26th April

[chenrezig]

1607 Captain John Smith landed at Cape Henry, in Virginia with the first group of colonists who established a permanent English settlement in America.

1886 John Tiller created the Tiller Girls' Dancing Troupe.

1895 The start of the trial of playwright Oscar Wilde who was charged with homosexuality.

1914 The birth of Charlie Chester, comedian, TV and radio presenter who broadcast almost continuously from the 1940s to the 1990s.

1915 2nd Lt. Rhodes-Moorhouse of the Special Reserve Flying Corps became the first airman to win the Victoria Cross.

1923 The marriage of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later 'the Queen Mother') to the Duke of York (later King George VI) at Westminster Abbey in London. It was the first royal wedding at the abbey since 1383. The newly formed British Broadcasting Company wanted to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the Abbey Chapter vetoed the idea.

1926 The birth, in Alderley Edge, Cheshire of David Coleman, former sports commentator and TV presenter who worked for the BBC for almost fifty years. In 2000, he was awarded the Olympic Order, the highest honour of the Olympic movement.

1962 In a joint USA British venture, the first international satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

1965 A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario was shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.

1975 Labour Party members voted by almost 2-1 to leave the EEC, underlining the deep divisions over the issue of Europe. But on 6th June in the same year British voters backed the UK's continued membership by a large majority in the country's first nationwide referendum.

1976 The death of Sid James, British based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films.

1988 Mick Jagger was cleared of pirating a song by an unknown reggae musician and recording it as ‘Just Another Night’. The judgement came after a two-day hearing in the United States.

1989 Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland held their first annual pig race watched by over 7,000 people. One punter won £200 on the favourite, Porky’s Revenge, and the bookies handed the remainder of their money to the charity People in Need.

2000 The government announced a £10m aid package for firms hit by the sale of car giant Rover as a report detailed the wider effects of redundancies.

2000 The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, witnessed nine people being caught attempting to illegally enter the UK as he inspected immigration procedures in Dover.

2014 Documents showed that Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One tycoon, had received £300m from his ex-wife Slavica's trust fund following the pair's divorce in 2009.

2014 The only surviving letter thought to have been written on the ill-fated Titanic, was sold at auction for £119,000.

[Rosalind]

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