16th December

Anna Steenkamp, a Boer farmer's wife, wrote in her diary today in 1836 - 'It was not the non-whites' freedom that drove us to such lengths [travelling north in the Great Trek] as their being placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God.'

You can't get a more Christian sentiment than that, now, can you?

In other news ...
The world went mad today in 1991, when the name of the new leader of MI5 - 'M' - was printed in the British Press. She was Stella Rimmington, the first woman to hold the job. This marked the end of the spying game as far as Britain was concerned - not that a woman was in charge (he added hastily) but that the whole thing was so public. This explains why James Bond had to undergo so many plastic surgery operations. The name was the same, but in a feeble attempt to pretend the Secret Services were still secret, the face had to change.

Spooky.

31st May

Henry Ford has appeared in this blog already, due to his incredible disregard for history in his famous quote. Anyone who was thinking that he might be right should perhaps take his total disregard for the alphabet into account before deciding for certain - today, in 1927, after 15,007, 003 models made, the last Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line. What was it replaced by? The Model A.

Go, as Mr Ford's compatriots tend to say in these circumstances, figure.

In other news ...
In 1902, the generals commanding the Boers in South Africa surrendered to the British on this day. Kitchener, one of the least deserving 'heroes' in British military history, broke the nation by tactics such as herding the women and children into concentration camps where an estimated 20,000 - one in three of all those interned - died of malnutrition and disease. The peace treaty provided for the eventual self rule for the Boer republic, with the issue of votes for the native nations to be decided upon at a later date. Just how much later, no one knew at the time and probably a good thing too.

2nd May

The Pink Floyd single Another Brick in the Wall was banned today in 1980 by the South African government. And quite right too. Rumour has it that the white supremacists in charge were convinced that the lyrics would inflame black schoolchildren. actually, of course, they were complaining about the appalling lack of grammar in said lyrics. they ought to have read -

'We would rather not have any education.
We would rather not have any thought control.
Excuse me, sir, would you mind not attempting to punish those children.'

There, that's much better.

In other news ...
Lady Nancy Astor was born and died on 2nd May, albeit several years apart. She is reputed to have asked her son, 'Jakie, is it my birthday or am I dying?'
Jakie answered, 'A bit of both, Mum.'

Isn't that cool?

I wonder if Shakespeare came out with the same idea in 1616?

'Faith, sirrah, is this the day I sprang full-formed into this breathing world or will I see the Scythesman spread his black cloak o'er everything?'
To which his daughter Judith may well have replied, 'I dunno.'

I break the habit of this Blog so far to wish a person of my acquaintance a very happy birthday. He is a Renaissance man of the most amazing kind, musician, writer, poet, actor, amazing son and incredible father and all round good egg. In case he hasn't guessed it from that introduction - Taliesin; you know who you are! Many happy returns.

7th February

This was the birthday 142 years ago today, of the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler. His mother was Irene, with whom Sherlock Holmes had a 'thing' and of course his dad was Larry, the harmonica player. Alfred himself came up with the idea of the inferiority complex, but he didn't want to make a fuss about it.

In other news ...
On this day in 1886 a carpenter called George Walker found gold in the Transvaal in South Africa whilst building a cottage. The Boers (Dutch farmers who had settled there years earlier) were concerned that thousands of trouble-making foreigners would swarm into the area which I would imagine was exactly the same thing that the Zulus had feared when the Boers had arrived.