What is it about 29th May? You might like to stay out of the water tonight because on this day in 1500 Batholomew Diaz, the Portuguese explorer, drowned during a storm off Brazil. Not to be outdone, on this day in 1911, William Schwenk [I kid you not!] Gilbert (as in Gilbert and Sullivan) drowned in his own lake whilst trying to save a child who had got into difficulties. And three years after that, more than 1000 people drowned when the Empress of Ireland sank in the St Lawrence River.
You have been warned!
In other news ...
I've probably said it before in these pages, but it's worth repeating. On this day in 1795 the Virginia Assembly objected to the Stamp Act imposed by the British (ie their government). The Virginians' argument was basically 'No taxation without representation', James Otis (inventor of the lift) ignoring the fact that because of the state of democracy at the time well over 95% of the British didn't have any representation either.
Brass neck or what? Why didn't we just declare war on the colonists and have done? Oh, wait a minute - we did.
