On this day

1830 - George Stephenson's Manchester and Liverpool railway opened. During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington.

1916 - Military tanks, designed by Ernest Swinton, were first used by the British Army, in the Somme offensive.

1928 - Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered, by accident, a bacteria killing mould growing in his laboratory, that later became known as penicillin. The development of penicillin for use as a medicine is attributed to the Australian Nobel Laureate Howard Walter Florey.

1940 - The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain.

the 15th September is BATTLE OF BRITAIN day....

70th anniversary today....

1485 - The Yeoman of the Guard, the bodyguard of the English Crown - popularly known as 'Beefeaters' - was established by King Henry VII.

1620 - The Pilgrims set sail in the Mayflower for America from Plymouth, England.

1847 - The United Shakespeare Company bought the house in which playwright William Shakespeare was born at Stratford Upon Avon in Warwickshire for £3,000. It became the first building in Britain to be officially preserved.

1861 - The Post Office Savings Banks opened in Britain.

1859 - British explorer Dr. David Livingstone discovered Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in central Africa.

1945 - Japan surrendered Hong Kong to Britain.

1968 - Britain introduced a 'two tier' postal system - First and Second Class. Letters and parcels bearing the more expensive 1st class stamps would be given priority of delivery.

1987 - Two dozen nations signed the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to save the ozone layer by curbing harmful emissions.

2002 - The world's first self cleaning glass was launched after being developed by scientists at the leading glass company of Pilkington's in St Helens.

After over a year of trying, I finally got my scanner working with my linux computer.
I've had to use it with WinXP on another computer since I bought it.
This is scanned from today's paper.

1701 - King James II of England died whilst in exile in France.

1745 - The Jacobite supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied Edinburgh.

1787 - The Constitution of the United States of America was completed and signed by 38 of 41 delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Narrowly approved in some states, the Constitution of the United States of America became law by June 1789.

1862 - This was the bloodiest single day of fighting in the American Civil War; more than 26,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action at the Battle of Antietam in western Maryland.

1944 - Blackout regulations eased in Britain to allow lights on buses, trains and at railway stations for the first time since the beginning of World War II in 1939.

1956 - Norman Buckley, a 48-year-old solicitor from Manchester broke the one-hour world water speed record in his motorboat, Miss Windermere III when he averaged 79mph during his hour on the course on Lake Windermere.

1976 - NASA unveiled the first space shuttle, the Enterprise, in Palmdale, California.

1998 - There was chaos in Staffordshire, when animal rights activists release around 6,000 animals from a mink farm. Mink are now devastating British wildlife, so it was not a particularly wise or humanitarian move!

2000 - Paula Yates, television personality and former wife of Bob Geldof, was found dead in bed from a suspected drug overdose. She was 40 years old.

(17-09-2010 11:06 )skully Wrote:  ~~~~
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2000 - Paula Yates, television personality and former wife of Bob Geldof, was found dead in bed from a suspected drug overdose. She was 40 years old.

She was Michael Hutchance's partner before he committed suicide, and she later found out that Hughie green was her real father


Hughie green

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth and final voyage.

1709 - Dr Samuel Johnson, English writer and compiler of the first English dictionary was born. Published in 1755, Johnson’s dictionary was the definitive reference for over a century.

1879 - The famous illuminations in Blackpool were switched on for the first time, a month before electricity was generally available in London.

1894 - Blackpool Tower was officially opened.

1911 - Britain's first twin-engined aeroplane, the Short S.39, was test flown.

1964 - The Addams Family premiered on US TV.

1972 - The first Ugandan refugees fleeing the persecution of the country's military dictatorship arrived in Britain.

1977 – Voyager I takes the first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

1995 - A Carlisle motorist was fined £140 for throwing a doughnut at a traffic warden.

1356 - Led by Edward, the Black Prince, the English defeated the French at the Battle of Poitiers in the Hundred Years War.

1783 - Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier sent up the first hot-air balloon with live creatures on board, in Versailles, France.

1839 - Birth of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer. A Quaker, he believed in taking care of the welfare of his workforce and he created a model village for his employees at Bournville, Birmingham.

1960 - The new traffic wardens issued the first 344 parking tickets in London. Britain's first parking ticket was issued to Dr Thomas Creighton, who had parked his car outside a London hotel while treating a patient.

1975 - The first episode of comedy show Fawlty Towers was broadcast by the BBC.

1984 - Great Britain and China announced their agreement to transfer Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.

1997 - An Intercity 125 ploughed into a freight train in Southall, west London, killing six and injuring more than 150.

480 B.C.E. - Themistocles and a Greek fleet scored a decisive naval victory over Xerxes' Persian force near Salamis.

1854 - The Russian army was defeated by the British and French at the Battle of Alma in the Crimean War. The first six Victoria Crosses to be awarded to the British Army for acts of bravery during the fighting were won at this battle.

1860 - The Prince of Wales (King Edward VII) became the first British royal to visit the USA.

1873 - "Black Friday," occurred; it was the first time the New York Stock Exchange was forced to close because of a banking crisis.

1917 - The first RSPCA animal clinic was opened, in Liverpool.

1931 - Devaluation set in when Britain came off the gold standard to prevent foreign speculation against the pound. It sparked off strikes, and in Scotland the crews of 15 navy ships nearly mutinied.

1939 - The Cannes Film Festival debuted in France.

1967 - The liner Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) was launched at Clydebank, Scotland by Queen Elizabeth II.

1327 - Deposed King Edward II of England, was murdered with a red hot poker at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. It was by order of his wife to ensure the succession of his son Edward III.

1745 - Bonnie Prince Charles and his Jacobite army defeated the English at the Battle of Prestonpans, Scotland.

1792 - The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy, the French Republic was then proclaimed.

1810 - Oktoberfest festival began in West Germany with a horse race in honor of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese.

1915 - Stonehenge was sold at auction to Mr C.H Chubb for £6,600 as a present for his wife. Mr Chubb presented it to the nation three years later as his wife didn't think it suited her.

1949 - People's Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.

1965 - BP found oil in the North Sea.

1999 - Google launched its search engine.

2003 - NASA's aging Galileo spacecraft was deliberately plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere, ending its 14-year exploration of the solar system's largest planet and its moons.