1st February

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1st February

Postby chenrezig » 01 Feb 2016, 06:42

1327 Fourteen year old Edward III was crowned King of England, but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

1587 Under pressure from her Council, Queen Elizabeth I of England signed the warrant authorising the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

1709 Scotsman Alexander Selkirk was rescued from an uninhabited desert island (Mas à Tierra, off the coast of Chile), inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

1884 The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. James Murray was its most famous editor but he had only reached the letter T after working 44 hours per week for 35 years, so hundreds of people sent in their own contributions.

1910 The first 80 Labour Exchanges opened in Britain to try and find jobs for the unemployed.

1915 Sir Stanley Matthews, often regarded as one of the greatest English football players, was born. He is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards. He kept fit enough to play at the top level until he was 50 years old, was also the oldest player ever to play in England's top football division and the oldest player ever to represent his country. He played his final competitive game in 1985, at the age of 70.

1930 The first ever 'Times' crossword was published.

1939 A British White Paper proposing the formation of the Home Guard (which became better known as Dad’s Army because of the average age of the volunteers) was published. The hugely popular TV series of Dad's Army was first aired on 31st July 1968 and ran for 9 series until 13th November 1977.

1949 The end of clothes rationing in Britain, four years after the end of World War II.

1952 The first TV detector van was demonstrated. It enabled the BBC to track down users of unlicensed television sets in Britain.

1965 P.J. Proby, the US rock singer, was banned by ABC Theatres and the BBC after he had deliberately split his trousers during his act. The mainly female audience and the tabloids, who claimed Proby’s act was obscene, went wild. It was the beginning of the end for the flamboyant performer. (Note - We went to a concert that year, but Proby had been banned and was replaced with a then unknown singer called Tom Jones!)

1965 Prescriptions on the NHS became free of charge and remained so until June 1968.

1974 Escaped Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs was arrested by Brazilian police in Rio. He escaped extradition because he was the father of a child by his Brazilian girlfriend.

1979 Trevor Francis, aged 24, became the first £1m footballer in England, signing for Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.

1984 Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, announced that the halfpenny coin would cease to be legal tender. Its fate was sealed when it became more expensive to make than its face value.

2013 Det. Ch. Insp. April Casburn, aged 53, became the first person to be prosecuted and jailed (15 months) as part of the investigation into payments by News of the World journalists to officials.
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Re: 1st February

Postby annie » 01 Feb 2016, 09:48

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