Interesting Facts

3rd June 1539 – Hernando De Soto, Spanish explorer and conquistador, claimed Florida for Spain. 1839 – Lin Tse-hsü destroyed 1.2 million kg of opium in Humen, confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a Casus belli to open hostilities with China, resulting in the First Opium War. 1924 – Franz Kafka died. 1937 – The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson. 1940 – The Luftwaffe bombed Paris. 1946 - The first (modern) bikini bathing suit was displayed in Paris. Where else? 1956 – British Rail renamed 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class'. Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class. (That's Britain for you.) 1989 – Troops attempted to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.

5th April 456 - St. Patrick returned to Ireland as a missionary bishop. 1614 - In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe. 1621 - The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to Great Britain. 1722 - The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island. 1904 - The first international rugby league match was played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh & Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England. 1923 - Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company began production of balloon-tyres. 1930 - In an act of civil disobedience, Gandhi broke British law by marching to the sea and making salt. 1955 - Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. 1956 - Fidel Castro declared himself at war with the President of Cuba. 2008 - Charlton Heston died.

20th March 1956 - Tunisia gained independence from France. 1993 - Johnathan Ball, aged 3, died in a bomb attack in Warrington. He was in town with his babysitter buying a Mothering Sunday Card. Tim Parry, 12, was fatally injured and died five days later in hospital. 1997 - The Liggett Group, the fifth-largest U.S. tobacco company, admitted that smoking was addictive and caused health problems and that the tobacco industry had sought for years to sell its products to children as young as 14. 2003 - American launched missiles hit the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Civilian casualties were not counted.

1st November 1956 - Premium Bonds came into being. (You buy some bonds, you get entered into a monthly draw, you win - or not - as the case may be. The great thing about them is that you don't lose your initial investment.)

12th November 1439 – Plymouth, England, became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament. 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, was guillotined. 1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line delineating the border between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan was signed by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in British India. 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. 1918 – Austria became a republic. 1927 – Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union. 1933 – Hugh Gray took the first known photographs alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster. 1956 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia joined the United Nations. 1956 – 111 people, including 103 refugees, were killed by the Israeli army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, in the midst of the Suez Crisis. The United Nations were unable to determine the circumstances surrounding

It's only 62 years since the last person was prosecuted for witchcraft in the UK. (Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) was a Scottish medium. During World War II, she held a seance in Portsmouth at which she indicated knowledge that a warship had been sunk. Because this fact had been kept from the public, the British Admiralty chose to attempt to discredit her. She was arrested and eventually charged at first with conspiracy and then witchcraft, she was jailed for nine months. Winston Churchill was less than impressed with the whole thing and eventually repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1951.)