15th November

The Deutschmark was introduced in Weimar Germany today in 1923. Inflation was so galloping that a loaf of bread cost 200,000,000 marks. Anybody having a coffee in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin paid for it before they sat down. By the time they got up, it might cost ten time the starting price.

In other news ...
William Pitt the Elder, the Earl of Chatham, was born today in 1708. Because of his relatively humble birth, he was sometimes called the Great Commoner. There were those who believed they didn't come any greater. And there were those who believed you couldn't be any commoner. Well done to his parents though, for their foresight in actually calling him William Pitt The Elder Earl Of Chatham. A bit of a mouthful at the font, perhaps, but it no doubt helped him in his early parliamentary days.

24th March

Queen Elizabeth I (Gloriana to her friends) died today in 1603 ushering out the Tudors and ushering in the Stuarts. Her last words were 'All my possessions for a moment of time'. Which got me thinking about last words generally. There was Prime Minister William Pitt's 'I could just eat one of Mrs Bellamy's meat pies'. There was General Robert E Lee's 'Strike the tents!'

And we mustn't forget Harold Godwinson's famous line at Hastings just before the arrow got him - 'Things are definitely looking up.' Some people of course claim that his last words were 'Watch that bloke with the bow and arrow - he could have somebody's eye out' - but that would be plain silly.

In other news ...

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery hung up his baton today in 1976. He was an arrogant so-and-so who for reasons best known to himself wore an RAF flying jacket and a beret with two badges. If that doesn't scream schizophrenia, I don't know what does. Every member of his 8th Army I've ever met, not excepting my dear old dad, hated him.

But he won battles.