Bit late (reason is in Pics of Women!!)


Today is {was} the Glorious Twelfth.... the official start of the Grouse-shootng season here in Scotland!! Poor birdies!!


Japanese Airlines flight 123 loses its tail and falls 24,000 feet today in 1985, killing 520 people......the largest single-aircraft disaster in history. Amazingly, four people survived!!


Isaac Singer patented his sewing machine on this day in 1851. He had turned to inventing only after failing in his first choice of career....... as an actor!


Westminster's Big Ben clock was running at it's slowest for 90 years in 1949; this was due to flocks of Starlings roosting on the minute-hands, slowing it by 4 and a half minutes!


Two bird stories in one post..... is that an omen?!?!

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

More for Aug 12

1942 - Screen actor Clark Gable, at age 41, enlisted in Los Angeles as a United States Army private.

1953 - The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

1964 - Mickey Mantle, for the 10th time in his major-league baseball career, hit home runs from the left and ride sides of the plate during the same game; setting a new baseball record.

1966 - The Beatles last tour began at the International Amphitheater in Chicago where John Lennon apologized for boasting the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. London’s "Catholic Herald" said Lennon’s statement was "arrogant ... but probably true."

Unlucky bad-guys Peter Allen and John Welby became the last men to be hanged in Britain, this day in 1964. From then on, Capital punishment was NOT an option for judges to gove as a sentence, even in murder trials.


Today in 1704, in one of the most decisive battles in history, the Duke of Marlborough beat Marshal Tallard at Blenheim, checking (French Kings) Louis XIV's territorial ambitions beyond the Rhine.


In 1944, German scientists in Berlin announced that the new V-2 flying bomb, the first long-range ballistic missle, was ready for use against Britain.


Legendary Tenor Enrico Caruso was fond of posing in his many luxury cars, but never learned to drive!! On this day in London, in 1908, his wife Ada Giachetti eloped with their chauffeur!!

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

A torpedo exploded on-board the Russian submarine "Kursk" in 2000, setting off (most of) the rest of it's ordnance. All 118 crewmen died..... some very slowly.


In 1955, record crowds attended the Royal Academy summer exhibition to see the new portrait of the Queen by Pietro Annigoni. (Her FIRST official portrait since being crowned Queen in 1953)


The first oral contraceptive was marketed by the American drug company Searle, this day in 1960.


This last one is for our Aussie friends!! ()

In 1948, Aussie batsman took the crease at The Oval in his final Test innings, needing just 4 runs to achieve a test average of 100; he was bowled out on his second ball....... for a DUCK!


Sorry guys, couldn't resist that one!!

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Today in 1848, M Waldo Hanchett patented.......... the DENTAL CHAIR!!!

So, now you know who to blame for all those pain-wracked hours getting your teeth fixed!


In 1938, the Cunard liner "Queen Mary" recaptured the Blue Riband from the SS Normandie, crossing the Atlantic in 3 days, 22 hours and 40 minutes.


In 1534, near Montmartre in Paris, Spanish theologian St. Ignatius of Loyola and his followers took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience..... thus founding the Society of Jesus (Jesuits!)


Richard Branson's "Virgin Atlantic Challenger" sank in heavy seas in 1985, just TWO hours short of crossing the Atlantic in record time. (and hence, reclaiming the Blue Riband for Britain AGAIN, 47 years after the Queen Mary!!)

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Today is Mother's Day .... in Costa Rica.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Only the one for now.....

Today in 1977, at 2:30 p.m., Elvis Presley's 18-stone (250 pound) was discovered slumped in the toilet by his Road Manager, Jerry Esposito


Rock'n'Roll will NEVER die!!

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Today in 1992, British racing driver Nigel Mansell won the F1 World Championship with a record NINE Grand Prix victories; this record has since been equalled three times, and surpassed once, by (a certain) Michael Schumacher!


Clara Bow signed a five-year contract with Paramount in 1926; she was the first starlet to avoid the then traditional 'Morality Clause', which let the studio cancel in case of a scandal.


In 2001, police charged Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, with the theft of her property.... without first checking with the Queen whether or not she knew where the items had gone. The case has since been thrown out of court.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Communist East Germany completes the Berlin Wall today in 1961. Over the next 28 years, 75,000 people are jailed for trying to cross it, and 189 (admitted to) killed.


Today in 1996, at Selhurst Park in England, a young David Beckham (complete with lank blond hair and a hint of acne!) gives an early glimpse of his talents by scoring from the half-way line.


In 1666, Samuel Pepys took delivery from 'Simpson the joiner' of the first known glass-fronted bookcase.


"The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown" had a U.K. No.1 hit in 1968 with their second release 'Fire'. Their first single flopped when record company, Polydor, ran out of vinyl during production!!

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

AUGUST 18TH



1~~Beatles' double A side Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby topped the charts, becoming the group's 11th consecutive No1~~~~a feat never rivalled'


2~~The first Morris Mini Minor was unveilled this day in 1959~~a total of 5,387,862 were sold before production ceased on October 4th 2000


3~~NEW zealand inventor PERCY DANDO took a patent on this day 1902, for a 'silent chamber pot' ,designed so sleeping partners wouldn't be woken up!

__________________
Don't pet the sweaty things!!!!

Twenty-five year Postal Service veteran Perry Smith, having resigned from the service in Johnson, South Carolina, returns today in 1983 and kills the Postmaster.


Today in 1953, at the Oval, London, England's cricketers won back the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1933. They won the last Test by two wickets, after drawing the other four matches.


In 1905, Japanese scientist 'Ikeda' laid the foundations for a junk-food future, when he isolated the flavour enhancer..... Monosodium glutamate!!


Carpaccio, a dish of thin, uncooked strips of beef invented in Harry's Bar, Venice (Italy) today in 1955, was named after renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, who used lots of red in his paintings.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Oklahoma postman Patrick "Crazy Pat" Sherill conceals two .45-calibers in his bag and 'caps' 14 fellow employees before shooting himself, today in 1986.


In 1987 treasure hunters salvaging objects from the doomed luxury liner 'Titanic', on the bottom of the Atlantic, scooped up a bag containing a fortune in jewels.


Her Majesty the Queen opened up her Sandringham Estate, in Norfolk, in 1988 to let people come and pick their own blackberries. She charged them....... 40 pence per pound!!!


In 1911 Vincenzo Perugia, a cleaner at the Louvre in Paris, stole the Mona Lisa by simply taking it of the wall and walking out with it under his coat!! The painting was not recovered for TWO years!



Dunno about you guys, but it looks like the BIGGEST crook of the lot is our own dear Queen!! (Money-grabbing old ........ person!!)

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

OK, how many of you are getting fed-up with all this? (Just thought I'd ask!! )


In 1986, toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake in Caneroon, Africa, killing over 1,700 people.


A slave revolt in Virginia began today in 1831, after Nat Turner heard a voice in a dream telling him " the last shall be first". It was harshly repressed within 48 hours.


In Battle, East Sussex in 1976, 25-year old Mary Langdon became the first British woman to join the Fire Brigade!






Remember, if you're fed-up with this, let me know!!

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

From yesterdays post, I'm not sure whether to keep going, or not!! NO answers...... does that mean you all like this thread, or that no-one looks any more?????? Speak UP, folks!!!


King Charles the First calls Parliament and it's soldiers "Traitors" in 1642, starting the English Civil War!!


Today in 1953 the infamous French prison on Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana, which was featured in the Stve McQueen film 'Papillon', released it's last prisoner.


In 1840, pupils & staff from Gateshead Fell school went on the first-ever school outing by train..... to Tynemouth! (About 5{?} miles!!)


Scores of angry smokers blocked a street near Moscow's Red Square for hours in 1990, in protest at a summer-long cigarette shortage!

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

Today in 1962, at the Mount Pleasant Register office in Liverpool, John Lennon married Cynthia Powell, whom he'd met at Liverpool College of Art. Brian Epstein was Best Man.


"Pilot" Bryan Allen made the world's first man-powered flight of more than a mile in the ultra-light Gossamer Condor in 1977, winning the £50,000 Kremer prize. (He went on to cross the English Channel in the same craft)


When Hitler signed the Ribbentrop Pact with Soviet Russia in 1939, it went largely unremarked in France....... despite giving the Nazis the chance of a "one-front" war in Europe! {Not for the FIRST time, it has to be said! }

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind