Sunday, December 12, 2010

POPnews (UK) - December 12th

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[Despite their usual lack of subtlety, the Metropolitan Police are to be commended for their handling of the Balcombe Street Siege, which ended peacefully when the IRA members responsible surrendered to authorities live on television, an event witnessed in millions of homes across the UK. To read about how it all began, click on the above image...]

1939 - HMS Duchess sank after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.

1940 - Approximately 70 people were killed when the Marples Hotel, off Sheffield's Fitzalan Square, was hit as a result of a German air raid called the Sheffield Blitz.

1967 - The Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones avoided jail time on drugs charges when his nine-month sentence was overturned on appeal; he was instead fined £1,000 for the heinous crime of smoking marijuana.

1975 - The six-day Balcombe Street Siege - which pitted members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army against London police - ended when four kidnappers and their two hostages emerged alive from the house at 22b Balcombe Street in the city's posh Marylebone district.

1988 - The Clapham Junction rail crash killed thirty-five and injured hundreds more after two collisions of three commuter trains made for one of the worst train crashes in the history of the United Kingdom.

1992 - HRH The Princess Royal married Timothy Laurence at Crathie Kirk in the Scottish village of Crathie, near the Queen's estate at Balmoral Castle; previously, as Princess Anne, Her Royal Highness had married Captain Mark Phillips in November 1973.

2006 - Peugeot produced its last car at the Ryton Plant, signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry - formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
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