On this day

793 – Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England.

1042 - Harthacnut, King of England and Denmark, died. He was succeeded in England by his adopted heir, Edward the Confessor, and in Denmark by Magnus, King of Norway.

1783 - Iceland's Laki volcano erupted and continued to spew lava for eight more months; more than 9,000 people were killed.

1794 – Robespierre inaugurates the French Revolution's new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, with large organized festivals all across France.

1924 - The last sighting of English climber George Mallory - seen 800 feet from the summit of Mount Everest during his third attempt to become the first man to conquer the world's highest mountain.

1966 – One of the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and United States Air Force test pilot Carl Cross are both killed.

1968 - Authorities announced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1982 – Bluff Cove Air Attacks during the Falklands War: 56 British servicemen are killed by an Argentine air attack on two landing ships : RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram.

1984 – Homosexuality is declared legal in the Australian state of New South Wales.

2004 – The first Venus Transit in modern history takes place, the previous one being in 1882.

68 – Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad.

1549 - The Church of England adopted the Book of Common Prayer, compiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.

1870 - Charles Dickens, English novelist died at his home - Gad's Hill Place, Kent

1873 – Alexandra Palace in London burns down after being open for only 16 days.

1933 - Baird demonstrated high definition television at his Long Acre studio in London, showing the difference between the previous 30-line picture and the new 120-line tubes.

1934 - Donald Duck made his debut, in The Wise Little Hen.

1944 – World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.

1958 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opens London Gatwick Airport, (LGW) in Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom.

1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

1986 - The Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.

1986: Magee convicted of Brighton bombing
A man has been found guilty of planting the Brighton bomb which killed five people and nearly wiped out most of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet two years ago.
Patrick Joseph Magee, 35, is in prison awaiting sentence after a jury at the Old Bailey convicted him on all charges relating to the explosion that ripped through the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party conference.

As the unanimous guilty verdicts were read out, Magee sat in the dock looking straight ahead, showing no sign of emotion.

The prosecution said the 30 lb time bomb "came within an inch from being the IRA's most devastating explosion".

It had been planted behind a bath in a room on the sixth floor more than three weeks earlier, timed to go off on the final day of the conference.

At the Conservatives' request security at the Grand Hotel had been low key. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's first floor suite was one of only two rooms in the building that had been searched for bombs.

The blast, in the early hours of October 12, left a gaping hole in the hotel's façade.

It sent a chimney crashing down through a column of rooms, killing five prominent Conservatives, including Sir Anthony Berry MP, and injuring 34.

Trade Secretary Norman Tebbit was among those who had to be rescued from under tons of masonry.

The prime minister had a narrow escape as the explosion destroyed the bathroom she had used just moments before. The bedroom in which she had been working on her conference speech was badly damaged.

Belfast-born Magee was charged with the bombing when forensic officers found his palm print on a hotel registration card in the aftermath of the blast. He had checked in under the fictitious name of Roy Walsh and given a false address.


E-mail this story to a friend





Most of the Grand Hotel was destroyed





In Context
Magee was given eight life sentences, seven of them relating to the Brighton bombing.
Recommending he serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, Mr Justice Boreham said: "You intended to wipe out a large part of the government and you nearly did."

In June 1999 Magee was freed as part of the Good Friday Agreement's early release scheme. He had served 14 years.

Following his release Magee was reported to have told the Dublin-based Sunday Business Post that he regretted the deaths and often thought of his victims.

Those who died were Sir Anthony Berry MP; Eric Taylor, north-west party chairman; and three wives of party officials, Roberta Wakeham; Muriel Maclean; and Jeanne Shattock.




Stories From 10 Jun
1967: Israel ends six-day war

1986: Magee convicted of Brighton bombing

1999: Nato calls off air war on Kosovo

2000: Swaying Millennium Bridge closed

1977: Killer perch outwitted by electric rod

1977: I was born

1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries".

1898 - U.S. Marines landed at Guantnamo Bay and for a month fought a land war in Cuba, ending Spanish colonial rule in the Western Hemisphere.

1921 - Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth, was born; as Philippos Schleswig- Holstein Soenderburg-Glucksburg on the Greek island of Corfu.

1940 - World War II: Italy officially declared war on Britain and France.

1943 - The ball-point pen was patented in the U.S.A. by Laszlo Biro.

1947 – Saab produces its first automobile.

1977 – Apple ships its first Apple II personal computer.

1990 - A British Airways pilot survived after being partly sucked out of the cockpit at 23,000 feet above London.

1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members.

1999 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.

2003 – The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.

1955: Le Mans disaster claims 77 lives
Seventy-seven people have been killed and 77 others injured when two cars collided on the race track and crashed into the spectators' stand at Le Mans in north-west France.
The Mercedes-Benz being driven by Pierre Levegh hit the bank by the grandstand and immediately exploded. Parts of the wreckage were blown into the enclosure, killing scores of mostly-French spectators.

The accident happened about two hours after the 24-hour race began at the Le Mans circuit. There was no official announcement of the disaster and the race was allowed to continue.

Pierre Levegh was speeding down the straight in front of the pits when he clipped the Austin-Healey driven by British driver Lance Macklin.

The Mercedes, which was travelling at over 150mph (240khm), flipped over and flew through the air and hit the bank by the spectator enclosure.

Levegh was killed outright. Macklin's car spun wildly before coming to rest in the middle of the track, but he was unhurt.

The race had promised to be one of the fastest and most keenly contested ever held at Le Mans.

The three teams competing were Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz. Shortly after the crash the Mercedes manager instructed the two remaining Mercedes to withdraw from the race as a mark of respect to those killed in the disaster.

It was several hours before spectators on the far side of the track knew of the crash. The first sign something was wrong was when the Mercedes team pulled out.

The British consulate in Paris has confirmed there were two British victims among the dead.

Jack Diamond, aged 24, from London and Robert Loxley, of Worcester, who according to French official records was celebrating his 24th birthday.

This is the biggest disaster at a motor racing circuit.

Previously, 13 people were killed and 27 injured at Weyberg in Germany when a German car left the track during a race.



E-mail this story to a friend





The Mercedes-Benz exploded as it hit the grandstand





In Context
The number of those who died in the Le Mans tragedy rose to at least 80.
Officials pointed out that security measures at Le Mans went beyond standard requirements.

There was some criticism of the decision to complete the race, but the organisers claimed stopping the race would have alarmed spectators and hampered rescue efforts.

The race was won by the British Jaguar team, drivers Ivor Bueb and Mike Hawthorn who reached a record average speed of 106 miles an hour (170.5 kmh).

The French cabinet concluded race security should be further improved and the distance between the track and spectators increased.

Mercedes-Benz withdrew from all motor racing at the end of the 1955 season and did not return until 1987.

Switzerland banned all racing on motor circuits following the tragedy, a ban that was only lifted in June 2007.



Stories From 11 Jun
1955: Le Mans disaster claims 77 lives

1998: UN warns of famine in Sudan

1959: Hovercraft marks new era in transport

1987: Thatcher wins record third term

1976: Mercenaries trial begins in Angola

1968: French student rebel arrives in UK

1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.

1488 - James III of Scotland was murdered by rebellious Scottish nobles and was succeeded by his 15 year old son, James IV.

1509 - Eighteen year old King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives. When Catherine failed to produce a male heir, Henry divorced her against the will of the Roman Catholic Church, thus precipitating the Protestant Reformation in England.

1770 - Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

1927 - Charles Lindbergh received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded.

1959 - The Hovercraft, invented by Christopher Cockerell was officially demonstrated for the first time, at Southampton.

1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

1963 – Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.

1965 - All four members of the British group The Beatles, were awarded OBEs in Queen Elizabeth II's birthday honours list.

1981 – A Richter Scale 6.9 magnitude earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000.

1982 - The movie E.T - The Extra-Terrestrial opened.

1987 - Margaret Thatcher won her third consecutive term as Prime Minister.

2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.

(11-06-2011 13:33 )skully Wrote:  1927 - Charles Lindbergh received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded.

Just to clarify that the 1927 date refers to the American version of the decoration. Strictly speaking, Lindburgh's was the first one to be actually presented, the medal being designed and struck in great haste to honour his Transatlantic flight to Paris. The first actual award had come a month earlier to a group of ten aviators who took part in "The Pan-Am Goodwill Flight" around a number of South American countries, but they had only received certificates (two of them posthumously following a fatal collision at Buenos Aires airport). The first woman to receive an American DFC was Amelia Earhart in 1932, as the award was not restricted to military personnel until 1938.

The British DFC was instigated on 3 June 1918. Originally only RAF personnel were eligible but this was later extended to all servicemen. Over 1,100 DFCs were awarded in WW1 and more than 20,000 in WW2.

Many of the awards went to people who became well known in other walks of life. Leonard Cheshire VC was a recipient, as was Max Aitken (son of the press baron), England cricketer Bill Edrich, comedy actor and television star Jimmy Edwards, World Motorcycle 500cc Champion Leslie Graham, England rugby international and later RFU Secretary Bob Weighill, and football commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, who uttered the famous words "they think it's all over....it is now!"

In March 2008, Bristol-born Flight Lieutenant Michelle Goodman became the first woman to be awarded a British DFC for her service in Iraq.

1964: Nelson Mandela jailed for life
The leader of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, has been jailed for life for sabotage.
Seven other defendants, including the former secretary-general of the banned African National Congress (ANC), Walter Sisulu, were also given life prison sentences.

Crowds gathered silently outside the court building in Pretoria's Church Square waiting for the verdict to be handed down. Hundreds of police patrolled the area.

The Rivonia trial - named after the suburb of Johannesburg where several of the defendants were arrested - began eight months ago, with Mandela, 46, and his co-defendants proudly confessing their guilt to plotting to destroy the South African state by sabotage.

As members of the ANC - the main African nationalist movement - they have campaigned for an end to the oppression of black South Africans.

But the movement was banned in 1960 following the Sharpeville massacre and campaigners decided they had no choice but to resort to violent means.

Struggle for equal rights

Mandela - a lawyer by training - told the court earlier: "I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression of my people by the whites."

His co-accused included: Walter Sisulu, Dennis Goldberg, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Mosoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni - all ANC officials and Ahmed Kathrada, the former leader of the South African Indian Congress.

Lawyer for the defendants, Harold Hansen QC said: "These accused represent the struggle of their people for equal rights. Their views represent the struggle of the African people for the attainment of equal rights for all races in this country."

But the judge, President Quartus de Wet, said he was not convinced by their claim to have been motivated by a desire to alleviate the grievances of the African people in this country.

Judge de Wet said: "People who organise revolution usually plan to take over the government as well through personal ambition."

However, he stopped short of the imposing the supreme penalty of death.

The convicted men were cheered as they left court in a police lorry. The crowd was dispersed without any serious incident.


E-mail this story to a friend





Nelson Mandela: "I do not deny I planned sabotage"





In Context
This was the second time Nelson Mandela had been tried for high treason - in 1956 he was charged but after a four year trial the case was dropped.
There were demonstrations in Britain following the 1964 sentencing. A world petition calling for the prisoners' release was handed to the United Nations Secretary General.

Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years behind bars serving hard labour in Robben Island prison off Cape Town.

He was released in 1990, jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize with President FW de Klerk in 1993 and elected South Africa's president in the country's first multi-racial elections held in 1994.

He stepped down in favour of Govan Mbeki's son Thabo in 1999 but continues to travel the world campaigning for peace.

Walter Sisulu died at the age of 90 in May 2003.





Stories From 12 Jun
1975: Gandhi found guilty of corruption

1964: Nelson Mandela jailed for life

1962: Three escape from Alcatraz

1997: Straw to reconsider Bulger killers' fate

1986: Labour expels Militant Hatton

1673 - The future King James I of England was forced to resign as Lord High Admiral because of his Catholic faith.

1683 - The Rye House Plot, to assassinate English king Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, was discovered.

1849 - The gas mask was patented by L. P. Haslett.

1898 - Philippine nationalists declared independence from Spain after 300 years.

1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures' Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.

1942 – Holocaust: Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

1978 – David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer in New York City, is sentenced to 365 years in prison for six killings.

1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin became the first popularly elected leader in the 1000-year history of Russia.

1994 - The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were discovered outside her Brentwood, California condominium, and within days, actor/football legend O.J. Simpson was charged by police.