Yes it really happened

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1815 the signing of the Second Treaty of Paris ended the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon Bonaparte had been forced to abdicate after his defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815; in 1945 the trial of the surviving Nazi leadership began at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. The final military tribunal finished in April 1949; in 1995 Diana, Princess of Wales admitted to an adulterous affair with James Hewitt during an hour-long interview on BBC television. Of Prince Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles she said: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”; in 2000 Judith Keppel became the first person to win £1 million on the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Her final question: Which individual was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine? Henry I, Henry II, Richard I or Henry V. The answer: Henry II.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1789 North Carolina became the 12th state of the USA. The state capital is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, who had chartered two colonies on the territory’s coast in the late 1580s; in 1918, ten days after the First World War ended, 70 German battleships, cruisers and destroyers sailed into the Firth of Forth ready for internment at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands; in 1980 the first BBC Children in Need telethon was broadcast live from Elstree Studios. It was presented by Terry Wogan, Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen and raised £1 million for charities; in 1996 the United Nations general assembly designated November 21 as World Television Day. A two-day forum had been held to discuss the growing significance of television. In 2012, February 13 was designated World Radio Day.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1774 Lord Clive of Plassey, aka Clive of India, died, aged 49, having played a founding role in establishing British rule in India. Samuel Johnson wrote that he “had acquired his fortune by such crimes that his consciousness of them impelled him to cut his own throat”; in 1963, 98 minutes after the assassination of President John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson was sworn in as US president, on Air Force One; in 1975 individual Juan Carlos acceded to the Spanish throne, two days after the death of Francisco Franco, who had ruled the country since 1939; in 2004 a series of protests, the Orange Revolution, began in Ukraine after suspicion of corruption in the presidential election.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The Calgary Stampeders made their 1st appearance in the Grey Cup a winning one with a 12-7 victory over the Ottawa Rough Riders before 20,013 fans at Varsity Stadium in Toronto on 27 November 1948. Not surprisingly two odd plays settled the contest. The first one happened when the Stamps pulled off a sleeper play. Calgary called an extension play to the far side of the field. The Calgary player did not return to the huddle but stayed lying down on the turf. On the next play, Keith Spaith the Stampeder quarterback, threw a pass to the receiver who had gotten up to catch the pass and run into the end zone for a touchdown. Calgary 6 Ottawa 1. The sleeper play was eventually banned in 1961.

In the 4th quarter with Calgary up 7-6, Ottawa made the mistake that cost them the game. The Rider runner fumbled the ball on a play that was offside. The Rough Riders thought the ball was dead on the infraction, but it was still a live ball. Future professional wrestler and movie actor, Woody Strode of the Stampeders said,

I looked at the ball on the ground. I bent down to pick up the ball and then I glanced right into the mouth of the referee. He didn't blow his whistle. That was the green light I was waiting for. That told me the ball was alive....I figured it was time to start running.

Rules at that time indicated the ball on an offside lateral was still in play. Strode got the ball into Ottawa territory before lateralling it to a teammate who made it down to the Ottawa ten. Calgary ran the ball in on the next play to win the Cup.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1499 Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, was hanged. He had claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (youngest of the Princes in the Tower, sons of the late Edward IV); in 1852 the first pillar boxes in Britain were installed in St Helier, Jersey, overseen by Anthony Trollope, the novelist, in his capacity as a postal inspector; in 1863, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Chattanooga began, ending in victory for Union forces on November 25; in 1874 the first book edition of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd was published shortly before the final magazine instalment; in 1910 Hawley Harvey Crippen, aka Dr Crippen, was hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, after being found guilty of poisoning and dismembering his second wife. He was buried in an unmarked grave with a photograph of his lover, Ethel Le Neve, and some of her letters; in 1916 Major Lanoe Hawker VC was killed during a dogfight with Baron Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), having been forced to break away as his de Havilland DH2 pusher scout was running low on fuel. Hawker was the first “flying ace” of the Royal Flying Corps.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted what he named Van Diemen’s Land, officially designated Tasmania on January 1, 1856; in 1859 the naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. It became a bestseller, despite accusations of blasphemy; in 1913 Peter Lobengula, who migrated to the UK and sought voting and pension rights when he claimed to be a son of the Ndebele individual Lobengula Khumalo (a breakaway Zulu group), died from tuberculosis, aged 38, in Salford (now Greater Manchester). After his first marriage ended in divorce on the grounds of his adultery and cruelty, he later married a Belfast-born woman and they had five children. On his arrival in the UK he worked as a circus performer, for Zulu battle re-enactments, and later as a labourer and coalminer. Although there were sensationalist reports of his first relationship, there was a press campaign to support his family at the end of his life; in 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with the assassination of President John Kennedy, was shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas; in 1974 a partial hominid skeleton, nicknamed Lucy, was discovered in Ethiopia. The Australopithecus afarensis skeleton is dated to about 3.2 million years.

[jackspratt]

on this day

In 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted what he named Van Diemen’s Land, officially designated Tasmania on January 1, 1856;

It is a well known fact that the map of Tasmania is one of the most instantly recognisable images known to mankind.

Though not so much these days, I must confess.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The Montreal Alouettes won the 1949 Grey Cup with a 28-15 victory over the Calgary Stampeders before 20,080 fans at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The field was covered in mud and snow. The Calgary coach, Les Lear, was fired which led him to return to horse training and remark,

Now, I don't have to roam the streets at night looking for football players who break the curfew. When you lock the barn at night, you know the horses will still be there in the morning.

Luckily, we have some sound to accompany film from the game. Montreal is decked out in all red uniforms while Calgary is in white and red.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

Today

In 1542 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, abolished slavery by decree in his Leyes Nuevas, although slavery persisted in Spain’s colonies in Puerto Rica and Cuba (until 1873 and 1886); in 1952 Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, starring Richard Attenborough and his wife Sheila Sim; in 1963 the funeral of the assassinated president John F Kennedy took place, with more than 800,000 people lining the streets to watch the procession through Washington DC; in 2016 Fidel Castro died, aged 90: he led Cuba from the 1959 revolution to 2008, defeated the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and presided over the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 (obituary, November 26, 2016).

Tomorrow

In 1914 an accidental explosion on the battleship HMS Bulwark, moored on the River Medway at Sheerness, killed 741 men from a company of 750; in 1917 Elsie Inglis, a pioneering feminist, physician and founder of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, died aged 53, the day after returning to the UK having set up 17 women’s hospitals for injured First World War soldiers across Europe. Thousands lined the streets of Edinburgh for her funeral. She started the wartime field hospitals with her own money, having been told by the War Office to “go home and sit still”. Inglis was the first woman to hold the Serbian Order of the White Eagle, that country’s highest honour for heroism; in 1942 Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, had its world premiere in New York City. The film won three Oscars (best picture, director and screenplay); in 1956 Rose Heilbron QC became the first female lawyer to be appointed a recorder. She was also the first woman to lead a murder case and the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1852 Ada Lovelace (Countess of Lovelace), regarded as the world’s first computer programmer, died aged 36. She was buried next to her father, the poet Lord Byron. Lovelace was the key interpreter of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine; in 1914 the first policewomen to be granted official status in Britain reported for duty in Grantham, Lincolnshire. They wore a uniform, but had no powers of arrest and were not paid; in 1942, as German troops began occupying Toulon, the French navy scuttled its fleet of ships anchored in the port city; in 1945 the Slinky toy (the spring that “walks” down stairs) sold out at its first department store demonstration. Its inventor was a US engineer who had accidentally knocked a spring from a shelf.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The 1950 Grey Cup was known for the weather more than anything. It was played on 25 November beofre 27,101 fans at Varsity Stadium between the Toronto Argonauts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Eight inches of snow fell on the field the night before the game followed by off and on rain. The Argos won the Mud Bowl 13-0.

In the video, the Argos are wearing double blue uniforms and Winnipeg has white helmets, and blue jerseys. Some of the Blue Bombers players switched to white jerseys at the half. Joe Krol, who was restricted to punting duties is wearing #55 for Toronto. The Argo quarterback taped filed down thumb tacks to his throwing hand to better handle the ball.

This is football at its best!

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1919 Nancy, Viscountess Astor, was announced as the winner of the Plymouth Sutton by-election. On December 1, 1919 she became the first female MP to take a seat in the House of Commons; in 1943 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met together for the first time in Tehran to discuss their strategy for defeating the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan; in 1945 Dwight Filley Davis, tennis-playing Olympian and founder (1900) of the Davis Cup competition, died, aged 66. The International Lawn Tennis Challenge team event was renamed after his death. Davis had been US secretary of war from 1925 to 1929; in 1964 the US launched the Mariner IV spacecraft. It flew past Mars on July 14, 1965, and went on to transmit images of lunar-type impact craters.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1907 it was announced that individual Edward VII had conferred the Order of Merit on Florence Nightingale, the first female recipient of the award; in 1929 an aircraft navigated by the US explorer Richard E Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole, on a 19-hour round trip; in 1947 the UN general assembly voted to partition Palestine, with Jerusalem as a “special international regime”. Arab governments rejected the plan, which was not implemented; in 1962 Peter Rachman, a Polish-born millionaire landlord and brothel-keeper notorious for exploiting his tenants in London, died aged 43. The term Rachmanism was coined after his death and his practices had a bearing on the passing of the Rent Act 1965. During the Profumo affair of 1963 it emerged that Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies had been his mistresses; in 1968 demonstrators staged a sit-in at the BBC’s new studios in Cardiff, protesting against the shortage of Welsh-speaking programmes.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1621 a letter sent from London confirmed the importation of honey bees to North America. The native species did not produce honey, unlike Apis mellifera, the European honey bee; in 1872 the brigantine Mary Celeste was spotted, abandoned, drifting about 400 miles east of the Azores. There was no evidence of the fate of the captain, his wife and young daughter or the seven crew members; in 1933 Prohibition — banning the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes’ — was repealed in the US, having officially been in place since 1920; in 1989 Margaret Thatcher won a leadership election after being challenged by Conservative backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer, objecting to policies on Europe and the community charge; in 2005 the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force, enabling same-sex couples to form civil partnerships. From March 29, 2014 the first marriages of same-sex couples were permitted; in 2017 Russia was banned from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games for state-sponsored doping at the 2014 event hosted in Sochi.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1917 Finland declared its independence, having been an autonomous part of the Russian empire since 1809; in 1941 US president Franklin D Roosevelt sent a telegram to the Japanese emperor Hirohito in an effort to avoid war in the Pacific — the next day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt wrote: “I am confident that both of us, for the sake of the peoples not only of our own great countries but for the sake of humanity in neighbouring territories, have a sacred duty to restore traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction in the world”; in 1992 tens of thousands of Hindu militants destroyed the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, north India, sparking violence with the Muslim community, leading to more than 2,000 deaths. After legal wrangles, in 2019 the Supreme Court gave the land to Hindus to build a temple on the site, claimed to be the birthplace of a god; in 1994 Queen Elizabeth II gave approval for exploratory oil drilling to take place near Windsor Castle, dubbed Dallas-on-Thames. No borehole had been dug by the time a six-year licence expired; in 2005 David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party, on a mandate to create a “modern compassionate Conservatism”. He served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1923 Sir Frederick Treves, a British surgeon credited with saving the life of individual Edward VII in 1902, died aged 70. an individual had opposed surgery on his appendix because of his upcoming coronation, but Treves warned him that without the operation he faced a funeral instead. Treves is also known for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, known as the “Elephant Man”; in 1973 Paul McCartney & Wings released Band on the Run, their third album, with Jet among spin-off singles. It became the top-selling UK album in 1974. While recording in Lagos, Nigeria, McCartney and his wife Linda were robbed at knifepoint and he faced accusations of “trying to steal the black musicians’ music”; in 1983 the steeplejack and TV personality Fred Dibnah had to stop work for 30 hours when a cat called George climbed up a 160ft chimney and refused to come down; in 1988, 25,000 people died after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the Soviet republic of Armenia, destroying the town of Spitak. The Soviet Union made an international appeal for aid; in 2003 the pottery artist Grayson Perry accepted the Turner prize, as his alter-ego Claire. Grayson said: “Well, it’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner prize. I think the art world had more trouble coming to terms with me being a potter than my choice of frocks.”

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1854, Pope Pius IX issued a formal proclamation (the bull, Ineffabilis Deus) that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was infallible; in 1864 a parade was held for the opening of Clifton Suspension Bridge, five years after the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, its engineer. The bridge is a revised version of his design; in 1949 the government of the Republic of China, led by General Chiang Kai-shek, moved from the Chinese mainland to the island of Taiwan after the communist takeover by Mao Zedong; in 1965 the first Race Relations Act came into force, banning discrimination in public places and making it an offence to promote hatred on the grounds of “colour, race, or ethnic or national origins”; in 2004 Pakistan passed a law to make “honour killings” punishable by law. In May 2020 the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan noted that “there is little evidence to suggest that the incidence and acceptance of ‘honour’ crimes has abated”.

[Irish Alan]

December 8, 1980: John Lennon shot dead

Former Beatle John Lennon has been shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician's New York apartment. The 40-year-old was shot several times as he entered the Dakota, his luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, opposite Central Park, at 2300 local time.

He was rushed in a police car to St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he died. His wife, Yoko Ono, who is understood to have witnessed the attack, was with him.

BBC.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

Today

In 1872 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became the first African-American governor of a US state, serving Louisiana until January 13, 1873. He died on December 21, 1921, aged 84; in 1967, Nicolae Ceaușescu became president of Romania, ruling until his downfall in 1989, when he and his wife were executed by firing squad on Christmas Day; in 1979 the global eradication of smallpox, an acute contagious disease, was confirmed by the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication. The last known outbreak of smallpox was in Somalia in 1977. Between December 1961 and May 1962 there was an outbreak in Bradford, West Yorkshire, with recent migrants from Pakistan identified as the source of the disease. The final UK victim was a medical photographer who worked at the smallpox laboratory at Birmingham Medical School, who died on September 11, 1962; in 1987 the first intifada (Palestinian uprising against Israel) took place, ending on September 13, 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Tomorrow

In 1868 the first traffic lights, near Parliament Square, London, began operating. Initially successful, after a month they were removed after the gas-powered device exploded; in 1902 the British opened the (Old) Aswan Dam to control Nile floods, then the biggest of its type. Nile discharges were considered so important that The Times regularly ran reports; in 1936 Edward VIII signed a declaration of abdication so that he could marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. His reign had lasted 327 days; in 1963 Zanzibar, a British protectorate since 1890, became an independent state within the Commonwealth. In 1964 Zanzibar joined with Tanganyika to create Tanzania. The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 was the shortest in recorded history, lasting less than an hour.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

on this day

In 1946 the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund was created to provide relief to children in war-torn countries. It was renamed the United Nations Children’s Fund in 1953; in 1967 a prototype Concorde went on show for the first time, in Toulouse, from where it made its maiden flight on March 2, 1969, piloted by André Turcat (obituary, January 14, 2016); in 1975 an Icelandic gunboat opened fire on unarmed fishery support vessels in the North Atlantic Sea, during disputes known as the Cod Wars, which lasted from 1958 to 1976; in 1980 Magnum PI was first broadcast on US television, starring Tom Selleck as the private investigator living in Hawaii. The show ran for eight series; in 1990 Ivana and Donald Trump’s marriage was dissolved. “Cruel and inhuman treatment” by Trump of his wife was cited by the judge as a reason for the end of the 13-year marriage.