Today in History

[Gemini]

1992

Fire severely damaged the 'Brunswick Tower', at Windsor Castle when a spotlight ignited a curtain. The castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and was at the time one of the official residences of Queen Elizabeth II.
The question of how the funds required should be found raised important issues about the financing of the monarchy, and led to Buckingham Palace being opened to the public for the first time to help to pay for the restoration.

[Oma]

Can't believe it's that long ago .

[Daisy]

I didn't realise that the opening of Buckingham Palace was to fund the repairs to Windsor Castle. Oma, I didn't realise how long ago it was either. Wasn't that the year Queen Elizabeth called her annus horribilis?

[Gemini]

I think it was Daisy.

[Gemini]

1869


The clipper Cutty Sark was launched In Dumbarton, Scotland. She was one of the last clippers ever built, and is the only one still surviving today. She is preserved as a museum ship, located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London.

[Daisy]

Gem, I remember going with a school party to see the Cutty Sark and Gypsy Moth IV which was then also dry docked in Greenwich. They both looked rather small to have done what they did.

[Gemini]

1914

Miss Mary Allen and Miss E F Harburn became the first two trained policewomen to be granted official status in Britain when they reported for duty at Grantham, Lincolnshire.

[Oma]

Trail blazers of their time.

[Daisy]

They certainly were trailblazers, but for many, many years female police officers were assigned to domestic type situations, rather than the full range of duties. They hd to be very determined to gain acceptance with male colleagues and even with the general public.

[Gemini]

1936

The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire. The spectacular blaze was seen miles away. Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, it was originally erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition in 1851.

I didn't know this.

[Gemini]

2014

Christopher Law, the former owner of Britain’s last surviving temperance bar (Fitzpatrick’s, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire) was prosecuted for drink-driving.

[Gemini]

1973

During a petrol shortage, the government imposed a 50mph speed limit to save fuel.

[Gemini]

1994

The Queen gave the go ahead for oil drilling to take place in the grounds of Windsor Castle. The move came after studies showed there could be up to £1bn of oil lying beneath the castle.

[Daisy]

I think Queen Elizabeth had her financial hat firmly in place for that one.

[Gemini]

2013

Doctors in Derby and Nottingham analysing the Ian Fleming novels showed that James Bond drank the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day.
They said that he was not the man to trust to deactivate a nuclear bomb and that his love of the bottle would have left him impotent and at death’s door.
Excluding the 36 days that Bond was in prison, hospital or rehab, the spy downed 1,150 units of alcohol in 88 days, four times the recommended maximum intake for men in the UK.