Today in history

16 th September 1620

                 The Mayflower and the Pilgrim fathers :
                                                                          A determined band of 35 religious dissenters – Pilgrims set sail for Virginia from Plymouth, England in the Mayflower, jubilant at the prospect of practicing their unorthodox brand of worship in the New World.

                   On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the Americas with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists—half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs—had been authorized to settle by the British crown. However, stormy weather and navigational errors forced the Mayflower off course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims” reached Massachusetts, where they founded the first permanent European settlement in New England in late December.

Thirty-five of the Pilgrims were members of the radical English Separatist Church, who traveled to America to escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which they found corrupt. Ten years earlier, English persecution had led a group of Separatists to flee to Holland in search of religious freedom. However, many were dissatisfied with economic opportunities in the Netherlands, and under the direction of William Bradford they decided to immigrate to Virginia, where an English colony had been founded at Jamestown in 1607.

The Separatists won financial backing from a group of investors called the London Adventurers, who were promised a sizable share of the colony’s profits. Three dozen church members made their way back to England, where they were joined by about 70 entrepreneurs–enlisted by the London stock company to ensure the success of the enterprise. In August 1620, the Mayflower left Southampton with a smaller vessel–the Speedwell–but the latter proved unseaworthy and twice was forced to return to port. On September 16, the Mayflower left for America alone from Plymouth.

In a difficult Atlantic crossing, the 90-foot Mayflower encountered rough seas and storms and was blown more than 500 miles off course. Along the way, the settlers formulated and signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that bound the signatories into a “civil body politic.” Because it established constitutional law and the rule of the majority, the compact is regarded as an important precursor to American democracy. After a 66-day voyage, the ship landed on November 21 on the tip of Cape Cod at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts.

After coming to anchor in Provincetown harbor, a party of armed men under the command of Captain Myles Standish was sent out to explore the area and find a location suitable for settlement. While they were gone, Susanna White gave birth to a son, Peregrine, aboard the Mayflower. He was the first English child born in New England. In mid-December, the explorers went ashore at a location across Cape Cod Bay where they found cleared fields and plentiful running water and named the site Plymouth.

The expedition returned to Provincetown, and on December 21 the Mayflower came to anchor in Plymouth harbor. Just after Christmas, the pilgrims began work on dwellings that would shelter them through their difficult first winter in America.

In the first year of settlement, half the colonists died of disease. In 1621, the health and economic condition of the colonists improved, and that autumn Governor William Bradford invited neighboring Indians to Plymouth to celebrate the bounty of that year’s harvest season. Plymouth soon secured treaties with most local Indian tribes, and the economy steadily grew, and more colonists were attracted to the settlement. By the mid 1640s, Plymouth’s population numbered 3,000 people, but by then the settlement had been overshadowed by the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony to the north, settled by Puritans in 1629.

The term “Pilgrim” was not used to describe the Plymouth colonists until the early 19th century and was derived from a manuscript in which Governor Bradford spoke of the “saints” who left Holland as “pilgrimes.” The orator Daniel Webster spoke of “Pilgrim Fathers” at a bicentennial celebration of Plymouth’s founding in 1820, and thereafter the term entered common usage.

17 th September 1908

Worlds first aviation fatality:
The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality.


Sept. 17, 1908: First Airplane Passenger Death
1908: During flight trials to win a contract from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, pilot Orville Wright and passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge crash in a Wright Flyer at Fort Myer, Virginia. Wright is injured, and Selfridge becomes the first passenger to die in an airplane accident. After Wilbur and Orville Wright made their historic first-ever .



1908: During flight trials to win a contract from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, pilot Orville Wright and passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge crash in a Wright Flyer at Fort Myer, Virginia. Wright is injured, and Selfridge becomes the first passenger to die in an airplane accident.

After Wilbur and Orville Wright made their historic first-ever airplane flight Dec. 17, 1903, they spent the next few years largely in seclusion developing their new invention. By the end of 1905 their interest in aviation had changed from curiosity and the challenge of flying, to the business of how to turn aviation into an industry: They were looking for a business model.

Unfortunately their first attempts to attract the United States government to the idea of using airplanes were turned down. The military just didn't see how the airplane could be used in any practical way.

For two-and-a-half years the Wright brothers did not fly. They continued to work on their airplane, but put more and more time into building the business. Eventually they were able to attract interest from both the French and British governments, but by 1907 they still did not have any firm contracts.

But the Wright brothers were awarded two contracts in 1908: one from the U.S. Army and the other from a French business. The Army contract was for a bid to fly a two-man "heavier-than-air" flying machine that would have to complete a series of trials over a measured course. In addition to the $25,000 (about $600,000 in today's buying power) bid, the brothers would receive a $2,500 bonus for every mile per hour of speed faster than 40 mph. No supersonic stealth fighters just yet.

Because they had not flown since October 1905, the brothers returned to Kitty Hawk to test their new controls to be used on the Wright Flyer in the Army flight trials. Despite some difficulty getting used to the new controls, both brothers managed to get some practice flying in during the stay in North Carolina.

Wilbur was in France during the summer of 1908 demonstrating the new Wright Flyer to Europeans (video). Orville remained in the United States and on Sept. 3 made his first flight at Fort Myer, where the Army trials were set to begin.

The flight tests set out by the Army required the airplane to carry two people for a set duration, distance and speed. There was a committee of five officers to evaluate the Wright Flyer's performance, including the 26-year-old Selfridge.

Selfridge was a member of the Aerial Experiment Association and had designed the group's first powered airplane. The Red Wingfirst flew on March 12, 1908, but crashed and was destroyed on its second flight a few days later.

During the first two weeks of September Orville made 15 flights at Fort Myer. He set three world records Sept. 9, including a 62-minute flight and the first public passenger flight. By Sept. 12 Orville had flown more than 74 minutes in a single flight and carried Maj. George Squier for more than 9 minutes in one flight.


On Sept. 17 Orville was flying Selfridge on another of the test flights. Three or four minutes into the flight, a blade on one of the two wooden propellers split and caused the engine to shake violently. Orville shut down the engine but was unable to control the airplane.

The propeller had hit a bracing wire and pulled a rear rudder from the vertical position to a horizontal position. This caused the airplane to pitch nose-down, and it could not be countered by the pilot.

The Wright Flyer hit the ground hard, and both men were injured. Orville suffered a fractured leg and several broken ribs. Selfridge suffered a fractured skull and died in the hospital a few hours later.

Despite the crash, and the first passenger death in an airplane, the Army was significantly impressed with the Wright Flyer and allowed the brothers to complete the trials the following year. They were awarded the contract. Along with success in France, the Wright brothers were well on their way to establishing what would become one of the most successful aviation companies during the early days of flying.

Because of the crash, the first Army pilots were required to wear helmets similar to early football helmets in order to minimize the chance of a head injury like the one that killed Selfridge.

Though the early days of aviation continued to be full of danger, airplane travel today is statistically one of the safest modes of transportation based on passenger miles traveled. Between 1995 and 2000 there were about 3 deaths per 10 billion passenger miles flown.

18 th September 1879


   First Leets :
                   The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.

                 The history of the Blackpool illuminations dates way back to 1879. Yet, the resort was already extremely popular far before this date.

The first illuminations were just a row of eight arc lamps positioned on 60-ft poles along the seafront. When the lights were first installed, members of the public branded them as ‘artificial sunshine’. Many travelled from all around the country just to see them – so you can just imagine what a spectacle they must have been at the time.

The introduction of the illuminations was just a year before the electric light bulb was introduced. Homes would have been lit by candles or oil lamps in this period.

Blackpool 1912
The static illuminations which are in operation today were introduced in 1912. In May of that year, Princess Louise attended the occasion and officially opened a new section of the promenade. This was in fact, Blackpool’s very first royal visit. As the lights had gained huge popularity, it was clear there was huge potential for the seaside town. The council decided they would re-light the illuminations in September.



Blackpool 1914-1925
Due to the outbreak of World War One, the Blackpool illuminations were put on hold for several years. With an eleven-year break, they were re-introduced bigger and better than ever. A huge animated tableau was added to the impressive display. The Blackpool illuminations now stretched an impressive six miles – from Manchester Square to Cocker Square.

The illuminations were put into operation for 31 days. By 1929, all three of the piers were lit up. In the same year, the illuminated Gondola tram was introduced which became a real sensation.

Blackpool 1930s and 1940s
The 1930’s was another dark decade in the history of the Blackpool illuminations due to the outbreak of World War Two. The country was in extreme destitution; therefore, the lights weren’t switched back on until 1949 by actress, Anne Neagle.



Blackpool 1950s onwards
Luckily, there have been no other interruptions within the history of the Blackpool Illuminations. Each year since, the display has certainly shown something completely unique and a host of celebrities have pressed that famous switch. Some of the most recognisable names include the likes of George Formby, Gracie Fields, Kermit the Frog and Ken Dodd.

Blackpool Today
Over the years, the Blackpool Illuminations have become associated with the seaside town. Many from around the country still visit to see the lights switch on which has certainly proved their longevity. Throughout the history of the Blackpool illuminations, the display has got bigger and better each year. The display costs Blackpool around £1.9 million each year to put into action. A huge 65,000 hours are spent on the preparation, with a team of electricians, painters and engineers working together to ensure the light switch on is a success.

In 2007, Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen, best-known for presenting the BBC show changing Rooms had big ideas for the display. He wished to create a very special feature just outside of the Blackpool Tower named ‘Decodance’. He created this as a tribute to the glamour of the town in times gone by and has consequently become a symbol of the history of the Blackpool illuminations.

The electricity consumption has also reduced by half in recent years, due to the innovation of low voltage lamps and processor controls.


Ride The Lights – Get on your bike and Ride the Lights! – An Exciting Preview of Blackpool Illuminations

Ride any point along the promenade (Starr Gate, South Shore to Red Bank Road, Bispham). Ride as little or as much as you want or are able.

Ride The Lights is not a bike race, it aims to be FUN, FREE and is Family Friendly, open to all. Create the best lit bike Blackpool will ever see!

A great opportunity not to be missed.

19 th September 1991

Otzi the Iceman:
Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.

Ötzi
Neolithic mummified human

Ötzi, also called Iceman, also spelled Ice Man, an ancient mummified human body that was found by a German tourist, Helmut Simon, on the Similaun Glacier in the Tirolean Ötztal Alps, on the Italian-Austrian border, on September 19, 1991. Radiocarbon-dated to 3300 BCE, the body is that of a man aged 25 to 35 who had been about 1.6 metres (5 feet 2 inches) tall and had weighed about 50 kg (110 pounds). Initially it was thought that he had fallen victim to exposure or exhaustion while crossing the Alps and died of freezing, but X-ray examination in 2001 showed that an arrowhead was lodged in the Iceman’s left shoulder, suggesting that he had likely bled to death after being shot. The small rocky hollow in which he lay down to die was soon covered (and protected) by glacial ice that happened to be melting 5,300 years later when his body was discovered by modern humans. His nickname, Ötzi, stems from the Ötztal Alps, where he was found.

It was at first believed that the Iceman was free of diseases, but in 2007 researchers discovered that his body had been infested with whipworm and that he had suffered from arthritis; neither of these conditions contributed to his death. He also at one time had broken his nose and several ribs. His few remaining scalp hairs provide the earliest archaeological evidence of haircutting, and short blue lines on his skin (lower spine, left leg, and right ankle) have been variously interpreted as the earliest known tattoos or as scars remaining from a Neolithic therapeutic procedure.

The various clothes and accoutrements found with him are truly remarkable, since they formed the gear of a Neolithic traveler. The Iceman’s basic piece of clothing was an unlined fur robe stitched together from pieces of ibex, chamois, and deer skin. A woven grass cape and a furry cap provided additional protection from the cold, and he wore shoes made of leather and stuffed with grass. The Iceman was equipped with a small copper-bladed axe and a flint dagger, both with wooden handles; 14 arrows made of viburnum and dogwood, two of which had flint points and feathers; a fur arrow quiver and a bow made of yew; a grass net that may have served as a sack; a leather pouch; and a U-shaped wooden frame that apparently served as a backpack to carry this gear. His scant food supply consisted of a sloeberry, mushrooms, and a few gnawed ibex bones.

20 th September 1066

The Battle of Fulford:
At the Battle of Fulford, Harald Hardrada defeats earls Morcar and Edwin.


WHEN
20 September 1066

WHERE
Fulford, near York, Yorkshire (then capital of Northumbria)

WHO
Saxon troops of Mercia and Northumbria, under Earl Edwin and Earl Morcar, respectively vs. a Norse army under King Harald Hardrada, with the aid of Earl Tostig, brother of King Harold Godwinson of England

WHY
King Edward the Confessor of England died in early January 1066. In his place, Harold, Earl of Wessex, took the throne. But the succession was not a smooth one; two other nobles claimed the crown; Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and William, Duke of Normandy.

While William gathered a fleet and waited for favourable winds to sail across the Channel to the south coast of England, Harald gathered an invasion force in the north. The very winds that kept William waiting impatiently in Normandy helped speed Harald's fleet of longships across the North Sea. To support him he had the exiled brother of King Harold, Earl Tostig.

Harald sailed from Norway to the mouth of the Tyne, where he joined with Tostig. Tostig claimed the Earldom of Northumbria, and was quite ready to support Harald in his invasion in return for help in gaining the Earldom, Together they sacked and burned Scarborough, and sailed up the Humber.

The combined forces of Harald and Tostig must have been formidable; even allowing for exaggeration of their strength in contemporary reports, it seems likely that the invasion force numbered over 10,000 men at arms. By comparison, the Norman army that was victorious at the Battle of Hastings numbered less than 7,000. This comparison may serve to give some idea of just how powerful a threat the Norse army represented.

It seems likely that King Harold, waiting in the south, received news of the strong Norse force, and began to march north to meet the threat, even before battle had been joined in the north.

Harald Hardrada landed at Riccall, and marched on the city of York. Harald left a sizeable force of men to guard his fleet, but even so, his army must have numbered over 7,000. They met the defending army, made up of levied troops from Mercia and Northumbria, at Fulford, on the outskirts of York.

THE BATTLE
The terrain around Fulford was flat, but sodden; a mixture of watermeadow and marshland. The Norwegian army advanced along the banks of ditch leading east from the River Ouse. The English attacked the Norwegian line and pushed them back in disarray. But Harald was no fool; he had kept the bulk of his troops back against the river itself, and as the English advanced, Harald's left wing swept around in an abrupt pincer movement, trapping the English against the ditch.

The fighting was fierce and terrible, but as the day wore on, the English spirit broke, and the armies of Mercia and Northumbria were cut to pieces. Some were trapped against the ditch, others fled, and the bodies of the English lay so plentifully upon the ground that, according to their own accounts, the Norse were able to advance over the meadow without getting their feet wet.

York prudently surrendered to the invaders, but Harald did not enter the city; perhaps eager to spare the city he hoped to rule the effects of looting by his own men. Instead, he retired to Stamford Bridge to await the gathering of hostages from around the region.

THE RESULT
The Norse had but five days to enjoy their victory at Fulford. On 25 September, King Harold surprised Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge, and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Norsemen. Hardrada himself was killed, as was Tostig, and the Norse withdrew.

That is not the end of the tale, however, for scarcely had the dust of Stamford Bridge settled when news came of a landing of Norman troops under William of Normandy on the south coast. Harold ordered Morcar and Edwin to gather new levies, while he sped south once more with his exhausted troops.

Perhaps unwisely, Harold chose to meet William in battle before the fresh northern troops could arrive. On 14 October 1066, he met William's army at Hastings, and there Harold, in turn, was killed, and the Saxons were decisively beaten.
The repercussions of Fulford were enormous. The losses suffered by the Mercian and Northumbrian levies at Fulford meant that the army led by Harold into battle at Hastings was desperately undermanned. It is not a stretch of the imagination to claim that the Battle of Fulford led directly to the success of the Norman invasion that followed.

21 st September 1809

  The duel on Putney Heath:
                                        British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.

                 
The Castlereagh-Canning Duel
The two politicians fought on September 21st, 1809.

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, was not entirely inexperienced in duels. As a young man, he had fought one in Ireland, over a girl, with her guardian. Shots were exchanged, but neither man was hurt and by that evening Castlereagh told his alarmed father he had already forgotten the details. The situation in 1809, however, was altogether more serious. With Britain at war with Napoleon, Castlereagh was war minister in the government under the Duke of Portland.

Also in the cabinet was George Canning, as foreign secretary. Canning was devouringly ambitious and for some months he had been intriguing with colleagues and with Portland to get the war minister dropped. This had all been behind Castlereagh’s back and he had no idea of what was going on until September. Outraged at being betrayed by a colleague and apparent friend, he wrote a long letter to Canning, reproaching him for damage to his honour and reputation, and ending: ‘Under these circumstances, I must require that satisfaction from you to which I feel myself entitled to lay claim.’

Receiving this bulky missive, Canning said he would sooner fight than read it and replied: ‘The tone and purport of your Lordship’s letter (which I have this moment received) of course precludes any other answer, on my part, to the misapprehensions and misrepresentations, with which it abounds, than that I will cheerfully give to your Lordship the satisfaction that you require.’

The duel was organised for the following day, at 6am on Putney Heath, where Castlereagh’s second, Lord Yarmouth, owned a cottage. Canning, who had never fired a pistol in his life, wrote his will and a farewell letter to his wife. When the parties reached the appointed spot, his second, his friend Charles Ellis, tried to patch up the quarrel, but in vain, and the seconds agreed the distance and measured out the ground. Ellis was so nervous trying to load Canning’s pistol that Lord Yarmouth did it for him. The first shots both missed and and another attempt to compose the quarrel failed because Canning still refused to apologise. His second shot was deflected by a button on Castlereagh’s coat and Castlereagh’s second struck Canning in the thigh. Castlereagh helped Canning limp away and afterwards told his father that Canning’s conduct ‘was very proper on the ground’.

The two men soon adopted a polite civility and Castlereagh would go on to be one of Britain’s greatest foreign ministers, but Canning’s career was badly damaged. It was generally felt that he had behaved thoroughly badly and this was part of the reason why he failed to achieve his ambition to be prime minister until the last few months of his life, in 1827.  

                           

'Killing no murder, or a new ministerial way of settling the affairs of a nation!', a satire by Isaac Cruickshank of the duel between Castlereagh (l) and Canning that took place on September 21st, 1809

22nd September 1934

                    Gresford mining disaster:
                                                        The Gresford disaster in Wales kills 266 miners and rescuers.

                     THE GRESFORD MINING DISASTER NORTH WALES SEPTEMBER 22, 1934

The Gresford Mining Disaster North Wales September 22, 1934
  The Gresford disaster occurred on September 22, 1934, at Gresford Colliery, Gresford, near Wrexham, in North East Wales, when an explosion killed 266 men and boys. Its cause was never proved but an inquiry found that failures in safety procedures and poor mine management were contributory factors. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters. Only eleven bodies were recovered, the rest were left entombed in the colliery's permanently sealed damaged districts.

The good people of Brighouse also did their bit help the families.  
  Messages of sympathy and donations came from all over Britain and from overseas. Over £566,546 was donated during an appeal aided by the press who kept Gresford in the public eye. A relief fund paid allowances to the dead miners' widows, children and dependents.

I am sending you some comics which I wondered if you would distribute amongst some of the children who fathers and brothers were killed in the mine.                                                                                                                                              
Rachel Booth, letter to the Gresford Colliery Disaster Relief Fund

  The Gresford miners who had survived were also in need. With the pit closed, they were all unemployed by the Monday morning. It would not be easy finding a job in economically depressed Wrexham.

  The nation's response to the disaster varied from the political to the personal. Workers, trade unions, businesses, church congregations, schools, community groups and individuals sent in money and gifts in kind. Many people gave what little they had. For many sympathy was tempered by anger at the reality of the miners' working lives. Anger was so strong that many people gave money directly to the miners' union as they feared otherwise it would never reach those in need.

  Anger was felt closer to home. The miners' families wanted answers and, most of all, they wanted the miners' bodies brought up from the Dennis section. They were to be disappointed twice over.


  At the Brighouse Borough Council's General Purposes Committee on November 19, 1934 the Town Clerk Mr Ernest Clegg, reported that the Mayor's Fund in aid of the Gresford Colliery Disaster had reached the sum of £320. 6s. 5d and submitted a letter, dated the 8th from the Joint Hon  Secretary (Wrexham) Colliery Disaster Relief Fund intimating that they were directed by the Lord Lieutenant and their committee to convey their heartfelt thanks and sincere appreciation of the steps taken to help the dependants and relatives of the men who lost their lives in the Gresford Colliery Disaster.

23 rd September 1459

Wars of the Roses, Battle of Blore Heath:
The Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is won by the Yorkists .


Battle of Blore Heath - Background:
Open fighting between the Lancastrian forces of King Henry VI and the Richard, Duke of York began in 1455 at the First Battle of St. Albans. A Yorkist victory, the battle was a relatively minor engagement and Richard did not attempt to usurp the throne. In the four years that followed, an uneasy peace settled over the two sides and no fighting occurred. By 1459, tensions had again risen and both sides actively began recruiting forces. Establishing himself at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, Richard began summoning troops for action against the king.

These efforts were countered by the Queen, Margaret of Anjou who was raising men in support of her husband. Learning that Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury was moving south from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire to join Richard, she dispatched a newly raised force under James Touchet, Baron Audley to intercept the Yorkists. Marching out, Audley intended to set an ambush for Salisbury at Blore Heath near Market Drayton. Moving onto the barren heathland on September 23, he formed his 8,000-14,000 men behind a "great hedge" facing northeast towards Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Battle of Blore Heath - Deployments:
As the Yorkists approached later that day, their scouts spotted the Lancastrian banners which protruded over the top of the hedge. Alerted to the enemy's presence, Salisbury formed his 3,000-5,000 men for battle with his left anchored on a wood and his right on his wagon train which had been circled. Outnumbered, he intended to fight a defensive battle. The two forces were separated by Hempmill Brook which ran across the battlefield. Wide with steep sides and a strong current, the stream was a significant obstruction for both forces.

Battle of Blore Heath - Fighting Begins:
The fighting opened with fire from the opposing armies' archers. Due to the distance separating the forces, this proved largely ineffectual. Realizing that any attack on Audley's larger army was doomed to fail, Salisbury sought to lure the Lancastrians out of their position. To accomplish this, he began a feigned retreat of his center. Seeing this, a force of Lancastrian cavalry charged forward, possibly without orders. Having accomplished his goal, Salisbury returned his men to their lines and met the enemy assault.

Battle of Blore Heath - Yorkist Victory:
Striking the Lancastrians as they crossed the stream, they repelled the attack and inflicted heavy losses. Withdrawing to their lines, the Lancastrians reformed. Now committed to the offensive, Audley led a second assault forward. This achieved greater success and the bulk of his men crossed the stream and engaged the Yorkists. In a period of brutal fighting, Audley was struck down. With his death, John Sutton, Baron Dudley, took command and led forward an additional 4,000 infantry. Like the others, this attack proved unsuccessful.

As the fighting swung in the favor of the Yorkists, around 500 Lancastrians deserted to the enemy. With Audley dead and their lines wavering, the Lancastrian army broke from the field in a rout. Fleeing the heath, they were pursued by Salisbury's men as far as the River Tern (two miles away) where additional casualties were inflicted.

Battle of Blore Heath - Aftermath:
The Battle of Blore Heath cost the Lancastrians around 2,000 killed, while the Yorkists incurred around 1,000. Having defeated Audley, Salisbury camped at Market Drayton before pressing on to Ludlow Castle. Concerned about Lancastrian forces in the area, he paid a local friar to fire a on cannon the battlefield through the night to convince them that the battle was ongoing. Though a decisive battlefield victory for the Yorkists, the triumph at Blore Heath was soon undercut by Richard's defeat at Ludford Bridge on October 12. Bested by the king, Richard and his sons were forced to flee the country.

24 th September 1929


Jimmy Doolittle Blind flying :
Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight without a window, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible.


Flying Blind
The story of the first takeoff, flight and landing using only instruments as a guide.
Aviation pioneer General James H. Doolittle is famous for leading the World War II air raid on Tokyo on
April 18, 1942. But the recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two
Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Medal,
four Air Medals, and many other service medals from allied countries, may have made his greatest
contribution to aviation on the home front. On September 24, 1929, at what is now Mitchel Air Force
Base on Long Island, NY, Army lieutenant Doolittle, became the first to use only instrument guidance to
take off, fly a set course and land.
The Early years
Born in Alameda, California on December 14, 1896, Doolittle left college early to enlist as a flying cadet
and earned a commission as a second lieutenant in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army,
for which he served as a flight instructor in the 104th Aero Squadron and the 90th Aero Squadron during
World War I. Following the war, Doolittle distinguished himself in the realms of pioneering flights and
aeronautical engineering. During this time, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying across the
U.S. in 21 hours, 19 minutes and another one for conducting aircraft acceleration tests. Doolittle also
continued his education during that time eventually attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology
where he earned his Master of Science in Aeronautics in a year. Since he still had another year approved
by the Army to attend school, he followed up by earning a Doctor of Science in Aeronautics.
With growing expertise as one of the preeminent pilots in the world, Doolittle knew that true freedom in
flight would only occur once pilots could successfully operate aircraft without complete reliance on their
senses. In the years leading up to the first “blind” flight, airplanes had begun to be equipped with basic
instruments used to determine altitude, direction and air speed. However, these instruments were
insufficient to direct a pilot in zero visibility conditions from takeoff to landing. To perform the test flight,
the plane, a NY-2 Husky, had to be outfitted with the instruments that would soon become universal on
aircraft. A direction gyro, now known as a heading indicator, an artificial horizon, also known as an
attitude indicator, and a barometric altimeter were all newly developed, and Doolittle helped modify them
for the Husky as well as suggest improvements to them based on his test flight.
The First Blind Flight
On that Tuesday, September 24th, 91 years ago today, Doolittle and his check pilot climbed into what was
possibly the most heavily instrumented plane in the world at the time. Doolittle made the flight as part of
research he conducted for the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, with
cooperation from the Bureau of Standards, the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce—
which was the FAA’s earliest predecessor agency—and other organizations. Doolittle received directional
guidance from a radio range course aligned with the airport runway, while radio marker beacons indicated
his distance from the runway. He relied on a sensitive altimeter to determine his altitude, and controlled
the attitude of his aircraft with guidance from the directional gyro and the artificial horizon.
To prove he wasn’t “cheating,” he had a hood placed over his entire seat, effectively trapping him in a
blind bubble with only his instruments, the radio and his determination to improve aviation guiding him

25 th September 1983


   Maze prison breakout :
                                     Thirty-eight IRA prisoners, armed with six handguns, hijack a prison meals lorry and smash their way out of the Maze Prison.


                  How 38 IRA Members Pulled Off the UK’s Biggest Prison Escape
In 1983, dozens of Irish Republican Army prisoners broke out of the 'escape-proof' Maze prison.
BY: CHRISTOPHER KLEIN



During the height of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” in the 1970s and ‘80s, the British government incarcerated hundreds of Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitaries inside the notorious Maze Prison. Touted as Europe’s most secure penitentiary, the Maze was thought to be escape-proof—that is, until 38 IRA prisoners staged the biggest jailbreak in British history in September 1983.

Built on a former Royal Air Force Base 10 miles outside Northern Ireland’s capital of Belfast, the maximum-security prison featured eight jail blocks shaped like the capital letter H. These H-Blocks became battlegrounds for IRA prisoners who had waged a violent campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland. After the British government stripped convicted paramilitaries of their special status as political prisoners in 1976, IRA inmates wore blankets instead of prison-issued uniforms and refused to shower or empty their chamber pots. The protest culminated in a 1981 hunger strike in which 10 republican prisoners—including the IRA’s leader in the Maze Prison, Bobby Sands—died.

IRA inmates, who were serving time for crimes ranging from murder to the possession of explosives, viewed the Maze as a prisoner of war camp. Believing it their duty to attempt an escape, IRA leaders held inside H-Block 7 spent four months during the summer of 1983 hatching an audacious jailbreak.


First, IRA Inmates Became Friendly With the Guards
The prisoners initially engaged in a charm offensive to build a camaraderie with prison officers, getting to know them on a first-name basis and harvesting information. High-ranking IRA leaders serving as janitorial orderlies used that camaraderie to gain greater access around the jail, even being permitted to perform cleaning duties inside “the circle,” the nerve center located in the middle of the H-block.


The Maze is part of our history, says Laurence McKeown, a former IRA prisoner who refused food for 70 days before his family intervened.



Knowing that officers only carried batons for self-defense, the inmates smuggled six handguns with silencers and knives inside the prison, although it’s still not known how. After taking control of the H-block at gunpoint, the prisoners planned to hijack a food delivery truck, which they learned was not searched when entering or exiting the prison. Having decided to stage the breakout on a Sunday—the quietest day of the week with the fewest staff on duty—the IRA leaders set September 25, 1983, as the day for their great escape.



The IRA Prisoners Seized H-Block 7 With Smuggled-In Guns
That afternoon, five IRA prisoners entered the circle of H-Block 7 to carry out their cleaning duties. Everything appeared routine until shortly after 2:30 p.m., when Brendan McFarlane—who had succeeded Sands as the commanding IRA officer inside the Maze—called out “Bumper!” Hearing the pre-arranged codeword, the inmate-orderlies flashed their guns and overpowered the unarmed prison guards.

Since officers regularly kept the solid bulletproof door to the control room open for ventilation purposes due to a prison design flaw, an inmate identified by guards as Gerry Kelly was able to point his gun through a grill gate at officer John Adams. Kelly ordered Adams to step away from the room’s radio, alarm and telephone systems and lie on the ground with his hands behind his head. “I have nothing to lose; you know what I’m in for,” said Kelly, who was serving two life sentences in connection with a deadly IRA bombing in London.

When a guard unexpectedly walked out of a nearby restroom and distracted the prisoners, Adams attempted to raise the alarm. According to Adams, Kelly then fired two shots, the second of which struck him above his left eye but proved not to be fatal. (Kelly has never admitted to pulling the trigger.)

As the five orderlies secured the circle, lookouts in a direct line of sight entered each of the block’s four wings and attacked guards with weapons that included a gun, knife, screwdriver and hammer. Within minutes, the IRA took complete control of H-Block 7 from the 24 officers on duty.

After confining prison officials to a pair of game rooms, the inmates ordered a dozen of them to remove their uniforms, which they then donned. The IRA members then bound the guards, placed pillowcases over their heads and issued a warning: “This is an IRA operation. We’re not here from revenge or to punish you over the hunger strikes, but if you interfere with the escape, you will be dealt with swiftly.”


The Prison Break Turned Deadly
The prisoners hijacked the food delivery truck when it arrived at 3:25 p.m., but their getaway was delayed as IRA intelligence officers spent valuable minutes rummaging through prison files in search of details about informers while also removing any photographs and documents that could aid in their own recapture. At 3:50 p.m., 37 prisoners piled into the back of the food truck, while Kelly laid in the passenger side footwell with a gun directed at the officer driving the van to ensure his compliance while driving to the main gate, the last obstacle to freedom.

At the gate, nine of the prisoners disguised as guards stormed the lodge where officers checked in and out and seized them at gunpoint. The delay in leaving the H-block, however, meant that guards were beginning to arrive for their next shifts. As their numbers grew, the officers fought back against the inmates.

Amid the melee, prison officer James Ferris bolted from the lodge and shouted to the guard at the pedestrian gate to sound the alarm. A prisoner, identified by guards as Dermot Finucane, gave chase and stabbed Ferris three times in the chest. The officer collapsed and later died from a heart attack. The prisoner, meanwhile, continued to the pedestrian gate, where he stabbed two officers arriving for their shifts as well as the officer on gate duty before he could sound the alarm.

When quick-thinking guards wedged their cars between the prison gates to block the food truck’s path, the inmates opened the vehicle’s rear door and fled on foot, scaling the exterior fence to freedom.


Half the Fugitives Fled to Ireland
While some escapees hijacked cars, others fled on foot into the countryside. A massive manhunt by police and the military resulted in the recapture of 19 prisoners in the first 24 hours after the jailbreak. Most of the fugitives returned to their original cells inside H-Block 7 after their brief flicker of freedom.

Those who remained on the lam hid inside barns and safe houses before the IRA facilitated their passage to the Republic of Ireland. Several continued on to the United States under new identities, while others resumed their paramilitary activities. Three of the fugitives subsequently died in IRA operations, while Kelly and McFarlane were arrested in Holland in 1986 and returned to the Maze along with several other escapees extradited from Ireland and the United States.

The Maze Prison break boosted the IRA’s morale, but it left prison officers with lasting physical and mental scars. In addition to the death of Ferris, shooting of Adams and non-fatal stabbing of three other guards, 13 officers were beaten and 42 subsequently suffered from nervous disorders. Following the early release of hundreds of inmates as part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Maze Prison closed in 2000. The H-Blocks were demolished in 2006.

26 th September 1973


    Concorde :
                    Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time.

                 50 years since Concorde’s first non-stop transatlantic flight                       

26 September 2023 marks exactly 50 years since Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

Concorde was such a unique mode of transport, in both her design and in her operational service, that it is probably possible to mark an anniversary of some kind for every week that she was in operation! But it was in September 1973 that she flew for the first time directly from Washington in the Unites States to Orly airport in France, crossing the Atlantic without stopping.

With an average speed of 954 miles per hour, it was a French model of the Concorde which took just three hours and 32 minutes to make the journey, smashing the previous record in half. A Boeing 747 would have taken more than seven hours for the same trip.

This flight brought to an end a publicity tour of North and South America designed to convince hesitant (or reluctant) airline companies to buy the aircraft. The visit also coincided with the opening of Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Texas, on 22 September 1973, where Concorde touched down on American soil for the first time.

Jointly designed and built by the French and British governments, with literally hundreds of private companies involved as sub-contractors and suppliers, the planes were bought and run by British Airways and Air France. Commercial flights to Bahrain started in 1976, and regular flights to New York did not start until 1977.

In Britain the development of Concorde was originally the responsibility of the Ministry of Aviation, with links to many other government departments, each of which had a Concorde Division, which worked together under a Directing Committee. Consequently, The National Archives holds literally thousands of files concerning Concorde from many different departments across central government, such as the Foreign Office, the Board of Trade, the Department of Industry, the Ministry of Aviation and the Civil Aviation Authority.

And there are files from departments you may not have expected. For example, we hold a file from the Meteorological Office for 1963-4 (BJ 5/304) on how Concorde might be affected by the weather. Remember that there had never been a supersonic passenger aircraft before, so nobody knew whether travelling faster than the speed of sound would make a plane behave differently when encountering strong wind, fog, hail, ice crystals, ozone, solar flares and cosmic radiation.

How would Concorde behave if it ever had to ditch in the sea?



That was the question being researched by the British Hovercraft Corporation in 1974 (DR 33/629), as they catapulted models of the aircraft across open water to see what would happen.


Another of the more unusual files is from the Ministry of Health (MH 159/583) regarding a request from officials at the Ministry of Technology in 1968. They wanted to monitor the effects of Concorde’s sonic booms and vibration on hospital buildings, medical equipment, timber structures, and suspended ceilings, as well as any detrimental effects on people and livestock. As part of their investigations they wanted to check whether the number of medical accidents increased as a result of sonic booms catching people by surprise.


So they asked the Ministry of Health to conduct a survey at Hospital Accident and Emergency departments. Obviously they did not want patients to know the purpose of the survey, so they were not allowed to mention Concorde or sonic booms, but the survey would consist of two questions:

1.. What caused your accident?
2.. Did a sudden noise contribute to it?


Not surprisingly the Ministry of Health replied that A&E departments had more important things to do, and declined to get involved in such a survey.

After 27 years of taking more than 2.5 million passengers at speeds of 1,350 miles per hour, Concorde’s brief commercial life came to an end on 24 October 2003 when she made her last flight to London’s Heathrow airport from New York. On board she carried a host of celebrities including Joan Collins, Tony Benn and Sir David Frost.

27 th September 1825

    First public steam railway :
                                 The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened.

                 
The Stockton and Darlington railway opened for business 198 years ago on 27 September 1825, but it is 198 years ago to the very day that George Stephenson assembled Locomotion No. 1 at Heighington Crossing in my constituency, on the corner of what is now Hitachi Rail Europe’s new train-building factory in Newton Aycliffe, at the start of the Stockton and Darlington railway. There is a pub there which is now called, strangely enough, the Locomotion No. 1. The pub consists of the world’s first ticket office and waiting room,

I want to describe what happened on that day. I am grateful to Chris Lloyd, the deputy editor of The Northern Echo, who is a local history expert, for his description of the day, and of the official opening of the line nine days later.

On September 16, 1825, a curious crowd gathered on the edge of today’s Merchant Park, in Newton Aycliffe, and watched as the future was unloaded before their eyes. Robert Stephenson and Company had made the world’s first passenger steam engine, Locomotion No. 1, at its works at Forth Street, Newcastle. They had loaded it in pieces on to three low wagons and horses belonging to a Mr Pickersgill and dragged it along 30 muddy miles to Aycliffe village. In the centre of Aycliffe village, the horses turned west and pulled their heavy loads along the lane towards Heighington. Where the lane crossed the new track bed of the Stockton and Darlington railway, the wagons stopped. Small boys and strong men unloaded the 5 tonnes of bits, and George Stephenson assembled them into a strange-looking contraption that—although even he did not know it at the time—was the first of the first generation of passenger engines. Together, they somehow hauled or hoisted Locomotion No. 1 on to the rails for the first time, and thought about getting it going. Its boiler was filled with water. Wood and coals were placed ready for ignition to boil the water into steam, but no one had a light. It was not until April 1827 that Stockton’s John Walker announced to the world that he had invented the friction match.

Frustrated by the unnecessary delay, George Stephenson had to send a messenger to Aycliffe to collect a lighted lantern. As the messenger left, navvy Robert Metcalf of Church Street, Darlington, stepped forward. He always carried a “burning glass”—a piece of glass like a magnifier—through which he focused the sun’s rays so he could light his pipe. He offered the glass to Stephenson and by the time the messenger returned with the lantern, No 1’s boiler was alight and smoke was rising from its chimney. So began trial runs with the world’s first passenger engine pulling the world’s first railway passengers in the world’s first passenger coach called the Experiment, which was basically a shed attached to some wheels.

28 th September 1928


Penicillin:
Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

Penicillin: An accidental discovery changed the course of medicine
Penicillin was first discovered in 1928 and is now the most widely used antibiotic in the world.

This year marks the 95th anniversary of the discovery of penicillin, the first naturally occurring antibiotic drug discovered and used therapeutically.

It all started with a mold that developed on a staphylococcus culture plate. Since then, the discovery of penicillin changed the course of medicine and has enabled physicians to treat formerly severe and life-threatening illnesses such as bacterial endocarditis, meningitis, pneumococcal pneumonia, gonorrhea and syphilis.

Penicillin discovered

Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish researcher, is credited with the discovery of penicillin in 1928. At the time, Fleming was experimenting with the influenza virus in the Laboratory of the Inoculation Department at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.

An article published by Fleming in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929 reads, “The staphylococcus colonies became transparent and were obviously undergoing lysis … the broth in which the mold had been grown at room temperature for one to two weeks had acquired marked inhibitory, bactericidal and bacteriolytic properties to many of the more common pathogenic bacteria.”
Fleming described the colony as a “fluffy white mass which rapidly increases in size and after a few days sporulates” and changes color from dark green to black to bright yellow.

Even in the early experimentation stages, penicillin had no effect against gram-negative organisms but was effective against gram-positive bacteria.

Published reports credit Fleming as saying: “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

Though Fleming stopped studying penicillin in 1931, his research was continued and finished by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain, researchers at University of Oxford who are credited with the development of penicillin for use as a medicine in mice.

Widespread use of Penicillin

Penicillin made a difference during the first half of the 20th century. The first patient was successfully treated for streptococcal septicemia in the United States in 1942. However, supply was limited and demand was high in the early days of penicillin.

Penicillin helped reduce the number of deaths and amputations of troops during World War II. According to records, there were only 400 million units of penicillin available during the first five months of 1943; by the time World War II ended, U.S. companies were making 650 billion units a month.

To date, penicillin has become the most widely used antibiotic in the world.

29 th September 1885

               Blackpool trams:
                                       The first practical public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England


                         Britains 1st Electric Tram starts


Blackpool, Lancashire The 29th of September 1885 AD

The first electric tram in Britain was not in one of the great metropolitan centres to serve industry and finance, but in the seaside resort of Blackpool , where the burgeoning tourist industry was putting a strain on the town's transport of horse buses, hackney cabs and landaus.
The inspiration for the revolutionary idea of an electric tramway - others had horse drawn and steam powered trams - came from a demonstration being held in 1884 in The Winter Gardens of an electric railway. The far sighted council, keen on innovations to add to the attraction of the resort, in January 1885 formed a partnership with entrepreneurs which they dubbed The Blackpool Electric Tramway Company, a name from an age when a company title meant what it said.
In those days they worked fast, and the track was laid (and relaid because the first Board of Trade inspection found it wanting) by summer that year. The first two miles of rails ran between Cocker Street and Dean Street on the South Shore, passing Bailey's (now the Metropole ), The Wellington, and Foxhall Hotels.
Though the grand opening was on September 29 1885, trials of the track with horse-drawn vehicles began earlier in the year, and for several weeks before the official opening passengers were given free rides in electric trams testing the track and power supply - fed from a purpose built power station in Blundell Street.
The first system used a power conduit beneath the street, tapped into from the tram via a plough device, but this was unsuited to the seaside location - sand filled it and broke connections, salt attacked it, and water caused regular havoc, so after a few years of struggles with new versions of the conduit the overhead wire system still in use today was adopted.

                                     

                       Old and new trams in Blackpool.

30 th September 1945


Bourne End disaster :
The Bourne End rail crash, in Hertfordshire, England, kills 43.

The Bourne End Rail Crash; A Forgotten Tragedy
78 years ago, less than six months after VE Day, more lives were claimed by a now-forgotten tragedy.

In the early hours of the morning on Sunday, the 30th of September 1945, the ‘Royal Artilleryman’, from Perth to Euston, derailed at Bourne End just next to the signal box.

The train was said to be travelling between 50 and 70mph. Of the 700 passengers, including children, servicemen and brides-to-be, 43 tragically died and 64 were seriously injured. The youngest of the casualties was a 2-year-old boy.


Neil Fleming explained his father’s role in the event; “His name was Horace Wilfred Fleming, but everybody called him Bill. He was in the first fire engine at the scene,” he said. Mr Fleming explained that his father, a Section Leader in the National Fire Service, had 50 minutes left of his 24-hour shift when the call came in. He then worked for another 9 hours at the crash site.

The train “careered over the points, pulling the carriages with it. It was a hell of a mess.” said Mr Fleming. His father and his fellow firefighters from the nearest Hemel Hempstead fire station “tunnelled their way through the wreckage and managed to get one woman out.”

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Of the 15 carriages, the first was completely crushed and the second and third were sticking out of the ground at a 45-degree. The remainder of the carriages, barring the last three which remained on the tracks, were stacked on top of each other around the area. Shoes, luggage and clothes were scattered around the scene.

American pilot, Captain McCallum, just minutes after taking off from the Bovingdon USAAF base, “watched the whole thing unfold,” said Mr Fleming, whose father had learnt these key details at the accident inquiry. The captain radioed the base, which then sent help to the wreck. Emergency services “had a lot of help from ground crew from the airbase,” said Mr Fleming.


Mr and Mrs Johnson from Pix Farmhouse, Bourne End village arrived at the scene after hearing the sharp squeal of escaping steam of the train’s engine. They alerted Berkhamsted emergency services who arrived at the scene to aid the injured as best they could. The first of them to arrive was a crew of firemen led by Bill Fleming.

“Then the fire engines carried very basic equipment for fighting during the blitz, nowadays they are so well equipped with specialist appliances,” said Mr Fleming. He explained it took a lot of effort to rescue survivors.

A doctor who survived the crash helped the injured. Within a few hours, Fire Services, The Red Cross, St. Johns nurses, Ex-Civil Defence workers, Women's Voluntary Service and locals arrived at the scene. Bourne End village was celebrating Victory over Japan Day with sandwiches, sausage rolls and tea, which were all quickly donated to survivors.

Injuries ranged from shock and bruising to fractures, breaks and amputations.



A World War II hospital based at Ashridge House, which had just shut due to the end of the war hurriedly reopened to take injured. Casualties were also sent to the West-Herts Hospital in Hemel Hempstead hospital and the dead, to the mortuary in Berkhamsted. Some passengers could only be identified by personal belongings.

On the 4th of October, the Ministry of War and Transport Inquiry, headed by Lt. Col. Sir Alan Mount, was opened. “My father had to go the inquiry as the first fire officer to be there,” said Mr Fleming. The driver, Sidney Swaby had perished in the crash it was difficult to know exactly what happened. As a train had successfully passed the location just 10 minutes prior it was presumed that the crash was due to driver error. The speed restriction at the junction was 20mph but the train's speed was estimated to be much higher.

After investigation, it was found that the original driver of the train was sick, and a relief driver was called in who had been working for 26 days in a row due to post-war staff shortages. “He didn’t read the running notes. On the notes, there was a speed restriction.” Said, Mr Fleming. “There was another report that said smoke from the train line made it hard to see out of the porthole windows, he didn’t see the amber signals.”. "So, all in all, it was a catalogue of minor errors which ended up as a huge accident,” said Mr Fleming. The report concluded the crash was due to the train’s excessive speed.

One of the 43 killed was William Smith. John Smith, his Grandson, described him as a “proper rogue”. “He was always a bit of a drifter,” he said. “He came from a long line of mining families from central Scotland”.



He explained that the 26-year-old stole money from his place of employment and “headed for the fateful train”. Before boarding William took out two life insurance policies from a machine on the platform, paying “three pennies” for each. This is around 44p each today. John said how “very lucky” this eerie coincidence was as William died in the crash just hours later. “He died of a fractured skull; he was obviously one of the first to die in the original accident,” said Mr Smith.

William’s relatives only knew he had passed when money suddenly came into the family. They paid out at £19.15 and £23 and 11 shillings. “It was a lot of money back then,” said John. This is equivalent to approximately £2350 today.

There is no memorial for the victims of the crash. “I genuinely thought there was a memorial somewhere,” said Mr Smith. He said he didn’t even know where his grandfather was buried after the crash or if he was even in a marked grave.

“It doesn’t get much mention. There are people in Hemel that never knew it happened”. “Nobody ever talks about it, sometimes I say, my dad went on that and - oh crikey I didn’t know - they say,” said Mr Fleming.



78 years later houses line the track where the event happened and very few living in the village were witnesses of the event.

All that remains is the story passed down by families of those involved, and door handles found by locals with metal detectors over lockdown. The crash remains the 7th worst rail crash in Britain in terms of the death toll.

1 st October 1861

Mrs Beeton:
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management is published, going on to sell 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print until the present day.

Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management was first published in 1861. It not only contains over 2000 recipes, but is also a complete guide to running a household. The book catered for the increasingly frenetic lifestyle of an expanding middle class. Many of its readers will have been entering into an unfamiliar way of life, having recently stepped up the social ladder, and the book offers all sorts of essential advice: how to choose friends and acquaintances; how to dress; how to receive morning calls, or to seat guests at the dinner table. However, Mrs Beeton made it plain that the mistress of the house was not expected to dirty her hands. Instead she should delegate responsibility - the majority of Beeton's instructions are designed to be carried out by servants. The book contains meticulously detailed advice on the duties of a wide variety of staff - cooks, dairy maids, nurse maids, valets, lady's-maids, footmen and the like - all of whom would have been expected to operate under the watchful command of their employer. Isabella Beeton (1836-65) was married to the publisher Samuel Beeton, whose most successful venture was the 'Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine'. Isobella was largely responsible for the production of the magazine, taking charge of the cookery pages, reading all the proofs, and devising the layout. Household Management first appeared in monthly parts in the magazine. She died when she was only 28 having contracted puerperal fever. Shown here is the first page of the preface, and an illustrated page showing puddings and pastries. Mrs Beeton compares the mistress of a house to the commander of an army: just as a commander governs his troops, a mistress must take command of her household .

2 nd October 1942

World War 11, the Curacoa disaster:
World War II: Ocean Liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally rams and sinks HMS Curacoa, killing over 300 crewmen aboard Curacoa.

Queen Mary – The Curacoa Tragedy

On 2 October 1942 an eastbound Queen Mary, carrying nearly 20,000 American troops of the 29th Infantry Division to join the Allied forces in Europe, collided with and sank the British light cruiser Curacoa.

Both ships were following evasive, anti-U-boat zigzagging courses, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Ireland, when Queen Mary cut across Curacoa’s path with insufficient clearance, striking her amidships at a speed of 28 knots and slicing her in two.

Curacoa sank within six minutes with a loss of 338 men out of a crew of 439. Queen Mary, under orders not to stop under any circumstances, continued on to Scotland where she was outfitted with a temporary concrete plug. Hours later, the convoy’s lead escort returned to rescue 99 Curacoa survivors.

The incident was not reported publicly until after the war ended. Soon after newspaper stories about the collision began appearing, the Royal Navy pressed charges against Queen Mary’s owner, Cunard-White Star Line. The High Court of Justice subsequently ruled primarily in favor of the latter, assigning two-thirds of the blame to the Admiralty and one third to Cunard-White Star. Survivors’ families also sued Cunard-White Star.

3 rd October 1981

Maze hunger strike ends:
The hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.

On this day in 1981, the Maze Prison hunger strikes were called off after the deaths of ten people

In 1981, at the height of The Troubles, incarcerated members of the Provisonal IRA began hunger striking in Maze Prison, in a battle to be treated as political prisoners.

To this end, the prisoners had set out Five Demands:

The right to not wear a prison uniform.
The right not to do prison work.
The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits.
The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week.
Full restoration of remission lost through the protest.
It was the second hunger strike to take place in Maze, after the British government failed to follow through with concessions in 1980.

And so on March 1st, 1981, former IRA officer and subsequent leader of the hunger strikers Bobby Sands began refusing food.


During his strike and while still imprisoned, Sands was elected as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, subsequently becoming a member of the British House of Commons.

A sudden media interest in the hunger strike due to Bobby Sands' new position raised hopes that the prisoners' demands would be exacerbated, but the British government steadfastly refused to make concessions.

Sands himself also refused to end his strike, even after several interventions by the EU Commission of Human Rights officials, and he died of starvation on May 5th, 1981; two weeks later, three more strikers had starved to death.

100,000 people lined the streets to mourn the leader of the hunger strikers, but British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addressed the House of Commons by saying: "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life. It was a choice that his organisation did not allow to many of its victims."

Months later, after several failed interventions from both religious persons and government officials, family members of the strikers began to demand medical intervention to save the lives of their sons.

The strike was eventually called off on October 3rd, 1981-- and later the Five Demands were all conceded to remaining prisoners, although in an unofficial capacity unrecognised by the British Government.

4 th October 1957

Space race, earths fist satellite :
Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

Sputnik 1 (/ˈspʌtnɪk, ˈspʊtnɪk/, Russian: Спутник-1, Satellite 1) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries ran out. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958.

It was a polished metal sphere 58 cm (23 in) in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators, and the 65° orbital inclination made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth.

The satellite's success was unanticipated by the United States. This precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. The word sputnik is Russian for traveller when interpreted in an astronomical context; its other meanings are spouse or traveling companion.

Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere.

Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite traveled at a peak speed of about 8 km/s (18,000 mph), taking 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. On 4 January 1958, after three months in orbit, Sputnik 1 burned up while reentering Earth's atmosphere, having completed 1,440 orbits of the Earth, and travelling a distance of approximately 70,000,000 km (43,000,000 mi)

5 th October 1936


Jarrow march :
The Jarrow March sets off for London.

On this day in history in 1936, the Jarrow March began.
The Jarrow March was a protest demonstration by unemployed coal and shipyard workers, who walked from Jarrow in County Durham to London, in order to draw attention to the troubles facing the unemployed during the Depression.

The Great Depression was an economic blight which hit Britain in the 1920s and 1930s. The First World War had battered the nation’s economy, but there was a short period of prosperity after the war, due to ‘restocking’ by industry. In the 1930’s, the Depression caused major unemployment, particularly in the North East of England, where the coal and shipbuilding industries predominated. There was very little Social Security provision, and little chance of alternative employment, causing great hardship, even starvation, to miners, shipworkers and their families.

On 5th October 1936, 200 men, known as the ‘Jarrow Marchers‘ started to walk from Jarrow to lobby Parliament. This procession became known as the ‘Jarrow Crusade’, a term used on banners carried by the marchers. The participants wanted to obtain jobs to support their families and also find recognition and respect for themselves and other workers throughout the country. The marchers had no food or money, but they received great support from the public. Wherever the marchers stopped overnight, local people would give them shelter and food, and even provide them with boots to enable them to continue. The route was 280 miles and took 22 days.

When the marchers arrived in London, they presented a petition of 12,000 signatures, gathered en route. Sadly, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, declined to see any of the marchers.

The march achieved nothing but publicity. In 1939, at the outbreak of The Second World War, increased demand for coal and ships brought sufficient work to Jarrow and other affected areas.

The Jarrow March is remembered by Socialists as a landmark in the history of the labour movement, although the Labour Party at the time opposed it.

6 th October 1985

Broadwater Farm riots:
Police constable Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm suburb of London.

Broadwater Farm riots: PC Keith Blakelock's 1985 murder recalled.

By midnight on the night of the riot 58 policemen and 24 other people were taken to hospital
Thirty eight years ago PC Keith Blakelock was stabbed in the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, north London. Despite numerous investigations no-one has ever been convicted of his murder.

On 5 October 1985 four policemen burst into the home of Broadwater Farm resident Cynthia Jarrett looking for stolen property.

They failed to find any, but Ms Jarrett had a heart attack and died.

Cynthia Jarrett

Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failure after four policemen raided her home
Her death was only weeks after riots in Brixton, south London, which happened following the accidental shooting of Cherry Groce by police officers.

On 6 October, following Ms Jarrett's death, her family met with police and demanded an inquiry. They made it clear though that they did not want any kind of public disorder.

Cars were overturned and set alight as well as shops and other buildings during the riot
At 18:45 GMT that day, however, police were called to Mount Pleasant, Willan Road and The Avenue.

Once there, they were pelted with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs. Cars were overturned and set alight, as were shops and other buildings.

PC Keith Blakelock


PC Blakelock was trying to protect firefighters tackling a blaze when he was attacked
In the hours that followed, up to 500 officers were drafted in, battling with rioters throwing bottles and cans from the walkways within the estate.

At about 22:15 BST, PC Keith Blakelock was repeatedly stabbed and, a court later heard, attempts were made to decapitate him.

PC Blakelock, who was from Sunderland, was trying to protect firefighters tackling a blaze. He died later in hospital.

Broadwater Farm Estate.

About 500 officers battled rioters throwing bottles and cans from the walkways in the Broadwater Farm Estate
A man and a little girl the day after the Broadwater Farm riots on 6 October 1985


Police in riot gear occupied the estate for two months after the disturbance, using police dogs, helicopters and surveillance equipment.

In 1987, Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted of PC Blakelock's murder.

However, their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after questions were raised about the way police interviews were carried out.

Engin Raghip, Winston Silcott and Mark Braithwaite had their convictions for murdering PC Keith Blakelock quashed
A second investigation between 1992 and 1994, which offered immunity from prosecution for those in the mob who had kicked rather than used weapons on PC Blakelock, did not result in prosecutions.

Two police interrogators, Det Ch Supt Graham Melvin and Det Insp Maxwell Dingle, were also charged with perverting the course of justice over concerns about fabricating evidence. They were acquitted in July 1994.

Nicholas Jacobs.
Nicholas Jacobs denied killing PC Keith Blakelock and was acquitted of murder
Nineteen years later, Nicholas Jacobs, 44, of Hackney, was charged with PC Blakelock's murder.

In April 2014, an Old Bailey jury cleared Mr Jacobs by a majority verdict.

Following the case, the Met defended its decision to pursue a conviction against Mr Jacobs, and said it would not be deterred from future investigations.

7 th October 1988

Operation breakthrough:
A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.

"Operation Breakthrough": Remembering a Rare Thaw in the Cold War.


On October 7, 1988, 'Operation Breakthrough' was a rare US-Soviet cooperation to free three juvenile gray whales that became trapped in pack-ice in the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow, Alaska. The whales had become disoriented, confused, and could barely breathe between the sheets of thick ice. A $1 million US-Soviet joint effort commenced at the height of the Cold War, when cooperation was practically unheard-of.

Inupiaq hunter Roy Ahmaogak discovered the 3 whales, and immediately used a chainsaw to cut a path in the ice leading to open water. But temperatures were so brutally cold that the ice reformed overnight, so villagers used de-icing pumps to keep the path from refreezing. A Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavylift helicopter punched holes in the ice using a 5-ton hammer. The whales were given Inuit names Putu, Siku, and Kanik (English names Bonnet, Crossbeak, and Bone).

Rescuers borrowed a barge from Prudhoe Bay to break the ice and clear a path, but the barge became locked in. International media started arriving at the site. The US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration sent a team of whale biologists, and oil companies in the North Slope Field lent their resources to help. The U.S. Department of State requested the help of two icebreakers from the Soviet Union. The 'Vladimir Arseniev' and the 'Admiral Makarov' immediately responded.

'Admiral Makarov' broke apart an ice ridge 400 yards wide and 30 feet thick. 'Vladimir Arseniev' cleared the icy rubble to create a path for the remaining two whales to escape. But when the whales attempted to take the exit path, swarms of journalists scared them, and they swam back. Jagged ice from the rescue effort cut the whales, bloodying the water.

The youngest whale (Kanik) died on October 21, at 9 months of age. Putu and Siku swam away unseen, and Operation Breakthrough was declared a success. However, the whales were reported to be in very poor health, and it is unknown whether they survived.

Gray whales make an annual 10,000-mile migration from their feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to the lagoons of Mexico's Baja California. The whales usually leave Alaska before the sea ice can trap them near the coastal waters. These whales made a mistake by delaying their departure, and scientists criticised the effort as 'disrupting natural mortality.' But at a time of increasing anti-whaling sentiment, Operation Breakthrough occurred because of human's deep affinity for the wellbeing of whales.

8 th October 1952

Harrow rail disaster:
The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people.

Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash 1952

At 08.19 on 8 October 1952 three trains collided with one another at Harrow and Wealdstone Train Station, some 11 miles to the north of Euston Station in London. One of the trains was a local passenger service taking early morning commuters from Tring to Euston, and the other was a passenger service from Perth to Euston. A third train, the 08.00 express travelling from Euston to Liverpool and Manchester ploughed into the wreckage created by the initial collision of the trains travelling from Perth and Tring.



A combination of poor weather (patchy fog), misread signals and inadequate equipment led to a disaster that was only exceeded in scale by the disaster at Gretna Green in 1915, when 227 persons, mostly soldiers heading to the Front, were killed. The carnage of Harrow and Wealdstone can be comprehended if one considers the effects of a crowded passenger train (the Liverpool express) steaming into the shattered remnants of trains already wrecked and with their passengers and their effects strewn across lines. One disaster fed into another disaster. The casualty figures, high enough, would have been higher still were it not for the swift attention of passing detachments of the United States Air Force, who rushed to the scene of the disaster and applied life-saving field techniques learnt in wartime.

The disaster is well covered by records in the custody of The National Archives. The official accident report in RAIL 1053/138 comes complete with photographs, maps and plans, the evidence of railway workers, the evidence of passengers who survived and includes recommendations and conclusions. These took into account the singularity of events at Harrow and Wealdstone on 8 October 1952, but also drew attention to the design of coaches used on passenger services – the type being manufactured in the years after the Second World War. The Occurrence Book of Harrow Police Station can be found in MEPO 11/95, and this includes the names and addresses of all of the victims, fatal and non-fatal, and also includes details of some of the personal effects recovered at the scene of the disaster. The names of passengers who ‘sustained serious injury’ are recorded in MT 114/21, and this document also includes newspaper clippings and papers relating to the testing of signalling equipment, the damage inflicted on the engines involved in the accident, an appraisal of rescue procedures and many single sheets concerning the returns of the Coroner for the County of Middlesex prepared on 30 October 1952. MT 114/27 includes an extensive collection of maps and photographs. An interesting account of the accident can be found in the November 1952 edition of British Railways Magazine (London Midland Region) in ZPER 22/3.



The Prime Minister, Mr Churchill, visited the scene of the disaster and praised the efforts of all of those involved in rescue efforts. The disaster is still well remembered today. On 8 October 2012 survivors, eye-witnesses and rescue workers gathered together at the site of the accident and the names of those who did not survive were read out.

9 th October 1914

W.W.1, Antwerp:
World War I: The Siege of Antwerp comes to an end.

Siege of Antwerp.


Siege of Antwerp, (28 September–10 October 1914). The German capture of the Belgian city of Antwerp in World War I showed the weakness of fortifications in the face of the latest German heavy artillery. But the siege also revealed the Belgians’ refusal to bow to German demands and their determination to carry on fighting on the Allied side.

After the German invasion of Belgium, most of the Belgian army fell back to the fortress city of Antwerp. Although the German First Army had bypassed it in favor of the advance across Belgium and into France, the Belgian troops in the city were a thorn in the German side. When it became clear that a great victory over France had eluded Germany at the Battle of the Marne, General Helmuth von Moltke redeployed his forces to eliminate this nuisance. General Hans von Beseler’s III Reserve Corps—chosen to attack Antwerp—contained only five understrength divisions, but had been reinforced with 173 heavy artillery pieces. These included the super-heavy howitzers that had proved so effective against Liège and Namur.

On 28 September, German artillery began to systematically engage and destroy the outer forts that protected Antwerp. The British, fearful that the loss of Antwerp might be the first step in the conquest of the Channel ports, agreed to the Belgian request for reinforcements and began to land naval infantry, with the promise that the newly formed 7th Division would follow.


As the Germans closed in, the Belgian commanders decided to abandon the city. On 7 October, before the British 7th Division had even set off, the Belgians transferred their forces from Antwerp to Ostend to continue the fight in open terrain. Two days later, German troops entered the city; the siege was over.

Losses: Allied, 30,000 casualties (mainly captured) of 150,000; German, unknown of 66,000.

10 th October 1957

      Windscale accident:
                                  The Windscale fire results in Britain's worst nuclear accident.


                  Windscale: A nuclear disaster.


Sixty six years ago today, on the night of 10 October 1957, Britain was on the brink of an unprecedented nuclear tragedy.

A fire ripped through the radioactive materials in the core of Windscale, Britain's first nuclear reactor.

Tom Tuohy, the deputy general manager at the site, led the team faced with dealing with a nightmare no-one had thought possible.

"Mankind had never faced a situation like this; there's no-one to give you any advice," he said.


Tuohy and his men were confronted by a terrifying dilemma.

If they let the fire burn out, it could spread radioactivity over a large area of Britain. But if they put water on the reactor, they risked turning it into a nuclear bomb that could kill them all.

"I phoned the general manager," Tuohy recalled, "and said, 'look, I want to turn on the water'.

"I thought if it goes up, we will all go with it," remembers Margaret Davis, whose husband Eddie was also engaged in the emergency operation. "I've never been so frightened in my whole life."

Early warnings

Now tapes of the inquiry into the accident, heard for the first time in a BBC film, reveal the reasons why the politicians covered up the causes of the accident.



Scientists had been warning about the dangers of an accident for some time.

The safety margins of the radioactive materials inside the reactor were being further and further eroded.

"They were running much too close to the precipice," says Dr Dunworth, a senior manager in the Nuclear Research Laboratory in Harwell, Oxfordshire, who was one of those highlighting the potential dangers.

But the politicians and the military ignored the warnings; instead they increased demands on Windscale to produce material for an H-bomb.

A succession of prime ministers since the war had been determined to persuade the Americans to share the secret of their nuclear weapons with Britain.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan believed that, if Britain could develop an H-bomb on the scale of the Americans', they would treat it as a nuclear equal and form an alliance.

Even as Tuohy and the Windscale men faced their nuclear nightmare, Macmillan was arranging a summit in Washington where they would announce the Declaration of Common Purpose.

"It's a unique agreement between two nation states," says Professor John Baylis of Swansea University. "A superpower sharing its nuclear secrets with another."

It laid the foundation of Britain's current "special relationship" with the US - but the Windscale disaster threatened to end it before it began.

'Marvellous feeling'

At Windscale, Tuohy's gamble paid off.

By turning on the water and shutting off the air, they managed to put out the fire and avert a tragedy.

It was a moment of profound relief, he says. "You've got this blazing inferno with these flames belting out; to know that you've licked it, that was a marvellous feeling."


Macmillan realised that if the American Congress knew that the fire had been the result of reckless decisions taken to try to produce the-H bomb, they might veto Macmillan and Eisenhower's plans.

Faced with such a possibility, "he covered it up, plain and simple", says his grandson and biographer, Lord Stockton.

Macmillan issued a report that said the accident had been caused by "an error of judgement" by the Windscale workers.

For 50 years, the official record on the accident had been that the very men who had averted a potentially devastating accident were to blame for causing it.

"I resented it at the time," says Peter Jenkinson, who was an assistant physicist at the reactor, "and I hoped the record would be put straight."

After the inquiry, he and his colleagues finally got their wish.