9th March

[chenrezig]

1566 David Rizzio, Italian courtier and private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship, because of rumours that he had made Mary pregnant, and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him. The murder led to the downfall of Darnley who was himself murdered, apparently by strangulation, less than a year later. Note - The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.

1763 The birth of William Cobbett, English political journalist who championed the working class and became its first leader.

1881 The birth, in Winsford, Somerset of Ernest Bevin, one of the founding leaders of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), which soon became Britain's largest trade union. He was Minister of Labour during the Second World War and created ‘Bevin Boys’; young men chosen by ballot to work down the mines as part of their war service.
1891 Four days of storms began off England’s south coast, sinking 14 ships.

1925 The start of Pink's War, an air to ground bombardment carried out by the Royal Air Force, under the command of Wing Commander Richard Charles Montagu Pink, against the tribesmen in north west Pakistan. It was the first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army and Royal Navy.

1937 The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell's book depicting life during 'The Depression' in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds - Liverpool canal.

1946 33 fans were killed and hundreds injured when a barrier collapsed at the Bolton Wanderers' football ground. The dead and injured were taken from the stand, with those who had perished lain along the touchline and covered in coats. Incredibly, a little under half an hour after leaving the pitch, the game was restarted, with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the bodies. It was the deadliest football stadium-related disaster in British history until the Ibrox Park disaster in 1971.

1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his wife. Three years later John Christie admitted killing her and several other women.

1952 Bill Beaumont, former British Lions and England international rugby captain was born.

1956 British authorities deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus in an attempt to restore law and order to the island. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

1973 Northern Ireland voted in favour (90:1) of staying in the United Kingdom.

1981 John Lambe who became known as the M5 Rapist was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was given a life sentence on each of 12 counts of rape and a six year sentence (concurrent) on four charges of attempted rape.

1994 IRA terrorists launched a mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.

1995 The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Northern Ireland, their first visit since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires of 1994.

2015 Dr Tim Stowe, the RSPB’s international director, called on the Ministry of Defence to do more to stop local poachers, after almost a million birds were illegally killed in just two months on a British military base (British Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area) in Cyprus the previous year.

2015 Archaeologists began excavating up to 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground under London's Liverpool Street station. The Bedlam burial ground was used from 1569 to at least 1738 and included bodies belonging to victims of the Black Death. The site is to serve the cross-London Crossrail line, due to open in 2018.

[annie]

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[Rosalind]

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[wendy]