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On this day in history

REMEMBERING NOEL COWARD DIED THIS DAY 1973
BORN AT 131 WALDEGRAVE ROAD TEDDINGTON IN 1899
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise
Born: 16 December 1899, Teddington
Died: 26 March 1973, Firefly Estate, Jamaica
Plays Composed: Fallen Angels
Movies: Brief Encounter, The Italian Job, Blithe Spirit, In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Present Laughter, more
 
On this day in 1997, England and Liverpool football player Robbie Fowler was fined for showing support for sacked dockworkers during a European Cup Winners' Cup match.
Dockers in Liverpool had been engaged in a mammoth dispute against the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company which began in 1995 when all of the workers were sacked for refusing to cross a picket line set up by dockers for Torside Ltd who had been dismissed in a separate dispute.
Fowler, after scoring his second goal in Liverpool's 3-0 victory, lifted up his shirt to display a T-shirt reading "Support the 500 sacked dockers". He was fined 2000 Swiss francs ($1400) by the European football governing body UEFA.
 
On this day in 1981 Thousands of people jog through the normally quiet Sunday streets of the capital to try to cross the finish line of the first-ever London marathon.
 
On this day in 1990 An anti-poll tax rally erupts into London’s worst riots in over a century - watch the report on the aftermath of the demonstration
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It wasn't a Poll tax, it was a community charge, that was just the media stirring up trouble.
 
People i know were at the protest .Families with kids , all sorts of ordinary folks who faced hardship with the new tax.The atmosphere was fun and friendly , a bit like a carnival with bands & folks generally enjoying a day out in the smoke .The sheer numbers meant that the march came to a halt near downing street & with the police blocking any advance some folks sat down , for safety to avoid a crush.Remember that this crowd contained folks of all ages , plenty of kids and some in wheelchairs.The police waded in leathering anyone in their path .Then mounted police charged.The reaction of the crowds was to defend themselves .More police mistakes - if that¡s what they were included blocking roads leading away from Trafalgar square & closing underground stations so folks couldn't leave.
As with the miners strike and Hillsborough police treat crowds as the enemy with no regard for their safety.
 
39 years ago today the Falklands War started..... with the invasion of the Falklands by Argentinian soldiers posing as scrap metal dealers .
255 British service men and 3 Islanders died as a result of the invasion and subsequent action to remove the Argentinian invaders .
Many of those British serviceman involved are still fighting a daily battle as a result of both physical and mental injuries and sadly many have taken their own lives as a result of those injuries.....
 
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Can't remember where or when i read a squaddie's personal account of the Falklands but an Argentine officer was refusing to surrender his weapon to a lower rank when a lone SAS walked by and asked what's going on .

"Without a word he threw a look so violent the officer promptly forgot rank and ceremony"

Perhaps it was the day 20 SAS soldiers died in a freak helicopter accident ?
 
Many of those British serviceman involved are still fighting a daily battle as a result of both physical and mental injuries and sadly many have taken their own lives as a result of those injuries.....
You could substitute the word British for Argentinian in that sentence.A good deal of the Argentinian ground troops were conscripts doing a years military service & were woefully unprepared to face British marines and Paras.
Regardless of where they're from Military personnel are largely forgotten once the parades are over.
 
You could substitute the word British for Argentinian in that sentence.A good deal of the Argentinian ground troops were conscripts doing a years military service & were woefully unprepared to face British marines and Paras.
Regardless of where they're from Military personnel are largely forgotten once the parades are over.
I've met and shared a beer with several of those very Argentinian ex conscripts .... as in all conflicts it is never the politician's that are being shot at or under equipped ....
 
I've met and shared a beer with several of those very Argentinian ex conscripts .... as in all conflicts it is never the politician's that are being shot at or under equipped ....
Yes me too Grimbo. In 1996 I went to Argentina touring with The Royal Ballet (No not dancing) I was a lighting technician, we had local men working with us on stage.
We landed there on Malvinas Day, not the best of times to arrive in a country we had been at war with.
To begin with we got a rather cool reception but after a couple of days me and Bill (Bill who died recently in Vietnam) taking them out for meals and drinkies we got quite friendly.
One of the chaps I had allocated to me, Georgie, on our last day said to me that he had been a conscript in the Falkland campaign and was captured, he said the British soldiers treated them badly, he didn't go into details, and obviously had hated the British, but because of the way we treated them had changed his mind, he almost had me in tears we parted great friends.
 
Can't remember where or when i read a squaddie's personal account of the Falklands but an Argentine officer was refusing to surrender his weapon to a lower rank when a lone SAS walked by and asked what's going on .

"Without a word he threw a look so violent the officer promptly forgot rank and ceremony"

Perhaps it was the day 20 SAS soldiers died in a freak helicopter accident ?

Many stories about the Sea King crash and those that survived......

One trooper was trapped by his feet in the wreckage as the heli slowly sank.... his lungs bursting for air......he felt hands grab his ankles and a knife sawing through the tangled rope and webbing that trapped him ....the same hands then tapped him on the ankle to say "your free" and he swam to the surface..... ... the person who freed him never made it to the surface ...
 
" One of the chaps I had allocated to me, Georgie, on our last day said to me that he had been a conscript in the Falkland campaign and was captured, he said the British soldiers treated them badly, he didn't go into details, "

On more than one occasion for whatever reason groups of conscripts waved a white flag and when troops moved forwards to take the surrender the Argentinian's opened fire on the British troops.... this certainly had an affect on the way future prisoners were treated .... understandably.... and credit is due for the restraint shown .

A friend was a "ramp medic" in Afghan and would be on the medi vac Chinook that flew into the combat zone to lift injured from the battle field often under fire themselves ..... she is proud of the fact that enemy combatants were given exactly the same treatment as the soldier's and colleagues lying next to them and on occasion dying from the wounds inflicted by the enemy who was being treated next to them ...
 
On more than one occasion for whatever reason groups of conscripts waved a white flag and when troops moved forwards to take the surrender the Argentinian's opened fire on the British troops.... this certainly had an affect on the way future prisoners were treated .... understandably.... and credit is due for the restraint shown .
I'm sure terrible things happen on all sides during all wars, I'm not excusing anybody but these things do happen.
 
On more than one occasion for whatever reason groups of conscripts waved a white flag and when troops moved forwards to take the surrender the Argentinian's opened fire on the British troops...
There are claims that one particular incident at Goose Green was a mistake , with Argentinian troops receiving fire from an unsighted weapon , fired by British troops who were engaging a different target.Also the Argentinians believed that the British , who approached under a white flag were offering to surrender .As the British party returned to it's lines the Argentinians received incoming fire form the unsighted weapon & believing that this was a dirty trick opened fire .Apparently two of the opposing officers who met under the white flag knew each other , having been at Sandhurst together.
 
There are claims that one particular incident at Goose Green was a mistake , with Argentinian troops receiving fire from an unsighted weapon , fired by British troops who were engaging a different target.Also the Argentinians believed that the British , who approached under a white flag were offering to surrender .As the British party returned to it's lines the Argentinians received incoming fire form the unsighted weapon & believing that this was a dirty trick opened fire .Apparently two of the opposing officers who met under the white flag knew each other , having been at Sandhurst together.

The well known "fog of war"
History is always judged with hindsight ....
Hindsight is there to learn lessons from but not to be used to judge ....

Meanwhile in 1933 the first successful lung removal operation was carried out ....... the cancerous lung was removed and the patient cured
 
On this day in 1844 miners in Northumberland and Durham, England, had a mass meeting with up to 40,000 in attendance and went on strike for better conditions and equal pay across different mines. It lasted 20 weeks and was the biggest UK strike to date
 
Also on this day in history Allan Pollock flew his hawker Hunter under the top pier and between the towers of Tower Bridge the beat up the Hoses of Parliament at 200 ft and a few other airfields for good measure as a protest against the government and authorities not recognising the 50th birthday of the RAF....
Probably not the best career move but a lasting legacy of a brilliant photo and the birthday of the RAF hasn't been missed since
 
On this day in 1981, Operation Swamp 81 was carried out by police in Brixton, rounding up and searching Black residents. In 5 days over 900 people were stopped and searched, with dozens of arrests. The local area erupted into rioting, which spread nationally .
The Scarman report , commissioned by the government said that the riots were a spontaneous outburst of built-up resentment sparked by particular incidents. Lord Scarman stated that "complex political, social and economic factors" created a "disposition towards violent protest". The Scarman report highlighted problems of racial disadvantage and inner-city decline, warning that "urgent action" was needed to prevent racial disadvantage becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". Scarman found unquestionable evidence of the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of 'stop and search' powers by the police against black people. The report details the use of arbitrary roadblocks, the stopping and searching of pedestrians and mass detention (943 stops, 118 arrests and 75 charges). Operation Swamp 81 was conducted by the police without any consultation with the community or the home-beat officers.
 
I remember that, I lived close by. Part of the problem were the SPG (Special Patrol Group) vans cruising round and the occupants leaping out at people, often without due cause. That made for a lot of resentment, their handling of people was not usually particularly subtle.
 
On this day in 1973 Artist Pablo Picasso dies of a heart attack at his chateau, near Cannes on the French Riviera, aged 91 - read more about Picasso here.
PS
Could we keep this thread more informational and less political. This was supposed to be a thread of information and not a debating forum. There are other methods for that, make a separate thread if you want to make a political point.
 
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