Today in History

[Gemini]

1536

The English Parliament met and settled the succession on the future children of Henry VIII by Jane Seymour. The Princesses Mary and Elizabeth were declared illegitimate.

[Gemini]

1842

Queen Victoria travelled by train for the first time, from Slough (near Windsor Castle) to Paddington, accompanied by Prince Albert. A special coach had been built earlier, but the Queen had been reluctant to try this new form of travel. On her first journey, the engine driver was assisted by the great civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

[Daisy]

I think that's what you'd call Super-Duper Upper First Class travel!

[Gemini]

1883

The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland killed 183 children. At the end of the show an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.

How sad

[Daisy]

Gem - how awful. What a dreadful tragedy.

[Gemini]

1986

In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the government ordered a temporary ban on the slaughter and movement of lambs in some parts of the country.

[Daisy]

I remember how hard that hit a lot of Welsh hill farmers as sheep farming was their only source of income.

[Gemini]

1040

Lady Godiva rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes

[Daisy]

I never quite understood her logic, but I'm sure it provided the locals with some amusement.

[Gemini]

1985

Two simultaneous 'Live Aid' concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid. The 16-hour 'super concert' was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.

[Gemini]

971

According to the legend of St. Swithin, if it rains today, it will be the start of forty days of rain.
St Swithin was bishop of Winchester Cathedral and asked to be buried outside it so that he would be exposed to ‘the feet of passers-by and the drops falling from above’.

[Daisy]

Gem - I'd forgotten about that legend. Fingers crossed it stays dry, and preferably sunny. I wonder if it's Winchester that has to stay dry or the whole country?

We're not far from Winchester, but it's often wetter there than here.

[Sunshine]

On the local news this morning they said whatever the weather is like on St Swithuns day 15th July is how it will stay for the next 40 days, be it rain or shine. The weather forecast tells us different. It is my SIL’s birthday so that is alway something to feel sunny about.

[Daisy]

Sunshine - very happy birthday to your lovely SIL.

[Gemini]

1923
Under the Matrimonial Causes Bill, British women were given equal divorce rights with men.