On this day...

[Cortone]

I was looking for some info on Wikipedia today, and spotted something that I had never seen before - as section on 'On this day'. It is basically what happened on this day in years gone by. Obviously, some things are not really of interest to most of you film fans, but there was one today, and maybe there could be on other dates.

Here's what it said for today, which may be of interest to those who watched Milk:

"1979 – Riots erupted in San Francisco after former Supervisor Dan White was only sentenced for voluntary manslaughter for the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk."

Maybe others can add to this if they see anything of interest?

[andrews]

16th August 1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.

16th August 1977 – Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll", was officially pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, after he was found unresponsive on the floor of his Graceland bathroom.

[andrews]

17th August 1943 - Robert De Niro, Jr., American actor, is born.

17th August, 1960 - Sean Penn, American actor and director, is born.

[andrews]

3rd December

Born
Amanda Seyfried (1985),
Julianne Moore (1960)
Brendan Fraser (1968)
Daryl Hannah (1960)

Died
David Hemmings (2003)
Richard Todd (2009)
Helen Travolta (1978)

[andrews]

4th December

Born
Jeff Bridges (1949)
Jay-Z (1969)
Pamela Stephenson (1949)

Died
Frank Zappa (1993)
Richard Vernon (1997)

[andrews]

6th December

Born
Judd Apatow (1967)
Lindsay Price (1976, Arcadia, California, USA)
Agnes Moorehead (1900)
Noel Clarke (1975)
Freddie Flintoff (1977)
Napoleon


Died
Don Ameche (1993)
Roy Orbison (1988)

[andrews]

9th December

Born
Judi Dench (1934)
Michael Dorn (1952) (Worf in Star Trek)
Donny Osmond (1957)
Felicity Huffman (1962)

Famous events
1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV (1960)
Nicolea Ceausescu becomes president (dictator) of Romania (1967)
Lech Walesa wins presidental election in Poland (1990)

[andrews]

14th December

1861 Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, died of typhoid fever.

1895 The birth of King George VI, the second son of George V and Mary. He succeeded Edward VIII when Edward abdicated and ruled Britain during the war years.

1911 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, 35 days ahead of British explorer Captain Scott. Scott died, along with the rest of his team, on the return journey.

1918 The first woman elected to Parliament was Constance, the Countess Markievicz who won for Sinn Fein, contesting a Dublin seat. She was unable to take her seat as she was in Holloway Prison, London. The 1918 General Election was also the first time that women in Britain had the vote.

1920 The first scheduled airliner disaster in aviation history occurred when an airliner with six passengers and two crew took off from Cricklewood Airport, London, for a flight to Paris. Barely airborne, the plane crashed into a house in neighbouring Golders Green, killing the crew and two passengers. The others escaped from the wreckage.

1922 The man who would play a significant part in the history of British broadcasting, John Reith, was appointed General Manager of the fledgling BBC.

1932 The first floodlit rugby league match was held at London’s White City Stadium, between Leeds and Wigan.

1947 Stanley Baldwin, three times Conservative Prime Minister, died.

1955 Hugh Gaitskell was elected leader of the Labour Party, following the resignation of Clement Attlee.

1959 The shortest murder trial in British legal history. In 30 seconds, at Winchester Assizes, Brian Cawley pleaded guilty to the murder of Rupert Steed and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

1984 Miners' leader Arthur Scargill was found guilty of obstruction during a picket at a Yorkshire coal works earlier in the year. He was fined £250 and ordered to p*y £750 in costs.

2003 The ousted President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was under arrest after being found by US soldiers hiding in a cellar.

[destresserai]

14th December

2003 The ousted President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was under arrest after being found by US soldiers hiding in a cellar.

Oh I can remember that as I was in New York at the time - was shocked when Tony Blair announced it but the Americans were not commenting on it. I guess Tony just wanted to big up his part! The Americans finally made a statement when I was sitting eating hash browns in McDonalds.

[andrews]

16th December

1485 Birth of Catherine of Aragon, first of Henry VIII’s wives. She bore him six children but only one survived (Mary I), and Henry divorced her against the Pope’s wishes, in his pursuit for a male heir.

1653 Following the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell failed to get the Parliament he wanted and became Lord Protector, turning himself into an uncrowned king for the next four years.

1773 Taxes by Britain on tea and other commodities led Samuel Adams and 150 ‘Sons of Liberty’ disguised as Mohawk Indians to hold the Boston Tea Party in which 342 tea chests worth £18,000 were tossed off Griffin’s Wharf into Boston Harbour. The War of Independence had begun.

1882 Sir Jack Hobbs, renowned cricketer and the first of his sport to be knighted, was born.

1914 German warships bombarded the seaside resort of Scarborough, believing it to be a major British port. Several other east coast resorts were also hit. A picture of Scarborough.

1929 Barnes Wallis saw his R100 airship carry out its first test flight.

1944 The Battle of the Bulge began in the Ardennes. By January 21, the Germans had been pushed back to their original line, having lost some 120,000 men in the offensive.

1951 Freddie Steele was transferred from Mansfield to Port Vale, the first footballer to be involved in a transfer deal.

1955 London Heathrow opened its new terminal buildings.

1969 MPs voted by a big majority for the permanent abolition of the death penalty for murder.

1977 The Queen unveiled the new underground link from central London to Heathrow; the first from a capital city to its major airport.

1991 Britain named Stella Rimington as the first woman to head its security service, MI5.

1998 USA & Britain combined bombing attacks on Iraq after UN weapons inspectors were expelled from the country, contrary to assurances given by Saddam Hussein.

2001 Thousands of campaigners took to the streets of Edinburgh to protest against a bill to ban dog-hunting, the uncertain future of rural schools and the handling of the foot and mouth crisis.