Today in History

[Daisy]

I had no idea canaries were still being used in mines in the 1980s!

[Gemini]

Nor did I!

I will use that in one of my quizzes.

[Gemini]

1960

The farthing, in use in Britain since the 13th Century, ceased to be legal tender at midnight.

[Daisy]

I always remember they had a little bird on them - a wren, I think.

[Gemini]

1773

The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", was first used to accompany a sermon, led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire.

[Gemini]

1974

Museums and Galleries began charging admission for the first time.

[Daisy]

I didn't realise that was so long ago, Gem.

[Gemini]

1940

Unity Mitford, a member of the aristocratic Mitford family, returned to England after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in Munich. She had been greatly attracted to Fascism and idolized Hitler. When Britain declared war she was so distraught that she shot herself in the head with a pearl-handled pistol, given to her for protection by Hitler himself. She eventually died in Oban, in 1948, of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around the bullet.

[Daisy]

A strange family.

[Gemini]

1972

Rose Heilbron became Britain’s first woman judge at the Old Bailey.
Her career included many 'firsts' for a woman - she was the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, the first woman to be appointed King's Counsel in England, the first to lead in a murder case, the first woman Recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey and the first woman Treasurer of Gray's Inn.

[Daisy]

That is an amazing record of achievements, but isn't it shocking that women were absent from so many important parts of the life of the country as recently as the 1970s!

[Gemini]

1960

The last journey of the Mumbles Railway, the oldest in the world. It was set up in 1804 as a goods railway running from Swansea to Mumbles Head, Wales, and began carrying passengers in 1807. The railway still holds the record for the highest number of forms of traction of any railway in the world - horse-drawn, sail power, steam power, electric power, petrol and diesel.

[Daisy]

It's always a bit sad when old railways close down. One of our current nightmare road closures is to replace an old railway bridge over a closed line. British Rail seem to have abandoned it when they closed the line in the Sixties and now it's dangerous, expensive to replace and a logistical nightmare.

[Gemini]

1540

King Henry VIII married ‘the Flanders Mare’, Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. The King found her so different from her picture that he swore they had brought him a Flanders mare.
She was Queen of England from 6th January 1540 to 9th July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and, following the annulment of their marriage, Anne was given a generous settlement by the King and was referred to thereafter as the King's Beloved Sister.
She lived to see the coronation of Henry's daughter, (Mary I) and outlasted all of Henry's wives.

[Daisy]

Gem - I have to admit I can never remember the sequence of Henry VIII's wives, and I didn't realise Anne of Cleves outlived him, as well as wife number 6.