Today in History

[Gemini]

1867

The four bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column were completed.

[Gemini]

1884

The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. James Murray was its most famous editor but he had only reached the letter T after working 44 hours per week for 35 years, so hundreds of people sent in their own contributions.

[Daisy]

I wonder how many 'new' words and new usages have been added since 1844 - all the technology for instance.

[Gemini]

2015

Bristol became the first city in the UK to ban smoking in some outdoor public places and Millennium Square and Anchor Square became no smoking zones. The project, by Smokefree South West, was inspired by 33-year-old mother Kirsty Vass, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a year previously.

[Gemini]

1935

The first 'League of Ovaltineys' created by the manufacturer of the drink Ovaltine. It became a children's 'secret society', promoting high morals and consideration towards others.
At the height of its popularity, there were over five million members. In 1975 the song 'We Are The Ovaltineys' came back to a new audience when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and also released as a single record.

[Daisy]

Gem, I remember the Ovaltineys song on the radio when I was about 5 or 6. Thinking about it now, there was no commercial radio (if Radio Luxemburg existed then, it never reached our radio!) so just the BBC - Light programme, Home programme etc, so I wonder how they were able to advertise Ovaltine through the Ovaltineys!

[Gemini]

1967

A ban by the Musicians' Union, 'in the cause of decency', stopped The Rolling Stones' latest record Let's Spend the Night Together, from being performed on television.


I was 13. It seemed a very racy song!

[Daisy]

Elsewhere in the world it was the summer of Love!

[Gemini]

1991

Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt, when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.

[Oma]

I had forgotten about that Gem .

[Daisy]

So had I.

[Gemini]

1840

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, both aged 20, were married in St James' Palace, London.

[Gemini]

1932

Ramsey MacDonald introduced a bill to improve youth courts, raise the age of juveniles and ban whipping of under 14s.

[Daisy]

It's shocking to think that children could be whipped as part of a legal process.

[Gemini]

1969

An announcement stated that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilized in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with Dr. P. Steptoe at Oldham General Hospital.