On This Day

[Raybosailor]

10th. November.

1847 The passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board, this disaster led to the construction of the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.

1871 Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".

1983 Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0. the start of the MS Windows software in use today.

1942 Following the desert victory at El Alamein, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made one of his famous quotes saying: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

1958 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the water speed record of 248mph on Coniston Water.

Births
1697 William Hogarth, English painter.
1810 George Jennings, English plumber and engineer, invented the first public flushing toilets.
1919 Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and engineer, designed the AK-47.
1925 Richard Burton, Welsh actor, was born, at Pontrhydyfen.
1940 Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer-songwriter and loony politician.
1944 Tim Rice, English composer, he is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

[Onelife]

Good morning Ray......now would that be the same Henry Morton Stanley who bequeathed a parcel of land to the good people of Redditch? If it is then a big thank you to him because l have enjoyed many hours walking round Morton Stanley Park....In fact I'm just off there now.

Regards

Keith

[Raybosailor]

Good morning Ray......now would that be the same Henry Morton Stanley who bequeathed a parcel of land to the good people of Redditch? If it is then a big thank you to him because l have enjoyed many hours walking round Morton Stanley Park....In fact I'm just off there now.

Regards

Keith

No Keith the park in Redditch that you frequent was bequeathed to the people by William Morton Stanley a businessman who produced fish hooks and needles in the area.

Henry Morton Stanley was not so charitable by all accounts as he was often accused of being racist and cruel to the slaves he employed on his expeditions.

[Raybosailor]

Good morning Ray......now would that be the same Henry Morton Stanley who bequeathed a parcel of land to the good people of Redditch? If it is then a big thank you to him because l have enjoyed many hours walking round Morton Stanley Park....In fact I'm just off there now.

Regards

Keith

No Keith the park in Redditch that you frequent was bequeathed to the people by William Morton Stanley a businessman who produced fish hooks and needles in the area.

Henry Morton Stanley was not so charitable by all accounts as he was often accused of being racist and cruel to the slaves he employed on his expeditions.

If you look in the census records for Alcester Street, Redditch you will notice that the majority of the residents were needle makers or related trades. The Post Office is at Thread Needle House, needle making has been in Redditch since the 1700's and the Forge Mill National Needle Museum is housed there.

[Onelife]

Hi Ray.....that all marries up....Thank you.

Redditch is a bit like marmite but it can't be faulted for its abundance of well maintained parks and places of interest. There is a beautiful river side walk leading off from the Forge Mill Museum. On this walk you can see what's left of the Cistercian Abby and the land workings of the Monks who lived there.

Let me know if you are passing l would be happy to show you around.

Regards

Keith

[Raybosailor]

Hi Keith, my wife Cheryl did some family history research in the Redditch area some years ago as she had what are called family strays living there in the 1800's and everyone was in the needle making trade.

I have driven through the town on occasions but never visited the Needle Museum, we were close to Redditch when we narrow boated up the Worcester & Birmingham Canal via the Tardebigge flight of locks up to Gas Street Basin in the centre of Brum.

If we ever return to that area I will P.M. you and perhaps you can give us a guided tour of the museum.

[Onelife]

I'll keep my calendar free Ray

[Raybosailor]

11th. November. On the 11th. hour, of the 11th. day, of the 11th. month ,we will remember them.

1100 Henry I of England marries Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland and a direct descendant of the Saxon king Edmund Ironside.

1880 Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged at Melbourne Gaol.

1887 Work started on building the Manchester Ship Canal at Eastham, Merseyside.

1918 World War I: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne.

1930 Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator which had no moving parts. This was not the first refrigerator to be invented, the original invention was in 1922 by the Swedish inventors Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters.

1940 World War II: In the Battle of Taranto, the Royal Navy launches the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history employing a small number of Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

1946 Stevenage was officially designed as Britain’s first New Town, one of ten which were planned to relieve London’s post-war housing problems.

1953 The BBC television programme Panorama was first broadcast.

1987 Irises, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh was sold for £27m at Sotheby's, a world record at that time for a work of art. There are still some missing Van Gogh paintings so keep your ear to the ground.

Births
1945 Bryan 'Pop' Robson footballer
1974 Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor and producer.
1994 Eleanor May "Ellie" Simmonds, OBE, British Paralympian swimmer.

[GillD46]

And in this day forty two years ago, I met my lovely husband. Now where did all those years go?

[qbman1]

Forty two years.....? The poor chap could have been out on parole 30 years ago !!

[Raybosailor]

And in this day forty two years ago, I met my lovely husband. Now where did all those years go?

Happy anniversary to you and Tony

[Silver_Shiney]

My daughter, who has recently emigrated to Melbourne, says:

I went on another guided tour at the State library, this time just looking at the life of Ned Kelly.  It was rather interesting (although not as well presented as last week’s tour).  I learned that Kelly could have escaped the law after all.  The night before he was captured, Kelly and his gang were trapped in an inn after a shooting battle with the police in which one member of the gang was fatally wounded.  Kelly snuck out in the night to see if he could figure out where the police line behind the inn was, in case there was any prospect of escape, passed out from loss of blood and woke at dawn on the side of a hill.  It is possible that his remaining two companions were already dead at this point (a member of the police entered the inn in the early hours, could not tell whether the two remaining outlaws were dead or merely asleep, and the inn was set on fire shortly after), but Kelly did not know this and returned to the inn to join them.  It turns out he had made it past the police in the night without realising, and so came across them and was arrested before he reached the inn.  Had he known there was nothing to return for he could have escaped without a trace!  Local opinion seems pretty divided on whether he was merely a violent and dangerous murderer and thief who got what he deserved, or a desperate man attempting to survive against intense social injustice.  The Kelly family’s side of the story is that Ned’s troubles with the law began when a policeman came to arrest the younger brother for theft and made unwanted advances on the sister while at the family house.  Ned defended his sister, the policeman claimed to have been attacked and injured while doing his duty, and thus the two brothers found themselves on the run where things escalated.

[Raybosailor]

That's an interesting take on the story Alan though I wouldn't be surprised at the injustice to the Kelly family, they were the descendants of Irish convicts transported to Australia and unfortunately were tarred with the same brush.

The British government has a lot to answer for as people were transported for what are now known as petty crimes and the penal colonies were nothing short of hell camps. The first fleet of 11 convict ships arrived at Botany Bay on the 20th. January 1788 and by January 1868 over 162,000 had been transported.

[Raybosailor]

12th. November.

1660 English author John Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a licence. He refused to give up preaching and remained in jail for 12 years.

1912 The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

1919 The first flight from England to Australia started at Hounslow, with Ross and Keith Smith as pilots and Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett as mechanics in a Vickers Vimy biplane. They landed safely on 13th of December 1919 sharing a prize of 10,000 Australian pounds.

1944 World War II: The Royal Air Force launches 29 Lancaster bombers, which sink the German battleship Tirpitz, {the sister ship to Bismarck) off the coast of Norway with the loss of over 900 crew.

1990 Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, he had successfully performed a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) communication in November the previous year.

Births
1684 Edward Vernon (Old Grog), English admiral and politician, he was nicknamed 'Old Grog' for the grogram cloth coats he wore and the term 'grog' for rum rations given to sailors is attributed to him.
1842 John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist who discovered argon.
1929 Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco.
1961 Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach.

[qbman1]

12th. November.

Births
1684 Edward Vernon (Old Grog), English admiral and politician, he was nicknamed 'Old Grog' for the grogram cloth coats he wore and the term 'grog' for rum rations given to sailors is attributed to him.
1842 John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist who discovered argon.
1929 Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco.
1961 Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach.

nadia-comaneci.jpg

My...how she's grown !

[Raybosailor]

12th. November.

Births
1684 Edward Vernon (Old Grog), English admiral and politician, he was nicknamed 'Old Grog' for the grogram cloth coats he wore and the term 'grog' for rum rations given to sailors is attributed to him.
1842 John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist who discovered argon.
1929 Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco.
1961 Nadia Comăneci, Romanian gymnast and coach.

nadia-comaneci.jpg
My...how she's grown !

In more ways than one Cubie

[Stephen]

A very important birthday for.......!

[Raybosailor]

13th. November

1160 Louis VII of France marries Adela of Champagne, I wonder if the fizzy stuff came out that night.

1901 The Caister Lifeboat Disaster of 13 November 1901 occurred off the coast of Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk,in a violent storm the Caister lifeboat "'The Beauchamp" was launched in an attempt to save the crew of a stricken vessel on the "Barber Sands" but the sea was too rough and the "'Beauchamp" was capsized and washed ashore with the crew trapped underneath her. James Haylett Snr, who had been the assistant Coxwain for many years and was now 78 years old was one of the shore crew and had 2 sons, a son in law and 2 grandsons in the boat, Frederick Henry Haylett alerted his grandfather James Haylett Snr to the cries coming from the boat. They ran to where the Beauchamp lay keel up in the surf, James Haylett managed to pull his son-in-law Charles Knights from the boat. Frederick Haylett also ran into the surf and pulled John Hubbard clear. James Haylett returned to the water to pull his grandson Walter Haylett clear. Despite the bravery of these two men these were the only survivors.
At the inquest into the tragedy the coroner asked if the crew had abandoned the rescue and were turning back to shore, James Haylett in response shouted out angrily "Caister men never turn back" the motto is to this day "Never Turn Back".

1941 World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U-81, sinking the following day, 1 person (Able Seaman Mitchell) was killed, while 1,487 survived.

1969 Britain's first live quintuplets this century were born, at Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital in London.

1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.

2015 It was on this day that the terrorist attacks in Paris kill 130 people, seven attackers, and injured 368 others.

Births
1312 Edward III of England, was King of England from 25 January 1327 until his death in 1377.
1850 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
1910 Pat Reid British Army officer and author. He was a prisoner of war at Colditz Castle and was one of the few to escape. He wrote about his experiences in two best-selling books, which became the basis of a film, TV series and even a board game.
1943 Howard Wilkinson, footballer and as manager he won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds United.

[Raybosailor]

14th. November

1687 The death of Eleanor 'Nell' Gwyn, long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of two of his illegitimate children.

1770 James Bruce, Scottish explorer discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.

1896 The speed limit for horseless carriages in Britain was raised from 4 mph (2 mph in towns) to 14 mph.

1922 The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.

1940 Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost destroyed.

1952 Britain’s first music chart was published, in the New Musical Express, with Al Martino’s ‘Here in my Heart’ at No. 1.

1969 The BBC began colour television programmes, must get a colour tv its so hard watching the snooker in black and white.

1973 Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.

Births
1840 Claude Monet, French painter, his garden in Giverny is well worth a visit.
1863 Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer who invented Bakelite.
1904 Harold Larwood, English-Australian cricketer born in Nuncargate, Nottinghamshire.
1936 Freddie Garrity, zany frontman of Freddie and the Dreamers.(d 19th. May 2006)
1948 Charles, Prince of Wales.
1959 Chris Woods,goalkeeper who signed for Forest but never played in a senior league game as he was living in the shadow of Peter Shilton who never missed a match. Woods played in all the League Cup matches 1977/78 due to Shilton being cup tied and he kept 5 clean sheets to help Forest win the cup.
Chris Woods was sold to QPR for £250,000 despite not having made a senior league appearance.

[Onelife]

14th. November

1687 The death of Eleanor 'Nell' Gwyn, long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of two of his illegitimate children.

1770 James Bruce, Scottish explorer discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile.

1896 The speed limit for horseless carriages in Britain was raised from 4 mph (2 mph in towns) to 14 mph.

1922 The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom.]1940 Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost destroyed.

1952 Britain’s first music chart was published, in the New Musical Express, with Al Martino’s ‘Here in my Heart’ at No. 1.

1969 The BBC began colour television programmes, must get a colour tv its so hard watching the snooker in black and white.

1973 Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.

Births
1840 Claude Monet, French painter, his garden in Giverny is well worth a visit.
1863 Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer who invented Bakelite.
1904 Harold Larwood, English-Australian cricketer born in Nuncargate, Nottinghamshire.
1936 Freddie Garrity, zany frontman of Freddie and the Dreamers.(d 19th. May 2006)
1948 Charles, Prince of Wales.
1959 Chris Woods,goalkeeper who signed for Forest but never played in a senior league game as he was living in the shadow of Peter Shilton who never missed a match. Woods played in all the League Cup matches 1977/78 due to Shilton being cup tied and he kept 5 clean sheets to help Forest win the cup.
Chris Woods was sold to QPR for £250,000 despite not having made a senior league appearance.

Sorry Ray...I've made a right bulls up of posting this...Anyway... I do recall my mother telling me about how she could see the skies of Coventry lit up even though she was over 25 miles away.

[qbman1]

My grandparents said that and they were about the same distance away

[Onelife]

My grandparents said that and they were about the same distance away

There names weren't Bill and Edna were they... if they are we are related

[qbman1]

Why, yes......I think you should change your will immediately !!

[Raybosailor]

15th. November

1577 Sir Francis Drake began his voyage to sail around the world.

1899 The American ship SS St. Paul became the first ship to receive radio messages, transmitted from the Needles wireless station off the Isle of Wight.

1928 The RNLI lifeboat "Mary Stanford" capsized in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew, the disaster practically wiped out the entire fishing crews of the East Sussex village.

1969 ATV (Midland) screened the first colour TV commercial in Britain; for Birds Eye Peas. It cost £23 for the off peak 30 second slot.

Births
1738 Sir Frederick William Herschel,astronomer who found Uranus, and I never knew you'd lost it.
1897 Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, as Minister of Health, he spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service.
1905 Mantovani, Italian conductor and composer.
1932 Petula Clark, singer, actress, and composer.
1963 Andrew Castle, English tennis player and television host.
1977 Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips.
1988 Billy Twelvetrees, English rugby player.

[qbman1]

Not that it's anything to do with today, but I thought it was time for another picture of Nadia....

nadia666_306x458.jpg