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2016-2017 YEARBOOK CHAPTER 4 ANNIVERSARIES IN 2017
LINTON & DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY PAGE 1 OF 22
Chapter 4
Anniversaries in 2016 Edited by Richard Hoare with contributions from Lee Hines, Fiona Morison and Dorian Osborne
Presented following the AGM on Wednesday 15th March 2017.
All of us will be reminded of anniversaries this year especially those of the two World Wars. But there are some other important historical events and lives, perhaps less well known or less well remembered, that helped to shape the world we now live in. This chapter includes a selection of both.
The Twentieth Century
1992 - 25 Years Ago.
Creation of the European Union
Maastricht Treaty signed on 7th February creating the European Community
1992 1967 1957 1947 1942 1927 1917
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General Election in United Kingdom 9th April
9th April - John Major wins General Election, although Rupert Murdoch believed otherwise
Presidential Election in the USA 3rd November
Bill Clinton beats George Bush in the US Presidential Election on 3rd November
Windsor Castle Fire 20th November
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1987 - 30 Years Ago
Coldest Spell of weather in Southern England since 1740- 12th to 14th January
Snow blocks roads and railways across Britain but all gone by the end of the month
St Judes Day Storm 15th-16th Oct
-.
15 million trees felled
18 people killed
Roads and railways blocked again.
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Channel Tunnel Act was granted Royal Assent on 23rd July
Work commenced almost immediately
The tunnel would open for traffic in 1994
Fire at Kings Cross Tube Station 18th November
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1967 - 50 Years Ago
First North Sea gas pumped ashore
Gas flowed first from West Sole Field close to the Humber Estuary in the southern North Sea
West Sole had been discovered in 1965 by the drilling rig “Sea Gem”
On 4th January, Donald Campbell probably broke his own water speed record but did not complete the return run
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On 18th March Torrey Canyon ran aground off Lands End
Carrying 120,000 tonnes of
Kuwait crude oil, Torrey
Canyon was an American built and American owned tanker on its final voyage (before being scrapped). It was carrying BP oil from Kuwait to Milford Haven and should have been at least forty miles west of the coast and the rocks. The steering was defective and the navigation of the ship incompetent
.
30 million gallons of crude oil were spilled. There were no competent procedures in place for dealing with an oil spill of this size. The Royal Navy and RAF tried to blow up the ship and burn off the oil. Planes dropped several thousand tonnes of bombs and even Napalm. There were no oil containment booms available that could withstand the heavy seas and more than ten thousand tonnes of dispersants were poured onto the slick. The dispersants were industrial cleaning fluids and highly toxic and probably caused as much damage to marine life as the oil. The California based openers evaded liability and the US authorities were no help. Some compensation was only achieved when the British Government had the sister ship arrested in Singapore. Still the worst oil disaster in UK waters.
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UK and Ireland jointly apply for membership of the European Economic Community (EEC)
President De Gaulle says “NON”! It would be 6 years before Britain and Ireland joined in 1973
Sir Francis Chichester completes the first single handed voyage around the world
Sir Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth on 28th May after sailing single handed around the world
Francis Chichester sailed from Plymouth on 27 August 1966. He was the first man to complete a
circumnavigation of the globe from west to east, with one stop in Sydney in 226 days -faster than the clipper
ships.
Concorde 001 unveiled at Toulouse on 11 December
The French plane would fly first in 1968.
The first British test flight from Filton would not be until 1969 with the first
commercial flight in 1976
In 1967 wind tunnel testing and computer modelling were insufficient to predict all the problems of supersonic flight of such a large
plane and test flying was vital to sort out many design issues.
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1947 - 70 Years Ago
The big freeze and coal shortage
Low coal output from collieries
Power shortages and loss of industrial and food production
The National Coal Board came into being on 1st January 1947
Poor production rates at collieries leads to domestic coal shortages, power shortages and need to import coal from Germany
Royal Assent given for:- Transport Act -nationalising railways and road haulage from 1st January 1948 Electricity Act -nationalising more than 500 separate generation and supply companies from 1st April 1948 Town and Country Planning Act to be implemented from 1st January 1948
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Princess Elizabeth married Phillip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh on 20th November.
University of Cambridge voted to allow women to become full time students
The post-war baby boom reached its peak
New Zealand, India and Pakistan gained independence.
In November, The Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin convened the London Conference to try (unsuccessfully) to get four power agreement to his plan for European economic and defence co-operation. Bevin had spent most of 1946 and 1947 trying to get an agreement with the Russians, Americans and French on the future of Germany and Austria. After the London Conference, Bevin spent Christmas writing new proposals that led to agreement among western European nations at the Brussels Conference in February 1948 on proposals for the European Coal and Steel Community, the Western European Union and NATO.
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1942 -75 Years Ago
Fall of Singapore and Burma retreat
General Percival surrendered Singapore unconditionally on 15th February after seven days of fighting to defend the island and six weeks of resistance on the Malay peninsular. 50,000 troops were taken prisoner in Malaya and 80,000 in Singapore The British heavily outnumbered the attacking Japanese.
There were very few British “fighting” troops in Burma. There were Pioneer Corps and Garrison troops capable of keeping the peace among the Hill tribes but no reinforcements of troops trained in battle were received until February 1942..
7th
Armoured Corp arrived in Rangoon from the Middle East on the same day as the Japanese began their attack on the port. 7
th Armoured Corp with battle experience in the Middle East were
able to provide some protection of the retreat as an effective rearguard and probably saved thousands of lives.
The Turning Point in the European War?
Malta George Cross - 15th April
Fall of Tobruk - 20th Jun. 1st Battle of El Alamein - 1-27th Jul. Stalingrad 23rd Aug.- 2 Feb. 1943 2nd Battle of El Alamein - 23rd Oct - 1st Nov.
Recapture of Tobruk -13th Nov
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1937 -80 Years Ago
The Bombing of Guernica 26th April 1937
The bombing of this city was to be of great importance because of its military role in the defeat of the Republicans by Franco and his far right, anti-communist allies in the Spanish Civil War. The aerial bombing was carried out at the invitation of the Spanish Nationalist Government by the Nazi German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria, thus giving them practice for what later became World War II. Many civilians died although the number is disputed.
Evacuation In 1939 the British government believed that nearly 2000 civilians had been killed in the air raids and the resulting fires of Guernica. Consequently a plan was made to evacuate women and children from British cities into the countryside in the event of a declaration of war. This action probably went on the save many lives.
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The Picasso Painting The tragic events of Guernica gave rise to one of the greatest anti-war paintings ever made. It went on to influence the world of art in many ways. Picasso first exhibited his work at the Paris Exhibition in 1937.It then was taken on an international tour to raise funds for the Spanish Republican forces and refugees. It was subsequently housed in the Modern Art Museum in New York. Picasso only allowed it back into Spain in 1981 after the end of Fascism.
The Tapestry A vast copy of Picasso’s painting is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York. It was placed there as a reminder of the horrors of war.
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1917 -100 Years Ago
The Russian Revolution
15th Mar. - Abdication of the Tsar 16th Apr. - First Congress of Soviets and Lenin’s return to Russia with German help 16th Jul. - St Petersburg Rising 7th Nov. - Bolshevik Revolution
22nd Nov. - Brest Litovsk negotiations for peace with Germany begin 17 July 1918 - Execution of the Tsar and his family
America enters the War
24th Feb - Cunard ship Laconia is torpedoed 24th Feb - Zimmerman Telegram passed to US The telegram had been intercepted by the British and was a request to Mexico to declare war on the USA to regain all the territories that the US has taken from Mexico in 1848. 6th Apr - US declares war on Germany
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The Western Front
13th Apr. - Vimy Ridge captured by Canadians
7th Jun - Messines and 10,000 German troops destroyed by 19 mines totalling 455 tonnes of explosives. The noise is heard in London
31st Jul - The battle for Passchendaele begins, 32,000 allied troops killed on the first day
12th Oct 1st Battle of Passchendaele
❖20th Oct - 2nd Battle of Passchendaele
20th Nov Tanks at Cambrai
The Village of Messines
< Before the mine explosion
< and after
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The Nineteenth Century
1892 -125 Years Ago
End of Broad Gauge on the Great Western Railway - 20th May
Gloucester Station and the need to change from Broad Gauge to ‘Standard’ gauge for every journey from Bristol to Birmingham had become notorious and the subject of cartoons.
Trucial States become British protectorates
The independent Sheikdoms
Of the Arabian peninsular requested British protection from the Ottoman Empire and the Saudi Kingdom. The Ottomans would be driven out by 1917 and the northern border of Yemen would move further north while the remaining Ottoman territories would be absorbed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Britain would continue to provide security for the Gulf States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai until the 1970s (The Trucial Scouts). The British leave Yemen after very bloody fighting in the late 1960s.
Some of the borders are still disputed by Iran and Saudi Arabia
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1867 -150 Years Ago
Alfred Nobel demonstrates dynamite
Thomas Barnardo opens his first shelter for homeless children in Stepney James Lister publishes first article describing antiseptic surgery
Canada achieves Nationhood
Sir John Alexander Macdonald Canada’s first Prime Minister
<
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2016-2017 YEARBOOK CHAPTER 4 ANNIVERSARIES IN 2017
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1842 -175 Years Ago
Unrest at home
First General Strike
Riots in Lancashire against the Corn Laws
The Chartists
Beechams Pills first marketed in St Helens
Beecham was a high street Chemist shop which started manufacturing a cure-all medicine in 1842.
The famous “worth a guinea a box” advertising slogan lasted a century.
This was the first manufacturing chemist in Britain and the foundation of the Glaxo Smith Kline pharmaceutical company
1842
>
❖
1939
>
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First Anglo Afghan War
“Remnants of an Army” Dr William Brydon reaches Jalalabad on 13th January 1842
after the annihilation of the British Indian Army
The Treaty was signed in the main cabin of HMS Cornwallis on 29th
August. Built in Bombay in 1813, Cornwallis had fought the US navy in 1815 and fought in the First Opium War. In 1855 she was fitted with screw propulsion before taking part in the Crimean War and was still in service during the First World War. Finally broken up at Sheerness in 1957 (only 60 years ago) after a useful life of 144 years
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1817 -200 Years Ago
Luddites to Chartists
On 10th March 5,000 Blanketeers meet at St Peters Field Manchester and attempt to march to London
On 9th June the Pentrich Revolution leads to another attempted march in Derbyshire
Lord Liverpool brings in the Seditious Meetings Act banning meetings of more than 50
Death of Jane Austin
❖Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published after Jane Austin’s death. The first published under the author’s name
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More than 200 years ago
1767 250 years ago
Spode Pottery established,
Neville Maskelyne and Measurement of Longitude
1717 300 years ago
Triple Alliance UK, France and Dutch.
The Old Pretender
1667 350 years ago
Dutch attack Medway, France and Britain at war with Dutch
1617 400 years ago
Henry Briggs invents logarithms
1567 450 years ago
Foundation of Rugby School,
Mary Queen of Scots abdicates succeeded by James VI.
Ming Dynasty reinstates foreign trade except with Japan.
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1517 500 years ago
Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the Church door at Wittenberg Castle
1417 600 years ago
Henry V starts writing official documents in English for the first time since 1066
1317
700 years ago
Great Famine 1315 to 1317 comes to end.
1217 800 years ago
First Baron’s War. Battle of Lincoln finally expels French royal forces
William Marshall
Regent of England
Castilian of Chepstow
1117 900 years ago
Iceland abolishes slavery
1017 1000 years ago
Canute divides England into four Earldoms: Wessex, Mercia, Anglia and Northumbria