Today in History

[Daisy]

What an amazing age. The oldest person I've ever met was a mere 109. He'd had his war medals and the citations framed and I delivered them to him in the nursing home. He was so interesting, and had been involved with developing search lights during the war to help spot enemy planes. He was physically active too, and showed me how he did his 'cycling' exercises every morning!

[Gemini]

2014

54 year old Stephen Gough, the so-called 'Naked Rambler' was jailed for 16 months after a jury took just two minutes to find him guilty of breaching an antisocial behaviour order designed to prevent him from appearing nude in public. Gough has been convicted for dozens of offences, mainly in Scotland, where he was repeatedly arrested during attempts to walk from Land's End to John o'Groats without clothes.

[Gemini]

1800

London opened its first soup kitchens for the poor.

[Gemini]

1929

Alexander Fleming successfully treated his assistant Stuart Craddick’s infection with a penicillin broth, at St Mary’s, Paddington.

[Daisy]

I wonder if Fleming realised what an amazing discovery he'd made. Penicillin and the other antibiotics that followed transformed health care.

[Gemini]

1569

The first state lottery took place in England. Lots were sold at the West Door of St Paul’s Cathedral. National lotteries continued until 1826 when it was felt that " the inducement to gambling held out by lotteries is a great moral evil, helping to impoverish many and diverting attention from the more legitimate industrial modes of moneymaking."

[Daisy]

And things have come full circle again with the current issues about gambling.

[Gemini]

1947

The Covent Garden Opera Company opened with Karl Rankl’s production of Carmen, in the newly renovated theatre which had been a dance hall during the war.

[Gemini]

1880

The London Telephone Company published the first directory, listing 255 subscribers.

[Daisy]

That sounds quite a lot for 1880!

[Gemini]

2014

Cambridge City Council said that apostrophes on new street signs would be abolished, a decision that was condemned by language traditionalists. The naming policy also banned street names which would be "difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell" and any that "could give offence" or would "encourage defacing of nameplates". After an intervention by cabinet minister Eric Pickles, local people in Cambridge started to edit street signs, adding apostrophes if they were necessary.

[Daisy]

I confess I always feel the urge to add or correct apostrophes. I don't know why they're not taught properly in schools.

[Gemini]

1958

Bunty was launched by publishers D.C. Thompson. It was the first comic aimed at a young female readership.

Strange fact - DDI had Bunty. There was competition between her, my husband and me as to who read it first each week. We all read it avidly

[Daisy]

Gem - I remember Bunty being launched, but sadly by 1958 I was too old to read it!!

[Gemini]

I was the right age, but never had it, just The Beano, which I loved.