Today in History

[Gemini]

1926

John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird's invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.

[Daisy]

Quite incredible when you look at today's play-on-demand, streaming services and hundreds of stations!

[Gemini]

1989

Thomas Sopwith, British aircraft designer, died aged 101. Remembered for his Sopwith Camel and Sopwith Pup planes he also won a £4,000 prize for the longest flight from England to the Continent in a British built aeroplane, flying 169 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. His company produced more than 18,000 British World War I aircraft for the allied forces, including 5,747 of the famous Sopwith Camel single-seat fighter. Sopwith was awarded the CBE in 1918.

[Gemini]

1994

The first women only boxing tournament was held at the Marine Halls, Fleetwood. Diane Berry became the first British super-flyweight women’s champion.

[Nanto2girls]

1959 - England Fog Causes Major Chaos on Roads
Dense fog brings road, rail and air transport in many parts of England and Wales to a virtual standstill.

[Gemini]

That must have been scary to drive through Nan2.

[Daisy]

We used to get awful fog and smog in those days. I don't remember that one specifically, but I do remember a night in the early 60s when all public transport stopped and I had to walk 15 miles home from work in suffocating, freezing fog. They weren't always the 'good old days'.

[Plantaholic]

We used to have terrible fogs in the Thames Valley where I grew up.

[Daisy]

I can imagine, Plant - it must be quite low-lying and the fog would just settle there.

In a city full of heavy industry where I lived there would be the added delight of all the coal-fired industrial chimneys (pottery kilns, steel works and coal mines) which made the fog dirty and laden with soot. You literally couldn't wear hairspray because all the soot would stick to your hair. Yuk!

[Gemini]

1867

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

[Gemini]

1984

Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, announced that the halfpenny coin would cease to be legal tender. Its fate was sealed when it became more expensive to make than its face value.

[Daisy]

There was a great outcry about how it would push up inflation, wasn't there.

[Gemini]

2002

Cancer Research UK was founded. It is the world's largest independent cancer research charity.

[Daisy]

I didn't realise Cancer Research UK was that 'new'. Was it formed by several cancer charities banding together, I wonder.

[Gemini]

Nor did I Daisy, I felt sure it had been around longer!!
I found this just now on Wikipedia -

Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer.
Date founded: 4 February 2002


1953

Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain, 8 years after the 2nd World War had ended.

(In good time for me being born a year later )