On this day in history.

1773
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The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
 
1857
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A revolt by Sepoys at Meerut started the Indian Mutiny by Indian soldiers serving in the British Army.
 
1941
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Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of Nazi Germany, flew a small plane to Scotland and parachuted to the ground in a bizarre attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with Britain. After interrogation he was jailed for life.
 
1919
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The first scheduled commercial air service in Britain began from Manchester to Southport.
 
1998
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The political wing of the republican IRA backed the Good Friday peace agreement
 
1775 Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, issuing paper currency for the first time
 
1801 First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America
 
1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government
 
1869 The Golden Spike is driven, completing the first US Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, connecting the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific
 
1873, yesterday: The Austrian stock market crashed, precipitating the Panic of 1873 and the subsequent Long Depression of 1873-1899, which was the first death of capitalism.
 
When the spike was driven, the rail network was not connected to the Atlantic or Pacific it was from Omaha to Sacramento.
 
Andy_Ross said:
When the spike was driven, the rail network was not connected to the Atlantic or Pacific it was from Omaha to Sacramento.
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LOL- so a lie from the beginning???
(I had to admit, I had no idea where in the US either of those were-google maps cleared that up...)

Hell, its barely halfway across!!!!
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It was across the toughest bit. There were already railoads out Omaha.

What you have to look at is the terrain between there and Sacramento. It's all mountains and desert and at the time almost completely unpopulated.
 
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Andy_Ross said:
It was across the toughest bit. There were already railoads out Omaha.

What you have to look at is the terrain between there and Sacramento. It's all mountains and desert and at the time almost completely unpopulated.
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Apart from the mountains not much different to the one we built across the Nullabor then lol
1700km of sand and dirt, unpopulated apart from a few Aboriginal tribes (a few thousand in total at the time covering an area about the size of Alaska!!!)

At the time of the track being laid, there was literally no way across Australia- everything went by ship from the east coast to the west coast and viceversa... the only actual connection was a single telegraph line, not even any roads....

Although there was a mess for a long time (and still is in parts of the country) with three different gauges in use depending on which state you were in lol. At one time, they had a gauge changing stop in SA which went from narrow gauge (WA trains-3 ft 6 in) to SA broad gauge (5 ft 3 in)- they lifted the carriages with screwjacks (steam driven) and changed bogies- with the passengers still inside!!!
Victoria also had broad gauge, but any passengers/goods traveling from Vic to NSW had to change rains for a long time because NSW used standard gauge (4 ft 8.5 in) while if traveling north to Queensland meant another train change at the border to a narrow gauge Qld train!!!
:yikes:

At the time each state was actually an independent British colony, but each was self governing, hence the mismash of conflicting gauges.... even after Federation in 1901, the tracks were already laid and so many parts of the then new Australian nation still had to contend with the existing infrastructure in place...
 
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HMS Sheffield sinks while under tow. The first RN warship sunk by enemy action since 1945. We could see the smoke from the fires aboard after it was hit.
 
1985
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Fifty six spectators died and more than 200 were injured in a fire in the wooden stands at Bradford City stadium
 
1812
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British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else
 
330 Newly built city of Constantinople (Byzantium) dedicated to Emperor Constantine the Great, becomes the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire
 
1264
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The start of the Battle of Lewes (Sussex), between King Henry III and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester
 
1890
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The first official County Championship cricket match. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets.
 
1940 Blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with German forces crossing the Muese River
 
1967 Track Records releases "Are You Experienced" album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
 
1982 Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile was used in combat for the first time. HMS Brilliant and HMS Glasgow came under attack by four Argentine A-4 Skyhawks HMS Brilliant shot down three of the attacking aircraft.
 
Andy_Ross said:
1812
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British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else
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Actually, Percival was Bellingham's intended target.

John Bellingham was tried on Friday 15 May 1812 at the Old Bailey, where he argued that he would have preferred to shoot the British ambassador to Russia, but insisted as a wronged man he was justified in killing the representative of his oppressors.

He made a formal statement to the court, saying:
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Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval's pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman.​
​
Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties?​
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I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted.​
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Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice.​
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Bellingham was wrongly imprisoned in Russia for several years. He blamed the British government for not helping him, and when he returned home, he petitioned for compensation, which was refused. He was financially ruined, and he slipped into insanity. He resolved to get revenge:

In 1812, Bellingham renewed his attempts to win compensation. On 18 April, he visited the Foreign Office where a civil servant told him he was at liberty to take whatever measures he thought proper. On 20 April, Bellingham purchased two .50 calibre (12.7 mm) pistols from a gunsmith of 58 Skinner Street. He also had a tailor sew an inside pocket to his coat. At this time, he was often seen in the lobby of the House of Commons.

After taking a friend's family to a painting exhibition on Monday 11 May 1812, Bellingham remarked that he had some business to attend to. He made his way to Parliament, where he waited in the lobby. When Prime Minister Spencer Perceval appeared, Bellingham stepped forward and shot him in the heart. He then calmly sat on a bench. Bellingham was immediately restrained and was identified by Isaac Gascoyne, MP for Liverpool.
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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellingham
 
1949
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Britain’s first jet bomber, the Canberra, was given its first test flight at Warton in Lancashire
 
1787
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The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England.
 
1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca in St Peter's Square.
 
1982 Checking my old diary
We ran in close to shore at night for the first time and conducted a gun bombardment of Stanley Airfield.
A 12 minute shoot. Fall of shot directed by an SBS observer team put ashore the previous night. 30 rounds fired from the twin 4.5s followed an hour later by a second similar shoot on Argentine positions on Mount Pleasant.

For anyone interested, this is what it's like firing twin 4.5 inch guns on a Leander class frigate. Australian in this case

I can still smell it.

 
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1940 - Rotterdam is bombed by the nazis, killing 650-900 inhabitants.
 
Transported for life to the colonies, and for what? Scum I was to that beak, nothing but scum. 'Tis for my accent and my situation that I am condemned. 'Tis for the want of better graces and the influence they bring that I am to board this prison hulk.

And all those murders you done.
 
Andy_Ross said:
Transported for life to the colonies, and for what? Scum I was to that beak, nothing but scum. 'Tis for my accent and my situation that I am condemned. 'Tis for the want of better graces and the influence they bring that I am to board this prison hulk.

And all those murders you done.
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My ancestor was transported for stealing a scarf.
 
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