Today in History

[Gemini]

Oma, she was older than him. It was a bit scandalous!

[Daisy]

Gem - I didn't know that. I do know Shakespeare died on his birthday though - 23 April, same as my DS2's and I dreaded DS2 finding out about the date of death in case he thought the same thing might happen to him!

[Gemini]

1956

Panic-buying broke out at garages across the country as the government gave details of its petrol rationing plans. Petrol had been in short supply since the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser, took over the running of the Suez Canal four months previously.

[Daisy]

Panic-buying isn't new, is it!! I remember my father being very worried about not getting enough petrol for the car because he used it for the shop - going to wholesalers, delivering groceries etc. I think it was on rations for a while - he had to get coupons and was only allowed so many.

[Gemini]

1983

Seaweed contaminated by heavy radioactivity was discovered in Cumbria, near the Sellafield nuclear plant.

[Daisy]

Scary! I wondered if it shone in the dark?

[Gemini]

2010

Large parts of the UK were brought to a standstill by the early freeze. Temperatures plunged again overnight to -16C (3F) in the Scottish Highland after one of the coldest starts to December in more than 20 years.
Some 4,000 schools were closed, the Forth Road Bridge was closed for the first time since it opened in 1964 and Edinburgh and Gatwick airports were shut.
The Met Office issued heavy snow warnings for Scotland and north-east, eastern and south-east England.

[Oma]

Brrrrr

[Gemini]

So much snow that winter, and the one before.
My car got stuck on a slight incline and I had to abandon it, and on another day I slipped on the ice on a clients drive and badly bruised my coccyx. This is why I hate ice and snow

[Daisy]

Gem - no wonder you don't like ice and snow. Getting your car stuck and then falling on the ice is enough to put anyone off.

I don't remember it as being that bad, but perhaps it wasn't here on the south coast.

[Gemini]

1966

The Mini skirt, the symbol of the Swinging Sixties, was banned from the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

[Oma]

Very distracting for those old MPs

[Daisy]

Gem, I can remember getting some odd looks in 1967. We were invited to a Masonic Ladies' Evening where everyone wore long dresses (well, not the men!) and I went in a Mary Quant LBD, which was too many inches above my knees to be mainstream! I enjoyed being the odd one out.

By the way, I only know the year because it was the year we got married!!

[Gemini]

1926

In an episode as puzzling and intriguing as any in her many novels, Agatha Christie disappeared from her Surrey home and was discovered on the 14th December staying under an assumed name at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate. She said she had no recollection of how she came to be in Yorkshire.

[Oma]

How strange Gem , did they ever discover how she got there ?