On this day in history

[Julian T]

The plane was a B29 named Enola Gay after the pilots mother, the pilot was Paul Warfield Tibbets, at the time he was a colonel.

In the 1980's the synth pop group OMD released an album called Organisation and a song on the album called Enola Gay went on to be a single success selling more than 5 million copies.

I am not the biggest fan of 80's music but the song has always stuck with me.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1969 Actress Sharon Tate, the heavily pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, is found murdered in her Los Angeles home, along with four other people. Members of the Manson Family cult are later convicted.

 

[Higgy]

On this day in 1966 England won the football World Cup

For the first and last time.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1975 Rembrandt's "Night Watch" is slashed by a man wielding a bread knife at an Amsterdam museum

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1993 The British National Party wins its first council seat, in a by-election in Tower Hamlets, east London.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1973 Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record time

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1952 Tea rationing in the UK ends, 12 years after it was introduced.

 

[fbnss]

On this day in 1996 I passed my driving test... and snogged Leila in Kudos

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1957 The Russian satellite Sputnik is launched into space, becoming the first man-made object to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1982 The Mary Rose, flagship of King Henry VIII, is raised to the surface after 437 years at the bottom of the Solent.

 

[CountryBoy136]

Napoleon began his exile on St Helena in 1815, minus Jospehine.

Not tonight Josephine!!! Not tonight, tomorrow night or ever again... over my dead body!!!

 

[CountryBoy136]

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On this day in 1926 the book "Winnie-the-Pooh" by Alan Alexander Milne was released.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1984 A bomb explodes at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, being used for the Conservative Party conference, killing five people.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1918 a hundred years ago, local barrister Cecil Chubb and his wife Mary gifted Stonehenge to the nation.

 

[Chas]

On this day 52 years ago, after days of torrential rain a slag heap slid onto a school in Aberfan.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 2003, Emotional scenes at Heathrow as supersonic aircraft Concorde lands at the end of its last commercial passenger flight

 

[clivehorridge]

On this day 52 years ago, after days of torrential rain a slag heap slid onto a school in Aberfan.

I remember this disaster when I was a lad, but knew very little about what had happened, except the obvious. So a few years ago, i researched the event using google and reading all of the websites that have devoted themselves to the event. What I read in 2 or 3 days of investigation was horrifying, on many levels.

The deaths of so many young children in the most horrific way you could imagine;
The arrogance and sheer cowardice of the management of the mine;
The fact that nobody was prosecuted even though there are numerous accounts of management knowing that the drainage of the slag had been disturbed, making the whole spoil-heap at the least potentially unstable.

All in all, a wholly disgusting and heartbreaking event that must have torn the heart out of that community and those in the vicinity. That pain must still live on even after 52 years have passed.

Just reading what I read, the recollections, the testimonies from witnesses, it all had me unashamedly crying like a baby.
Bless them all.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1989 Berliners celebrate the fall of the wall that has divided their city for nearly three decades

 

[Chas]

I don't think any of us need reminding what happened on this day 100 years ago.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1994 Britain holds its first ever national lottery draw, with an estimated jackpot of £7m