Today was the beginning of the end of Hitler's 1000 year Reich in 1944 when thousands of British, Americans and even some Frenchmen waded ashore on the Normandy beaches as part of Operation Overlord. This was D-Day, deliverance day and after the shambles of similar operations in earlier wars (Napoleonic and First World, for instance) no one was sure it would actually work. Troops were driven into the shallows by amphibious vehicles known as Ducks and people should have had more faith in them. They appeared as early as 1200(ish) in Russell Crowe's Robin Hood (2010). Oh, ye of little faith!
Oh for heaven's sake, 7 Double You You, yes, I am joking. No, they didn't have them. No, I have no idea what accent Russell Crowe is attempting in the film.
In other news ...
1984 hit the bookshops today in 1949. George Orwell's pessimistic view of the future looked forward to a time when two of the worst television programmes in history would actually have a following - Room 101 and Big Brother.
Two little known facts for you now:
Firstly (and obviously when you think about it) Orwell simply reversed the date when he wrote the book and as he was writing in 1948, he called it 1984. If he had chosen the publication date instead, he would have called in 1994. So there was absolutely no clever predictions going on - nothing was going to happen in 1984 and by gum, nothing did.
Secondly, George Orwell was really Eric Blair, father of a future Prime Minister.
Who knew?
