POPnews (UK) - October 14th

[It is two seconds of footage and a revolution all in one... Captured on celluloid strip film at 12 frames per second on location at Oakwood Grange - the Yorkshire home of Joseph and Sarah Whitley (themselves the parents of the photographer's wife Elizabeth) and featuring not only the Whitleys and their other daughter Harriet but young Adolphe Le Prince as well - surely no one at the time could have predicted the modern-day marvels to which the so-called Roundhay Garden Scene would one day lead. Down the garden path indeed...]
1066 - The opening engagement in the Norman Conquest, the Battle of Hastings was fought on Senlac Hill (actually seven miles from Hastings) where the forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army and killed King Harold II.

1586 - Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial for conspiring against England's Queen Elizabeth I.

1812 - Work began on London's Regent's Canal.

1888 - Louis Le Prince filmed the first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene.

1913 - An explosion at a colliery in Senghenydd, Wales, killed 439; in terms of loss of life, it's the worst such disaster in history.

1926 - The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, was first published... Featuring charming illustrations by E. H. Shepard, the stories concern the adventures of a bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood (itself based on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex) and quickly lodged themselves into the consciousness of children around the world - in the process seemingly engendering a great deal of resentment in the boy for whom they were written, Christopher Robin Milne. It was the younger Milne's Alpha Farnell teddy bear Edward who partially served as the model for the hapless hero, although a Canadian black bear called Winnie (short for Winnipeg) at the London Zoo provided his nickname.

1939 - The Nazi U-Boat U-47 sank the British battleship HMS Royal Oak: of the ship's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed that night or died later of their wounds.

1940 - The Balham tube disaster killed at least 65 (and as many as 68) besides injuring a further 70 during the Blitz when a 1400kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb exploded above what was, in fact, a makeshift air raid shelter - filling the tunnel with debris and water from broken mains. The site of the tragedy is today marked by a plaque, while the flooding is briefly portrayed in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, as well as in the film based on the book.

1954 - Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie made an historic visit to the United Kingdom, wherein he was hosted by The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

1969 - The new 7-sided 50p piece - intended to replace the 10-shilling note in advance of the impending decimalisation of British currency - was introduced amidst confusion and controversy. Although it was the third decimal coin to be introduced (the 5p and 10p had previously entered circulation, with the 2p, 1p, and half-pence coin to soon follow) it was thought to be too easily confused with the 10p, despite its heptagonal shape; at the time of its release, Britain's 50p was the only seven-sided coin in the world. Some 120 million were minted during this introductory period, making for the largest ever issue of a coin in history. So prevalent is it that there are even several of them in the collection of the Pop Culture Institute.

1983 - Conservative Cabinet Minister Cecil Parkinson resigned following the revelation of his affair with his secretary Sara Keays, which had resulted in the birth of a child; despite all the blather over 'family values' made by the Thatcher government, Parkinson has never met his daughter...
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