Today in history

March 28th

1866 The birth of Jimmy Ross, Scottish footballer nicknamed 'The Little Demon'. When the Football League implemented a maximum wage of £4 per week for professional football players and full-time players like Ross could earn up to £10 a week, the prospect of a reduced wage was a serious threat to their livelihood. In order to curb this threat, Ross and other top players of the time formed the Association Footballers' Union.

2nd April

The 1977 Grand National (officially known as the News of the World Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 131st renewal of the Grand National horse race that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 2 April 1977.

The race is best remembered for being Red Rum's third Grand National win, a record that still stands today. He completed the course in 9 minutes 30.3 seconds and went off as 9/1 joint-favourite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Grand_National

If yoo read Red Rum backwards without the space, what does it spell

Speedway Racing:
Speedway racing was introduced to Poolstock in 1946.
A cinder circuit was laid within the infield of the greyhound track.
The first official speedway meeting took place on April 4th, 1947.
Nearly 5,000 spectators gathered to witness speedway racing for the first time.
Speedway continued at Poolstock until 1960

1855 The railway opened between Wigan and Southport on 9 April 1855. Wigan's L&YR station was then relocated to a position west of where Wallgate station is today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigan_Wallgate_railway_station#:~:text=1855%20The%20railway%20opened%20between%20Wigan,and%20Southport%20on%209%20April%201855.

On the 12 April 1918 at 3:07pm, zeppelin L61 set off from her base at Wittmundhaven, located on the North German Coast. This was one of five zeppelins that were ordered to raid 'Middle England'. However, the overcast and foggy conditions within England that night meant that the L61 narrowly failed to reach its initial objective of Liverpool. Her commander, Ehrlich, who died in 1921, never realised how close he came to his objective.

https://archives.wigan.gov.uk/archive/highlights-from-the-wigan-museums-collection/wigan-at-war/1222562-zeppelin-shrapnel

Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.

In 1831 a suspension bridge in Greater Manchester, England, collapsed while British troops marched over it. The bridge had a few design flaws, but the marching of troops was discovered to be the reason for the collapse. After this incident, the British Army put out a new order that marching troops should “break step” when crossing a bridge.

Broughton Suspension Bridge
The Broughton Suspension Bridge was constructed in 1826 and crossed the River Irwell, between Broughton and Pendleton in Greater Manchester. The 44-meter chain link suspension bridge was financed solely by John Fitzgerald, the wealthy owner of the nearby Castle Irwell House. At the time the bridge was the only nearby crossing between Broughton and Pendleton and was a source of great local pride, thanks to its then-modern construction.

In 1831, four years after the bridge’s construction, soldiers from the British Army’s 60th Royal Rifle Corps were participating in an exercise on Kersal Moor. They were led by Lieutenant Percy Slingsby Fitzgerald, John Fitzgerald’s son and an MP.

When the 74 soldiers marched back, they crossed the suspension bridge, four abreast. As they marched, they noticed the bridge had begun to vibrate in time with their steps. They were not aware that they were inducing mechanical resonance within the bridge, which would lead to a catastrophic structural failure.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/broughton-suspension-bridge-collapse.html

15th April 1989
Tragedy occurred at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, when a crush of football (soccer) fans resulted in 96 deaths and hundreds of injuries; police mistakes were later blamed for the incident.

1874-04-18 David Livingstone, African explorer, buried in Westminster Abbey

David Livingstone, the famous Scottish missionary and explorer, was born on 19th March 1813 and died at Ilala in the centre of Africa in May 1873. On hearing of his death A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster (no relation to Henry Morton Stanley who "found" Livingstone) wrote to the President of the (Royal) Geographical Society offering burial in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone's heart had been buried under a mpundu tree but his faithful attendants enclosed his embalmed body in a cylinder of bark which was wrapped in sailcloth and carried it to the coast and then sailed to London, arriving the following year. As the Doctor had been away from England for so long a correct identification of the remains was required and this was verified by the badly set broken arm which had been crushed by a lion. There was also the fact that only Dr Livingstone could have inspired the Africans to overcome their natural superstition of carrying a dead body for so many months in order to reach the African coast with all the dangers that journey entailed.

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/david-livingstone

Fanny’s First Play is a 1911 play written by George Bernard Shaw. Initially performed as an anonymous piece, the authorship was meant to be kept secret. However, critics soon recognized it as Shaw’s work. The play premiered at the Little Theatre in the Adelphi, London on April 19, 1911, and it ran for an impressive 622 performances1. The mystery surrounding its authorship contributed to its publicity, making it the longest-running of all Shaw’s plays.

In 1653, after learning that Parliament was attempting to stay in session despite an agreement to dissolve, and having failed to come up with a working constitution, Cromwell's patience ran out. On 20 April he attended a sitting of Parliament and listened to one or two speeches. Then he stood up and harangued the members of the Rump.[10] This speech does not survive, but has often been paraphrased, for instance in the Book of Days: "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" He then declared "you are no Parliament" and called in a troop of soldiers, under the command of Major-General Thomas Harrison, ordering them to clear the chamber. According to Charles Dickens in A Child's History of England[11] and Hilaire Belloc,[12] he then turned to the Speaker's Mace, the symbol of parliamentary power, declared it a "fool's bauble", and ordered the troops "here, carry it away". Cromwell's motives are uncertain, but may lie in his disapproval of Sir Henry Vane's scheme for a redistribution of constituencies that retained sitting members of Parliament and continued to fill vacancies with recruiter elections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_Parliament

On April 21st, 1904, the Pemberton Urban District was incorporated into the County Borough of Wigan. This merger included the township of Pemberton along with its constituent villages. As a result, Pemberton became part of the Wigan district2.

The inclusion of Pemberton in 1904 led to an increase in the Wigan council’s membership to fifty-six members, chosen from fourteen wards.

PM Lester B. Pearson
1963 Lester B. Pearson is sworn in as the 14th Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister 1963–68
Pearson took office on 22 April 1963. His government was expected to be more businesslike than Diefenbaker’s; but it proved instead to be accident-prone and effectively aborted its first budget. Much of Parliament’s time was spent in bitter partisan and personal wrangling, culminating in the great flag debate of 1964. Historian Rick Archbold described that prolonged, heated debate as “among the ugliest in the House of Commons history.” (See also Editorial: The Canadian Flag, Distinctively Our Own.) In 1965, Pearson called a general election but again failed to secure a majority. In the next year, the Munsinger scandal erupted with even more partisan bitterness.
The year 1965 marked a dividing line in Pearson’s administration. Finance Minister Walter Gordon departed, and Jean Marchand and Pierre Trudeau from Quebec became prominent in the Cabinet. Pearson had attempted in his first term to conciliate Quebec and the other provinces with “co-operative federalism” and “bilingualism and biculturalism.” This priority was superseded in his second term by a firm federal response to provincial demands and by the Quebec government’s attempts to usurp federal roles in international relations. When, during his centennial visit, French president Charles de Gaulle uttered the separatist slogan, “Vive le Québec libre” to a crowd in Montreal, Pearson issued an official rebuke; de Gaulle promptly went home. In December 1967, Pearson announced his intention to retire. In April 1968, a Liberal convention picked Pierre Trudeau as his successor.

https://development.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lester-bowles-pearson

1971: Singles chart:

1.Hot Love – T. Rex
2.Double Barrel – Dave and Ansell Collins
3.Bridget The Midget – Ray Stevens
4.Where Do I Begin (Theme From Love Story) – Andy Williams
5.Rose Garden – Lynn Anderson
6.Mozart Symphony No40 – Waldo de los Rios
7.If Not For You – Olivia Newton John
8.Walkin’ – CCS
9.Something Old Something New – The Fantastics
10.Jack In The Box – Clodagh Rodgers

1284www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth, at Caernarfon Castle , of King Edward II, who became the first heir-apparent to bear the title Prince of Wales. King from 1307, he ruled during a period of pestilence, famine and defeats at the hands of the Scots, and was eventually murdered.