Sunday 31 August 2014

Hitler to Become War Minister (1938)

Daily Herald dated Friday February 4th 1938
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Adolf Hitler to replace Werner von Blomberg as commander of the German Army in a move to head off discontent in the German Military over Nazi policies.

Friday 29 August 2014

Random Ad - Job as a Miner (1951)

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That's about £320 a week in today's money for one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs around. No wonder they were always on strike. 

Wednesday 27 August 2014

Random Cutting - Georgi Markov affair (1978)

30th September 1978
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Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian novelist, playright and disident who defected to the West in 1969 and subsequently worked for the BBC. He was attacked at a bus-stop near Waterloo Bridge on the 7th September 1978 and died in hospital on the 11th of ricin poisoning. The killer, believed by British Security to have been working for the Bulgarian Security Forces, has never been identified.

Sunday 24 August 2014

Final Ultimatum To-day (1945)

Daily Mail dated Thursday August 9th 1945
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On August 6th 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 8th 1945 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Later that same day, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the city of Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered  Supreme Council for the Direction of the War to accept the terms for ending the war that the Allies had set down in the Potsdam Declaration. 
On August 15th Emperor Hirohito made a radio broadcast across the Empire to announce the surrender of Japan to the Allies.
On August 28th the occupation of Japan by the Allied Powers began and the surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri on September 2nd 1945

Friday 22 August 2014

Random Ad - Triumph Dolomite (1970's)

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The Triumph Dolomite range was introduced in 1972 but mention of the Sprint dates this advert to at least 1973.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Random Cutting - Today's TV and Radio (1956)

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Click to Read
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Actually this just lists the evening TV and Radio programmes for Friday 23rd March 1956 in the Midlands region. 2 TV channels - BBC and ATV - and 3 Radio channels - Home, Light and Third, with everything shutdown by midnight.
Michael Miles presented 'Take Your Pick', a game show in which you could win prizes ranging from a holiday to a mousetrap, from 1955 to 1968.
'Dragnet', one of the all time great American cop shows ran from 1951 to 1959 and starred Jack Webb on whom James Ellroy based the character Jack Vincennes in his book 'L.A. Confidential'.

Sunday 17 August 2014

Nixon to be Impeached (1974)

Sunday Mirror dated Sunday June 28th 1974
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The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings against President on May 9th 1974, which returned a majority vote for impeachment for obstruction of justice during the Watergate Scandal and its subsequent cover-up. Impeachment would mean a trial by the Senate and rather than face that, Nixon resigned on August 9th 1974.

Friday 15 August 2014

Random Ad - Rowntree's Sweets (WWII)

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World War 2 Rowntree's sweets advert showing the near plain wrapping that shortages of paper and ink made necessary. Kit-Kat, Fruit Pastilles and Gums are still familiar today. I don't know if you can still get Beech Nut chewing gum - it was my gum of choice as a lad.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Random Cutting - US Plane Crash (1929)

18th March 1929
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The Colonial Western Airways plane, a Ford 5-AT-B Tri-Motor had just taken off from Newark on a sightseeing trip around New York with 13 passengers, a pilot and a friend of the pilot (also in the cockpit), when it failed to gain height and crashed onto railway sidings. The sightseers were all killed instantly, the friend died the next day and the pilot survived.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Fuchs and Hilary at the South Pole (1958)

Daily Express dated Wednesday January 22nd 1958
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New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary is, of course, most remembered for conquering Everest in 1953, but he was also the first man to have accomplished the 'big three' - stand at the South Pole , the North Pole and the top of Everest. In 1958 he led the New Zealand part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition overland to the South Pole, where he is pictured meeting geologist and explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs, the overall leader of the Expedition, which as the name implies crossed Antarctica from coast to coast via the South Pole, a distance of 2,158 miles.

Friday 8 August 2014

Random Ad - Barges (1920's)

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"Barges! Get your loverly barges here! Big ones, small ones, single-screw or double! All low milage and one careful lady owner! How about a tug, darling? Now then Mrs I'm not being surgestive even if one of 'em is called 'Saucy'."
Nice little drawings.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Random Cutting - New York World's Fair bombing (1940)

5th July 1940
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The New York World's Fair ran from April to August in both 1939 and 1940. By the second season World War II had started and some exhibitors dropped out. On July 4th 1940 an unexploded time-bomb was found in the British Pavillion and taken outisde by a security man. Two officers of the NYPD Bomb squad arrived and tried to defuse it, the bomb exploded killing them and injuring by-standers. A police manhunt failed to find who had planted the bomb and the case remains open and unsolved..

Sunday 3 August 2014

We Take Bayeux (1944)

San Francisco Chronicle dated Thursday June 8th 1944
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Click to Read

An American perspective on the situation 24 - 36 hours after the Allies' D-Day Normandy landings on June 6th 1944. 
Also see this post.

Friday 1 August 2014

Random Ad - Film Ads (1964)

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'The Scarlet Blade' was made by Hammer who didn't just do Horror and the young Oliver Reed is there swashing his buckle. 'The Son of Captain Blood' starred Sean Flynn the son of Erroll Flynn who made 'Captain Blood' in 1935. Someone must have thought long and hard about that title.