COUNTDOWN!!......

47.

20th June 1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds the British throne.

46

On 21st June....

1798 Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

1843 The Royal College of Surgeons was founded in London.

1854 The first Victoria Cross was awarded, to 20 year old Irishman Charles Lucas for his bravery aboard HMS Hecla in the Baltic, where he had thrown an unexploded Russian bomb overboard.

1948 The Long Playing Record was introduced by Columbia Records.

45

On 22nd June....

1633 The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

1897 Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.

1956 Frank Sinatra's 'Songs For Swinging Lovers' became the first album to enter the UK singles charts.

1969 Judy Garland died.

1989 Fred Astaire died.

Strange that these 2 legends of film musicals should die on the same date!

44

On 23rd June....

1696 Britains first evening newspaper went on sale. Sold in London, the ' News Letter ' was printed in italic script to resemble hand-writing. It ran until about 1716.

1916 Sir Leonard Hutton was born.

1970 Prince Charles was awarded a 2:2 in history at Cambridge

1974 American scientists sent the first custom-made message from Earth into outerspace in the hopes of contacting extra-terrestrial life.

1990 Stores were hoping to exploit a loophole in the 1950 Shops Act by claiming that they were ' tourist attractions'. Hamleys, the largest toy shop in the world, was heading the attempt to open 7 days a week for up to 4 months of the year.

1992 Jeremy Bates, ranked 113th in the world, gave Britain its best Wimbledon result for 15 years with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory oven 7th seed, Michael Chang.

1993 John Wayne Bobbit had his 'male appendage' cut off by his wife Lorena. He was taken to hospital and it was sewn back on after being brought in by a neighbour. He was later cleared of marital sexual assualt and she was acquitted of malicious wounding on a plea of insanity. Bobbitt went on to make a full recovery and became a soft porn celebrity.

1994 A £78,000 rebate was sent by Thames Water to the Queen after the company overestimated the bill for the Royal Mews.

1997 The sports minister was urging official bodies to designate darts a sport so it could be played at the Olympics.

43

On 24th June......

1895 Jack Dempsey was born

1911 Juan Fangio was born

1968 A go slow by the National Union of Railwaymen's (NUR) has begun which will cause major disruption to the rail network. The Union is demanding 9% pay rise but British Rail have offered 3% . In many ways this was the beginning of major industrial unrest in Britain which continued to worsen in the 70's and 80's becoming a vicious circle with high inflation causing large pay rise demands causing high inflation. Each sector did not wish to be left out on keeping up with inflation and over the next few years both public and private sector strikes became the norm often bringing the country and the economy to it's knees.

1983 The Challenger space shuttle returns to earth landing at Edwards Air Force base in California after a successful six-day flight. This was also the first flight that has carried an American Woman into space "Sally Ride", The first woman into space was the Soviet cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova.

2001 Reports are just coming out of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake striking the city of Arequipa in Southern Peru which has left at least 50 dead and many more injured. Authorities have declared the area a disaster zone. Details are slow to emerge as roads are blocked due to mudslides and electricity supplies and phone lines are cut off.

2002 A passenger train has collided with a goods train and been derailed in Tanzania leaving over 200 dead and 500 severely injured.

2007 Severe storms have struck Karachi in southern Pakistan leaving hundreds dead and most of the city without power. Power lines and trees have been bought down in the largest city in Pakistan causing a number of people to be electrocuted due to the downed power lines.

42
6 weeks

25th June 1876 : Custer's Last Stand during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Six hundred men of The U.S. Seventh Cavalry led by George Armstrong Custer, were attacked by 3,000 native American Indians consisting mostly of Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse, within one hour of the attack every last one of the soldiers were dead.

25th June 1943 : Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower takes command as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.. After proving himself on the battlefields of North Africa and Italy in 1942 and 1943 , Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Operation Overlord in 1944 the Allied invasion of northwestern Europe.

25th June 1951 : The first commercial color television show was transmitted in the USA by the Columbia Broadcasting System CBS . While color television sets were generally not available it was estimated that about 40,000 people saw the first color programme.

25th June 1967 : The Beatles record "All You Need Is Love" in front of an international television audience on "Our World", the first live global television link. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by an estimated 350 million people. The BBC had commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution to the program containing a simple message to be understood by all nationalities .

25th June 2001 : Racial violence has broken out in Burnley when two gangs of Asian and white youths fire bombed a pub and attacked shops, restaurants.

25th June 2009 : Michael Jackson ( the King of Pop ) dies bringing worldwide outpourings of grief, On August 28, the Los Angeles County Coroner reported its conclusion that Jackson's death was a homicide caused by the combination of drugs in his body. It is expected that his personal physician, Conrad Murray was expected to be charged with involuntary manslaughter. At the time of his death Michael Jackson was rehearsing for "This Is It" a planned series of fifty concerts by Michael Jackson to be held at The O2 arena in London. "This is It" was the first major series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997. Columbia Pictures acquired the footage of the show rehearsals and made a concert film entitled Michael Jackson's This Is It.

41

On 26th June.....

1498 The toothbrush was invented in China.

1896 The first purpose-built permanent cinema was opened on the corner of Canal Street and Exchange Place in New Orleans, USA. The 400-seater had an admission charge of 10 cents with a further charge of 10 cents if the customer wanted to enter the projection room to see the Edison Vitascope Projector.

1909 The Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, was officially opened.

1975 Sonny and Cher were divorced after 11 years of marriage.

1979 Muhammed Ali announced that he was to retire.

1992 World champion racing driver Ayrton Senna was stopped by police on the M25 for speeding.

oops..

40

On 27th June......

1957 More than 500 people were killed when Hurricane Audrey hit the coastal area of Louisiana and Texas.

1967 The first cash dispenser in Britain became operational at a branch of Barclays.

1985 America's famous Route 66, which originally stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, ceased to exist after it was decertified by highway officials.

1990 It was announced that the Common Cold Research Centre near Salisbury was to close after 45 years of research with no cure found for the 200 different forms of the ailment.

1997 The Eton vs. Harrow cricket match, the oldest fixture at Lord's was abandoned because of bad weather. It was the irst time the match had been abandoned without a ball being bowled since the first, held in 1805.


And 39

On 28th June.....

1461 The coronation of King Edward IV took place.

1491 King Henry VIII was born.

1838 The coronation of 19 year old Queen Victoria took place at Westminster Abbey.

1948 Boxer Dick Turpin beat Vince Hawkins at Villa Park, Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.

1986 WHAM! played their farewell concert at Wembley Stadium, having released their first single only 4 years earlier.

1994 British Rail claimed that the 17:30 Paignton to Exeter train had been cancelled because the conductor did not have a tie. The management of BR insisted that a tie must be worn and the conductor, sweating in the high temperatures, was working open-collared.

1995 British doubles players Jeremy Bates and Tim Henman were disqualified from Wimbledon after Henman hurt a ballgirl when he threw a ball in a fit of pique.

38

On 29th June....

48 BC Julius Caesar defeated Pompey(!!!) at Pharsalus to become the ruler of Rome ....... Good man Julius!

1644 Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the last battle won by an English King on English soil.

1905 The AA was formed.

1964 American scientists unveiled the first remote control for a television set.

1966 Barclays Bank introduced the first credit card in Britain.

1988 World Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson announced his retirement.

37

On 30th June....

1859 Charles Blondin became the first person to tightrope walk across Niagara Falls. It took him 8 minutes cross the 1,110 ft rope, suspended 160ft above the falls, watched by an audience of over 20,000 people. On the return journey he stopped halfway to take photographs of the crowd, many of whom fainted.

1894 Tower Bridge, designed by Sir J. Wolfe Barry and Sir Horace Jones, was officially opened to traffic.

1936 Margaret Mitchell's classic novel 'Gone With The Wind' was published.

1995 Temperatures soared to 110F on the Centre Court at Wimbledon, 4F hotter than the previous high recorded in 1976.

36

On 1st July...

1st July 1916 : After bombing the area of no mans land between German and English Forces in Somme region of France the English soldiers went over the trenches expecting little German resistance , but the Germans had large numbers of Machine Guns trained on the area and by the end of the day 20,000 British soldiers were dead and another 40,000 had injuries, this became one of the worst military decisions in history and the offensive was eventually stopped after 4 1/2 months with 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in the action.

1st July 1942 : After suffering earlier defeats at the hands of Rommel's Afrika Korps British troops after receiving much needed supplies and additional troops from New Zealand, Canada and Australia went on the offensive against Rommel's Afrika Korps at El Alamein in Egypt, thus stopping his advance and becoming a turning point in the war in North Africa.

1st July 1963 : A former Foreign Office official Harold Philby has been confirmed as a double agent working for the Soviet authorities during his time with the foreign office. It is thought he was the third man who warned British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean of impending arrests by intelligence services .

1st July 1963 : The US Post Office instituted the Zip Code asking everyone to use their Zip Codes on return addresses after the name of city and state when ever possible to help speed the process of mail delivery

1st July 1997 : Hong Kong is handed back to the Chinese authorities after 156 years as a British colony. Tung Chee-hwa was sworn in as Hong Kong's new leader.

Mike this has been a herculean effort so far, I'm really impressed mate.

Hi Pete,

hope you are surviving the summer (or its summer here) and no footie. just a few weeks now so not long b4 new season starts.

Well done Mike for your efforts over the close season.

Thanks Pete and Matty for your comments.

35
5 weeks

On 2nd July....

1492 Elizabeth Tudor born.

1901 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed a heavily armed banker's train in Montana and escaped worth $40,000.

Matty, I'm surviving the winter (as it is here) rather nicely. Although there is no Saints action at the moment, we are in the middle of our Aussie Rules (a lifelong passion I must confess) season down here, so all is good. I might also check out some of the Tour De France later on tonight.

Mike, I'm learning something new every day. Your 1 July effort was particularly good.

Damn, missed again!

34

On 3rd July....

1928 The world's first colour television transmission was made by John Logie Baird at his Baird studios in Covent Garden, London.

1963 The wartime classic 'The Great Escape' went on general release in American cinemas.

1967 ITV launched the regular daily news programme, 'News at Ten'.

1989 Cricketer Ian Botham was assaulted at a Northampton public house while attending a barbecue wth former Australian bowler Dennis Lillee.

1995 The Government decided to free Private Lee Clegg and he was released from Wakefield Prison where he was serving a life sentence for manslaughter.


And 33

On 4th July.....

1884 The Statue of Liberty was presented to the US from France, commemorating the French and US Revolutions.

1900 Louis Armstrong was born.

1965 The NASA spacecraft Mariner flew past Mars, sending back the first close-up photos of the red Planet.

1976 The Ramones made their UK debut at the Roundhouse, London.

1982 Ozzy Osbourne married his manager, Sharon Arden

1983 Two schoolboys aged 15 and 16 were sentenced at Teeside Crown Court after being found guilty of holding up a bank with a toy pistol.

32

On 5th July....

1865 The Salvation Army is founded in the East End of London.

1937 Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1946 The bikini bathing suit created by Louis Reard made its debut at the Molitor Pool in Paris, worn by model Micheline Bernardini.

1948 The National Health Service began.

1954 The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin.

1966 Simon & Garfunkel arrived for their first appearance together in UK

1983 Figures released by the Office of Population Censuses & Surveys showed a drop of more than a million in the number of smokers in Britain.

1988 A driver was fined at Solihull Magistrates Court on the first video film evidence shown in a British court of a motoring offence being committed .

1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

31

On 6th July....

1189 Richard the 1st (Richard the Lionheart) is crowned King of England.

1483 Richard III is crowned King of England.

1535 Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII.

1942 Anne Frank, aged 13 and her family went into hiding from the Nazis with 4 others in the 'Secret Annex' at 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam .

1952 London's last tram made its final journey, from Woolwich to New Cross, watched by thousands of Londoners.

1954 Local singer Elvis Presley recorded his first single 'That's All Right Mama' for the small Sun label in Memphis, but it fails to reach any national charts.

1957 John Lennon and Paul Mcartney met for the first time at a church garden fete.

1973 'Keep Yourself Alive', Queen's first single was released in the UK.

1994 'Forrest Gump' starring Tom Hanks was released in the movie theatres in USA.

30

On 7th July.....

1456 A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.

1802 The first comic book was published in Hudson, New York. It was called 'The Wasp' and was created by Robert Rusticoat.

1990 Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti sang together for the first time in Rome in the World Cup charity performance.

1997 3 days after landing on Mars, the Pathfinder spacecraft yielded what scientists said was unmistakeable photographic evidence that colossal floods scoured the planet's now-barren landscape more than a billion years ago.

2005 A series of four terrorist explosions occurs on London's transport system killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers.

2006 The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching.

29

On 8th July......

1991 Gerald Ratner publicly apologised for calling his products 'total crap'.

1992 Alan Shearer transferred to Blackburn Rovers from Southampton for British record fee of £3.6 million.

1995 A tramp spent his last £1 on a lottery ticket and won £25000. He intended to settle down on a smallholding in his native Ireland.

28

4 weeks

On 9th July....

1877, the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon, then an outer-suburb of London. Twenty-one amateurs showed up to compete in the Gentlemen's Singles tournament, the only event at the first Wimbledon. The winner was to take home a 25-guinea trophy.

1947 in a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank.

1996 Dr. Lin Russell, her two daughters, Josie and Megan, and their dog, Lucy, are all brutally attacked by a man wielding a hammer on their way home to Nonington Village, Kent, England, after a swimming gala. Forcing them to sit down in the woods, the attacker blindfolded and tied up his victims with their torn towels, and then bludgeoned them one by one. Nine-year-old Josie, the sole survivor of the vicious assault, had to relearn to speak after surgeons inserted a metal plate into her head to cover the area where her skull had been smashed. Some of her brain tissue was so damaged that it had to be removed.
Finally, on July 17 of the following year, Michael Stone, who had a record of burglary and robbery, as well as a history of drug abuse and mental illness, was arrest

2006 the world's largest parade of Fiat cars on July 9, 2006, between Villanova d'Albenga and Garlenda, Italy.

27

On 10th July...

1777 Colonel William Barton of the Rhode Island Patriot militia captures British General Richard Prescott, from his bed, during the early morning hours.

1887, a dam breaks in Zug, Switzerland, killing 70 people in their homes and destroying a large section of the town.

1940, the Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which will last three and a half months, begins.

1943, the Allies begin their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy

26

On 11th July....

1274 Robert the Bruce was born.

1859 The chimes of Big Ben were sounded for the first time.

1972 Slade played a gig at the Portsmouth Meccano.

1983 A 12 year old boy in Norway took a Cessna aircraft for a 50 minute flight and returned safely though he had never flown before, after finding the keys in the ignition.

1991 Labour MP Terry Fields was jailed for 60 days for failing to pay his poll tax.

1995 A pub cricket match at Bidford-on-Avon in Warwickshire was abandoned when lightening struck a batsman and two spectators.

25

On 12th July....

100 BC Julius Caesar was born.

1191 Crusaders under Richard Coeur de Lion (Richard the Lionheart) defeated the Saracens in Palestine.

1543 King Henry VIII married his 6th wife, Catherine Parr.

1960 The Ohio Art Co. introduced the first Etch-A Sketch for sale. Over 50 million units were sold in the following 25 years.

1982 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial' broke all box office records in the history of motion pictures by surpassing the $100 million mark of ticket sales in the first 31 days.

1987 English motor racing driver Nigel Mansell won the British Grand Prix.

1992 8 year old Luke McShane of Clapham, South London, bcame the youngest chess master in the history of the game.

1992 Nigell Mansell won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

1997 The government announced that annual changes in car registration are to be scrapped and replaced with twice yearly launches.

24

On 13th July....

1568 A method of bottling beer was perfected by the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral.

1837 Queen Victoria became the first monarch to move into the 600 room Buckingham Palace.

1908 The 4th Olympic Games opened in London, the first Olympics in which women were allowed to compete.

1962 In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.

1978 The BBC banned the Sex Pistols' 'No-one Is Innocent'.

1990 'Ghost' starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg opened in cinemas across the US.

1990 A section of the A34 between Winchester and Newbury was closed because tarmac being used to resurface one lane would not solidify in the heat, said to be between 115F-122F.

1992 A 13 year old boy became Britain's youngest -ever Bachelor of Science when he finished 2nd out of his class with a first class honours degree.