25th February

[chenrezig]

1570 Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. He declared her a usurper for her severe persecution of Roman Catholics in England. It was the last such judgment made against a reigning monarch by any pope.

1723 The death of Sir Christopher Wren, highly acclaimed English architect and architect of St Paul's Cathedral.

1890 The birth of Dame Myra Hess, English pianist. Her fame came during World War II when concert halls were closed at night to avoid being targets of German bombers. For a period of six years she organized some 1700 lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery which had been emptied of its paintings for the duration of the war. For her contribution to maintaining the morale of the people of London, King George VI awarded her the Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1941.

1897 The birth of Peter Llewelyn Davies, the namesake of Peter Pan. The author, J. M. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his famous play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. This identification as 'the original Peter Pan' plagued Davies throughout his life.

1913 English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst went on trial for a bomb attack on the home of David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

1914 The birth of John Arlott, cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. The BBC referred to his 'wonderful gift for evoking cricketing moments'.

1939 The first Anderson air raid shelters appeared. In all, two and a half million were built.

1953 An inquest heard that the Princess Victoria, a ferry which sank off Belfast drowning 133 people had met 'a howling gale and an horrific rolling sea that attacked the ship from all sides.' When the decision was made to turn back towards Stranraer a huge wave forced open the stern doors on the car deck, buckling them in the process and flooding the car deck which caused the ship to roll over and sink.

1955 Britain's largest ever aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, was completed. She was the fourth ship of that name to have served the Crown.

1972 Miners voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay settlement after a seven week strike that seriously affected power supplies in Britain.

1978 Princess Margaret and her friend, Roddy Llewellyn, left for a holiday on the romantic island of Mustique. On 10th May an announcement was made that the Princess intended to divorce Lord Snowdon after two years’ separation. A few days later, Roddy said that he had no plans to marry the Princess.

1978 Ian Botham scored his first test match century, scoring 103 against New Zealand.

1982 The European Court of Human Rights ruled that corporal punishment in schools (if it was against the parents' wishes) was a violation of the Human Rights Convention.

1991 After serving 17 years in prison, it was announced that 'the Birmingham Six' would soon be released when it was decided that their convictions were unsafe. All were jailed in 1975 for an IRA attack on two pubs in Birmingham in November 1974 in which 21 people died.

2013 British born actor Daniel Day-Lewis made Oscar history by becoming the first person to win the best actor prize three times. He was rewarded for his role in Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln'.

2013 It was announced that Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, was to step down as leader of the Scottish Catholic Church. He had been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating back to the 1980s, claims that he contested.

2015 Ministers confirmed that they would be changing the law to make it easier to levy tough penalties (up to £500,000) on companies that were behind persistent phone calls and texts that promised compensation for payment protection insurance, mis-selling and cold calls promoting solar panels.

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[Rosalind]

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