Interesting Facts

26th July 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, England 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opened in south London. 1847 – Liberia declared independence. 1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hit Great Britain. 1945 – The Potsdam Declaration was signed in Potsdam, Germany. 1945 - Clement Attlee became Britain's new prime minister after Labour won a sweeping victory. (It's always a bit surprising to think of this when you consider how popular Churchill was during the war. Maybe people just wanted to look to the future and forget the past.) 1952 - Eva Peron died. 1963 - Thousands were killed during an earthquake in the Yugoslavian city of Skopje. 1989 – A federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm. He was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

9th June 62 – Claudia Octavia commited suicide. 68 - Roman Emperor Nero commited suicide. 1934 – Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen. 1958 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opened London Gatwick Airport, (LGW). 1975 - BBC radio broadcast the first live transmission from the House of Commons. 1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) opened its priesthood to "all worthy men", ending a 148-year-old policy excluding black men. 1985 – Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped in Lebanon (he was not released until 1991). 1999 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) signed a peace treaty.

According to the UN around 12 million people do not have citizenship of any country. (So, how do you end up stateless? It can happen when nations such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia break up, or new countries come into being after colonial powers leave, such as in parts of Africa and Asia, and without a nationality people can find it difficult to acquire any kind of legal status, including issues like property rights, getting married legally, registering the birth of a child or simple things like opening a bank account. It makes me value my passport a bit more.)