11th November

At eleven o'clock this morning in 1918 the War to End Wars ended. The conflict that everybody said would be over by Christmas 1914 had lasted four years and 97 days. The stats are terrifying - 9 million dead, 27 million wounded. The Allies' bill was £68.5 billion; the Central Powers £32.6 billion.

And the world would never be the same again.

In other news ...
I've never really understood Ned Kelly. He was an Australian outlaw hanged today in 1880 after a bank robbing career of just two years. He wore body armour - a breastplate and helmet made of iron. Perhaps he expected a role in The Man in the Iron Mask, then playing in the Melbourne Lyceum. Whatever the reason, the gear must have slowed him up a bit which probably enabled the Oz police to catch him in the first place.

13th September

An indelible stain was left on American prison authorities today in 1971 when 1500 New York State militiamen opened fire on protesting prisoners in Attica Jail near Buffalo. Ten guards and 29 convicts were killed.

In other news ...
'Black Jack' Pershing was born today in 1860. He was a gung-ho general of the Great War and a famous cavalry officer before that. He also introduced military music to the American army having seen the British Guards Division in action.
What a shame he couldn't teach them to march as well.

30th July

It was WW1 and WW2 all over again today in 1966 when England beat Germany 4-2 in the World Cup. England was ahead 2-1 until the last minute when there was a German equalizer (think Arnhem, 1944). Alf Ramsay, the England Manager, said to his boys, 'Well, you've won it once. Now you'll just have to do it all over again and you will. The Germans are knackered.'

And so it proved (see Anthony Beevor's Berlin) in 1945.

In other news ...
The Parkinson family were in the news again today with the birth of Northcote in 1909. He was the one who coined the idea of Parkinson's Law - Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. His dad invented the handle of the condition and his granddad, Michael, is still churning out insurance ads on the telly. And perhaps it is time someone told him he is nowhere as cute as a meerkat (although in his defence he is also infinitely less irritating than a tenor).