Today in History

[Gemini]

1895

The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled, also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.

[Daisy]

And I think it's cold today - my phone says it's -1C!! Brrrrr ...

[Gemini]

Minus 2 when I set off to collect the GC this morning!

[Nannycuddles]

February 11 2020. World Health Organization officially names novel coronavirus disease COVID-19


A few months after the first known case was detected in Wuhan, China, and approximately three weeks after the first U.S. case was reported, on February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially named the illness that would go on to cause a pandemic "coronavirus disease 2019," shortened to the acronym COVID-19.

[Daisy]

Nannycuddles - it seems like much, much longer than one year!

It feels as though we've been living with Covid for ever.

[Gemini]

2017

Elaine Hopley, a 45 year old Scottish mother-of-two, broke the solo female record in a prestigious rowing race across the Atlantic. Her time for the event, dubbed "the world's toughest row", was 59 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes. She was raising money for Alzheimer Scotland and completed the challenge in her boat Jan, named after her mother.

[Gemini]

1971

The British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.

[Daisy]

I remember that the banks were closed for about 4 days to make the changeover.

There was quite a lot of confusion in shops, and most goods were marked up in both currencies for a while. I think it was also the end of the ha'penny (½ d), and we all talked about 'new pence' for ages. I was relieved to see the back of £sd - my maths was never up to adding them up!

[Sunshine]

I was a bank cashier when we went ‘decimal.’ What surprised me the most was the difference in the size of the new coins. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the new 5p. The new decimal coins certainly made cashing up at the end of the day a less physical workout!

[Daisy]

Sunshine - was it easier to 'balance' as well?

[Sunshine]

Daisy, yes it probably was easier to balance the till. Although it was unhelpful that we still carried on using the old 6d pieces. We also exchanged the old coins for some time after decimalisation.

[Gemini]

1923

Howard Carter, having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months previously, lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.

[Oma]

Would love to have been there , to think the first person to see that after all that time amazing .

[Daisy]

Oma, it's on display at the Cairo Museum (or it used to be). We visited there some years ago - OH is fascinated by all the Ancient Egyptian culture. I'm not, and I expected to find the whole thing incredibly boring. But I was wrong. The gold mask of Tutankhamun stopped me in my tracks. It's beautiful, of course, but it was also quite mesmerising and I stood gazing at it for ages. I can only imagine what it must have been like for Howard Carter seeing it for the very first time.

[Gemini]

1938

A surprise item was shown at the Dominion Theatre, London. It was the first public, experimental demonstration of Baird colour television on a big 12 ft x 9 ft screen. Transmitted from Crystal Palace, the short programme consisted of fashion plates and a cartoon.