ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 29th November 1530 Thomas Wolsey, English Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, died en route from York to his imprisonment in the Tower of London. 1781 The crew of the British slave ship Zong, murdered 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance. The resulting court cases, brought by the ship-owners, sought compensation from the insurers for their lost cargo. The court established that the deliberate killing of slaves could, in some circumstances be legal. It was a landmark in the battle against the African slave trade of the eighteenth century, and inspired abolitionists such as Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, leading to the foundation of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. 1849 Sir John Ambrose Fleming, English electrical engineer, was born. His inventions included the Fleming Valve and many related devices that led to the development of modern electronics. 1898 C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia Chronicles, was born. 1907 British nurse Florence Nightingale, aged 87, was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work tending the wounded during the Crimean War. 1934 In Britain, the first live radio broadcast of a royal wedding - the marriage of the Duke of Kent to Princess Marina at Westminster Abbey in London. 1947 The UN approved Britains plan for a partition of Palestine. 1956 Panic-buying broke out at garages across the country as the government gave details of its petrol rationing plans. Petrol had been in short supply since the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser, took over the running of the Suez Canal four months previously. 1962 Britain and France announced a joint agreement to design and build Concorde, the worlds first supersonic airliner. 1963 The Beatles record I Want To Hold Your Hand was released, with advance orders of one million in the UK alone. 1965 Housewife Mary Whitehouse began her Clean Up TV Campaign by setting up the National Viewers and Listeners Association to tackle bad taste and irresponsibility. 1975 British racing driver Graham Hill was killed in an aircraft crash at Arkley, Hertfordshire. 1986 The death of Cary Grant, British-born American actor. He was considered one of Hollywoods definitive leading men and was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time (after Humphrey Bogart) by the American Film Institute. 1995 On his historic visit to Britain, US President Bill Clinton praised British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister John Bruton for their joint efforts to bring peace in Northern Ireland. 2001 George Harrison, musician, actor, songwriter and former lead guitarist with the Beatles died of lung cancer, aged 58. Often referred to as the quiet Beatle, Harrison became an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as to their Western audiences. Source: Beautiful Britain
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:45:35 +0000
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