Today in History

[Gemini]

2011

Private security firm G4S sacked two members of staff who tagged the false leg of 29 year old Rochdale offender Christopher Lowcock, allowing him to remove it and flout a court-imposed curfew for driving and drug offences, as well as possession of an offensive weapon.

[Daisy]

I don't remember noticing this news item at the time, but honestly those two members of staff weren't quite up to the job, were they.

[Oma]

🤣🤣🤣 I can’t remember that but it’s so funny 😆

[Gemini]

1936

The 1st woman TV announcer, Elizabeth Cowell, made her debut at Alexandra Palace.

[Daisy]

I can imagine the poor lady got ignored by a lot of the men in those days.

[Gemini]

1979

The BBC began broadcasting the hit American series 'Dallas' which soon became one of the most popular programmes on British TV.

[Daisy]

It was quite over the top, wasn't it, the unlikely story lines, the fashions and bringing characters back who they had killed off in a previous series!

[Gemini]

It was quite over the top, wasn't it, the unlikely story lines, the fashions and bringing characters back who they had killed off in a previous series!

I did love it though

[Gemini]

1852

Britain's first free lending library opened, in Manchester.

[Gemini]

1543

Mary Stuart, at just nine months old, was crowned 'Queen of Scots' in the Scottish town of Stirling.

[Gemini]

1895

The prestigious FA Cup trophy was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock of Birmingham. 68 years later an 83 year old man confessed he'd melted it down to make counterfeit halfcrown coins.

[Plantaholic]

I wonder why it was in a football outfitters

[Gemini]

1980

Hercules, the bear who went missing on Benbecula (in the Outer Hebrides) while being filmed for a Kleenex television commercial, was recaptured after 24 days 'on the run'.

[Gemini]

1830

George Stephenson's Manchester and Liverpool railway opened.
During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington.
Stephenson was from humble beginnings and was illiterate until the age of 18. The entire family lived in just one room at a house at Wylam. The house was shared with three other families.

[Daisy]

I bet there was a lot of resistance to these steaming beasts, and building the railway must have had its problems too. What an amazing man George Stephenson was to overcome his poor start in life like that.