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.

30th May

Today in 1990, France banned the import of British beef in case it carried the 'mad cow' virus. This was all a storm in a teacup of course, as food scares always are. But it was only tit-for-tat, really. We'd stopped importing their horses by 1565 and it was payback time.

In other news ...
One of the most famous voices in cartoon history was heard for the first time today in 1908. Mel Blanc, better known as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, is reputed to have taken one look at the obstetrics team around his cot and said 'What's up, Doc?'

29th May

What is it about 29th May? You might like to stay out of the water tonight because on this day in 1500 Batholomew Diaz, the Portuguese explorer, drowned during a storm off Brazil. Not to be outdone, on this day in 1911, William Schwenk [I kid you not!] Gilbert (as in Gilbert and Sullivan) drowned in his own lake whilst trying to save a child who had got into difficulties. And three years after that, more than 1000 people drowned when the Empress of Ireland sank in the St Lawrence River.

You have been warned!

In other news ...
I've probably said it before in these pages, but it's worth repeating. On this day in 1795 the Virginia Assembly objected to the Stamp Act imposed by the British (ie their government). The Virginians' argument was basically 'No taxation without representation', James Otis (inventor of the lift) ignoring the fact that because of the state of democracy at the time well over 95% of the British didn't have any representation either.

Brass neck or what? Why didn't we just declare war on the colonists and have done? Oh, wait a minute - we did.

28th May

On this day in 1932, Dutch engineers finished what was then the world's biggest dam (18 miles long) which turned the Zuider Zee into a huge freshwater lake. Don't be too impressed, however. In the good old days one little boy held back the sea with a finger in a hole in the dyke.
Hence the old joke - how many Dutchmen does it take to make the Zuider Zee.

In other news ...
You know how unfair it is when the wrong person gets the credit? Stand up Dr Joseph Ignace Guillotin, usually credited with the invention of the execution machine of the French Revolution. He was born today in 1738 and, as a member of the Revolutionary Estates General, advocated the contraption on humanitarian grounds because of its speed. The device had already been used in Scotland, Germany and Italy. Just think how peculiar it would sound however - 'Louis XVI was perhaps the most famous victim of Mrs McPherson/Frau Scherendorfer/Signorina Frescobaldi.'

Doesn't have the same ring, does it?

27th May

It isn't often I mention Belgium in this blog and I'm sure most of my faithful followers who have been to the country can understand why. This is why I am so pleased to be able to give it a little bit of a boost today. Don't read on, now - no cheating. You are thinking, that's odd, it isn't the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo or anything. The poor old geezer is losing his marbles. No, it is .... trumpet fanfare and roll of drums .... that today in 1900, Belgium became the first democracy in the world to elect a government by proportional representation.

Exciting, wasn't it?

In other news ...
Vincent 'Mad Vince' Price was born today in 1911. Oddly enough, it was Peter 'Mad Pete' Cushing's birthday yesterday (he was born in 1913). Perhaps surprisingly, they didn't share billing on as many films as you would think, but, God, were they scary? I can feel the hairs standing up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. Both extraordinarily nice men, by all accounts. I'm glad to hear it - it would be very unfortunate if they were just cast to type!

26th May

Today marks the last organized resistance in the American Civil War, back in 1865. Resistance elsewhere had finished three weeks earlier, but it wasn't until today that the forces west of the Mississippi finally surrendered. Even then, the Confederate navy still held Charleston. Wars are always like this, they end, not with a bang, but a rather drawn out and scrappy whimper. Even today, there are many people who don't know the extent of the Civil War, which left an estimated half a million dead and many more crippled for life. The films based on the conflict have often been rather frivolous - with some notable exceptions, of course. Do I have to mention Gone With the Wind again, as the worst film ever made?

Of course I do!

In other news ...
In 1940 on this day, the evacuation of the beaches of Dunkirk began with the sailing of the flotilla of 700 or so rather motley craft from the shores of England. As in the war above, this day is often quoted as the day of the Dunkirk evacuation, but it wasn't half as neat as that and you only have to think for a minute to realise that you are not going to get 400,000 men or thereabouts off a beach in five minutes. Even so, it was the most amazing undertaking and remarkably successful. It was just as well for morale that no one knew at the time that no Allied troops would land on French beaches again until D Day on 6th June 1944.

25th May

Oh, for heaven's sake - global warming again? On this day in 1990 (yes, just two years after snow fell in Syria etc etc) Margaret Thatcher was warning of the dreaded phenomenon and pledging that Britain would cut its emission of carbon dioxide by 30%. A UN report immediately responded that the reduction needed to be at least 60% to have any effect. The report warns of a 2 degree rise in temperature in the next 35 years (in other words, chaps, 13 years from now) and 6 degrees by the end of the 21st century. For all of us who have just shivered through the coldest April and May on record, that somehow seems less scary than Mrs T made it sound in 1990.

This day in history has been one of the busy ones so 'in other news' will just list a few of the absolutely stonking stories which began, ended or took place on this day.

• In 1935 Jesse Owens set five new world records and equalled a sixth all in one afternoon, limbering up for seriously p***ing off Hitler at the Berlin Olympics the next year.
• In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl set sail in a reed boat named Ra, hoping to relive the success of his Kon-Tiki expedition. I am assuming all went well, but I'm blowed if I remember what happened. I hate sequels, don't you? 
• In 1925 the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' began in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes was accused of teaching the theory of evolution, against the state law. A fascinating case, but a much better film, Inherit the Wind starring the wonderful Spencer Tracy and Frederic March. They really do not make them that way any more.
• In 1916, Henry Ford spoke one of the most misquoted lines ever - he actually said 'History is more or less bunk.' Still not acceptable, of course, but better than the usual version of 'History is bunk.' And that, of course, is better than the version I often hear muttered by Nine Eye You.
• And finally, in 1768, Captain Cook set off to explore the Antipodes. And we all know how that turned out!