On This Day - 5th July

1810 - P.T. Barnum born
1841 - Thomas Cook travel agency is founded
1889 - Jean Cocteau born
1911 - Georges Pompidou born
1928 - Warren Oates born
1951 - Huey Lewis born
1954 - At 7.30 pm Richard Baker delivered the first live news broadcast on BBC TV

1975 - American tennis player Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship.
1979 - The Queen presides over the 1000th annual open-air sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald. Also Shane Filan born
1981 - Up to 30 police officers are injured by bricks and other missiles as rioting and looting breaks out in Toxteth, Liverpool.

1989 - Former White House aide Oliver North escapes jail for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.
1991 - The Bank of Credit and Commerce International closes UK branches over fraud allegations.
2000 - Conservationists in South Africa carry out the biggest ever airlift of wild birds.

On This Day - 4th July

American Independance Day
1826 - Former US President John Adams dies
1826 - Former US President Thomas Jefferson dies
1855 - Alcohol is banned in New York State
1872 - Calvin Coolidge born
1883 - Rube Goldberg born
1902 - George Murphy born
1910 - Gloria Stuart born
1911 - Mitch Miller born
1918 - Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren born
1927 - Neil Simon born
1927 - Gina Lollobrigida born
1930 - George Steinbrenner born
1943 - Geraldo Rivera born
1954 - Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain is over as restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat, and bacon in particular, are lifted.
1968 - Round-the-world yachtsman Alec Rose receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth after his 354-day trip.

1976 - In a dramatic raid Israeli commandos fly to Uganda to save 100 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers at Entebbe airport.
1977 - Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty is sacked by the club's directors.
1985 - Child prodigy Ruth Lawrence achieves a starred first in Mathematics at Oxford University.
1990 - 20 years ago England met Germany in what would prove to be one of the all-time classics. This was England,s best run since 1966, reaching the semi finals but Pearce and Waddle famously miss the vital penalties.
1995 - John Major takes over as Prime Minister of Britain from Margaret Thatcher

2006 - Germany suffered a dramatic exit at the hands of Italy on home turf in the 2006 finals.

On This Day - 3rd July

1608 - Quebec founded by French explorer Samuel Champlain
1844 – The last pair of Great Auks are killed
1878 - George M Kohan born.
1883 - Franz Kafka born.
1884 – Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average.
1927 - Ken Russell born.
1937 - Tom Stoppard born.

1951 - It is announced that talks to end the Korean war will begin later in July after terms were accepted by General Matthew Ridgway, supreme commander to the UN in the Far-East.
1952 - Alan Autry born.
1956 - Montel Williams born.
1962 – The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. Also Tom Cruise born.
1966 - Demonstrators in London are arrested after their protest against the Vietnam War turns violent.
1970 - A Dan-Air charter flight from Manchester has goes missing over Spain with 105 holiday-makers and seven crew on board, they wreckage was found the folloing day.

1971 - Jim Morrison, lead singer of American rock group The Doors dies of heart failure in Paris, aged 27.
1987 - The former chief of Gestapo in Lyon, Klaus Barbie, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a Lyon court.
1988 - An American naval warship patrolling in the Persian Gulf shoots down an Iranian passenger jet after apparently mistaking it for a fighter plane, killing almost 300 passengers and crew.
1990 - The day Italy crashed out of their own World Cup in Naples as they went down to Argentina on penalties at the semi-final stage
1994 - A Gheorghe Hagi-inspired upset saw Romania down Argentina in front of 90,469 spectators at the Los Angeles Rose Bowl
2000 - In his first speech as Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announces that he will stand up to the government.

On This Day - 2nd July

1877 - Hermann Hesse born
1881 - US President Garfield is shot but survives
1908 - Thurgood Marshall born
1922 - Dan Rowan born
1930 - Carlos Saul Menem born
1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight. Also Richard Petty born.
1942 - Vincente Fox born
1964 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. Also José Canseco born
1970 - Police seize a large cache of arms in west London in one of the biggest raids in Britain for years.
1976 - North and South Vietnam reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1983 - Michelle Branch born
1986 - Lindsay Lohan born

1987 - Moors murderer Ian Brady offers to assist police searches of Saddleworth Moor for the first time since his conviction.
1992 - The IRA admits killing three men found by the army at different roadsides in south Armagh.
1994 - Colombia were knocked out of the World Cup after a 2-1 defeat to the hosts USA - courtesy of Andres Escobar's 34th minute own goal. July 2 saw Escobar murdered outside a Medellin nightclub, allegedly at the behest of the powerful gambling syndicates which lost money as a consequence of Colombia's early exit. 120,000 people went to the defender's funeral, and a statue has since been built in his honour.
2001 - Barry George is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of television presenter Jill Dando. During an appeal hearing on 1 August 2008 Mr George was found not guilty of murder and set free.
2005 - Live 8 concerts take place in London and around the world.

On This Day - 1st July

1841 - Thomas Cook runs his first 'tour' - a train trip to a temperence meeting
1851 - The Australian Colony of Victoria is created from the southern part of New South- Wales
1899 - Charles Laughton born
1916 - Olivia DeHavilland born
1931 - Leslie Caron born
1934 - Jamie Farr and Jean Marsh born
1940 - Germans invade the Channel Islands
1941 - Twyla Tharp born
1942 - Karen Black and Genevieve Bujold born
1945 - Deborah Harry born
1952 - Dan Aykroyd born
1956 - Alan Ruck born
1960 - Ghana become a republic following the removal of British sovereignty.
1961 - Carl Lewis and Michelle Wright and Princess Diana born
1963 - Former Foreign Office official Harold Philby is confirmed as the "third man" in the Burgess and Maclean case.
1967 - The first colour television broadcast in Britain also Pamela Anderson born
1971 - Missy Elliott born
1976 - Ruud Van Nistelrooy born
1977 - Liv Tyler born
1979 – Long before Apple introduced the iPod, Sony’s Walkman became the first portable music player to hit stores.

1987 - One of the City's top investment bankers has received the first conviction for insider dealing since it became illegal in 1980.
Geoffrey Collier, former head of securities at Morgan Grenfell, was given a 12-month suspended sentence and was fined £25,000 with £7,000 costs at the High Court in London.
1990 – Cameroon’s surprising run at Italia ’90 finally came to an end. After becoming the first African nation in World Cup history to reach the quarter-finals. England won the match through two Gary Lineker penalties.
1994 - The chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, returns to the Gaza Strip after 27 years in exile.

1997 - Hong Kong is handed back to the Chinese authorities - ending more than 150 years of British control.
2000 - Millionaire novelist Ken Follett levels scathing personal criticism at Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2004 - International space probe Cassini-Huygens reaches Saturn and sends back the closest photographs yet of the planet's rings.

2006 - England are knocked out of the World Cup by Portugal at the quarter final stage. This was their third exit through penalties out of the previous four finals they had reached.

So it was class photos at the girls' school today. I wonder if the boys in my youngest daughter's class will be as 'special!' when posing for the camera as those in the eldest girl's class. How hard can it be for a school photographer to take more than two shots of a class in this digital age. At least then one might catch the gurning fools unawares.

Thinking Back

The Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) has docked with the International Space Station on what is expected to be it's last mission. I can remember listening the the very first shuttle launch (Columbia STS-1) on the radio in my dad's car. It was 12th April 1981 and I was on my way to s swimming gala. The Commander of that mission was John Young who also flew the Apollo and Gemini spacecraft, as well as walking on the moon he drove the lunar rover.