June 5th

On this day - June 5th 1975 - UK voted to stay a part of EU in a referendum 

As most people know, the UK is about to hold a referendum where the aim is to deiced if the country wants to continue to be a part of the EU (Brexit). On June 5th 1975 was a similar referendum held in the UK with the question of weather or not they should stay a part of what was known as EC, European Community at the time. UK had become a member in 1973 and two years later was a referendum held to gain support for the membership decision. EC later grew into the EU. 65 percent of the eligible population turned out to vote and 67 percent voted yes in the first nationwide referendum in the UK.

Good luck in the referendum on June 23, UK. As always, please remember to vote.

Thatcher played an important role in the debates before the referendum

April 21st

On this day - April 21st 1926 - Queen Elizabeth II was born 

Today is Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday. She was born in London in 1926 by Queen Elizabeth and King George VI and was the oldest of two sisters. She became the Queen in 1952 and she is today Queen of  United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Head of the Commonwealth. She is the worlds oldest reign monarch and the longest-reign Queen in British history. She married prince Philip in 1948 and the couple had their first children in November the same year. They had four children altogether, and Elizabeth have five great grandchildren.

Several items have been created to commemorate the event of Queen Elizabeth IIs birthday. We recommend you to take a look on amazone yourself to see what the most "special" item you can find!  

April 15th

On this day - April 15th 1989 - The Hillsborough disaster 

96 Liverpool fans died and 766 were inured in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Liverpool was playing the FA cup semi final against Nottingham Forrest when the disaster happened. Due to lack of police control and the opening of an extra entrance became some of the areas allocated to Liverpool fans overcrowded. Just moments after the kick off a crush barrier broke down and fans were crushed to their death on top of each other. The accident was first blamed on the fans, but investigation conduced in 2012 proved that the fans were not to blame for the accident. The Hillsborough disaster is still one of the worlds worst fotball related accidents. 38 of the people who died in the accident was only teenagers and all the people killed were under the age of 50.

22nd march

On this day - March 22 1765 - The "Stamp Act" was passed by the British Parlament

The stamp act was an direct tax on many types of printed paper enforced on the British colonies in 1765. This included legal documents, playing cards, newspapers and magazines. The law was passed in the House of Commons on a 205 against 49 vote on March 22nd. It was implemented by the British government on their American colonies on November 1st 1765. The purpose of the tax was to cover the British expenses from having British troops stationed in the colonies. The tax was immensely unpopular among the colonies, mainly because they felt that tax was created without their consent. This led to protests under the slogan "No taxation  without representation". This was the first joint colonial response to British regulation of the colonies and it contributed to the american revolution just a few years later. The act was repealed on March 18th 1766, just a few months after it was implemented.

One penny stamps

March 13th

On this day - March 13th 1996 - The Dunblane School massacre, one of the deadliest mass murders in the UK

Sixteen elementary school children and one teacher were shot and killed in the Dunblane Massacre in Scotland. The shooter, 43 year old Thomas Hamilton, drove to the school in the morning on march 13th. He thereafter cut the wires to the telephone at the school before endring the school building. When he was about to be confronted by the PE teacher in the gymnasium started he shooting at random. He injured 32 people, killed sixteen 5-6 years old children and one teacher before he took his own life.

Two new gun laws were passed in the UK after the massacre which effectively ended the ownership of private handheld guns illegal in the UK.

Picture by PaddyBriggs

February 7th

On this day - February 7th 1964 - The Beatles landed in New York 

The popular band from Liverpool did not have the best start in the United States. Their record company was acting trough a subsidiary Capitol Records. Capitol Records hindered releases of Beatles singes by declining to issue their music. EMI changed to the local label Vee-Jay that ended up releasing some songs but not all. The contract with Vee-Jay was canceled when it came out that they did not report royalties on their sales. The Beatles started to gain traction after their manager Brian Epstein arranged a 40,000 USD marketing campaign in late 1963. On December 26 1963 their song "I want to Hold your Hand" was released and by mid January it had sold a million copies. When the Beatles left the UK there were an estimated 4000 fans gathered to see them off. When they landed in New York, on this date, there were 3000 people greeting them. They played the Ed Sullivan Show and a record 73 million viewers in 23 million households watched (34%). At the time it was the largest audience for an American tv show. In spite of this the day after the reviews were negative in the US. After their first concert however Beatlemania erupted and the show got great reviews. The Beatles visited the Ed Sullivan Show a second time before leaving for the UK on the 22nd of February. Their visit is called the "British Invasion", the rest is as we say history. 

The Beatles at John F. Kennedy airport

January 26th

On this day - 26th January 1905 - The worlds biggest diamond was discovered

The worlds biggest diamond, the Cullinan, was found in South Africa in 1905. It weight over 600 gram and was named after Sir. Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine where it was found. The diamond was cut into nine smaler stones, and the largest one is today known as The Great Star of Africa and weights 106 grams. This diamond is mounted on the British Sovreign's Sceptre with cross, which is a part of the British Crown Jewels. Most of the diamonds cut from Cullinan belongs to the British Crown Jewels, although the Queen owns a few of them herself. The reason the British Royals came in possession of this diamond was because the diamond was gifted to the British king at the time, King Edward VII. The diamond was shipped by mail to England in an plain paper box, as to allude the potential thief's wanting to steal it.

Identical copy of the original stone 

January 16th

On this day - 16th January 1939 - Irish Republican Army started their Sabotage campaign in England 

The "S-campaign" against civil, military and economic infrastructure in England lasted from 1939 to 1940 and consisted of bombings and sabotages. 7 people were killed in the attacks and another 96 people were injured. The sabotages had been planed since 1938 by the Irish Republican Army's Chief of Staff, Seamus O'Donovan. The first attack was on January 16th in 1939 when bombs went of in five different places in England. One bomb went of close to a power station in London, another one damaged an overhead cable. The other three bombs went of in Alnwick, north in England, but none of the first bombs caused any causalities.
In 1939 UK declared war on Germany which led to contact between Germany and IRA leaders. Germany was, however, not impressed with IRAs effort. The German intelligence wrote to IRA and requested:

 "The Pfalzgraf Section very urgently requests its Irish friends and IRA members to be so good as to make considerably better efforts to carry out the S-plan, which they received some time last summer, and to be more effectual against military as opposed to civilian objectives."

January 8th

On this day - 8th January 1697 - Last execution for blasphemy in UK

Scottish medical student Thomas Aikenhead was only between 18 and 20 years old when he was executed for blasphemy. He was the last person in United Kingdom to be executed for this "crime". His indictment from December 1696 read "[...] the prisoner had repeatedly maintained in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense". He was found guilty on December 24th and sentenced to death to set an example for others who might express such views in the future. Aikenhead plead for mercy and took back all that he had said, but on January 8th was Aikenhead hanged in Edinburgh.


A research on Thomas Aikenhead and Blasphemy

January 1st

On this day - 1st January 1772 - The first traveler's cheque issued 

The first traveler's cheque was issued by the London Credit Exchange Company and could be used in 90 European cities. The inventor of this circular note was Robert Harries and his bank Herries, Farquhar & Co (later taken over by Lloyds bank). Harries had gotten the idea while traveling around in Europe and needed money for art, sigar and alcohol. American Express, the largest issuer of travel checks, developed their system and issued the traveler's checks as we know them today, in 1891. Traveler's cheque quickly became popular, and by 1891 were American Express selling over $6 million annually. The use of the traveler's cheque has declined since the 1990s, but they are still in use by some companies, such as American Express.

December 19th

On this day –19^th December 1956 – John Bodkin Adams was arrested

Irish born Adams was an accused serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, over 160 of his patient died in suspect circumstances such as through receiving “special injections” while the nurses were asked to leave the room. Out of his patients who died this was, left at least 132 people money or other items in their will for Adams. The first inheritance he got was 7,385 pounds from a patient in 1935. The will was contested, but upheld in court. The police started investigating Adams in the summer of 1956 after receiving an anonymous phone call. The court was not able to convict Adams and he was not found guilty for the murders, although it has been suspected that higher political forces played a role in the courts decision. He was, however, found guilty in a later trial for prescription fraud, lying on cremation forms and obstructing police investigation. He was removed from the medical register in 1957, but re-instated in 1971.

When Adams was arrested on December 19^th he said “Murder... murder... Can you prove it was murder? [...] I didn't think you could prove it was murder. She was dying in any event.”

December 5th

On this day – 5^th December 1952 – The Great Smog over London

The Great Smog was an air-pollution over London, which lasted from the 5th to the 9th of December. It was caused by cold, windless weather, which collected and kept air-pollution in place. The cold weather also led to people using more coal, which further spurred the air-pollution. The pollution sept underneath doors, and even ambulances had to stand still due to low visibility. It was not considered significant at the time, but medical results soon showed the impact of the smog on Londoners health. It was estimated that around 4000 people died prematurely due to the smog, and another 100.000 were made ill. More modern research have, however, argued that 12.000 people died as a result of the smog. It is the worst air-pollution experienced in the UK and it led to major policy regulation and environmental interest. London have struggled with pollution and Smog since then, but no event have been as bad as the one in 1952. UK is, however, not the only city to have struggled with pollution and air problems. The air in Beijing are, for example, known for its pollution.  

You literally could not see your hand in front of your face. My partner of today tells me that he remembers the smog in that he brushed against what he thought was a human being and asked it for a light for his cigarette - and the human being turned out to be lamppost.”

Barbara Fewster recalls the Great Smog at news.bbc.uk

The Great Fogg from museumoflondonimages.com

November 21st

On this day – 21^st of November 1974 – The Birmingham Pub Bombings

The Birmingham Pub Bombings was several explosions in pubs in Birmingham, United Kingdom. A total of 21 people were killed in the explosions, while another 182 were injured. The Provisional Irish Republican Army were most likely the terrorist behind the attack, although they never officially claimed responsibility. They had previously conducted act of terrorism on English land with the goal of getting the British government to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The bombing in Birmingham led to considerable anti-Irish sentiment in UK, and several Irish people living in the area experienced violent attacks against themselves. Six Irishmen were sentenced to life in prison after the attack, but their case were overthrown in 1991 due to unsatisfactory convictions. This attack is the deadliest terror attack in UK between WW2 and the London Bombing in 2005. It is also seen as one of the worst cases of injustice in UK history.

This terrorist attack is not the only deadly result of the conflict between England and Ireland on the 21^st of November. In 1920 were 31 people killed in Dublin as a part of the Irish war for independence.  

One of the pubs after the bombings 

November 5th

On this day – 5 November 1605 – Guy Fawkes failed Gunpowder Plot in London

Guy Fawkes was a member of a group of English Catholics who tried to organise a catholic rebellion in England. The Catholic group gained access to a cellar underneath the British House of Lords, which they planned to blow up on November 5. The group was led by Robert Catesby, but Guy Fawkes was got caught with the explosives on the day before the plan was to be set to life. Someone had sent an anonymous letter to the authorities and Guy Fawkes was caught with enough gunpowder to completely demolish the house of lords on the night to the fifth of November. Fawkes were later, together with 7 other sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartet, a punishment which included being drawn by a horse and cut into four pieces. Today thwarting of the gunpowder Plot is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks all over UK. The Guy Fawkes mask is styled after Guy Fawkes and was modernised when it was used in V for Vandetta from 1982 and later in the movie adaptation from 2006. The mask has now come to represent protest and is used by the hacktivist group Anonymous.

 

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Protesters in Guy Fawkes masks

October 25th

On this day – October 25th 1760 – became George III king of UK 

George III was king of UK and Ireland until his death in 1820. His reign was longer than any UK monarch before him and only Victoria and Elisabeth II has ruled longer than him . George was then the king both during the Napoleon war and the American war of independence. George III struggled in his later years with dementia and rheumatics and by 1810 he was virtually blind. The Prince of Wales was the Regent from 1811 until George III death in 1820.  George III was succeeded by George IV who only ruled for the next 10 years.

October 21st

On this day – 21st October 1805 – The battle of Trafalgar was fought 

The battle of Trafalgar, which was fought 210 year ago today, was a naval engagement between France and Spain on one side against the UK on the other side. The naval engagement was a part of the longer lasting Napoleonic war going on at the time. France/Spain lost 22 vessels in the conflict, while UK lost none, which caused this to be the most decisive naval battle during the whole war. Lord Nelson, the British flag officer died in the battle from a gunshot. His last words were “God and my country” and he became one of UKs most prominent war heroes at the time. His body was preserved in a barrel of brandy on the travels back to UK so that he could receive a hero’s funeral. Trafalgar square in London is today dedicated to Lord Nelson. The UK continued to be the world dominant naval power until the Second World War.