2nd June

[chenrezig]

1420 King Henry V of England married Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI, King of France.

1840 Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet was born. He continues to be widely regarded for his novels, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd.

1850 The birth of Jesse Boot, chemist, philanthropist and founder of 'Boots the Chemist'.

1857 Edward Elgar, English composer was born. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches.

1868 The first meeting of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in Manchester.

1910 The Hon. C.S. Rolls became the first Briton to fly across the Channel travelling from Dover to Sangatte and back in a Short-Wright biplane. The following year on this day, the Air Navigation Act came into force to control the requirements of both pilots and machines.

1924 England spoke to Australia by wireless, the first time that a wireless conversation had been held between 2 countries or over so great a distance. The transmissions, by the Amalgamated Wireless Co. were between Poldhu in Cornwall and Vaucluse in Sydney.

1946 The birth of Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer who was dubbed 'The Yorkshire Ripper'. In 1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others. He is currently serving 20 sentences of life imprisonment in Broadmoor Hospital. In 2010 The High Court dismissed an appeal, confirming that he would serve a whole life tariff and would never be released from imprisonment.

1953 The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place in Westminster Abbey, London. It was the first British coronation to be televised and was a cold, wet day.

1954 British jockey Lester Piggott, aged 18, became the youngest jockey to win the Derby.

1985 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced an indefinite ban on English football clubs from taking part in any of the European competitions, after continued hooliganism by their fans when travelling abroad.

1988 The Australian High Court rejected Britain's bid to ban further publication of the 'Spycatcher' memoirs of former British secret agent Peter Wright.

1994 25 senior intelligence officers, involved in counter terrorism in Northern Ireland, were killed when their Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.

1997 Dr. Stephen Martin & David Mitchell became the first Britons to reach the North Pole without backup.

2012 The start of 4 days of celebrations to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

2014 97 year old Dame Vera Lynn released a new album (Vera Lynn: National Treasure - the Ultimate Collection) to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-day landings on 6th June 1944. Vera Lynn is the first person in music history to celebrate 90 years of showbusiness, the first British performer to top the US official charts, the oldest living artist to have had an official UK No.1 album and the only recording artist in the world to have spanned the pop charts from the 1940s to the 21st century. An unprecedented achievement, which breaks all records in the history of music.

2014 More than 40,000 tickets were sold over the opening weekend of the new tram route in Edinburgh. The 8.7 mile route cost £776m and involved six years of disruption and problems, including a bitter dispute between the council and its contractor.

[annie]

tha22222

[Rosalind]

go90 tha22222

[wendy]

Good old Jessie boot