Today in History - 8th January 871 - Alfred the Great (born in Oxfordshire) led a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by the Vikings. 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied Stirling. Such early successes would prove short-lived for the pretender to the throne. His army seized control of the town but failed to take the castle and subsequently retreated northwards. 1800 - London opened its first soup kitchens for the poor. 1815 - Britain lost the last battle it ever fought against the US in the War of 1812 when General Sir Edward Pakenham and his men were defeated at New Orleans. 1871 - Birth of James Craig, the first prime minister of Northern Ireland and the first Viscount Craigavon. 1921 - David Lloyd George became the first Prime Minister to reside in Chequers, a country mansion in Buckinghamshire which had been given by Lord Lee of Fareham as a gift to the nation. 1940 - World War II: Britain introduced food rationing. Restaurants were initially exempt from rationing, but this was resented, as the rich could supplement their food allowance by eating out frequently and extravagantly, so new rules were introduced. 1941 - Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout movement, died, aged 83 in Kenya and was buried at Nyeri. His gravestone bears a circle with a dot in the centre ☉, which is the trail sign for Going home, or I have gone home. When his wife Olave died in 1977, her ashes were sent to Kenya and interred beside her husband. Kenya has declared Baden-Powells grave a national monument. 1942 - The birth of Stephen Hawking, possibly the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein. He wrote A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. His book sold at least 25,000,000 copies, was no doubt read by many thousands but maybe understood by only hundreds! 1967 - The Forsyte Saga, the television adaptation of Galsworthy’s novel, screened its first episode. It was so popular that for the six months of its run, many churches had to change the times of their services! 1982 - Spain reopened the frontier of the British colony of Gibraltar. In return, Britain agreed to open negotiations on Gibraltar’s future, and ended its opposition to Spain joining the EEC. 1989 - 47 people were killed and over 80 injured when a British Midland 737-400 jet crashed on the M1 motorway. Remarkably nobody travelling on the motorway was hurt. The plane had developed a problem in its left engine shortly after it took off from Heathrow. The pilots mistakenly believed that the fault was in the right hand engine which they shut down, leading to the crash, just yards from the runway of East Midlands Airport. 2001 - The High Court ruled that the identities and whereabouts of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993 would be kept secret for the rest of their lives. Venables was subsequently returned to prison in March 2010 for other offences and it was decided that he would stay in prison for the foreseeable future, as he would be likely to reveal his identity if released. A mere 18 months later it was reported that the Parole Board for England and Wales had approved the release of Venables, who was subsequently released from prison on 3rd September 2013. 2004 - The liner RMS Queen Mary 2, was named by Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of her construction in 2003 she was the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built, and at 151,400 gross tons, she was also the largest.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:25:16 +0000
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