held by the LMS, but also the world record held by Germany’s DRG’s Class 5 locomotive – which reached 124.5mph two years prior in 1936.

Racing down Stoke Bank, with experienced Joe Duddington the steam locomotive’s driver alongside fireman Thomas Bray, the dynamometer car behind Mallard recorded 120mph, which saw off the LMS’s record.

However, there was a small window before the crew needed to slow down for the Essendine curves, so the team accelerated even more. For a quarter of a mile, the dynamometer car confirmed the train was travelling at 126 mph. The German record was now beaten.


Stories claimed that the train rocked so violently that dining car crockery smashed, and red-hot, bullet-like cinders from the locomotive broke windows at Little Bytham. The force exerted by the brakes being applied caused Mallard’s big end bearing to run hot, and a slow run to Peterborough was needed to prevent Mallard from being written off.

It was believed that Gresley wanted to beat his own record, and planned another run in September 1939 to reach 130mph, but the Second World War stopped this attempt.

Mallard eventually retired from service in 1963 and was subsequently preserved in 1964 by the British Transport Commission, before entering the National Railway Museum’s collection in 1975. It was restored to working order at York, between 1982 and 1988 and completed a limited number of runs until 1989.

Mallard is now one of only six remaining A4 Pacifics. Today Mallard is one of the highlights of the National Railway Museum.