On this day in history

[SteveJB]

The Plank was an amazing bit of humour

 

[Helena2019]

 

[SteveJB]

I've seen the film and Forest did not say that

 

[Chas]

On this day in 2018 Grotbags died.

 

[hopeless wanderer]

Today in 2011 the world's first synthetic organ transplant was successfully completed by surgeons in Sweden. The operation took place in June when surgeons transplanted a completely synthetic trachea and covered it in the patient's stem cells. The thirty-six year old patient was reportedly recovering well a month after the actual operation.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1984 A massive fire devastates large parts of York Minster causing an estimated £1m damage. Watch our archive report from the scene.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1990 Canadian police attacked protestors in Oka , Quebec who were trying to prevent a golf course being built on the burial grounds of Mohawk people.30 armed Mohawk defended the barricade blocking access to the site and in the ensuing gun battle 1 police officer was was killed & The Mohawks seized six vehicles, including four police cars, and commandeered the front-end loader to crush the vehicles and use them to form a barricade across the main highway.

 

[Towpack]

On this day, in 1971, F1 and Le Mans winner Pedro Rodriquez lost his life in a sports car race accident at the Norisring after a tyre let go. A very capable driver destined for stardom but sadly it wasn't to be.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1989 Hundreds of thousands of people in Paris celebrated the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, while others protest - watch our archive report to find out more.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1896 legendary Spanish anarchist and Civil War fighter Buenaventura Durruti was born. Apprentice fitter on the railways & later factory worker he spent years on the run from the Spanish state , including time spent in Paris working as a mechanic .His role in the FIA - the Iberian anarchist federation & the CNT union was important in the resistance to the fascist coup led by Franco.
his most famous quote
"It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute."

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 2014 Eric Garner was chocked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo who used a prohibited chokehold whist arresting Garner on suspicion of selling cigarettes from untaxed packs.Despite being filmed and saying 11 times "I can't breathe " the police failed to give proper assistance to Garner who then lost consciousness .Paramedics who arrived several minuets later also failed to give proper first aid and according to police Garner died of a heart attack on the way to hospital.The coroner ruled that his death was homicide.
A grand jury decided not to charge Pantaleo , who went on to take home more than $400 000 pay in the subsequent 5 years of employment by NYPD before he was sacked.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1936, a Spanish military uprising began in Morocco as right wing generals declared war on the new Republican government.
In Barcelona workers began to respond as members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo union seized 200 rifles from the holds of two ships docked in the harbour and distributed them to union activists.
These events marked the beginning of the Spanish civil war. In the coming days,full-scale social revolution would break out which would set the Spanish working class, and volunteers from across the world, against the combined might of the bulk of the Spanish military backed up by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

 

[BobMurphy]

What were the Spanish doing in Morocco - I though it was a French colony. When I was there the locals spoke Berber or French !

Confused.

Bob.

 

[chadr]

Spain colonised part of Morocco - unimaginatively called "Spanish Morocco".

More about the uprising here

 

[flint]

They still have a couple of enclaves in the north, Ceuta and Melilla and they used to claim sovereignty over parts of the south in Spanish Sahara, which once the Spanish had left was occupied by Morocco, an area still disputed by the Sahrawi who are mainly forced to live in refugee camps in Algeria. Francos Moroccan troops were noted for their brutality.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1936, in response to a right-wing coup by general Francisco Franco, workers across Spain took up arms and launched one of the most far-reaching social revolutions in history. The ensuing civil war pitted the working class against the Spanish capitalists, who were backed by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. In the revolutionary areas, anarchist and socialist workers and peasants took over workplaces and land and began to run them collectively.Western democracies, including Britain and France, abandoned the republic and enforced a blockade on Spain which stopped the flow of aid and weapons to the anti-fascists. Meanwhile, Italy and Germany openly flouted the ban, and the US oil giant Texaco supplied the nationalists with oil and other supplies without even demanding payment, while stopping any supplies to the republic.For a first hand account of some of the events see Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in1953 a mass strike movement began in the Soviet gulags system following the death of Stalin.Prison camps were set up in Russia by the Bolsheviks soon after the October 1917 revolution and the scale of imprisonment expanded enormously beginning in the late 1920s after anarchist opposition to the regime had been defeated .From the 1930s through the mid 1950s, camps around the country contained millions of prisoners (from common criminals to political prisoners such as dissidents and opponents of the regime) working in inhumane conditions. Many died due to overwork, extreme climate, disease and malnutrition.

 

[Chas]

One of the worst elections in British history.
On this day in 1994 Tony Blair is elected leader of the Labour Party after securing 57% of the vote - watch our archive report.

 

[flint]

On this day (roughly), the Battle of Anwar (or Annual) took place where the Spanish forces in the Rif region of Morocco were routed. This was to result in the Rif War ( Rif War - Wikipedia - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club] ). It was a very brutal war, poison gas was used extensively by the Spanish (the effects of which are still being felt), and it gave Franco a taste for what would come later in his own country.

 

[goodoldboy]

One of the worst elections in British history.

i'm no fan of Blair but why was this the worst result ?because of what he did ?