3 German Planes Down (1940)

Evening Standard dated Thursday June 20th 1940

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A little over 2 weeks after the evacuation at Dunkirk, this front page doesn't do much to cheer up the British public. On the 18th June Prime Minister Winston Churchill had made his now famous 'their finest hour' speech in the House of Commons following the Fall of France and things were looking pretty grim with the Luftwaffe soon to begin its 8 month long Blitz on England.

Random Ad - Sinclair and Amstrad (1986)

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Alan Michael Sugar Trading and Sinclair Research offering the very latest in Computer Technology. The Amstrad 8256 with locoscript word processing, a VDU and a printer was perfect for the budding novelist. The Sinclair 128 needed to be linked to a TV and was more games orientated. The 128 and 256 numbers refered to the memory sizes - 128k and 256k.

By the way 1 gigabyte is 1000000k.

Random Cuttings - US TV listings (1973)

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The week's TV programmes in New York published on 6th October 1973. Just thought that someone might enjoy clicking on the listings and admiring the lack of 'reality shows'. There's a few British imports like 'The Saint', 'The Avengers' and 'Department S'

Romania's Ceausescu and Wife Executed (1989)

Today dated Tuesday December 26th 1989

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What a cheerful headline for Boxing Day 1989.

Romania became a Communist country in 1947 and Nicolae Ceausescu soon found himself a series of important posts in the Government finally becoming second in command to President Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. When Gheorghiu-Dej died in 1965 Ceausescu took over. He ran an extremely strict Communist state allowing no criticism or debate.

In 1982 he ordered the export of much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production. The resulting extreme shortages of food, fuel, energy, medicines, and other basic necessities drastically lowered living standards and intensified unrest. He appointed his wife, Elena, and many members of his extended family to government and Communist party posts.

The Ceausescu regime collapsed after he ordered the police to fire on anti-government demonstrators on Dec. 17, 1989. The demonstrations spread to Bucharest, and on December 22 the Romanian army defected to the demonstrators. That same day he and his wife fled from the capital in a helicopter but were captured and taken into custody by the Army. On December 25 the couple were hurriedly tried and convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of mass murder and other crimes. Ceausescu and his wife were then shot by a firing squad.

Randon Ad - Smiths Clocks (1960's)

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A blonde in trendy sunglasses getting her life-force from a torch battery. A 1960's advert for battery powered Sectronic clocks marketed by Smiths. Smiths introduced the battery powered Sectronic range in 1962.

Random Cutting - Roy Plomley obituary (1985)

30th May 1985

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Apart from 'Desert Island Discs', which he devised in 1941 and presented until his death, Roy Plomley (pronounced Plumley) wrote 16 stage plays, a novel and scripted 2 films.

What will Hitler Say? (1938)

The Children's Newspaper dated 19th February 1938

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Arthur Mee's Children's Newspaper not flinching from the serious subject of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1938. The 2 high ranking military gentlemen mentioned, Blomberg and Fritsch, were actually accused of having a homosexual affair and, although proved innocent, were removed from power to be replaced by Hitler's own men.

The speech of Hitler's that is mentioned in the article was the one in which he warned that Germeny would "no longer tolerate the suppression of ten million Germans across its borders". This was a precursor to the invasion of Austria on March 12th 1938.

Even the article about cave-dwellers was triggered by a speech on the European situation by the Foreign Minister Anthony Eden.

Random Ad - The Ten Commandments (1957)

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Films didn't come any more epic than Cecil B DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments' released in Britain in December 1956 just in time for the annual religious ferver of the Christmas season. It didn't reach Brighton until the following August. It starred Charlton Heston, but way down in the uncredited section, you'd find Clint Walker (TV's Cheyenne), Robert Vaughn (U.N.C.L.E. and Hustle) and Jon Peters (Producer 'Batman Returns' etc) as a boy on a donkey crossing the Red Sea.

Random Cutting - Decimalisation (1924)

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This from the Children's Newspaper dated 19th July 1924. Well they had to wait until 1971 before the problem was solved, although not quite as suggested here. 

Anyone who remembers trying to add, subtract or multiply £.s.d with its 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound will be happy we decimalised. just try calculating (in your head) the change you'd get from a tenner if you bought items at £1 13s 9d and £5 9s 11d.

(£2 16s 4d - I think)

Fall of Saigon (1975)

Daily Mail dated Wednesday 30th April 1975

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From 1973 direct US Military involvement in South Vietnam was being wound down and by 1975, what remained of the South Vietnamese Army was not capable of withstanding the advance of the Communist North forces and it was inevitable that the South’s capital Saigon would fall sooner or later.

In early April 1975 the Communist Army was getting so close that many US personnel were evacuated from Tan Son Nhut airport, but by the last week in April the Communists were on the outskirts of Saigon and Operation Frequent Wind was activated. Helicopters were used to evacuate over 1300 Americans and nearly 6000 ‘vulnerable’ Vietnamese from central Saigon to aircraft carriers waiting out at sea.

The North Vietnamese forces didn’t interfere with the evacuation and only moved into the city when it had finished at 08:00 on the 30th April. The Vietnam War, which had started18 years earlier, finally ended. Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh City.

Random Ad - Nurofilm (1930's)

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1930's advert for Nurofilm roll camera film. Only 8 shots per reel. Before digital cameras you'd take your 8 (or 12 or 24 or 36) pictures not knowing wether or not you'd managed to get Auntie Flo's head in focus let alone in the frame, and then take the reel into a chemist to be processed and printed. Several days later the result could be 8 close-up snaps of your thumb or 8 perfectly composed artistic photographs. What fun!

Random Cutting - Little Rock: Faubus Defiant (1958)

13th September 1958

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In 1954 the US Supreme Court had ordered that all Schools should be racially de-segregated, consequently the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People encouraged black students to enrole in previously all-white schools. In 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas' Governor, Orval Faubus, brought in the National Guard to prevent black students enrolling. President Eisenhower oredered the U.S Army to intervene and also brought the Arkansas National Guard under direct Federal control. In September 1958 Faubus tried another tack; he passed a bill to close down the 4 major high schools in Little Rock. The schools re-opened the following August. 

Proclamation of King Edward VII (1901)

The Guernsey Advertiser dated Saturday February 2nd 1901

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When Queen Victoria died on the 22nd January 1901, her son and heir Albert Edward was 59 years old and had lived a 'full' life during his long wait to become King. The Coronation was set for the 26th of July but had to be postponed when he had to be rushed to hospital 2 days earlier for an appendectomy. The Coronation of Edward VII finally went ahead on the 9th of August. 

After Victoria's long and isolated mourning for her husband Albert, the popularity of the Royals was at a low ebb but Edward soon changed that by numerous public appearances here and on the Continent.

A life-long heavy smoker he died of a heart attack on the 6th may 1910 and his son became George V.

The poem which also appeared on the front page is, by modern standards, well over the top and makes the eulogies to Princess Diana look mundane.