On this day in history.

[Andy_Ross]

1969 British comedy troupe Monty Python forms

 

[Andy_Ross]

1264

The start of the Battle of Lewes (Sussex), between King Henry III and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester

 

[Andy_Ross]

1890

The first official County Championship cricket match. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets.

 

[Andy_Ross]

1940 Blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with German forces crossing the Muese River

 

[Andy_Ross]

1967 Track Records releases "Are You Experienced" album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

 

[Andy_Ross]

1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrender

 

[Andy_Ross]

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]

1975 First episode of Rutland Weekend Television

 

[Andy_Ross]

1924 Tony Hancock born.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1921993148877656496

 

[shemp]

1812

British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else

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:

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?​

​

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.​

​

Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice.​

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.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellingham

 

[Andy_Ross]

1912

The Royal Flying Corps was established.

 

[Andy_Ross]

1949

Britain’s first jet bomber, the Canberra, was given its first test flight at Warton in Lancashire

 

[Andy_Ross]

1787

The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England.

 

[Andy_Ross]

1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca in St Peter's Square.

 

[Andy_Ross]

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.

 

[arthwollipot]

1787

The first fleet of ships carrying convicts to the new penal colony of Australia left England.

I had an ancestor on it.

 

[erwinl]

1940 - Rotterdam is bombed by the nazis, killing 650-900 inhabitants.

 

[Andy_Ross]

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.

 

[arthwollipot]

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.

My ancestor was transported for stealing a scarf.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Looking on the positive, they wouldn't likely have much need for scarves any more. Kind of a win, really.