One of those great non events of History took place today in 1588. The largest invasion force ever unleashed against England, the Armada, was on its way and one of the fleet commanders, Francis Drake, insisted on playing bowls rather than getting out there to intercept it.
The bowls story may well be pure fiction, but if the Armada had managed to link up with the army of the Duke of Parma waiting in the Netherlands and then landed in England, Drake would stand condemned today as the vainglorious idiot he was and you would be reading this in Spanish.
In other news ...
Poor old David Niven shuffled off the mortal coil today in 1983. The quintessential Englishman, his on-screen officer and gentleman roles, his little moey and charming smile totally belied the fact that he was a quintessential Englishman, with a little moey and a charming smile
