Cutting - Backing for Britain to Join Common Market (1969)

3rd July 1969

Click to Read

On March 25, 1957, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg sign a treaty in Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), better known as the Common Market. At first Britain decided not to join the Common Market and established the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1960 as an alternative. 

By the early 1960s, however, the Common Market nations showed signs of significant economic growth, and Britain changed its mind. Because of its close ties to the United States, however, French President Charles de Gaulle twice vetoed British admission; consequently Britain did not join until January 1973.

Cutting - Birching (1961)

April 1961

Click to Read

Courts had not been able to sentence anyone to be birched since 1948 although the birch could still be used in prisons. On 11th April 1961 67 Conservative MPs voted in the Commons to bring back the birch but it wasn't. I wonder what UKIP's stand is?

Cutting - Death of King Alexander of Yugoslavia (1934)

August 1934

Click to Read

The Paris Peace Conference had created Yugoslavia after WWI. It was made up of territory that including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, and this mish-mash of nationalities made it almost impossible to hold together. It was dominated by the Serbs and ruled by the Serbian King Alexander, but after years of turmoil and violence, he abolished the original constitution, made himself dictator.

The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian who belonged to a Macedonian revolutionary organisation, which wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. After shooting the King he was cut down by a French mounted officer with a sabre, and then beaten to death by the crowd. 

Louis Barthou may have been shot accidentally by a French policeman in the confusion of the moment.

Young Peter fled Yugoslavia when Germany invaded during WWII and set up a government in exile in England. In 1945 he was deposed by Communists and fled again this time to the USA where remanined until he died in 1970.

Random Cutting - The Klu Klux Klan (1924)

Click to Read

This is a cutting from the Children's Newspaper dated 13th September 1924. 

The original Klu Klux Klan was organized by ex-Confederates after the American Civil War but had died out by the mid-1870's. In 1915 D W Griffith's epic silent film 'Birth of a Nation' seemed to create a revival of the Klan, who now adopted the costume and regalia shown in the film, white cloaks and pointed hoods. The original Klan looked more as they were depicted in Quentin Tarrantino's film 'Django Unchained'. By 1924 they were claiming 4 to 5 million members but by 1930 this had dropped to 30,000.

The Democrat candidate for the 1924 Presidential Election, John W Davis lost the race to the White House to Republican Calvin Coolidge.

Random Cutting - Pro-Soviet letter by Sean O'Casey (1939)

Click to Read

This letter by Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey was published in the Reynold's News dated the 1st October 1939. In August 1939 Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany had signed a non-aggression pact and had divided Poland into Soviet and German regions. The USSR would finally join the Allies against Germany in 1941. Sean O'Casey a life long Socialist seems, with hindsight, to have had a terribly naive view of life under Stalin, although it must be admitted that even those who knew what was going on in Russia turned a blind eye after 1941.

Random Cutting - Kennedy on crutches (1961)

June 9th 1961

Click to Read

It is now common knowledge that John F Kennedy had suffered from back pain since 1938 and normally wore a corset or back brace, but this and other information about his health issues had been kept secret throughout his campaign and election to the White House. JFK also had Addison's disease and hypothyroidism.

Nixon to be Impeached (1974)

Sunday Mirror dated Sunday June 28th 1974

Click to Read

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.

Maggie at Number 10 (1979)

Daily Express dated Friday May 4th 1979 

and Daily Mail dated Saturday May 5th 1979

Click to Read

Click to Read

The 1979 General Election was called by Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan after he lost the last of his small majority in the House of Commons when the Scottish Nationalists withdrew their support. It was a 2 horse race with the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher gaining an extra 62 seats (339) and Labour losing 54 (269). The Liberals lost 2 ending up with 11. As usual with General Elections more people voted against the winning Party than for it - in this case 3.8 million people.

Thatcher went on to rule Britain for 10.5 years and was either a saviour or the Devil incarnate depending on your point of view.

I can't work out what the numbers in the grid on the front of the Daily Express are meant to be. They don't seem to bare any resemblance to the results.

Major the Meteoric (1990)

Daily Mail dated Wednesday November 28th 1990

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

John Major was born in 1943, the son of an ex-Music Hall performer who had gone into the garden ornaments business. He was brought up in Brixton and didn’t attend university after leaving school at 16.

He entered politics as a Young Conservative and stood as a candidate for Lambeth Council when he was 21, winning the seat and becoming chairman of the Housing Committee. He stood for Parliament winning Huntingdonshire in 1979 on the third attempt.

In 1981 he became a ministerial aide, a minister in 1985 and a member of the Cabinet in 1987 as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was promoted to Foreign Secretary in 1989 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in October of that year.

When Margaret Thatcher resigned in November 1990, John Major became Prime Minister. He was 47 years old.

He went on to win the 1992 General Election and was PM until 1997 when the Conservatives lost to Tony Blair’s Labour Party.

Romania's Ceausescu and Wife Executed (1989)

Today dated Tuesday December 26th 1989

Click to Read

 

Click to Read

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.

What will Hitler Say? (1938)

The Children's Newspaper dated 19th February 1938

Click to Read

Click to Read

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.

Mr Churchill Takes Over (1951)

News Chronicle dated Saturday October 27th 1951

Click to Read

Click to Read

In the General Election in 1945 the British public had decided that Winston Churchill, who had led the Country to victory against the Nazis, was not the man to lead the Country into the post-War World, so elected a Labour Government under Clement Attlee by a huge majority. By 1950 Labour were struggling to retain the confidence of the Country and in the General Election of that year won by a slender margin of only 4 seats. Within a year Clement Attlee decided to 'go to the Country' and announced another General Election in 1951. This time the Conservatives under Winston Churchill won. 

The turnout of voters in the 1951 Election was 82.9% which remains the 2nd highest turnout since World War 2. The highest since 1951 was in 1974 with 78.8% and the lowest 2001 with just 59.4% of the electorate bothering to turn out.

Churchill was in his mid 70's in 1951 and his health was deteriorating, so in 1955 he retired and Anthony Eden took over as Prime Minister.

Indian Independence

The Times Weekly Edition dated Wednesday 20th August 1947

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Although Britain had been active commercially and politically in India since 1612, it wasn't until 1858 that the British Government took over complete control of the country. This British Raj (or Reign) lasted until just after midnight on the 15th August 1947 when India became Independent and a part of the British Commonwealth. Unfortunately the British policy of partitioning India into India and East and West Pakistan led to widespread bloodshed between Hindu, Moslem and Sikh factions. 

Random Cutting - Enoch Powell and Migrant Racket (1976)

Click to Read

Cutting from 26th May 1976. Member of Parliament John Enoch Powell had previously made headlines with his Rivers of Blood speech in 1968 when he warned that Britain would have similar racial problems and violence as the USA had been experiencing, if we didn't control immigration.

9/11Terrorist Attacks

The Mirror dated Wednesday September 12th 2001

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

I don't see any point in adding to the millions of words that have been written about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon since September 11th 2001. There are words and pictures in this issue of The Mirror that I couldn't bring myself to scan and post, so I will leave it at that.

Random Cutting - Would be Dictator Jailed (1934)

Click to Read

Augustinas Valdemaras (or Voldermaras) was a Lithuanian nationalist political who served as the country's first Prime Minister in 1918, and again from 1926 to 1929 when he was ousted in a coup.

This cutting is about an attempted a counter coup when Valdermaras tried oust President Smetona and take over as head of the government. However, the coup was unsuccessful, and he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment but pardoned in 1938.

John F Kenedy's Funeral

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday November 26^th 1963

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

Click to Read

The 35^th President of the United States, John F Kennedy, had been assassinated the previous Friday in Dallas, Texas. His alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had in turn been shot while in police custody on the Sunday. JFK’s funeral was held in Washington D.C. on the Monday.

Unfortunately, little John F Kennedy Jr., seen on the front page above, was to die at an even younger age than his father. He was killed in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38.

Click to Read

I don’t think it counts as Congressional inquiry, but the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was set up immediately and worked from November 1963 until September 1964 to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

In 1976 The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations began to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Committee concluded that Kennedy was very likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

Click to Read

Harold Wilson was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 until 1976 and was Prime Minister twice – 1964-1970 and 1974-1976. And Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1965.

Click to Read

I don’t think it was a coincidence that this article on the state of primary and junior schools in the UK happened to be in the same issue of this Labour Party supporting Daily Mirror as the advert above.

Click to Read

I’m sure I’ve seen a film with this plot; whether or not before or after 1963 I can’t remember.

Click to Read

Anarchic comedian and writer Spike Milligan appearing as the godfather.

Click to Read

Before loyalty cards and reward points there were Green Shield Stamps. Introduced in 1958 they were collected in books and then exchanged for ‘gifts’. They ended in 1991.

Click to Read

Back in 1958, four years before the first Bond film, ‘Dr No’, Ian Fleming, John Bryce, Ernest Cuneo and Kevin McClory wrote a screenplay for a possible Bond film. To cut a long story short, in 1960 Fleming wrote the book ‘Thunderball’ based on the screenplay and McClory tried to stop publiation in the High Court but failed. In 1963 McClory brought the action referred to in the article above, but by this time Fleming’s health was deteriorating and actually had a heart attack during the case, so he settled out of court giving McClory  literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming was given the rights to the novel. Ian Fleming died in August 1964.

In 1965, the film Thunderball was made after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made a deal with McClory. 

Chamberlain's Last Plea for Peace

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday September 27^th 1938

Click to read

Click to read (Cont'd from Front page)

Click to read

On September 12^th 1938 Adolf Hitler gave a speech in which he demanded the return of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. On the 15^th the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Berlin for talks with Hitler, but couldn’t resolve the crisis. They had further meetings on the 18^th and 22^nd. On September 29^th Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini and the French President Daladier met in Munich and decided, without consulting the Czech government, that the country should be partitioned and Hitler should have control of Sudetenland. Chamberlain arrived back at Heston aerodrome with his piece of paper and ‘peace in our time’ speech. War had been averted – for the time being.

Click to read

Roosevelt did what he could to help avert a European war despite the overwhelming isolationist views of the majority of Americans. They were quite willing to supply arms and food to England but did not want any ‘on the ground’ involvement until Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in December 1941.

Click to read

Read with hindsight this is a terrible story of a Polish Jew being deported back to almost certain death, but at the time the general public in Britain were generally xenophobic and to some degree anti-Semitic. It should also be remembered that they didn’t really know at this time what was going on in the concentration camps.

Click to read

RMS Queen Elizabeth was the sister ship to the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary and was launched later this day at the Clydebank shipyard by the Queen herself. She wasn’t ready for her maiden voyage until after the War had broken out so her first trip to New York was done in the utmost secrecy. The ship was painted grey and the crew didn’t know its destination until after it had left port.

Click to read

There’s a word you don’t see in tabloid headlines these days – ‘repudiates’.

Two words I wouldn’t expect to find in a 1938 tabloid – ‘      ‘ and ‘        ‘.

Click to read

Coin operated vending machines appeared in the UK in the late 1880’s. In my experience the most common products available were sweets, particularly chocolate bars, and cigarettes. I’d have thought that keeping fish and chips hot for any length of time would result in soggy chips and soft batter. They certainly didn’t catch on in any great numbers. 

Click to read

Just shows how dangerous it was in the 1930’s to be a woman of loose moral habits. According to The Times for November 5^th 1938 David Leonard Knight was found not guilty and discharged

Click to read

Despite the War in Europe the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair went ahead. The British Pavilion displayed an original copy of the Magna Carta, but by the end of the Expo it was thought too risky to transport it back to England so it stayed in Fort Knox until 1947. Germany didn’t attend the Fair.

Click to read

A happy story for a change. A young couple in love and destined to marry? Maybe not. The only entry in the FreeBDM marriage records for Doris Deciacco has her hitching up with a Robert Jack in 1947. What happened to William?

Click to read

T.R. Newton may have been Cheshire’s strongest man and capable of swimming across Morecambe Bay but could he eat three shredded wheat?