Interesting Facts

8th November 1920 - Rupert Bear first appeared in the Daily Express.

16th May 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1836 – Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. 1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. (But we still don't have proper light sabers.) 1966 – The Communist Party of China issued the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1975 – Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1990 – Jim Henson died.

28th April 1789 – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors were set adrift and the rebel crew returned to Tahiti briefly and then set sail for Pitcairn Island. The incident became known as the Mutiny on the Bounty. 1920 – Azerbaijan was added to the Soviet Union. (I collect stamps and coins, not countries). 1932 – A vaccine for yellow fever was announced for use on humans. 1945 – Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement. 1949 – Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, 61, was assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 other people were also killed. 1952 – The United States occupation of Japan ended. 1965 – United States troops landed in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. Army troops. 1970 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally au...

10th January 1920 - The Treaty of Versailles came into effect, officially ending World War I. 1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis was released in Germany. 1954 - Thirty-five people died, after a BOAC Comet jet airliner crashed into the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Elba. 1957 - Harold Macmillan officially became prime minister following the sudden resignation of Sir Anthony Eden. 2016 - Starman David Bowie died.