TODAY IN HISTORY

[I think not]

NATO BOMBS YUGOSLAVIA:
March 24, 1999

On March 24, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commences air strikes against Yugoslavia with the bombing of Serbian military positions in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo. The NATO offensive came in response to a new wave of ethnic cleansing launched by Serbian forces against the Kosovar Albanians on March 20.

The Kosovo region lay at the heart of the Serbian empire in the late Middle Ages but was lost to the Ottoman Turks in 1389 following Serbia's defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. By the time Serbia regained control of Kosovo from Turkey in 1913, there were few Serbs left in a region that had come to be dominated by ethnic Albanians. In 1918, Kosovo formally became a province of Serbia, and it continued as such after communist leader Josip Broz Tito established the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, comprising the Balkan states of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Macedonia. However, Tito eventually gave in to Kosovar demands for greater autonomy, and after 1974 Kosovo existed as independent state in all but name.

Serbs came to resent Kosovo's autonomy, which allowed it to act against Serbian interests, and in 1987 Slobodan Milosevic was elected leader of Serbia's Communist Party with a promise of restoring Serbian rule to Kosovo. In 1989, Milosevic became president of Serbia and moved quickly to suppress Kosovo, stripping its autonomy and in 1990 sending troops to disband its government. Meanwhile, Serbian nationalism led to the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation in 1991, and in 1992 the Balkan crisis deteriorated into civil war. A new Yugoslav state, consisting only of Serbia and the small state of Montenegro, was created, and Kosovo began four years of nonviolent resistance to Serbian rule.

The militant Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged in 1996 and began attacking Serbian police in Kosovo. With arms obtained in Albania, the KLA stepped up its attacks in 1997, prompting a major offensive by Serbian troops against the rebel-held Drenica region in February-March 1998. Dozens of civilians were killed, and enlistment in the KLA increased dramatically. In July, the KLA launched an offensive across Kosovo, seizing control of nearly half the province before being routed in a Serbian counteroffensive later that summer. The Serbian troops drove thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes and were accused of massacring Kosovo civilians.

In October, NATO threatened Serbia with air strikes, and Milosevic agreed to allow the return of tens of thousands of refugees. Fighting soon resumed, however, and talks between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs in Rambouillet, France, in February 1999 ended in failure. On March 18, further peace talks in Paris collapsed after the Serbian delegation refused to sign a deal calling for Kosovo autonomy and the deployment of NATO troops to enforce the agreement. Two days later, the Serbian army launched a new offensive in Kosovo. On March 24, NATO air strikes began.

In addition to Serbian military positions, the NATO air campaign targeted Serbian government buildings and the country's infrastructure in an effort to destabilize the Milosevic regime. The bombing and continued Serbian offensives drove hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians into neighboring Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Many of these refugees were airlifted to safety in the United States and other NATO nations. On June 10, the NATO bombardment ended when Serbia agreed to a peace agreement calling for the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo and their replacement by NATO peacekeeping troops.

With the exception of two U.S. pilots killed in a training mission in Albania, no NATO personnel lost their lives in the 78-day operation. There were some mishaps, however, such as miscalculated bombings that led to the deaths of Kosovar Albanian refugees, KLA members, and Serbian civilians. The most controversial incident was the May 7 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three Chinese journalists and caused a diplomatic crisis in U.S.-Chinese relations.

On June 12, NATO forces moved into Kosovo from Macedonia. The same day, Russian troops arrived in the Kosovo capital of Pristina and forced NATO into agreeing to a joint occupation. Despite the presence of peacekeeping troops, the returning Kosovar Albanians retaliated against Kosovo's Serbian minority, forcing them to flee into Serbia. Under the NATO occupation, Kosovar autonomy was restored, but the province remained officially part of Serbia.

Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power by a popular revolution in Belgrade in October 2000. He was replaced by the popularly elected Vojislav Kostunica, a moderate Serbian nationalist who promised to reintegrate Serbia into Europe and the world after a decade of isolation.

 

[Blackleaf]

25th March 1807 - the British Parliament passes the Slave Trade Act which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire.

This put Britain ahead of Continental Europe. In 1790, the French Parliament voted to CONTINUE the slave trade in their colonies and, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Continental European countries vowed to abolish their slave trades - but ended up doing nothing about it at all.
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The Slave Trade Act (citation 47 Geo III Sess. 1 c. 36) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in 1807 the long title of which is "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade".

The act abolished the slave trade in the British empire. The trade had begun in 1562, during the reign of Elizabeth I when John Hawkins led the first slaving expedition.

The people who pushed the act through were a group of Evangelical Protestants allied with Quakers and united in their opposition to slavery and the slave trade. The Quakers had long viewed slavery as immoral, a blight upon humanity. By 1807 the anti-slave-trade groups had a very sizable faction of like-minded members in the British Parliament. They controlled, at their height, some 35-40 seats.

Known as the "saints" this alliance was led by William Wilberforce, the most important of the anti-slave campaigners. These parliamentarians were extremely dedicated and often saw their personal battle against slavery as a divinely ordained crusade.

Their numbers were magnified by the precarious position of the current government under Lord Grenville (his short term as Prime Minister was known as Ministry_of_all_The_Talents). Not long after the act was passed, Grenville's government lost power to William Cavendish. Despite this change, the later British governments continued to support the policy of ending the slave trade.

After the British ended their own slave trade, they felt forced by economics to press other nations into placing themselves in the same economic straitjacket, or else the British colonies would become uncompetitive with those of other nations. The British campaign against the slave trade by other nations was an unprecedented foreign policy effort. Denmark, a small player in the international slave trade, and the United States (a small country in those days) banned the trade during the same period as Great Britain. Other small trading nations that did not have a great deal to give up, such as Sweden, quickly followed suit, as did the Dutch, who were also by then a minor player.

The British navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as pirates, and so ships carrying slaves were subject to destruction and any men captured were (potentially) subject to execution.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

26th March 1707 - the Acts of Union were passed. This unified England/Wales with Scotland and created Great Britain. Therefore, today is Britain's 299th birthday.
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The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament passed in 1707 (taking effect on 1 May) by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The acts were the implementation of the Treaty of Union negotiated between the two kingdoms. The effect of the Acts was twofold:

*to create a new state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, although the name had been used on occasion since 1603 when speaking of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland together, which had shared a monarch from that date but retained sovereign parliaments. Wales was also part of Great Britain since it had been absorbed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542.

*to dissolve both parliaments and replace them with a new Parliament of Great Britain (known as the Union of the Parliaments). The new parliament was to be based in the former home of the English Parliament.

Walter Thomas Monnington's 1925 painting called Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland 1707 hangs in the Palace of Westminster, depicting the official presentation of the law that formed the Kingdom of Great Britain.

While there had been three attempts in 1606, 1667 and 1689 to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, these were the first Acts that had the will of both political establishments behind them, albeit for rather different reasons. In the English case, the purpose was to establish the Royal succession along Protestant lines in the same manner as provided for by the English Act of Settlement 1701, rather than that of the Scottish Act of Security. The two countries had shared a king for much of the previous century. The English were now concerned that an independent Scotland with a different king, even if he were a Protestant, might make alliances against England.

In the Scottish case, the purpose was partly to use English subsidies (as they STILL do, thanks to the English taxpayer) to recover from the financial problems caused by the failure of the Darién scheme and partly to remove English trade sanctions put in place through the Alien Act to force the Scottish Parliament into compliance with the Act of Settlement.

The treaty consisted of 25 articles, 15 of which were economic in character. In Scotland, each article was voted on separately and several clauses in articles were delegated to specialised subcommittees. Article 1 of the treaty was based on the political principle of an incorporating union and this was secured by a majority of 115 votes to 83 on 4 November 1706. In order to minimise the opposition of the Church of Scotland, an act was also passed to secure the Presbyterian establishment of the Church, after which the Church stopped its open opposition, although hostility remained at lower levels of the clergy. The treaty as a whole was finally ratified on 16 January 1707 by a majority of 110 votes to 67.

The ultimate securing of the treaty in the Scottish Parliament can be attributed more to the weakness and lack of cohesion between the various opposition groups in the House as opposed to the strength of pro-incorporationists. The combined votes of the Court party with a majority of the Squadrone Volante were sufficient to ensure the final passage of the treaty through the House. Many members had invested heavily in the Darién Scheme and they believed that they would receive compensation for their losses; Article 14, the Equivalent granted £398,085 10s to Scotland to offset future liability towards the English national debt. In essence, it was also used a means of compensation for investors in Darién.

Bribery and financial persuasion were also prevalent. £20,000 (£240,000 Scots) was despatched to Scotland for distribution by the Earl of Glasgow. James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, the Queen's Commissioner in Parliament, received £12,325, the majority of the funding. The bulk of this funding was used in the payment of spies and agent provocateurs.

The Acts of Union were far from universally popular in Scotland, particularly amongst the general population. Many petitions were sent to the Scottish Parliament against union, and there were massive protests in Edinburgh and several other Scottish towns on the day it was passed, as threats of widespread civil unrest resulted in the imposition of martial law by the Parliament. Sir George Lockhart of Carnwath, a Jacobite and the only member of the Scottish negotiating team who was not pro-incorporation, noted that `The whole nation appears against the Union'. Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, an ardent pro-unionist and Union negotiator, observed that the treaty was `contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the Kingdom'. Daniel Defoe's first reports were of vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the Union. "A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind," he later reported "for every Scot in favour there is 99 against". Public opinion against the Treaty as it passed through the Scottish Parliament was voiced through petitions from Scottish localities. Anti-union petitions were received from shires, burghs, presbyteries and parishes. The Convention of Royal Burghs also petitioned against the Union and not one petition in favour of an incorporating union was received by Parliament.

The two Acts incorporated provisions for Scotland to send representative peers from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords. It guaranteed that the Church of Scotland would remain the established church in Scotland, that the Court of Session would "remain in all time coming within Scotland", and that Scots law would "remain in the same force as before".

Other provisions included the restatement of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the ban on Roman Catholics from taking the throne. It also created a customs union and monetary union. Scotland kept its independence with respect to its legal (Article 19), religious and education systems.

The Act provided that any "laws and statutes" that were "contrary to or inconsistent with the terms" of the Act would "cease and become void."

wikipedia.org

 

[I think not]

SALK ANNOUNCES POLIO VACCINE:
March 26, 1953

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952--an epidemic year for polio--there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, which is known as "infant paralysis" because it mainly affects children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time.

Polio, a disease that has affected humanity throughout recorded history, attacks the nervous system and can cause varying degrees of paralysis. Since the virus is easily transmitted, epidemics were commonplace in the first decades of the 20th century. The first major polio epidemic in the United States occurred in Vermont in the summer of 1894, and by the 20th century thousands were affected every year. In the first decades of the 20th century, treatments were limited to quarantines and the infamous "iron lung," a metal coffin-like contraption that aided respiration. Although children, and especially infants, were among the worst affected, adults were also often afflicted, including future president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1921 was stricken with polio at the age of 39 and was left partially paralyzed. Roosevelt later transformed his estate in Warm Springs, Georgia, into a recovery retreat for polio victims and was instrumental in raising funds for polio-related research and the treatment of polio patients.

Salk, born in New York City in 1914, first conducted research on viruses in the 1930s when he was a medical student at New York University, and during World War II helped develop flu vaccines. In 1947, he became head of a research laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and in 1948 was awarded a grant to study the polio virus and develop a possible vaccine. By 1950, he had an early version of his polio vaccine.

Salk's procedure, first attempted unsuccessfully by American Maurice Brodie in the 1930s, was to kill several strains of the virus and then inject the benign viruses into a healthy person's bloodstream. The person's immune system would then create antibodies designed to resist future exposure to poliomyelitis. Salk conducted the first human trials on former polio patients and on himself and his family, and by 1953 was ready to announce his findings. This occurred on the CBS national radio network on the evening of March 25 and two days later in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Salk became an immediate celebrity.

In 1954, clinical trials using the Salk vaccine and a placebo began on nearly two million American schoolchildren. In April 1955, it was announced that the vaccine was effective and safe, and a nationwide inoculation campaign began. New polio cases dropped to under 6,000 in 1957, the first year after the vaccine was widely available. In 1962, an oral vaccine developed by Polish-American researcher Albert Sabin became available, greatly facilitating distribution of the polio vaccine. Today, there are just a handful of polio cases in the United States every year, and most of these are "imported" by Americans from developing nations where polio is still a problem. Among other honors, Jonas Salk was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. He died in La Jolla, California, in 1995.

 

[#juan]

March 26

1987 Torture chamber uncovered in Philly

Responding to a 911 call, police raid the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik's dilapidated house is a veritable torture chamber where two naked women were chained to the walls and another was stuck in a pit dug into the ground. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera had escaped and called police.

Gary Heidnik was a former mental patient and sex offender who had somehow managed to become a wealthy stock investor. He owned a Rolls Royce and beat Uncle Sam on his income taxes by making himself the bishop of his own church. The sign on the front of his house read, "United Church of the Ministries of God." One room in his house was wallpapered with money. At the end of 1986, Heidnik decided to create his own harem and began kidnapping women off the streets of Philadelphia.

Six women were kidnapped and held in Heidnik's dungeon. All were raped and tortured while the others were forced to watch. He killed one of the women by putting her in the pit, filling it with water and putting a live electrical wire into the water. Another of the women was killed when Heidnik let her starve to death chained to the wall. In perhaps the most grisly and horrid episode of the entire incident, Heidnik dismembered his victims, cooking parts of their bodies and feeding them to his other captives. The women who were found alive recovered after being treated for dehydration and malnutrition.

Although Heidnik was clearly mentally disturbed (his initial defense was that the women were already tied up in the basement when he moved in and he had been discharged from the Army in 1962 for psychiatric problems), he was found guilty and convicted of murder on July 1, 1988. He received a death sentence, and was executed on July 6, 1999.

Heidnik was one the inspirations for the Buffalo Bill character in Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Blackleaf]

27th March 1625 - Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France. He's the only English monarch to have been executed.
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Charles I of England (including Wales), Scotland, Ireland (and, as he liked to think, France)



Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England. As he was an advocate of the Divine Right of Kings, many in England feared that he was attempting to gain absolute power. There was widespread opposition to many of his actions, especially the levying of taxes without Parliament's consent. He is also the only person to be canonized by the Church of England after the English Reformation.

Religious conflicts permeated Charles' reign. He selected his Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria, over the objections of Parliament and public opinion. Charles further allied himself with controversial religious figures, including the ecclesiastic Richard Montagu and William Laud, whom Charles appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud produced changes in the liturgy of the Church of England which many of Charles' subjects felt brought the Church of England too close to Roman Catholicism. Charles' later attempts to force religious reforms upon Scotland led to war that weakened England and helped precipitate his downfall.

The last years of Charles' reign were marked by the English Civil War, in which he was opposed by the forces of Parliament—who challenged his attempts to augment his own power—and by Puritans, who were hostile to his religious policies. The war ended in defeat for Charles, who was subsequently tried, convicted and executed for high treason. The monarchy was overthrown, and a commonwealth was established. As time passed this regime became increasingly dependent upon the army and became in effect a military dictatorship. Various political as well as socio-economic factors led to its collapse. Charles's son, Charles II, returned to restore the monarchy in 1660.


Charles, the second son of James VI, King of Scots and Anne of Denmark, was born at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 November 1600. He was an underdeveloped child (he is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the nation's shortest King) who was still unable to walk or talk at the age of three. When Elizabeth I died in March 1603 and James VI became King of England as James I, Charles was originally left in Scotland in the care of nurses and servants because it was feared that the journey would damage his fragile health. He did make the journey in July 1604 and was subsequently placed under the charge of Alletta (Hogenhove) Carey, the Dutch-born wife of courtier Sir Robert Carey, who taught him how to walk and talk and insisted that he wear boots made of Spanish leather and brass to help strengthen his weak ankles. As an adult Charles was 5 feet 4 inches (162 cm) tall.
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He believed that a Monarch should reign absolute and that he shouldn't have to consult Parliament about anything.

Parliament, and Oliver Cromwell, believed that any Act that the Monarch wants to be passed should go through Parliament first.

This, told in a simplified way, led to the English Civil War fought between the King's supporters (Cavaliers/Royalists) and Oliver Cromwell's people who supported parliament (Roundheads/Parliamentarians) -

The English Civil War had not yet started, but both sides began to arm. After futile negotiations, Charles raised the royal standard (an anachronistic mediæval gesture) in Nottingham on 22 August 1642. He then set up his court at Oxford, whence his government controlled roughly the north and west of England, Parliament remaining in control of London and the south and east. Charles raised an army using the archaic method of the Commission of Array. The Civil War started on 25 October 1642 with the inconclusive Battle of Edgehill and continued indecisively through 1643 and 1644, until the Battle of Naseby tipped the military balance decisively in favor of Parliament. There followed a great number of defeats for the Royalists, and then the Siege of Oxford, from which Charles escaped in April 1646. He put himself into the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army at Newark, and was taken to nearby Southwell while his "hosts" decided what to do with him. The Presbyterians finally arrived at an agreement with Parliament and delivered Charles to them in 1647. He was imprisoned at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire, until cornet George Joyce took him by force to Newmarket in the name of the New Model Army. At this time, mutual suspicion had developed between the New Model Army and Parliament, and Charles was eager to exploit it.

He was then transferred first to Oatlands and then to Hampton Court, where more involved but fruitless negotiations went on. He was persuaded that it would be in his best interests to escape—perhaps abroad, perhaps to France, or perhaps to the custody of Robert Hammond, Parliamentary Governor of the Isle of Wight. He decided on the last course, believing Hammond to be sympathetic, and fled on 11 November. Hammond, however, was opposed to Charles, whom he confined in Carisbrooke Castle.

From Carisbrooke, Charles continued to try to bargain with the various parties, eventually coming to terms with the Scottish Presbyterians that he would allow the establishment of Presbyterianism in England as well as Scotland for a trial period. The Royalists rose in July 1648, and the Scots invaded, beginning the so-called "Second Civil War". The Scottish armies, however, were defeated within months, their final loss coming in August at the Battle of Preston.

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Trial and execution

Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and thereafter to Windsor Castle. In January 1649, the House of Commons—without the assent of either the Sovereign or the House of Lords—passed an Act of Parliament creating a court for Charles's trial. The idea was a novel one; previous monarchs had been deposed, but had never been brought to trial as monarchs. The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 Commissioners (all firm Parliamentarians); the prosecution was led by Solicitor General John Cook.

The King's trial (on charges of high treason and "other high crimes") began on 2 January, but Charles refused to enter a plea, claiming that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch. He believed that his own authority to rule had been given to him by God when he was crowned and anointed, and that the power wielded by those trying him was simply that which grew out of a barrel of gunpowder. The court was proposing that NO man, even the King, is above the law. Over a period of a week, when Charles was asked to plead three times, he refused. It was then normal practice to take a refusal to plead as pro confesso: an admission of guilt, which meant that the prosecution could not call witnesses to its case. Fifty nine of the Commissioners signed Charles's death warrant, on 29 January 1649. After the ruling, he was led from St. James's Palace, where he was confined, to the Palace of Whitehall, where an execution scaffold had been erected in front of the Banqueting House.

When Charles was beheaded on January 30, 1649, a moan was heard from the assembled crowd, some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, thus starting the cult of the Martyr King. There is some historical debate over the identity of the man who beheaded the King, who was masked at the scene. It is known that the Commissioners approached Richard Brandon, the common Hangman of London, but that he refused, and contemporary sources do not generally identify him as the King's headsman. Ellis's Historical Inquiries, however, name him as the executioner, stating that he stated so before dying. It is possible he relented and agreed to undertake the commission, but there are others who have been identified. An Irish man named Gunning is widely believed to have killed the King, and a plaque naming him as the executioner is on show in Galway city in Ireland. William Hewlett was convicted of regicide after the Restoration. In 1661, two people identified as "Dayborne and Bickerstaffe" were arrested but then discharged. Henry Walker, a revolutionary journalist, or his brother William, were suspected but never charged. Various local legends around England name local worthies. Contemporary sources that reported one blow and the cut through vertebrae examined in 1813 at Windsor imply that the execution was done by an experienced headsman: Henri Brandon the Common Hangman of London, trained by his father and long experienced.

It was common practice for the head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words "Behold the head of a traitor!"; although Charles' head was exhibited, the words were not used. It might be, because William Hewlett, the inexperienced stand-by, did not know to do so. In an unprecedented gesture, one of the revolutionary leaders, Oliver Cromwell, allowed the King's head to be sewn back on his body so the family could pay its respects.

Charles was buried in private and at night on 7 February 1649, in the Henry VIII vault inside St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. The King's son, King Charles II, later planned an elaborate royal mausoleum, but this never eventuated.

Ten days after Charles's execution, a memoir purporting to be from Charles's hand appeared for sale. This book, the Eikon Basilike (Greek: the "Royal Portrait"), contained an apologia for royal policies, and proved an effective piece of royalist propaganda. John Cooke published the speech he would have delivered if Charles had pled, while Parliament commissioned John Milton to write a rejoinder, the Eikonoklastes ("The Iconoclast"), but the response made little headway against the pathos of the royalist book.

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Charles I's court painter, created the famous "Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles", commonly known as the "Triple Portrait". The oil painting was made on canvas around 1636, and is an example of how Van Dyck tended to mask Charles I's small stature, portraying him in a more dignified manner.


Also on this day -

1513 - (not 1512 as often cited) - Explorer Juan Ponce de León sights North America (specifically Florida) for the first time, mistaking it for another island.

1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, becomes Prime Minister of Britain.

wikipedia.org

 

[I think not]

KHRUSHCHEV BECOMES SOVIET PREMIER:
March 27, 1958

On March 27, 1958, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nicolay Bulganin as Soviet premier, becoming the first leader since Joseph Stalin to simultaneously hold the USSR's two top offices.

Khrushchev, born into a Ukrainian peasant family in 1894, worked as a mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918. In 1929, he went to Moscow and steadily rose in the party ranks and in 1938 was made first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. He became a close associate of Joseph Stalin, the authoritarian leader of the Soviet Union since 1924. In 1953, Stalin died, and Khrushchev grappled with Stalin's chosen successor, Georgy Malenkov, for the position of first secretary of the Communist Party. Khrushchev won the power struggle, and Malenkov was made premier, a more ceremonial post. In 1955, Malenkov was replaced by Bulganin, Khrushchev's hand-picked nominee.

In 1956, Khrushchev denounced Stalin and his totalitarian policies at the 20th Party Congress, leading to a "thaw" in the USSR that saw the release of millions of political prisoners. Almost immediately, the new atmosphere of freedom led to anti-Soviet uprisings in Poland and Hungary. Khrushchev flew to Poland and negotiated a diplomatic solution, but the Hungarian rebellion was crushed by Warsaw Pact troops and tanks.

Khruschev's program of de-Stalinization was opposed by some hard-liners in the Communist Party, and in June 1957 he was nearly ousted from his position as first secretary. After a brief struggle, he secured the removal of Malenkov and the other top party members who had opposed him and in 1958 prepared to take on the post of premier. On March 27, 1958, the Supreme Soviet--the Soviet legislature--voted unanimously to make First Secretary Khrushchev also Soviet premier, thus formally recognizing him as the undisputed leader of the USSR.

In foreign affairs, Premier Khrushchev's stated policy was one of "peaceful coexistence" with the West. He said, "we offer the capitalist countries peaceful competition" and gave the Soviet Union an early lead in the space race by launching the first Soviet satellites and cosmonauts. A visit to the United States by Khrushchev in 1959 was hailed as a new high in U.S.-Soviet relations, but superpower relations would hit dangerous new lows in the early 1960s.

In 1960, Khrushchev walked out of a long-awaited four-powers summit over the U-2 affair, and in 1961 he authorized construction of the Berlin Wall as a drastic solution to the East German question. Then, in October 1962, the United States and the USSR came close to nuclear war over the USSR's placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. After 13 tense days, the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end when Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the offensive weapons in exchange for a secret U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.

The humiliating resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an agricultural crisis at home, and the deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations over Khrushchev's moderate policies all led to growing opposition to Khrushchev in the party ranks. On October 14, 1964, Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev's protege and deputy, organized a successful coup against him, and Khrushchev abruptly stepped down as first secretary and premier. He retired to obscurity outside Moscow and lived there until his death in 1971.

 

[Blackleaf]

28th March 1763 - Dreaded highwayman William Harrow, known as "The Flying Highwayman", was executed in Hertfordshire. He was "eviscerated." For the thousands of people who watched the execution, it would have been a good day out for those who love to see a human being having his entrails torn out whilst still awake.

WILLIAM HARROW

William Harrow and the gamekeeper


THIS malefactor may be said to have galloped to his fate over the beaten road. He commenced his career in idleness, the parent vice; then he became dexterous at throwing at cocks and cock-fighting. These cruel and infamous acquirements led to robberies, adultery, and every other deadly sin. Such is the general course of highwaymen, and their goal -- the gallows.

He had likewise a propensity to poaching. The gamekeeper of a gentleman near Hatfield having detected him in a fact of this kind, Harrow threatened his destruction; the consequence of which was that he was lodged in Hertford Jail; but before the time of holding the Quarter Sessions he broke out, and made his escape. Thereupon a reward of fifty pounds was offered for taking him into custody. Made desperate by this circumstance, he took to robbing on the highway, and the depredations he made were very numerous. He obtained the name of the "Flying Highwayman," by his horse's leaping the several turnpikes, so that he constantly escaped detection. His career in villainy was, however, happily cut short. He laid a scheme for committing a burglary and robbery, for which he and two of his associates forfeited their lives. In company with Thomas Jones, a noted travelling rat-catcher, William Bosford, and another desperate villain, he went to the house of an old farmer, named Thomas Glasscock, who had, by a very extraordinary degree of parsimony, accumulated a very considerable sum, of which these abandoned men determined to rob him, under the pretence of being peace officers who had come to apprehend some deserters. The old gentleman refused them admittance; on which they forced their way through the window and, binding Mr Glasscock and his housekeeper, searched the house, and found a tea-chest which contained three hundred pounds, which they seized and departed.

Having divided the booty, they separated; and Harrow, taking a girl with him as a companion, travelled into Gloucestershire, and put up at an ale-house in a small village, and, assuming the character of a sailor who had brought home prize-money to a considerable amount, he continued there for two months without any suspicion arising. At length a quarrel happened between some of the customers of the house and Harrow, when a scuffle ensued, and, a pistol in one of Harrow's pockets going off, a suspicion arose that he was a highwayman, on which he was carried before a magistrate for examination.

Nothing like proof arising to incriminate him, he was dismissed; but thinking it not prudent to remain any longer he set out with his girl, but did not tell anyone the road that he intended to travel. Very near to the time that he departed, one of the magistrates of Gloucestershire received a letter from Sir John Fielding, requesting that he would order a search for one William Harrow, who stood charged with having committed a variety of robberies in the neighbourhood of St Albans. Thereupon the magistrates sent some persons in pursuit of him, and, having taken him into custody, he was conducted to prison at Gloucester. By a writ of habeas corpus he was removed to Hertford, where he lay till the assizes, when he was indicted for robbing Mr Glasscock, and being convicted on the clearest evidence was sentenced to die.

A number of clergymen visited him after conviction, and laboured to convince him of the necessity of making an immediate preparation for eternity. He was likewise visited by his mother, who burst into tears at the sight of her wretched son.

On the night before his execution he sawed off his irons, with an intent to make his escape, but he had not quite time enough to effect his purpose. When the jailer came in the morning, he said he would have saved the hangman his trouble if he had not come so soon, and threw at him the irons, which he had by this time got from his legs. Before he was put in the cart a sermon was preached on the occasion of his fatal exit.

Immense numbers of people attended at the place of execution, to see the last of a man who had made himself dreaded through the country by the enormity of his conduct.

(He was first hanged, then cut down whilst still alive, and then butchered)

http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng297.htm

 

[Blackleaf]

29th March 1461 - 33,000 die during the Battle of Towton, one of the Wars of the Roses. It is the bloodiest EVER battle to have been fought on British soil. The Wars of the Roses were a series of little wars fought between Yorkists and Lancastrians. Towton was a decisive Yorkist victory.
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Battle of Towton, 1461 - the snow must have turned red with blood.


The Battle of Towton in the Wars of the Roses was the bloodiest ever fought on British soil, with casualties believed to have been in excess of 20,000 (perhaps as many as 30,000) men. The battle took place on a snowy 29 March 1461 (Palm Sunday) on a plateau between the villages of Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire (about 12 miles southwest of York and about 2 miles south of Tadcaster).

Part of the reason so many died is perhaps because in the parley before the battle both sides agreed that no quarter would be given nor asked.

At this point in the civil war, the Lancastrians were on equal terms with the Yorkists, having eliminated York and Salisbury from the scene at the Battle of Wakefield, and been victorious at the Second Battle of St Albans. However, Richard Neville, "the Kingmaker", controlled London and had proclaimed the eldest of York's sons as King Edward IV. It was Edward himself who decided to take the initiative and march north in the hope of inflicting a final defeat on his rival, King Henry VI. Henry, a pious and peace-loving man, and by many reports mentally feeble, took no part in any military decisions, but allowed his queen, Margaret of Anjou, complete freedom to employ her battle commanders, chief of whom was Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, on his behalf.

It is thought that 50,000, or perhaps even 100,000 men fought, including 28 Lords (almost half the peerage), mainly on the Lancastrian side. The numbers often given are 42,000 for the Lancastrians and 36,000 for the Yorkists. This is one of the few battles in English history, perhaps the only, where the fighting was so violent that the front lines were frequently forced to stop and remove the bodies to be able to get at each other.



The battle

Both armies were divided into three battles (divisions), four hours were spent as the huge masses of men lined up in the blizzard conditions and awaited the final stragglers. Finally Lord Fauconberg took the initiative as the wind changed direction and blew the snow into the Lancastrians' faces. He led his archers forth and sent a rain of arrows into the massed Lancastrian ranks. Visibility was bad and with the wind blowing in their faces the returning volley of Lancastrian arrows fell way short of their targets. As casualties mounted the Lancastrian army knew the only way to stop the slaughter was to engage the enemy (in Towton 1461, the author calculates that Fauconberg would have been sending about 120,000 arrows a minute into the enemy ranks). In a last clever move, Fauconberg ordered his men (who had loosened all their own arrows by now) to retrieve some of the enemy shafts in the turf before them, while leaving some as obstacles for the oncoming Lancastrians.

Weight of numbers pushed the Yorkists back initially, but the Earl of Warwick and Edward both fought in the front ranks to encourage their men. As the hours passed the Yorkists found themselves giving more and more ground until they came close to Castle wood. From here two hundred spearmen launched a surprise attack on the Yorkist left flank. Hundreds of men fled and Edward was forced to use his whole reserve to stop it breaking up.

In the middle of the afternoon the elderly John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, arrived with several thousand fresh men. The Yorkists fought on with new determination for about an hour, when very suddenly the Lancastrian line broke and thousands of men fled the field.


The Rout

It is supposed that far more men died in the rout than in the battle. Several bridges over neighbouring rivers broke under the weight of the armed men, plunging many into the freezing water. Those stranded on the other side either drowned in the crossing or were cornered by the pursuers and killed. Some of the worst slaughter was seen at Bloody Meadow, where it is said men crossed the River Cock over the bodies of the fallen. All the way from Towton to Tadcaster the fields were full of bodies. The fleeing men made easy targets for horsemen and footsoldiers who killed many men who had dropped their weapons and thrown off their helmets to breathe more freely. At Tadcaster some men made an unsuccessful stand and were killed.

The rout lasted all night and into the morning beyond when remnants of the army arrived at York in total panic. Margaret, Henry and Somerset fled north to Scotland, while those Lancastrian lords who were not killed or dispossessed were forced to make peace with Edward IV.


Part of the Wars of the Roses

Date: 29 March 1461

Location: Near Towton in Yorkshire, England

Result: Decisive Yorkist victory

Combatants
House of York VS House of Lancaster

Commanders
Edward IV
Strength - 36, 000

Henry Beaufort
Strength - 42, 000


Wars of the Roses (in the order that they were fought) -

St Albans – Blore Heath – Ludford Bridge – Northampton – Wakefield – Mortimer's Cross – 2nd St Albans – Ferrybridge – Towton – Hedgeley Moor – Hexham – Edgecote Moor – Lose-coat Field – Barnet – Tewkesbury – Bosworth Field – Stoke Field

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

30th March 1533 - King Henry VIII divorces his first wife Catherine of Aragon. She had six children with Henry VIII, but only 1 survived infancy - she later became Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary) and was the half-sister of Queen Elizabeth I, who was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (that's if she wasn't the daughter of a young minstrel named Mark Smeaton, who was executed by Henry VIII for having an affair with Anne Boleyn)
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The recently-widowed young Catherine of Aragon, by Henry VII's court painter, Michael Sittow, c. 1502


Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536; Spanish: Catalina de Aragón) was queen consort of England as Henry VIII of England's first wife. Henry annulled his twenty-four year marriage to her after only one of their six children, Mary I, survived infancy.

Princess of Aragon and Castille
Born in Alcalá de Henares, Catherine was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile and, as a third-great-granddaughter of Edward III of England, a fourth cousin of both Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York.


Princess of Wales
Catherine first married Prince Arthur, the oldest son of Henry VII of England, in 1501. As Prince of Wales, Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales, to preside over the Council of Wales, and Catherine accompanied him. A few months later, both of them fell prey to an infection which was sweeping the area. Catherine herself nearly died; she recovered to find herself a widow. Catherine testified that, because of the couple's youth, the marriage had not been consummated; Pope Julius II then issued a dispensation, so that Catherine could become betrothed to Arthur's younger brother, the future Henry VIII.


Queen consort of England
The marriage did not take place until after Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509, the marriage on June 11, followed by the coronation on June 24, 1509. Both as Princess of Wales and as Queen, Catherine was extremely popular with the people. She governed the nation as Regent while Henry invaded France in 1513.

Henry VIII supposedly married Catherine of Aragon at his father's dying wish and was happily-enough married to her, although not faithful, for 18 years, until he became seriously worried about getting a male heir to his throne as she approached menopause. Her first child was stillborn in 1510. Prince Henry, Duke of Cornwall was born in 1511 but died after 52 days. Catherine then had a miscarriage, followed by another short-lived son. On February 18, 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, she gave birth to a daughter named Mary (later Queen Mary I of England). There was another miscarriage in 1518. A male heir was essential to Henry. The Tudor dynasty was new, and its legitimacy might still be tested. No queen had ever ruled England successfully in her own right. The disasters of civil war were still fresh in living memory from the Wars of the Roses (1455 – 1485).

Catherine at the time Henry began his affair with Anne BoleynIn 1520, Catherine's nephew Charles V paid a state visit to England, and the Queen urged the policy of gaining his alliance rather than that of France. Immediately after his departure, May 31, 1520, she accompanied the king to France on the celebrated visit to Francis I, remembered (from the splendors of the occasion) as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Within two years, however, war was declared against France and the Emperor once again made welcome in England, where plans were afoot to betroth him to Henry and Catherine's daughter Princess Mary.

Henry was keeping a succession of mistresses. Catherine was not in physical condition to undergo further pregnancies. The marriage was further soured by trouble made by Catherine's father, Ferdinand, over payments of her dowry and by a shift of allegiance on the part of Ferdinand, who signed a treaty with the French, to Henry's fury. Because of the lack of heirs, Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from two verses of the biblical Book of Leviticus, which said that, if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless. He chose to believe that Catherine had lied when she said her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated, therefore making their marriage wrong in the eyes of God. He therefore asked Pope Clement VII to annul his marriage in 1527.

The Pope stalled on the issue for seven years without making a final judgement, partially because allowing an annulment would be admitting that the Church had been in error for allowing a special dispensation for marriage in the first place, and partially because he was a virtual prisoner of Catherine's nephew Charles V, who had conquered Rome. Henry separated from Catherine in July 1531, and secretly (and bigamously) married one of Catherine's former ladies-in-waiting (and sister of his former mistress Lady Mary Boleyn), Anne Boleyn in January 1533. Henry finally had Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, annul the marriage himself on May 23, 1533. To forestall an appeal to Rome, which Catherine would have almost certainly won, he had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy, repudiating Papal jurisdiction in England, making the king the head of the English church, and beginning the English Reformation.


Later years
Catherine refused to acknowledge the divorce and took the issue to the law, but she lost and was forced to leave Court. She was separated from her daughter (who was declared illegitimate) and was sent to live in remote castles and in humble conditions, in the hope that she would surrender to the inevitable; but she never accepted the divorce and signed her last letter, "Catherine the Queen". By this time, she was aware that Henry's marriage to Anne was turning sour, and she had not ceased to hope that he might one day return to her.

Catherine died of a form of cancer, at Kimbolton Castle, on January 7, 1536 and was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony due to a Princess Dowager of Wales, not a Queen. Henry and Anne Boleyn celebrated her death - Henry did not attend the funeral, nor did he allow Princess Mary to do so.

Visitors to Peterborough Cathedral can still visit Catherine's tomb, which is frequently decorated with flowers and bears the title 'Katherine the Queen'. Peterborough is twinned with Alcalá de Henares, her birthplace.

The Six Wives of
King Henry VIII (Two know how to remember which ones were divorced, beheaded, died, or survived, and the chronological order that they occured, remember the simple rhyme: "Divorced, Beheaded, Died. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.")

Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr
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Also on this day -

1533 - Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury

1603 - An English army under the leadership of Lord Mountjoy defeats the Irish at the Battle of Mellifont. This led to the collapse of the Gaelic civilisation in Ireland.

1814 - British soldiers march into Paris after defeating Napoleon and the French.

 

[Blackleaf]

31st May 1657 - English Humble Petition offers Lord Protector Cromwell the crown.
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Humble Petition and Advice

Oliver Cromwell

Constitutional document drawn up by a group of MPs in 1657 under which Lord Protector Cromwell was offered the Crown. It was an attempt by civilian Parliamentarians to move back towards traditional forms of government after the failure of various Army-led constitutional experiments, in particular the deeply unpopular Rule of the Major-Generals. The offer of the Crown was intended to limit Cromwell's power rather than extend it because as King his power would be defined by precedent. It would also have legitimised the constitution since the offer came from an elected Parliament.

The Humble Petition was first presented to the Second Protectorate Parliament on 23 February 1657 by Sir Christopher Packe. Cromwell agonised over the decision for several months and finally declined the offer of the Crown on 8 May. A revised version of the Humble Petition, which avoided reference to the royal title, was adopted on 25 May. Cromwell was re-installed as Lord Protector in a ceremony still reminiscent of a royal coronation on 26 June 1657.

Under the new constitution, Cromwell was to remain Lord Protector for life and could now choose his own successor. He was required to call triennial Parliaments which were to consist of two chambers: the elected House of Commons and an Upper House (referred to only as the "other house") of between forty and seventy persons nominated by the Protector but approved by the Commons. The Other House, which had the right to veto any legislation passed in the Commons, was roundly condemned by republicans as too reminiscent of the House of Lords. The Council of State was to become the Protector's Privy Council, consisting of 21 members chosen by the Protector and approved by Parliament.

After the Instrument of Government, the Humble Petition and Advice was England's second—and last—written constitution.

british-civil-wars.co.uk
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Also on this day -

1850 - US population hits 23,191,876 (At that time, Britain's population was around 35,000,000).

1889 - The Eiffel Tower is opened.

 

[Blackleaf]

1st April 1918 - Britain's Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The RAF was the world's first, and therefore is its OLDEST, air force.
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Royal Air Force badge. Motto "Through adversity to the stars"


The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. The RAF is the oldest independent air force in the world, formed on April 1, 1918. The RAF has taken a significant role in British military history since then, playing a large part in World War II, and more recently in conflicts such as the recent war in Iraq. With some 942 aircraft and a manpower of 49,210 (in 2005), the RAF is one of the largest air forces in the world. It is also one of the most technologically advanced, a position which is being enhanced significantly with the purchase of 232 Eurofighter Typhoons.

The RAF was founded on April 1st, 1918 by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. The Royal Flying Corps was a division of the Royal Engineers, under the control of the British Army. The Royal Naval Air Service was its naval equivalent. The decision to merge the two units and create an independent air force was a response to the events of World War I, the first war in which air power proved to be decisive. The newly created RAF was the most powerful air force in the world on its creation, with over 20,000 aircraft

Its last known surviving founder member is the World War I veteran Henry Allingham.

The inter-war years were relatively peaceful for the RAF, with only minor actions in the British Empire. The RAF saw service in Afghanistan where the first evacuation of civilians occurred in 1928. In 1936, a reorganisation of RAF command saw the creation of Fighter Command, Bomber Command and Coastal Command. The Naval Air Branch was also de-merged and renamed the Fleet Air Arm under the control of the Royal Navy.

A defining period of the RAF's existence came during the Battle of Britain, when RAF planes did battle with the Luftwaffe over the skies of Southern England. Over the summer of 1940 the RAF held off the Luftwaffe in perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history. This contributed immensely to the delay and cancellation of German plans for an invasion of England (Operation Sea Lion) and helped to turn the tide of World War II.

The largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. From May 31, 1942 RAF Bomber Command was able to mount large-scale night raids involving up to 1000 aircraft, many of which were the new heavy four-engined bombers. There exists considerable historical controversy about the ethics of such large attacks against German cities during the last few months of the war, such as the Bombing of Dresden in World War II.

The aircraft operated by the RAF continue to be upgraded and improved throughout their service life. In addition, new aircraft to replace existing fleets or fill new roles come into service every so often.


Future aircraft

Aircraft in development or soon to be deployed include the Airbus A400M, of which 25 are to be used to replace the remaining Hercules C-130Ks. (Some of the C-130K fleet was replaced by 25 new C-130J Hercules in 1999, 5 C-17s will be retained). A new version of the Chinook, the HC.3, with improved avionics and increased range, was developed mainly for special forces missions. Service entry has been delayed due to software problems and legal issues. The Hawk 128 will replace the existing Hawks in service; the newer model being more similar in equipment and performance to modern front line aircraft. The ageing aerial refuelling fleet of VC10s and Tristars should be replaced with the Airbus A330 MRTT under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme. Problems with contract negotiations have led to unsolicited proposals for the conversion of civil Tristars or DC-10s. The Joint Combat Aircraft (the British designation for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) will replace the Harrier GR.7 and GR.9. In the long term the Tornado GR.4 will be replaced by the Future Offensive Air System, although this project is at an early stage. Earlier than this the Eurofighter Typhoon is being enlisted (the RAF has purchased more than any other country of this model), and is set to replace the Tornado F3 interceptor and the Jaguar GR3A ground attack aircraft by 2010. The RAF transport helicopter force, the Puma and Sea Kings, are to be replaced by the Support Amphibious and Battlefield Rotorcraft (SABR) project, likely a mix of Merlins and Chinooks.

wikipedia.com
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Also on this day -

1504 - English guilds/corp goes under state control
1578 - William Harvey of England discovers blood circulation
1836 - Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle reaches Cocos Islands
1867 - Singapore, Penang & Malakka become British crown colonies
1944 - German Abwehr ends Englandspiel, after 132 killed

 

[I think not]

RAF FOUNDED:
April 1, 1918

On April 1, 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is formed with the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RAF took its place beside the British navy and army as a separate military service with its own ministry.

In April 1911, eight years after Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first flight of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft, an air battalion of the British army's Royal Engineers was formed at Larkhill in Wiltshire. The battalion consisted of aircraft, airship, balloon, and man-carrying kite companies. In December 1911, the British navy formed the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, Kent. In May 1912, both were absorbed into the newly created Royal Flying Corps, which established a new flying school at Upavon, Wiltshire, and formed new airplane squadrons. In July 1914, the specialized requirements of the navy led to the creation of RNAS.

One month later, on August 4, Britain declared war on Germany and entered World War I. At the time, the RFC had 84 aircraft, and the RNAS had 71 aircraft and seven airships. Later that month, four RFC squadrons were deployed to France to support the British Expeditionary Force. During the next two years, Germany took the lead in air strategy with technologies like the manual machine gun, and England suffered bombing raids and frustration in the skies against German flying aces such as Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron." Repeated German air raids led British military planners to push for the creation of a separate air ministry, which would carry out strategic bombing against Germany. On April 1, 1918, the RAF was formed along with a female branch of the service, the Women's Royal Air Force. That day, Bristol F.2B fighters of the 22nd Squadron carried out the first official missions of the RAF.

By the war's end, in November 1918, the RAF had gained air superiority along the western front. The strength of the RAF in November 1918 was nearly 300,000 officers and airmen, and more than 22,000 aircraft. At the outbreak of World War II, in September 1939, the operational strength of the RAF in Europe had diminished to about 2,000 aircraft.

In June 1940, the Western democracies of continental Europe fell to Germany one by one, leaving Britain alone in its resistance to Nazi Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler planned an invasion of Britain and in July 1940 ordered his powerful air force--the Luftwaffe--to destroy British ports along the coast in preparation. The outnumbered RAF fliers put up a fierce resistance in the opening weeks of the Battle of Britain, leading the Luftwaffe commanders to place destruction of the British air fleet at the forefront of the German offensive. If the Germans succeeded in wiping out the RAF, they could begin their invasion as scheduled in the fall.

During the next three months, however, the RAF successfully resisted the massive German air invasion, relying on radar technology, more maneuverable aircraft, and exceptional bravery. For every British plane shot down, two Luftwaffe warplanes were destroyed. In October, Hitler delayed the German invasion indefinitely, and in May 1941 the Battle of Britain came to an end. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said of the RAF pilots, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

By the war's end in 1945, the strength of the RAF was nearly one million personnel. Later, this number was reduced and stabilized at about 150,000 men and women.

 

[Blackleaf]

2nd April 1801 - a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker defeats a combined Danish-Norwegian fleet in the Battle of Copenhagen. Admiral Horatio Nelson led the main attack. Only 264 British were killed, but between 1600 and 1800 Danes and Norwegians were killed.

Danish ships ablaze during the Battle of Copenhagen, 1801.

The naval Battle of Copenhagen (Danish: Slaget på Reden) was fought on April 2, 1801 by a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, against a Dano-Norwegian fleet anchored just off Copenhagen. The main attack was led by Admiral Horatio Nelson, who famously disobeyed Parker's order to withdraw and destroyed many of the Dano-Norwegian ships before Denmark-Norway agreed to a truce.


The battle was due to multiple failures of diplomacy in the latter half of 1800 and the beginning of 1801; an Armed Neutrality of the Scandinavian countries, Prussia, and Russia, in combination with Napoleon's domination of the European continent, was perceived by the United Kingdom to be a serious threat to her existence, especially due to the United Kingdom's reliance on naval supplies from Sweden and other Baltic countries. However, the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway was more afraid of Russia and France.

In early 1801, the British government assembled a fleet at Great Yarmouth, with the goal of intimidating Denmark-Norway into withdrawing from the Armed Neutrality before the Baltic Sea thawed and released the Russian fleet from its bases at Kronstadt and Reval (now Tallinn). The fleet sailed on 11 March and reached the Skaw (Danish: Skagen) on 17 March.

The Dano-Norwegians had prepared for the attack and positioned an unbroken line of defensive blocking ships along the Copenhagen roads (anchorage) off the eastern coast of the island of Amager and at the entrance to Copenhagen harbour. As it was early in the year, only few Dano-Norwegian warships were equipped and fitted for sea, and most of them had to be towed out of Copenhagen harbour. The planned naval support from Karlskrona in Sweden, never showed up because of adverse winds and Russian naval support was not possible as the Gulf of Finland was still frozen. The Prussians had only minimal naval forces and could not be expected to assist. The situation became a confrontation solely between the United Kingdom and Denmark-Norway.



The battle

A disagreement between Parker and Nelson saw Nelson's proposal for a pre-emptive show of force overruled and the demands made by a single frigate. The Dano-Norwegians refused to negotiate.

The Copenhagen roads were both treacherous and well-defended. Using the twelve ships of the line with the shallowest draft, Nelson picked his way through the shoals and commenced action the morning after negotiations had broken down. However, four of these ships (Elephant, Defiance, Russel and Bellona) ran aground. Supporting the British line were smaller British bomb vessels, which were positioned where they could bombard the city without fear of retaliation.

For over four hours, the battle was a close run affair. The remaining ships were anchored by the stern about 200 yards from the line of Danish ships and batteries. The bombardment from both sides was very heavy.

At one point three hours into the battle, Parker signalled to Nelson to disengage, but Nelson was determined to win and ignored the signal. It was on this occasion that Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye and said he could see no signal. Defenders of Parker have argued that the signal was not an order but permission so that Nelson could withdraw without facing reprisal if he felt that the defensive fire was overwhelming.

At the same time, Nelson sent couriers on a boat carrying a flag of truce to the Dano-Norwegian regent, Crown Prince Frederik, who was watching the battle from the ramparts of the Citadel. These couriers delivered a note, in which Nelson threatened to set fire to all the floating batteries he had captured, "without having the honour of saving the brave Danes who have defended them". This was after a number of the Danish ships had been beaten into uselessness.

Nelson explained later that the letter was written out of compassion, but Danish historians say that it was rather a clever bluff — some would say a potential war crime — on the part of Nelson in a desperate attempt to stop the battle. They also claim that Nelson had in fact not captured a single Dano-Norwegian ship when the letter was sent. Furthermore, they argue that Nelson could see the advantage to disengage when three of the British battleships, having lost their moorings and steering, were about to drift within range of the batteries of the Trekroner sea fortress. Without consulting either of the Dano-Norwegian commanders, Olfert Fischer or Steen Bille, Crown Prince Frederik agreed to a ceasefire.

Since the Dano-Norwegian ships had been hastily manned by volunteers, many of whom had little or no naval experience, it is not clear what the exact Dano-Norwegian casualties figures were. Casualty estimates from various history books vary between 1,135 to 2,215 killed and wounded. The official report by Olfert Fischer estimated the Dano-Norwegian casualties to be between 1,600 and 1,800 killed and wounded. According to the despatches from Nelson and forwarded by Parker to the Admiralty, British casualties were 264 killed and 689 wounded. Danish historians maintain that Nelson reported 1,200 killed and wounded, while Parker reported 2,237 killed and wounded Danish seamen.


Nelson's squadron

Polyphemus 64 (Captain John Lawford)
Isis 50 (Captain James Walker)
Edgar 74 (Captain George Murray)
Ardent 64 (Captain Thomas Bertie)
Glatton 54/56 (Captain William Bligh)
Elephant 74 (flag, Captain Thomas Foley)
Ganges 74 (Captain Thomas Francis Fremantle)
Monarch 74 (Captain James Robert Mosse)
Defiance 74 (2nd flag of Thomas Graves, Captain Richard Retalick)
Russell 74 (Captain William Cuming)
Bellona 74 (Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson)
Agamemnon 64 (Captain Robert Devereux Fancourt)
Désirée 36 (Captain Henry Inman)
Amazon 32/38 (Captain Henry Riou)
Blanche 36 (Captain Graham Eden Hamond)
Alcmène 32 (Captain Samuel Sutton)
Jamaica 24 (Captain Jonas Rose)
Arrow (ship-sloop, Captain William Bolton)
Dart (ship-sloop, Captain John Ferris Devonshire)
Cruizer (brig-sloop, Captain James Brisbane)
Harpy (brig-sloop, Captain William Birchall)
Discovery (bomb)
Explosion (bomb)
Hecla (bomb)
Sulphur (bomb)
Terror (bomb)
Volcano (bomb)
Zebra (bomb)
Otter (fireship)
Zephyr (fireship)
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Parker's reserve

London 98 (flag, Captains William Domett and Robert Walker Otway)
St George 98 (Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy)
Warrior 74 Captain Charles Tyler)
Defence 74 (Captain Henry Paulet)
Saturn 74 (Captain Robert Lambert)
Ramillies 74 (Captain James William Taylor Dixon)
Raisonable 64 (Captain John Dilkes)
Veteran 64 (Captain Archibald Collingwood Dickson)

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

3rd April 1043 - Edward the Confessor (or Eadweard III) was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons. He became king in 1042. He was the last king of the House of Wessex and the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king. During his lifetime he founded Westminster Abbey, where nearly all monarchs since have been crowned, and led several raids into Wales.

Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor or Eadweard III (c. 1004–4/5 January 1066) was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death.1 His reign marked the continuing disintegration of royal power in England and the aggrandizement of the great territorial earls, and it foreshadowed the country's later connection with Normandy, whose duke William I was to supplant Edward's successors Harold and Edgar Ætheling as England's ruler.

The king Ethelred the Unready, Edward, and his brother Alfred were taken to Normandy by their mother Emma, sister of Normandy's duke Richard II, to escape the Danish invasion of England in 1013. In his quarter-century of Norman exile during his most formative years, while England formed part of a great Danish empire, Edward developed an intense personal piety; his familiarity with Normandy and its leaders was also to influence his later rule.

Returning to England with Alfred in an ill-advised abortive attempt (1036) to displace their step-brother Harold Harefoot from the throne, Edward escaped to Normandy after Alfred's capture and death. The Anglo-Saxon lay and ecclesiastical nobility invited him back to England in 1041, this time as co-ruler with his half-brother Harthacanute (son of Emma and Canute), on whose death on June 8, 1042, he ascended the throne. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes clear the popularity he enjoyed at his accession – "before Harthacanute was buried, all the people chose Edward as king in London". Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons on April 3, 1043.

An illustration from a manuscript showing Edward the Confessor's coronation, painted in the late 1230s or early 1240s.

Edward's reign and aftermath
Edward's reign was marked by peace and prosperity, but effective rule in England required coming to terms with three powerful earls: Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who was firmly in control of the thegns of Wessex, which had formerly been the heart of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy; Leofric, Earl of Mercia, whose legitimacy was strengthened by his marriage to Lady Godiva, and in the north, Siward, Earl of Northumbria. Edward's sympathies for Norman favourites frustrated Saxon and Danish nobles alike, fuelling the growth of anti-Norman opinion led by Godwin, who had become the king's father-in-law in 1045. The breaking point came over the appointment of an archbishop of Canterbury: Edward rejected Godwin's man and appointed the bishop of London, Robert of Jumièges, a trusted Norman.

Matters came to a head over a bloody riot at Dover between the townsfolk and Edward's kinsman Eustace, count of Boulogne. Godwin refused to punish them, Leofric and Siward backed the King, and Godwin and his family were all exiled in September 1051. Queen Edith was sent to a nunnery at Wherwell. Earl Godwin returned with an armed following a year later, however, forcing the king to restore his title and send away his Norman advisors. Godwin died in 1053 and the Norman Ralph the Timid received Herefordshire, but his son Harold accumulated even greater territories for the Godwins, who held all the earldoms save Mercia after 1057. Harold led successful raiding parties into Wales in 1063 and negotiated with his inherited rivals in Northumbria in 1065, and in January 1066, upon Edward's death, he was proclaimed king. The details of the succession have been widely debated: the Norman position was that William had been designated the heir, and that Harold had been publicly sent to him as emissary from Edward, to apprise him of Edward's decision. Harold's party asserted that the old king had made a deathbed bestowal of the crown on Harold. However, Harold was approved by the Witenagemot who, under Anglo-Saxon law held the ultimate authority to convey kingship.

Edward had married Godwin's daughter Edith on January 23, 1045. The monastic author of the king's hagiography, written about the time of his canonization, has represented the childless union as a spiritual marriage, with Edward refusing to consummate it rather than break a vow of chastity. His nearest heir would have been his nephew Edward the Exile, who was born in England, but spent most of his life in Hungary. He had returned from exile in 1056 and died not long after, in February the following year. So Edward made his great nephew Edgar Atheling his heir. But Edgar had no secure following among the earls: the resultant succession crisis on Edward's death without a direct "throneworthy" heir—the "foreign" Edgar was a stripling of fourteen—opened the way for Harold's coronation and the invasions of two effective claimants to the throne, the unsuccessful invasion of Harold Hardrada in the north and the successful one of William the Bastard.

William of Normandy, who had visited England during Godwin's exile, claimed that the childless Edward had promised him the succession to the throne, and his successful bid for the English crown put an end to Harold's nine-month kingship following a 7000-strong Norman invasion.

Edgar Ætheling was elected king by the Witan after Harold's death but was brushed aside by William. Edward, or more especially the mediæval cult which would later grow up around him under the later Plantagenet kings, had a lasting impact on English history. Westminster Abbey was founded by Edward between 1045 and 1050 on land upstream from the City of London, and was consecrated on December 28, 1065. Centuries later, Westminster was deemed symbolic enough to become the permanent seat of English government under Henry III. The Abbey contains a shrine to Edward which was the centrepiece to the Abbey's redesign during the mid-thirteenth century.

Historically, Edward's reign marked a transition between the 10th century West Saxon kingship of England and the Norman monarchy which followed Harold's death. Edward's allegiances were split between England and his mother's Norman ties. The great earldoms established under Canute grew in power, while Norman influence became a powerful factor in government and in the leadership of the Church.

Edward the Confessor died of an illness in 1066.

His coffin as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry


**The numbering of English monarchs starts from scratch after the Norman conquest, which explains why the regnal numbers assigned to English kings named Edward begin with the later Edward I (ruled 1272–1307) and do not include Edward the Confessor (who was the third King Edward).

Reign -June 8, 1042 – January 4/5,1066

Born - c. 1002 – 1005
Islip, Oxfordshire, England

Died - January 4/5, 1066

Buried - Westminster Abbey, which he founded

Married - Edith of Wessex

Parents -Ethelred II
Emma of Normandy

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1376 Battle of Navarrete (Najera), English beat France

1645 English parliament accept Self-Denying Ordinance

1657 English Lord Protector Cromwell refuses crown

1913 Suffragette Emily Pankhurst sentenced to 3 years in jail in Britain

 

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4th April 1581 - Sir Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the globe, becoming the first person to do so (not Magellan), and is knighted onboard his ship, The Golden Hind, by Queen Elizabeth I. Drake was the cousin of that other great English seafarer, Sir Walter Raleigh.
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Sir Francis Drake, circa 1581 (notice the shirt is the same as in Hilliard's miniature)

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Adm, (c. 1540 – January 28, 1596) was an English privateer, navigator, naval pioneer and raider, politician, and civil engineer, of the Elizabethan period. He was the first captain to completely circumnavigate the globe (Magellan did not survive his voyage, which was completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano). He was also second in command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He died of dysentery while unsuccessfully attacking San Juan, Puerto Rico on 1596.

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon, the son of Mary or Elizabeth Mylwaye (Mildmay?) and her husband Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer (who later became a preacher) and grandson of John Drake and Margret Cole.

During the Roman Catholic uprising of 1549, the family was forced to flee to Kent. At about the age of 13 Francis took to the sea on a cargo barque, becoming master of the ship at the age of twenty. He spent his early career honing his sailing skills on the difficult waters of the North Sea, and after the death of the captain for whom he was sailing, he became master of his own barque. At age 23, Drake made his first voyage to the New World under the sails of the Hawkins family of Plymouth, in company with his cousin, Sir John Hawkins. Together, Hawkins and Drake made the first English slave-trading expeditions.

On June 17, 1579, Drake landed ashore somewhere north of Spain's most northerly claim at Point Loma. Drake found an excellent port, landed, repaired and restocked his vessels, then stayed for a time, keeping friendly relations with the natives. It is said that Drake left behind many of his men as a small colony, but his planned return voyages to the colony were never realized. Drake claimed the land in the name of the Holy Trinity for the English Crown was called Nova Albion — Latin for "New England."

It is unlikely that the exact location of Drake's port will ever be known for certain. The precise location of the port was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards, and several of Drake's maps may even have been altered to this end. The relevant records at London's Whitehall Palace were later burned.

It is usually assumed that Drake's port was somewhere near the northern San Francisco Bay — anywhere from Bodega to San Pablo Bay. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands, fitting the description in Drake's own account, was discovered in Marin County. This so-called Drake's Plate of Brass was later declared a hoax.

Another point often claimed to be Nova Albion is Whale Cove (Oregon), although to date there is no evidence to suggest this, other than a general resemblance to a single map penned a decade after the landing.

There is also evidence that "Nova Albion" was actually at Comox on Vancouver Island. This evidence is consumately presented in Samuel Bawlf's The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake. It is known that Drake and his men sailed north from Nova Albion in search of a western opening to the Northwest Passage, a potentially valuable asset to the English at the time. During this venture the sailors accurately mapped the westward trend of the north-western corner of the North American continent, present day British Columbia and Alaska. They had a rough go among the islands of the Alaskan panhandle though, and were forced to turn back due to freezing weather.

Bawlf argues that the furthest north that Drake's ship reached was fifty-six degrees latitude, much higher than was originally recorded. The reason for this false record, Bawlf writes, was for political reasons: competition with the Spanish in the Americas. Queen Elizabeth wanted to keep any information on the Northwest Passage secret. Unfortunately, she did such a good job on the cover-up that the location of Nova Albion and the highest latitude the expedition reached is still a source of controversy today, giving Drake and his men less credit for their great accomplishments than they deserve.

Drake's brother endured a long period of torture in South America at the hands of Spaniards, who sought intelligence from him about Francis Drake's voyage.

Drake's voyage to the west coast of North America is important for a number of reasons. When Drake landed, his chaplain held Holy Communion, as in the words of Thomas Cranmer, "it is very meet and right and our bounden duty so to do." This was one of the first Protestant church services in all the New World (though French Huguenots had founded an ill-fated colony in Florida in the 1560s). Drake was seen to be gaining prestige at the expense of the Papacy.

What is certain of the extent of Drake's claim and territorial challenge to the Papacy and the Spanish crown is that his port was founded somewhere north of Point Loma; that all contemporary maps label all lands above the Kingdoms of New Spain and New Mexico as "Nova Albion", and that all colonial claims made from the East Coast in the 1600s were "From Sea to Sea." The colonial claims were established with full knowledge of Drake's claims, which they reinforced, and remained valid in the minds of the colonialists when the colonies became free states. Maps made soon after would have "Nova Albion" written above the entire northern frontier of New Spain. These territorial claims would later become important during the negotiations that ended the Mexican-American War between the United States and Mexico.



Continuing the journey
Drake now headed westward across the Pacific, and a few months later, reached the Moluccas – a group of islands in the southwest Pacific east of today's Indonesia.

He made multiple stops on his way toward the tip of Africa, eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Sierra Leone by July 22, 1580. On September 26, the Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth with Drake and 59 crew remaining aboard, along with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures. The Queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year. Hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth, Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth aboard the Golden Hind, and became the Mayor of Plymouth and a Member of Parliament.

The Queen ordered all written accounts of Drake's voyage considered classified information, and its participants sworn to silence on pain of death; her aim was to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain.

A statue of Drake in Plymouth, Devon.
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And (not surprisingly) there are one or two ghost stories and legends surrounding Drake.

A popular legend holds that if England is ever in peril, beating Drake's Drum will cause Sir Francis to return to save the country.

Sir Francis Drake's drum.

Drake's Drum was with Sir Francis Drake when he circumnavigated the world and when he died of dysentery off Panama in 1596. The age-worn drum, with Drake's coat of arms painted on one side currently resides in the Drake, Naval and West Country Folk Museum at Buckland Abbey in Devonshire, a house owned by Sir Francis, that is now owned by the National Trust.

A legend surrounds Drake's Drum: it is claimed that it can be heard at times when England is at war or significant national event takes place. For example some said they heard the drum when Admiral Nelson was made a freeman of Plymouth. The most recent time the drum roll was said to have been heard was during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

An extract from the poem "Drake's Drum" by Sir Henry Newbolt:

"Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore,
Strike et when your powder's runnin' low;
If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port o' Heaven,
An' drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago."[1]

A similarly-named poem was written by the late Victorian poetess Norah M. Holland.[2]


wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

5th April 1760 - The first PUBLIC hanging at London's dreaded Tyburn takes place, with the hanging of Earl Ferrers. He was also the LAST peer to die a felon's death. But this wasn't the very first hanging at Tyburn. That was way back in 1196 with the hanging of William FitzOsbert. Even to this day, Tyburn and its dreaded "Triple Tree" which could hang several people at once still causes fear in the hearts of some British people

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London's dreaded "Triple Tree" at Tyburn could hang several people at once.

Lawrence Shirley, the 4th Earl Ferrers, was born on the 18th of August 1720 and has the dubious distinction of becoming the last peer of the realm to be hanged as a common criminal. (note his Christian name is also given as Laurence)

He inherited the title in 1745, at the age of 25, and with it the family estates in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. The main residence was at Staunton Harold Hall about two miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire.

From 1743 he had been having a relationship with Margaret Clifford with whom he had four illegitimate daughters between 1744 and 1749. Like most people in his position he needed at least one male heir to inherit the title and the estates, so in 1752, he married Mary, the 16 year old sister of Sir William Meredith of Henbury in Cheshire. It was not a happy marriage, Mary living in fear of the Earl’s constant drunken rages and violent outbursts and also his womanising (it seems that the relationship with Margaret Clifford continued during the marriage and she went to live with him after the dissolution of it). In the end things got so bad that Mary obtained a separation from him by an Act of Parliament in 1758. This was a most unusual step for that time and she would have had to show very strong grounds to obtain the separation. As part of the separation arrangements it was agreed that Mary should receive an income from the rents from some of the properties on the estate. As a result control of the estate was vested in trustees, one of whom was an old family steward, John Johnson, who reluctantly became the receiver of these rents. Unsurprisingly Mr. Johnson was disliked by Ferrers, particularly after he had found out that Johnson had paid his wife £50 without his approval and presumably also because he hated the fact Johnson had power over the estate. It has also been suggested that the Earl suspected that John Johnson and Mary were having an affair. Mary later re-married - to Lord Frederick Campbell, dying in a fire at her house in 1807.

Five days before the murder, on Sunday the 13th of January1760, Ferrers paid a visit to Johnson and invited him to visit the Hall on Friday the 18th. Before John Johnson arrived, Ferrers sent away his mistress, Margaret Clifford, the children and the male servants. When Johnson arrived at the Hall he was shown into the Earl’s study and a discussion of business matters took place. A heated argument soon erupted and around three in the afternoon Ferrers shot Johnson. He was not fatally injured by the bullet and was given some treatment at the Hall for his wound and put to bed there. Dr. Kirkland from Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Johnson’s daughter, Sarah, were also sent for. The Earl continued to abuse and threaten Johnson through the evening before finally falling into a drunken stupor, thus allowing Dr. Kirkland to remove him back to his own house where he died the following morning. Ferrers had apparently told Sarah Johnson that he would take care of her family should her father die, on condition that they did not bring a prosecution against him.


Arrest and trial.

It was Dr. Kirkland, assisted by a number local men, notably a collier, named Curtis, who disarmed and arrested the Earl, the following day. The inquest on Mr. Johnson brought in a verdict of death by wilful murder and so Ferrers was remanded to Leicester prison. As a peer he could not be tried at the Leicester Assizes so he was transferred to the Tower of London and committed to the custody of Black Rod on the 14th of February to await trial.

The trial opened at Westminster Hall on the 16th of April 1760 before the Lord High Steward, Lord Henley and was to last 2 days. The Attorney General, Sir Charles Pratt, and the Solicitor General, Sir Charles Yorke, led for the prosecution. They brought as witnesses, Dr Kirkland, Sarah Johnson and the three women servants who were present at the Hall at the time of the murder.

Ferrers conducted his own defence, as all defendants had to in those days. He had been dissuaded by his family from trying to claim that the shooting of John Johnson was justified. He therefore attempted a defence of insanity, a condition for which he was able to offer considerable evidence - just about everyone who knew him thought he was mad. He later maintained however, that he had only done this at the insistence of his family, and that he had himself always been ashamed of such a defence. It is easy to understand why the family were so concerned at the prospect of the damage to their reputation and the shame of having a prominent member of it hanged as felon.

At the end of the trial his fellow peers decided that Ferrers was legally sane. Although he had presented a strong defence in an articulate manner, it was difficult to see that there was any other verdict open to them. They had each, individually, to find him guilty of murder, which they did and therefore there could only be one sentence - hanging by the neck until dead followed by dissection, to be carried out on Monday 21st of April in pursuance with the conditions of the Murder Act 1752. This Act specified that execution was to take place within two days of sentence unless that would fall on a Sunday. In view of the importance of the prisoner and to allow time for suitable arrangements to be made, the hanging was stayed until Monday the 5th of May. The thought of public hanging at Tyburn appalled Ferrers - it was the death of a common criminal and he petitioned the king to be allowed to be beheaded instead - the death of a nobleman. Beheading was not a legally available punishment for murder, only for treason committed by a peer. Thus the sentence had to stand and he remained in the Round Tower awaiting the trip to Tyburn.
It is said that on the night he was sentenced to death he played picquet with the warders. He led a very good life style in the Tower - effectively if you could afford it you could get whatever you wanted in prison at that time. The only privilege he was not permitted was visits from Margaret Clifford. He made his will, leaving £16,000 to his four daughters by Margaret, and £200 to Sarah Johnson. The king, George II, duly signed the Writ of Execution on the 2nd of May.

Execution.

The hanging of a nobleman was a major public spectacle as well as a wholly unusual event. A special new gallows was constructed at Tyburn for the occasion. It comprised a scaffold covered in black baize reached by a short flight of stairs. Two uprights rose from the scaffold, topped with a cross beam. Directly under the beam there was a small box like structure, some 3 feet square and 18 inches high, which was designed to sink down into the scaffold and thus leave the criminal suspended. There were even black cushions for the Earl and the chaplain to kneel on to pray before the hanging. Every seat in Mother Proctor’s Pews was taken and there was a huge crowd around the gallows, held back by the customary Javelin men.
Click here for a picture of the scene.

For the hanging Ferrers wore his wedding suit, a light coloured satin one embroidered with silver, saying “he thought this at least as good an occasion for putting them on as that for which they were first made”. As we have seen before, it was considered important to look one’s best at one’s execution.

At nine o'clock on the Monday morning, Ferrers’ body was demanded of the keeper of the Tower, by the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. It had been agreed that Ferrers could make the trip to Tyburn in his own landau drawn by six horses. He was accompanied in this carriage by Mr Humphries, the Chaplain of the Tower and Mr Vaillant the sheriff. Ferrers said he "was much obliged to him, and took it kindly that he accompanied him."

The procession to Tyburn was led by a troop of cavalry, with Ferrer’s landau behind them, guarded on both sides, followed by the carriage of Mr Errington, the other sheriff, a mourning-coach-and-six, containing some of his lordship's friends, a hearse for the conveyance of his body to Surgeons' Hall after execution, and another contingent of soldiers. Huge numbers of people had turned out to watch the spectacle and it took 2 ¾ hours to complete the journey to Tyburn. Ferrers remarked that he thought “so large a mob had collected because the people had never seen a lord hanged before.” (The last execution of a lord was that of Simon Lord Lovatt who was beheaded on Tower Hill for treason on April 9th 1747)

Mr Humphries, the chaplain, told Ferrers "that some prayer should be offered on the scaffold, and asked his leave to repeat at least the Lord's Prayer;" to which Ferrers replied, "I always thought it a good prayer, you may use it if you please."

When they finally got to Tyburn, Ferrers told Mr. Humphries "I perceive we are almost arrived; it is time to do what little more I have to do." He gave Sheriff Vaillant his watch, and presented five guineas to the chaplain. He had also brought the same sum to give to the hangman, Thomas Turlis, however he handed it to the wrong man, and there was nearly a fight between Turlis and his assistant.

Ferrers and Mr. Humphries then kneeled together on the two black cushions and said the Lord’s prayer. Ferrers concluded by saying “Lord have mercy upon me, and forgive me my errors." He then mounted the “drop” where his arms were tied with a black silk sash, and the rope placed around his neck. He final words were to ask Turlis: "Am I right?" A white nightcap which Ferrers had brought with him, was pulled down over his head. He had declined to give the signal to the hangman himself so this was done by the sheriff. So some time around noon, the platform sank down leaving the Earl suspended. The mechanism had not functioned properly and Ferrers’ feet were still virtually in contact with the platform. He writhed slightly for a short period before becoming still, Horace Walpole reported that it took 4 minutes for him to die. The body was left to hang for the customary hour before being taken down and placed in the coffin for transport to Surgeon’s Hall and dissection. A woodcut was made of the body in its coffin. After being dissected and the body put on display until the evening of Thursday the 8th of May, when it was returned to his family for burial in St. Pancras church. 22 years later, the body was taken back to Staunton Harold to be re-interred in the family vault.

It has been said that Earl Ferrers was hanged with a silken rope, but this is a myth.

Huge crowds watch the hanging of Earl Ferrers, 5th April 1760. It wasn't Britain's first public execution, but the first public execution at Britain's most notorious execution spot. Notice the huge stadium-style grandstand specially erected for the occasion, which was common in 18th Century English public execution.


http://uk.geocities.com/becky62655@btinternet.com/ferrers.html

Also on this day -

1614 - American Indian woman Pocahontas marries an English settler. She later goes and lives in London where she became a huge celebrity.

 

[Blackleaf]

6th April 1881 - Death of Benjamin Disraeli, who was Prime Minister of Britain twice - February to December 1868 and February 1874 to April 1880. He was Prime Minister when Britain was the greatest power on Earth, by far the world's greatest economic and industrial power, and whose navy ruled the waves. In December 1868, he succeeded Earl Derby as Prime Minister. He was also an accomplished writer, and published many great works.
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Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC (21 December 1804 – 6 April 1881) was an English statesman and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister – the first and thus far only person of Jewish descent to do so, although Disraeli was baptised in the Anglican Church at an early age. Disraeli's most lasting achievement was the creation of the modern Conservative Party after the Corn Laws schism of 1846.

Although a major figure in the protectionist wing of the Conservative Party after 1846, Disraeli's relations with the other leading figures in the party, particularly Lord Derby, the overall leader, were often strained. Not until the 1860s would Derby and Disraeli be on easy terms, and the latter's succession of the former assured. From 1852 onwards Disraeli's career would also be marked by his often intense rivalry with William Ewart Gladstone, who eventually rose to become leader (if not founder) of the Liberal Party. In this duel, Disraeli was aided by his warm friendship with Queen Victoria, who came to detest Gladstone during the latter's first premiership in the 1870s. In 1876 Disraeli was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Beaconsfield, capping nearly four decades in the House of Commons. He died in 1881.

Before and during his political career Disraeli was well-known as a literary and social figure, although his novels are not generally regarded as belonging to the first rank of Victorian literature. He mainly wrote romances, of which Sibyl and Vivian Grey are perhaps the best-known today. He was and is unusual among British Prime Ministers for having gained equal social and political renown.

Derby's health had been declining for some time and he finally resigned as Prime Minister in late February of 1868; he would live for another twenty months. Disraeli's efforts over the past two years had dispelled, for the time being, any doubts about him succeeding Derby as leader of the Conservative Party and therefore Prime Minister. As Disraeli remarked, "I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole." [5]


However, the Conservatives were still a minority in the House of Commons, and the enaction of the Reform Bill required the calling of new election once the new voting register had been compiled. Disraeli's term as Prime Minister would therefore be fairly short, unless the Conservatives won the general election. He made only two major changes in the cabinet: he replaced Lord Chelmsford as Lord Chancellor with Lord Cairns, and brought in George Ward Hunt as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Disraeli and Chelmsford had never gotten along particularly well, and Cairns, in Disraeli's view, was a far stronger minister. [6]

Disraeli's first premiership was dominated by the heated debate over the established Church of Ireland. Although Ireland was (and remains) overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, the Protestant Church remained the established church and was funded by direct taxation. An initial attempt by Disraeli to negotiate with Cardinal Manning the establishment of a Roman Catholic university in Dublin foundered in mid-March when Gladstone moved resolutions to dis-establish the Irish Church altogether. The proposal divided the Conservative Party while reuniting the Liberals under Gladstone's leadership. While Disraeli's government survived until the December general election, the initiative had passed away.[7]


Second administration

However, in the election that followed, William Gladstone and the Liberals were returned to power with a majority of 170. After six years in opposition, Disraeli and the Conservative Party won the election giving the party its first absolute majority in the House of Commons since the 1840s. Disraeli's government introduced various reforms such as the Artisans Dwellings Act (1875), the Public Health Act (1875), the Pure Food and Drugs Act (1875), the Climbing Boys Act (1875), the Education Act (1876). His government also introduced a new Factory Act meant to protect workers, the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act (1875) to allow peaceful picketing and the Employers and Workmen Act (1878) to enable workers to sue employers in the civil courts if they broke legal contracts.


Disraeli and Queen Victoria.Disraeli was a staunch British imperialist and helped strengthen the British Empire with his support for the construction of the Suez Canal. He also achieved a diplomatic success at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 in limiting the growing influence of Russia in the Balkans and breaking up the League of the Three Emperors. However, difficulties in South Africa, epitomised by the defeat of the British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana, and Afghanistan weakened his government and likely led to his party's defeat in the 1880 election.

He was elevated to the House of Lords in 1876 when Queen Victoria made him Earl of Beaconsfield. He remained Prime Minister until 1880 when the Conservatives were defeated by William Gladstone's Liberals in that year's general election. Disraeli became ill soon after and died in April 1881. His literary executor and for all intents and purposes his heir was his private secretary, Lord Rowton.



Works by Disraeli

Fiction
Vivian Grey (1826; Vivian Grey a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Popanilla (1828; Popanilla a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
The Young Duke (1831)
Contarini Fleming (1832)
Alroy (1833)
The Infernal Marriage (1834)
Ixion in Heaven (1834)
The Revolutionary Epick (1834)
The Rise of Iskander (1834; The Rise of Iskander a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Henrietta Temple (1837)
Venetia (1837; Venetia a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
The Tragedy of Count Alarcos (1839); The Tragedy of Count Alarcos a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Coningsby, or the New Generation (1844; Coningsby a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845; Sybil or, The Two Nations a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Tancred, or the New Crusade (1847)
Lothair (1870; Lothair a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Endymion (1880; Endymion a free eBook at Project Gutenberg)
Falconet (book) (unfinished 1881)


Non-fiction
An Inquiry into the Plans, Progress, and Policy of the American Mining Companies (1825)
Lawyers and Legislators: or, Notes, on the American Mining Companies (1825)
The present state of Mexico (1825)
England and France, or a Cure for the Ministerial Gallomania (1832)
What Is He? (1833)
The Letters of Runnymede (1836)
Lord George Bentinck (1852)

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

7th April 1739 - Dick Turpin, the most famous English highwayman of them all, was hanged at the York assizes. However, it was technically a suicide - he didn't need the hangman to do the job - he did it himself by putting the rope around his neck and throwing himself off the ladder. The hangman was also a former friend of Turpin, and was a member of his Gregory Gang. In a uniquely English way, Turpin even sat and chatted to the crowds in the style of an entertainer before he hanged.
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Richard 'Dick' Turpin was born on September 21, 1705, in the Old Post Cottage of the small village of Hempstead, near the town of Saffron Walden, in a rural part of Essex. Folklore tells us that he was a bright and intelligent boy, and he became best friends with the village postmaster and schoolmaster, James Smith, who taught Turpin how to ride a horse and how to read and write. Contemporary records tell us that James Smith was indeed the Hempstead village postmaster and schoolmaster.

Turpin's father was a some-time farmer, who also kept The Bell, an inn which still stands today (although now called The Rose and Crown). Legend has it that Turpin's father was acquainted with smugglers who worked off the coast of East Anglia, as times were hard and the price of ale had been rising. Although ales purchased off the smugglers may have been cheaper, it was still highly illegal to do so. Thus, if true, Dick Turpin may well have been introduced to criminal activities from an early age.

When he was sixteen, Turpin moved south, and apprenticed to a butcher in the Whitechapel district of London - in those days, only a village on the outskirts of the capital. It was said that during his apprenticeship, he "conducted himself in a loose and disorderly manner." Some have argued that perhaps he was simply in the wrong career, or others that he was simply lazy.

Turpin married his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth Millington at the age of 21, in 1728, and after he finished his apprenticeship they moved north to Buckhurst Hill, Essex (on the modern boundary of Northern London). There Turpin opened his own butcher's shop.


Beginning of criminal activities

Rather than rely on legitimate suppliers for his stock in trade, Turpin turned to stealing the sheep, lamb and cattle of farmers, which was regarded as a serious criminal offence in those days; so serious it was punishable by death. Scholars and historians are divided as to what caused Turpin to delve into such a serious criminal activity in the first place. Some claim it was out of financial necessity; whilst others believe, through studying Turpin's later actions, his notorious deeds were done through a sense of thrill-seeking. Others believe he was simply too greedy to pay for legitimate stock, and/or too lazy to earn an honest living, and thus a simple brigand.


The life of a fugitive

Turpin was subsequently discovered in his stealing of cattle when one day he was caught in the act of stealing two oxen, and was forced to flee the area and leave his wife and business behind. With customs officers in hot persuit, Turpin had the common sense not to stay in a tavern or inn, where he could have been easily found. Turpin fled into the depths of the Essex countryside to save himself, lived rough and wild. For a time he lived in caves along the coast of East Anglia, and supported himself by robbing the smugglers who operated there — perhaps the same characters he had met earlier in life.

Eventually he moved on again, this time hiding in Epping Forest (which was larger and far more verdant than it is today, and often used by royalty to hunt deer).


In with the Gregory Gang

Turpin fell in with the Gregory Gang (also known as the Essex gang). They were a group of around twenty bandits, who operated from secret hideouts in Epping Forest (akin to Robin Hood, although not as glamourous or swashbuckling).

The Gregory Gang were notorious around Essex and London. They bravely, or perhaps foolishly, stole and killed royal game which had been set aside by the gamekeepers for the King's own hunts (see poaching). If caught doing this, they would surely face the gallows, or maybe even face the Hanging, drawing and quartering method of execution. This is because it was considered high treason, as poaching the King's own deer was considered as bad as stealing the Crown Jewels.

The three ringleaders of the Gregory Gang were a trio of brothers after whom the gang was named: Samual, Jasper and Jeremy Gregory. The names of other gangmembers include Thomas Hadfield, Thomas Barnfield, Thomas Rowden, Mary Brazier, John Fielder, Herbert Haines, John Jones, James Parkinson, Joseph Rose, Ned Rust, William Saunders, Humphry Walker, and John Wheeler. There may have been other members who were either not identified or who were only occasional associates of the Gang.

The gang was not limited to mere poaching. They attempted an armed robbery at a gentleman's house at Woodford, Essex, but the inhabitants of the village drove the rogues off without their being able to accomplish anything. The gang appeared unphased by this. In March 1735, Turpin, along with the three Gregory brothers attacked the Earl of Suffolk's servant in Epping Forest and took from him his horse valued at £80 (this in a time where horses were a more valued commodity than gold). A few weeks later, Sir Caesar Child was attacked in the Forest by the gang who fired at the coachman without bidding him to stand, and shot off the tip of his nose. They robbed him of £25. Allegedly, all these acts were orchestrated by Turpin, although this is not confirmed.

It is for sure that Turpin learned a lot from the gang.

As Turpin joined them, the Gregory Gang were entering a particularly violent phase of their criminal career. They had begun to specialise in forced entry into (usually isolated) houses around the Home Counties, and terrorising the occupants to make them reveal the whereabouts of hidden valuables.

By 1735, the London Evening Post regularly reported the exploits of Turpin and 'The Essex Gang' and the King had offered a reward of £50 for their capture.


Turpin becomes a murderer

Numerous acts of murder are attributed to Dick Turpin, although it is not clear which ones were actually commited by him and which weren't, due to centuries of embellishment. There is of course no doubt he did commit homicide, but the questions are; how many times did he commit murder; who were his victims; and where did Turpin's murders take place? Historians have debated these questions for centuries.

Turpin's first kill was surely a man named Thomas Morris, whom he killed on the 4th of May, in 1735. Morris was a servant of Henry Thomson, one of the keepers of Epping Forest, and during a routine walkabout of the forest Morris accidentally came across Turpin at Fairmead Bottom, near Loughton. Morris tried to apprehend him (there was a big reward for Turpin's capture at the time) but was immediately shot by Turpin.

Once again Turpin took to his heels, only this time with a far greater crime on his hands than theft. Despite the high risk of capture, Turpin visited his estranged wife who was now living in Hertford (after all, he would probably never see her again. He didn't, for the record.) Turpin was indeed nearly caught and only very narrowly avoided capture at this point.



Black Bess

Turpin's next exploit was nothing less than bizarre. One night, while on the road to London (on the way to meet with his friend and fellow highwayman, Tom King), he took a fancy to a particularly fine and spendid black horse ridden by a man called Major and forced him to exchange it for his own jaded mount. Mr. Major didn't really have a choice, seeing as he had a musket pointed at his face.

Turpin named his new prize charge 'Black Bess'. Mr. Major didn't take the loss lying down. His horse was a rare thoroughbred and one of the finest, quickest and most magnificent beasts in all the land, so it was said.




Final capture

At some point in early 1739, 'Palmer' (as Turpin now called himself) returned to the Green Dragon Inn near York from a hunt, where he was lodging. He was frustrated due to the fact he was empty-handed, and probably drunk.

He was bound over to keep the peace after he took the fancy to shoot his landlord's gamecock in the street and then threatened to shoot a bystander who took exception to the act. 'Palmer' had no money on his person and accordingly was unable to provide sureties so that he would be released, and was committed to the House of Correction.

As he was taken into custody, local authorities made enquiries as to how exactly 'Mr. Palmer' made his money, and inevitably the constables learned of several outstanding complaints made against 'John Palmer' for sheep and horse stealing in Lincolnshire.

Turpin was transferred to the dungeouns in York Castle. From his cell, Turpin wrote to the sibling of his estranged wife (his brother-in-law) who still resided at Hempstead in Essex, Turpin's real birthplace. The letter was a plea for help; requesting his brother-in-law to 'procure an evidence from London that could give me a character that would go a great way towards my being acquitted' i.e. provide him with an alibi.

The plan might have worked, but it backfired. Turpin's brother-in-law refused to pay the sixpence postage demanded, for what (he reckoned) was probably the 18th century equivalent of spam junk mail, and as such the letter was not delivered to him. This unpaid sixpence would prove the price of Turpin's life.

The unread letter then naturally fell into the hands of John Smith, as the village postmaster (Smith was also the village schoolmaster, whom had taught Turpin to read and write). Smith recognised the handwriting of his former pupil immediately and traveled to York to consult with the magistrate and identify Palmer as Turpin. Smith, his former friend and mentor, collected a £200 reward for identifying the notorious highwayman to the authorities.



Execution and burial

Ironically, Turpin was never convicted of being a highwayman or a murderer. He was convicted of being a horse-rustler, something which we may today consider far less serious. However, unfortunately for Turpin, in those days horse-rustling was considered a crime so serious it was punishable by death. On 22 March 1739, 'John Palmer alias Richard Turpin' was convicted at York assizes of two indictments of horse-rustling.

Pleas from his father to have the sentence commuted to transportation fell on deaf ears. His father had been cleared a few days earlier at the Essex assizes of horse-stealing, one of Turpin's stolen horses having been found at his alehouse.

Between his sentence and execution, visitors frequented Turpin's cell as though he were something of a celebrity. He was resolved to meet his death with dignity and calm. He spent the last of his money, in which he bought new clothes and shoes and hired five mourners for 10 shillings each.

On 7th April, 1739, Dick Turpin rode through the streets of York in an open cart, being theatrical and bowing to the gawking crowds. At York Knavesmire (now the racecourse) he climbed the ladder to the gibbet and then sat for half an hour addressing the crowd in the manner of an entertainer, chatting to the guards and the executioner.

Ironically, the hangman was Thomas Hadfield, once Turpin's friend and a former Gregory Gang member (he had been pardoned because he had agreed to be the hangman).

An account in the York Courant 7 April 1739 of Turpin's execution, notes his brashness even at the end, "with undaunted courage looked about him, and after speaking a few words to the topsman, he threw himself off the ladder and expired in about five minutes." Thus in death at least, Turpin attained some of the gallantry that had eluded him in life.

And so, despite the fame of his hanging, Turpin's death was technically a suicide. He was said to have been buried in St George's churchyard, York. However a short time after the burial his body was dug up and stolen by body-snatchers working for anatomists, but it appears to have been subsequently recovered and reburied in the same place, this time with the addition of quicklime to destroy the remains rapidly. A headstone in the churchyard commemorates him, but is not at the precise location, which remains undiscovered.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

8th April 1838 - The SS Great Western, built by that mighty British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is launched. It was the largest steamship ever built at that time. He also built the world's first IRON steamship - the SS Great Britain - and a ship called the SS Great Eastern. 19th Century British engineering at its finest.
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, photographed in 1857, standing next to the launching chains of the Great Eastern.

The steamship SS Great Western (named for the Great Western Railway Company) was the first steamship purposely built for the Atlantic crossing. It was an iron-strapped wooden side-wheel paddle steamer (with auxiliary sails), designed by the great railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose idea it was that steam would replace sail power on the regularly-scheduled trans-Atlantic "packet boat" services, which had been operating under sail since 1818. He convinced the directors of the Great Western Railway.

Though the Great Western's huge boilers took up almost half its interior, the ship was designed to carry 148 passengers, with a main passenger saloon 75 feet long by 34 feet at its widest. The Great Western displaced 2,340 tons.

Twenty-four first-class passengers paid 35 guineas each for the maiden trip (more than many working class people then earned in a year). Adding to the value of the trip, on its maiden run, the Great Western raced the SS Sirius to New York, though the Sirius had left Cork, Ireland days earlier, on April 4. The Great Western left Bristol, England, on April 8, 1838.

The rival British and American Steam Navigation Company expected to open the first steam-powered regularly-scheduled "packet" trans-Atlantic service with their SS British Queen. But with their ship still at the shipyard, it became clear at the opening of the season that the Great Western, which had already been launched and was being fitted out with its machinery in London, was going to beat them to it. So they chartered the Sirius, which was a cross-Channel steamship.

Though the Sirius beat the Great Western to New York, arriving on April 22 with forty passengers, they had to burn the cabin furniture, spare yards and one mast to do it, inspiring the similar sequence in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). The Great Western arrived the following day, with 200 tons of coal still aboard, and after only 15 days at sea. Great Western was subsequently awarded the Blue Riband for setting the record for trans-Atlantic travel speed at 8.66 knots, beating Sirius which clocked in at 8.03 knots.

The Great Western served in the trans-Atlantic run until 1846. Later, after serving as a troopship in the Crimean War, she was broken up in a salvage yard on the lower reaches of the Thames in 1856.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1904 - Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale, which SHOULD have made the 2 countries become friendly with each other after hundreds of years of war between the two - although they still hate each other.