Sunday, 4 August 2013

Sinking of the General Belgrano

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday May 4th 1982
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A month to the day after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands (see post), the Argentine light cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by HMS Conqueror using 3 torpedoes. 770 of the Belgrano’s crew were rescued but 323 died.
This was the day the Sun newspaper went with the headline ‘GOTCHA!’ which was changed for the later editions to something a little more appropriate

‘It’s a Knockout’ started in France as ‘Jeux sans Frontier’. Stuart Hall, who has been in the news lately and in the nick for a while yet, hosted the UK version. About 800 people were using the stand when it collapsed and about 60 were taken to Scunthorpe General Hospital.

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A potpourri of Falkland related news. Like the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth, it was the QEII’s turn to be used as a troop ship.

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Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev had met in Vienna in 1979. By 1982 Brezhnev was ailing and in November he died. Reagan actually had 5 summit meeting between 1985 and 1988 but with Mikhail Gorbachev.

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The original Mods had died out by the late 1960’s, some having morphed into skinheads or just grown too old. The skinheads in their turn died out, but in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s both subcultures enjoyed revivals and, evident from this article, emulated their cultural forefathers by spending Bank Holidays causing mayhem at seaside resorts.

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mastermind they held this Champion of Champions contest. Sir David Hunt answered questions on Alexander the Great to get 13 points and increased this to 28 in General Knowledge.

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A warning to those that take what they read on the Web as gospel – several sites including the Oracle, sorry, Wikepedia, state that this experimental 3D broadcast on TV South’s ‘The Real World’  happened in February 1982. I notice that all the sites seem to have cut and pasted the same wording from one another. They also claim that the first full 3D programme – a showing of the 3D western film ‘Fort Ti’ was shown in December 1982. Or November. Or even October.

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This appears to be a fairly early satellite tracking and positioning system probably using the first GPS satellite that had been launched in 1978. I can’t find any reference to the acronym SARGOS anywhere.

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The Advanced Passenger Train or APT was designed to run on existing track at speeds of up to 155mph so had a hydraulic tilting system to keep the train on the track on bends. The first passengers were carried in December 1981 but there were problems from the start and the APTs were withdrawn from service. High Speed Trains with a top speed of 125mph replaced them.

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Over the next 10 years ‘Wogan’ ran to 252 editions during which the Irish mumbler interviewed everyone from Eddie the Eagle Edwards to Vincent Price to Roy Orbison via Paul McCartney and Fanny Craddock.

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Wrong. Faye Dunaway didn’t appear in Octopussy, the 4 years younger Maude Adams took the role.

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Wandsworth boy Frank Bruno had his first professional fight in March 1982, which he won along with his next 20 fights. He won the European Boxing Union Heavyweight Title in 1985 and the World Boxing Council Heavyweight Title in 1995.

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