Sinking of the Ark Royal (1941)

Daily Express dated Tuesday December 2nd 1941

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The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal had in fact been torpedoed by U-boat U81 two weeks earlier on November 13th 1941 while heading for Gibraltar after delivering some Hurricane fighters to Malta. She sank early the next morning about 30 miles off Gibraltar. Thankfully there was only one fatality, Able Seaman Edward Mitchell, who was killed in the initial explosion.

Random Ad - Veerasawmy's Restaurant (1920's)

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Veerasawmy's Indian Restaurant opened in London's Regent Street in 1926 and notable diners have included Winston Churchill, Edward VIII (when Prince of Wales), King Gustav VI of Sweden, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin and yours truly. I was taken there by my Father when I was but a whippersnapper in the 1950's.

Random Cutting - Kray brother escapes (1958)

28th May 1958

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This is an early bit of press coverage for the Kray Brothers and reading the article it is obvious that the general public didn't know who they were at that time. Ronnie Kray had been sentenced to 3 years for GBH in 1957 but had been transferred to Long Grove Mental Home in February 1958. After the escape he became more unstable and paranoid. He was finally given up to the police by the Kray family for his own sake. 

Pope John Paul II shot (1981)

Daily Mirror dated Thursday May 14th 1981

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Click to Read

Polish born Pope John Paul II was shot and badly wounded as he entered St Peter's Square in the Vatican by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Ağca, who was immediately captured. The Pope recovered after major surgery and went on to survive another assassination attempt in 1982. The gunman was given a life sentence, but pardoned in 2000 and extradited to Turkey where he was arrested for an earlier murder and given 10 years and released in 2010.

Random Ad - Oatine Face Cream (1917)

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A 1917 advert for Oatine Face Cream. It may have worked on female Bank clerks but I doubt it did a lot of good for munitions workers whose skin turned yellow from handling TNT.

Random Cutting - IRA Letter Bombs (1976)

26th May 1976

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26th May 1976

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Lord Justice Sebag Shaw was an IRA target because in 1973 he had sentenced 8 IRA members to life imprisonment for car bombings. Back in 1955 he had been part of the defence for Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged in England.

Boer War news (1901)

The Guernsey Advertiser dated February 2nd 1901

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The 2nd Boer War between the forces of the British Empire and the Dutch settlers of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State started in 1899 and went through 3 distinctive phases - the Boer Offensive, the British Offensive and, from September 1900 until the War ended in May 1902, the Boer Guerrilla War. The story headed 'A De Wet story' makes it all sound so very gentlemanly, but it was far from it, with nearly 20,000 soldiers and about 28,000 civilians killed.

Random Ad - Plastic Padding (1986)

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This is why in the 1960's and 70's an essential tool when buying a secondhand car was a magnet. Where it didn't stick was where the metal had rusted away and been replaced by Plastic Padding.

Random Cutting - Death of Burt Lancaster (1994)

22nd October 1994

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Film and theatre actor, circus acrobat (in an act with Nick Cravat), singing waiter, film director and producer, Burt Lancaster will be remembered (by me) for Don Siegel's 'The Killers' (the first of over 80 films), as J J Hunsecker in 'Sweet Smell of Success' and in 'The Professionals' alongside Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan (oh and Claudia Cardinale!)

Live Aid (1985)

The Mirror dated Monday July 15th 1985

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Live Aid was a pair of pop music concerts held on July 13th 1985, one at Wembley in London and the other at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, organised by musicians Bob Geldoff and Midge Ure to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia that had been going on since 1983 and took 400,000 lives.

The concerts featured the likes of Status Quo, The Style Council, The Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Elvis Costello, Nik Kershaw, Sade, Sting, Phil Collins, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, U2, Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Paul McCartney, Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Black Sabbath, Run–D.M.C, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Santana, Madonna, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood. I watched it on and off all day and of course recorded some of it on VHS video.

Random Ads - Radios and Radiograms (1949)

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The latest in home entertainment centres - a 3 band (long, medium and short wave) radio receiver and a multi-disc automatic record player in a chunk of furniture that would take up half a modern starter home - all for just 85gns. That's £90 5s or, in today's money, about £2700. Or for those less well heeled a nice little table top mains radio (with extention speaker sockets) for only the equivalent of about £500.

Random Cutting - Crippen awaits trial (1910)

23rd September 1910

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Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen had been arrested in Canada on the 31st July 1910 and was being held in London awaiting his trial for the murder of his wife, Cora, which was to start on the 18th October.  The prosecution team was actually led by Mr Muir, not Sir Rufus Isaacs, assisted by Mr Humphreys and a Mr Oddie. Defence council was led by Mr Tobin KC. Crippen was found guilty and hanged.

If you are really interested you can read the whole trial proceedings in this 1919 book by Filson Young online and free here.

Duke and Duchess of Kent Wedding (1961)

Daily Sketch dated Friday 9th June 1961

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Click to Read

Another Royal wedding. Edward, Duke of Kent was born in 1935, his father was George, Duke of Kent who was a son of George V and killed on active service in 1942. Edward's bride was Katharine Worsley, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, and they married at York Minster on 8 June 1961.