Today in History

[Gemini]

1984

The biggest exam shake up for over 10 years was announced with O Level and CSE exams to be replaced by new examinations, to be known as GCSEs.

[Daisy]

Our DS1 was in that first year of GCSE cohort - nobody, including the teachers, had any idea how it would pan out. It was clear the old system was divisive and unfair but it felt a bit like this last two years of exams during the pandemic have been.

[Gemini]

1984

The first Virgin Atlantic flight left Gatwick for New York, with a planeload of passengers who had paid just £99 for their tickets.

[Daisy]

I didn't realise it was that long ago, Gem!

[Gemini]

I wouldn't have known either Daisy.
I know we first flew with them to Orlando in 1998. Our previous trip to Florida had been with Airtours, very basic, so we thought this very posh

[Daisy]

Gem - I thought it was very posh as well. The first time we flew with them it was a brand new plane - such luxury.

[Gemini]

2005

The Glastonbury Festival eventually got under way after suffering serious disruption when storms tore across its site at Pilton, Somerset. Heavy rain flooded parts of the site, with dozens of tents lost under water, while lightning strikes affected the stages and knocked out power lines.

[Daisy]

It was more like a mud wrestling festival than music!

[Gemini]

2001

36,000 people lined the banks of the River Tyne to watch the Millennium Bridge tilt for the first time. The bridge was the world's first tilting bridge. It spans the River Tyne between Gateshead's Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank.

[Daisy]

An incredible feat of engineering.

[Gemini]

1937

The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, was introduced in London. 999 was chosen was because it could be dialled on the old rotary dial telephones by placing a finger against the dial stop and rotating the dial to the full extent three times, even in the dark or in dense smoke. This enabled all users, including the visually impaired, to easily dial the emergency number.

[Gemini]

1967

Colour television came to Europe with a seven hour transmission on BBC 2 from the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships.

[Daisy]

I didn't know anybody who had a colour tv back in 1967!

[Gemini]

1996

It was announced that the Stone of Scone, the symbol of Scottish nationalism, stolen by Edward I of England in 1296, was to be returned to Scotland from Westminster Abbey where it has been used in the coronation of 30 British monarchs.

[Gemini]

1948

The birth of Aneira Reece at Amman Valley Hospital in Carmarthenshire. She was the first baby born to be born under the National Health Service, just after the clocks chimed midnight. She was named Aneira, after the founding father of the NHS, Aneurin Bevan.