Today in History

[Gemini]

1997

The Queen reopened the Globe Theatre in London.
The new theatre was approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of Shakespeare's original theatre, built in 1599

[Gemini]

2014

Blackpool sold off its 6,000 deckchairs that had been 'mothballed' since 2011. Quote - "We found that the majority of people would sit on the new benches or the Spanish steps and there was no longer a demand for the deckchairs."

[Daisy]

I remember renting deckchairs at Blackpool when we went on holidays there - one for each adult, children sat on the sands!!

[Gemini]

1837

London’s first railway station opened, in Euston Grove. The new Euston station was described as ‘mightier than the pyramids of Egypt’.

[Plantaholic]

Supposed to be amazing, haven't been there.

[Gemini]

1986

MPs voted to abolish corporal punishment in state schools.

[Daisy]

It's quite shocking that corporal punishment was abolished in state school so relatively recently! Or am I just showing my age!!

[Gemini]

I reacted in exactly the same way Daisy!

[Gemini]

1865

The death of Dr. James (Jane) Barry, the first woman doctor (because she masqueraded as a man).

I have never heard of this person!

[Daisy]

I vaguely remember reading about her years ago, but didn't know her name. She must have been a brave and determined lady.

[Gemini]

1895

The birth, at Bartley Green - Birmingham, of Jane 'Jinny' Bunford, the tallest person in English medical history, who measured 2.41m. (7ft. 11in.) at the time of her death, aged 26. She was also the tallest person in the world during her lifetime, a record that stood for the next sixty years.

[Daisy]

I'd never heard of her either! Poor lady, I bet she didn't have much of a life.

I once worked with a man whose daughter then a teenager, suffered from gigantism - it's usually caused by a problem with the pituitary gland, and this girl was being given treatment for it. I don't suppose there was any treatment for Jane Bunford.

[Gemini]

2014

Clifford Hartland, aged 101, a Second World War prisoner camp survivor and his wife Marjorie, aged 97, died within hours of each other on their 76th wedding anniversary.

[Daisy]

It makes you think, doesn't it. There are so many things we don't understand about human beings and the bonds that join them.

[Plantaholic]

That truly is very touching.