Death of William IV

The Manchester Guardian dated Wednesday 21st June 1837 and Saturday 24th June 1837

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The Manchester Guardian (which became The Guardian in 1959 and still is) was published twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays and measured about 18 inches (45.7 cm) by 27 inches (68.5 cm). The front pages showed just classified adverts - even when there was an important story like the death of the Monarch to report.

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This from page 2 of 4. Although William IV. King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover, had died in the early hours of Tuesday, in the 1st edition on Wednesday the latest news was as at 4pm on Monday. 

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The 2nd edition augmented the out-of-date page 2 information with this announcement plonked in amongst other stories on page 3.

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By the next edition on Saturday there is a bit more detail. ‘Queen’ in this article refers to William’s widow Adelaide who out lived him by 12 years. 

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And this Proclamation of the new Queen Victoria.

William and Adelaide had 2 daughters but the first died within 1 day and the second within 3 months. There were (allegedly) 10 illegitimate children but the only legitimate heir was his niece, Victoria. who went on to reign until her death in 1901.

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William had disliked Victoria’s mother so much that he swore he would live until Victoria was 18 to prevent the mother becoming Regent. Victoria was 18 years and 27 days old when William died.

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A nice cheap way to have a stag-do in Hamburg – leaving on the Paddle Steamer ‘Rob Roy’ on Saturday and only £2 to pay. 

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The slave trade had been abolished in Britain and its dependencies in 1807 although the owning of slaves wasn’t made illegal under British law until 1833. This Portuguese trader was taken off the coast of Dominica.

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I can’t find any specific statistics to show that murder was a lot more common in 1837 than it is now, but looking through the 100 odd editions of The Manchester Guardian that make up the bound set that this issue is from, it certainly appears so. And, in this horribly casual murder at least, it looks like alcohol played its part as now.

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If the fire damp doesn't get you then a roof collapse will. Coal mining was notoriously dangerous as these 2 items show.

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Classified ads for white-collar jobs. I love the language in these adverts – ‘none need apply but persons acquainted with the business’ – has more of a ring to it than ‘experience required’. Why does the grocer specifically want a ‘stout, active Youth’?

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And for servants. Again the language. ‘character must be unexceptional’ ‘wages not so much an object as a comfortable situation’ ‘a good plain cook’ Does this last example refer to the food or the cook?

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An interesting curriculum at Mrs Nutter’s Establishment for Young Ladies that includes ‘Washing’. What no Geography, History, Science, IT or Media Studies?

Random Ad - Shirley Temple and Puffed Wheat

Child film-star and future U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia advertises Puffed Wheat in 1936. Makes Doris Day look like Aileen Wuornos.

Random Cutting - Space Shuttle Explosion

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The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 11:28 local time just off the Florida coast on January 28^th 1986 killing all 7 people on board, including a non-astronaut woman teacher. The Shuttle space program was paused for nearly 3 years.

Nab Roosevelt Death Plotter

The (San Francisco) Call Bulletin dated Wednesday May 17th 1939

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A very busy front page typical of the Call Bulletin.

6 years after the attempt to assassinate Franklin D Roosevelt featured in this post, a man is arrested outside the White House armed with a rock, a knife and a grievance.

The Royal Tour of Canada lasted until June 15^th and took in all the Provinces as well as a quick foray into the USA to visit Washington, New York and, for some unknown reason, Poughkeepsie, home of IBM.

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The 2^nd Sino-Japanese War had been going on since 1937 and was, by 1939, pretty well a stalemate. The Chinese were being supported by the USA and the USSR. Foreign nationals were under the protection of the British, US and French navies. The conflict became a part of WWII and ended with the defeat of Japan by the Allies. ‘Bluejackets’ in the front-page headline just means ‘sailors’.

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In the 1930’s in America there was a strongly held belief that they should stay out of any foreign squabbles. And there’s some that think that it’s a pity they don’t revive that attitude.

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Spin doctoring Nazi style.

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Britain took over control of Palestine in 1923 with the intention of making it a homeland for the Jewish People whilst not displacing the Arab population, but they just couldn’t win. The Jews resented the Arabs, the Arabs resented the Jews and they both resented the British, who finally got out in 1948 with the independence of Palestine and the establishment of Israel.

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Oxygen tents were used in hospitals to help patients with respiratory problems breath by creating an enclosed oxygen rich atmosphere. Oxygen gas is inflammable. Smoking was not banned in hospitals. Nor were idiots. 

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When the doors opened you would think that he might notice he was facing a dark brick-lined hole rather than a well-lit lift car.

When I was working in London in the 1960’s I once visited an office building that had a man-with-a-rope-operated lift. To move the lift the man pulled on a rope that came down through the ceiling and went out through the floor.   

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The phrase ‘turret top’ refers to the all steel roof of the car. This was a change from the previously more common fabric insert tops on saloons. The ‘Sunshine Turret Top’ is what became known as a sunroof. The first sunroofs appeared in about 1937.

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“By Gad, Sir! I like my cars like my women – big, fast and with a rust-proofed body. Pass the Ethanol!”

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Wyatt Earp had Doc Holiday, Matt Dillon had Chester and the Sheriff of San Francisco had George Daniels complete with spectacles.

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The World’s first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935, but it wasn’t just the motorists who were unhappy with their proliferation.

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Non-story of the year award goes to the 16 year-old who had amnesia one day and recovered the next. How did this story even get into the paper? On realising her daughter couldn’t remember whether or not she’d turned the gas off, Mrs Parker immediately contacted the Call-Bulletin?

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The FBI arrested Mrs Rose Carina the following day (May 18^th). Intrigued? Have a look at this very detailed 7-page account of the whole sordid business. There’s a picture of Rose on page 6.

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The Golden Gate International Exposition (or San Francisco World’s Fair) had been running for almost 3 months, and this piece looks forward to the Rome World’s Fair of 1942, which, due to a little interruption called World War 2, didn’t happen. The next Fair was actually in Brussels in 1958.

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To get some idea of the dangers of driving on the ‘steep grades and sharp curves’ of the Sierra Nevada mountain roads try watching the climatic (and speeded–up) car chase sequence from the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film ‘High Sierra’.

Random Ad - Black Cat Cigarettes (WWI)

By the look on that cat's face I wouldn't like to be the one to try to take it's fag away. Call the RSPCA! 

Random Cutting - Gandhi Murdered (1948)

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Mahatma Gandhi spent much of his life peacefully campaigning for the independence of India from Great Britain. Ironically, when independence finally arrived with the forced separation of India into India and Pakistan, it precipitated his violent end. After partition in 1947 there was widespread violence between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, which Ghandi tried to calm, but during a public rally on January 30^th 1948, a Hindu nationalist took exception to Ghandi’s attempts to unite the various faiths, and shot him dead.

Apollo 8

Christmas Mirror dated Tuesday December 24th 1968

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Apollo 8 was the first crewed space flight to orbit the Moon. The 6-day mission was primarily to reconnoitre landing sites for the Apollo 11 Moon Landing due the following year.  The crew were Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell who was to go on to head the Apollo 13 flight, which nearly ended in disaster.

By the way: If you ever decide to save newspapers then the condition of this front page will tell you that you should always store them flat and not folded in half.

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The spy-ship USS Pueblo was attacked on January 23^rd 1968 by the North Koreans and the 83-man crew were taken prisoner and held for 11 months. After much puffing and blowing by the US Government they were finally released on December 22^nd when President Lyndon Johnson agreed to publish both an admittance that the ship was spying and an apology. 

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In these politically correct times he would be called ‘gravitationally challenged’. Arthur Armstrong pictured here at 37 stone was down to 26 stone by 1970 according to a local newspaper, but I’ve no idea what happened to him after that.

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It seems that Michael Jackson wasn't the first pop star to go out in public looking like a sexual deviant.

Engelbert Humperdinck (formally Arnold Dorsey) was in the news recently as the UK’s entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, but back in 1968 he was known for his hits – ‘Release Me’, ‘There Goes My Everything’ and ‘The Last Waltz’. He has had at least one single released in almost every year since, including the oddly titled ditty ‘Lesbian Seagull’ in 1996.

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Nigeria was ravaged by Civil War from 1967 when part of the country split away to become Biafra, and 1970 when the Government forces defeated the breakaway Biafra. Britain and the USSR supported the Government while France and Israel supported the Biafra rebels. 

Lord Fenner Brockway was born in 1888, was an anti-war activist in WWI and was imprisoned, campaigned for Indian independence as early as 1919, became a Labour MP, put aside his anti-war stance for the duration of the Spanish Civil War, was a Conscientious Objector in WWII, founded the charity War on Want, was a founding member of the anti-nuclear CND, campaigned for peace in Vietnam, wrote 24 books and died at the age of 99 in 1988.

I saw him speak at a CND meeting at the age of 94. His age not mine.

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Not the best publicity for an about-to-start West End production, despite which ‘Mame’ ran for 14 months and Ginger Rogers was the highest paid performer in the West End up to that time.

She was best known for her ten musical films with Fred Astaire that included ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Flying Down to Rio’ and the possibly apocryphal claim that she “not only did what Astaire did but did it backwards and in high heels”.

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I don’t understand this at all. Why would H M Customs have to have half the cost of the goods for 6 months? It sounds like a scam. They’d get the interest on the money during the 6 months and do nothing for it. No wonder the country’s going to the dogs. 

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Christmas Day TV and it looks like ITV just gave up when it came to the prime 8pm-10pm slot – a second rate 18 year-old Western film up against Morcambe and Wise followed by Ken Dodd. Talking about political correctness (see above) what ever happened to ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’?

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Before the Lottery, the Football Pools were the only way to win a life-changing amount of money. £16,000 in 1968 would have the equivalent spending power of about £170,000 now. Not quite your lottery millions but better than a poke in the eye with a wet lettuce.

Random Ad - Wolseley 11/22 (1927)

A 1927 advert for the Wolseley 11·22h.p. car. Not sure if that means Wolseley Eleven, 22 horse power or Wolseley 11 point 22 horse power. I suspect it's the former. Either way it's a lovely little runner, Squire.

Random Cutting - Mods at Margate 1964

The clashes between Mods and Rockers in Margate, Brighton, Bournemouth and other seaside resorts in 1964 were both exaggerated and encouraged by the media, particularly the tabloid newspapers. The phrase ‘moral panic’ was coined in a book about the media coverage of the 60’s youth movements.

From my own limited observation of Mod culture at the time, most Mods were far more interested in pills and music, usually in that order.

Barack Obama Elected President

The Independent dated Thursday November 6th 2008

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After the dark days of Bush’s two terms as President things could only get better. Optimism reigned for a while and was only soured by Obama’s inevitable failure to cure all the World’s ills.

He is standing for re-election on November 6^th 2012 against the Republican candidate Mitt Romney, an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka The Mormons).

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Unlike the out-going Republican President, George W Bush, John McCain had paid his dues. He’d been in the Navy and had fought in Vietnam. He was a POW for five and half years and suffered dreadfully at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

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The worst-case scenario was that McCain won the 2008 election but then died and Sarah Palin, as Vice-president, automatically took over. The US (and therefore the Western World) would have a leader that believed that ‘the U.S. Army is on a mission from God’, ‘creationism should be taught in schools’, ‘there should be no abortions even if the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest’, ‘in the right to bear arms’ and ‘Health care must be market and business driven’.

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According to the news section of http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ the work of restoring some of the derelict huts at Bletchley Park is about to start (June 2012) in time for Alan Turing’s centenary. I must make the effort to go one day soon.

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I’ve never read a Michael Crichton book but I have enjoyed some of his films, particularly ‘The First Great Train Robbery’ and ‘Westworld’ both of which he not only wrote but also directed.

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Back to the US Presidency. George W Bush ripe for ridicule and Oliver Stone is the man to do it.

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As much as I hate smoking I think this is a stupid idea. Having parents that were both chain smokers (cough) throughout my childhood (cough cough) never did (cough choke gasp) me any harm.

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As much as I hate Jamie Oliver I think this is a stupid idea.

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Back in 2008 this advert for a solar charger stressed the ecological advantages. Look at their current web site and it’s aimed much more directly at the adventurer who is kayaking up the Amazon but can’t leave his/her iPad at home.

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The Tetley brewery in Leeds finally closed in June 2011.

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Andy Murray. Roger Federer. I’ve heard those names somewhere recently.

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Reading this extract from Samuel Pepys’ diary, I can’t help wondering what Commissioner Pett is going to do in the yard. Something involving plucking, I guess.