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1937 : Horror writer H P Lovecraft died
see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17472580

1919 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.

1933 – The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.

1956 - Queen Elizabeth II laid the foundation stone of the new Coventry cathedral. The new building was built next to the remains of the 14th-century cathedral that had been destroyed in the 2nd World War.

1966 - The first official meeting between the Catholic and Anglican churches for 400 years took place when Pope Paul VI and Dr. Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury met in Rome.

1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashes in Siberia when the pilot's fifteen-year old son accidentally disengages the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board.

2001 – The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

2011 - Dame Elizabeth Taylor, one of the 20th century's biggest film stars, died in Los Angeles at the age of 79.

1965: Millions watch space probe crash into Moon
A ground-breaking 15-minute live broadcast has shown ordinary Americans what it feels like to be a space probe hurtling to destruction on the Moon.
The extraordinary pictures from the Ranger 9 moon lander were beamed out directly from the spacecraft's internal cameras.

They were switched on at about 0850 local time (1350 GMT) as the probe fell from a height of 1,468 miles (2,363 km) towards the Moon's surface.

Television viewers were then taken on a dizzying journey as Ranger 9 crashed headlong into the pock-marked crater Alphonsus, near the centre of the Moon's face.

Kamikaze missions

Ranger 9 was the last of the moon probes sent on so-called kamikaze missions in which they are deliberately aimed at the surface of the Moon to take as many images as possible before being destroyed on impact.

The previous two, Rangers 7 and 8, sent back thousands of photographs of the Moon before hitting its surface.

But Ranger 9 was equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, and brought images of the Moon into ordinary homes.

Viewers of the astonishing live broadcast saw a series of pictures, starting with three flat craters - Ptolemaeus, 85 miles (137 km) in diameter, Alphonsus, 50 miles (80 km) across, and Albategnius, 60 miles (96 km) wide.

As the spacecraft drew closer to the Moon's surface, the area photographed became large in scale and focussed on the crater Alphonsus.

Large roads

At five minutes from impact, 400 miles (644 km) from the surface, pronounced channels looking like large roads appeared.

At 177 miles (285 km) away, the surface appeared pockmarked and rough, like a close-up of human skin.

Pictures remained sharp and clear as little as a third of a mile (540 metres) from the surface, and then the screen suddenly went black as the probe landed.

The final picture was made when the spacecraft was just two-tenths of a second from impact, and scientists hope it will reveal new details about the Moon's crust.

Scientists will now analyse the pictures, along with over 11,000 images from Rangers 7 and 8.

The successful mission comes just 24 hours after the launch of Gemini III, the second stage in America's race to land a man on the Moon.

The spacecraft has two astronauts on board - the first time America has sent two astronauts into space at the same time - and will orbit the Earth three times before coming down to land.


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The view from Ranger 9 about three seconds before impact (picture: Nasa)






In Context
The Ranger 9 moon lander pictures temporarily pushed the United States ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
The pictures showed that the Moon's surface was capable of bearing the weight of a manned spacecraft - a key issue for Nasa scientists at the time.

It also showed that although choosing a landing site among the craters and mountain ranges would be difficult, it would not be impossible.

The pictures were used in developing the Surveyor lunar landers, the first of which were launched in 1966.

However, they were beaten to it by the USSR's Luna 9 lander, which in February 1966 sent back the first pictures from the surface of the Moon.

Surveyor 1 landed four months later.

When the United States landed Neil Armstrong on the moon on 21 July 1969, he stepped down in the area known as the Sea of Tranquillity - chosen as a likely landing spot from photographs taken by Ranger 8.


Stories From 24 Mar
1989: Exxon Valdez creates oil slick disaster
1978: Tanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two
1953: Queen Mary dies peacefully after illness
1981: Biggs rescued after kidnapping
1965: Millions watch space probe crash into Moon
1992: Punch ends 150 years of satire




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_repor.../71828.stm

1944 - World War II - Captured Allied airmen begin their escape from POW camp Stalag Luft III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III

1953 - Queen Mary, the Queen's grandmother, passes away in her sleep after a long illness. She was 85.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...785265.stm

1992 - British satire / comedy magazine Punch, one of the longest running of it's kind, is forced to close. It brings to an end the magazine which had been running for 151 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates...531249.stm

2000 - Sir Elton John's "Aida" opens on Broadway. The musical is based upon Guiseppe Verdi's opera.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida_(musical)

1603 - After 44 years of rule, Queen Elizabeth I of England died. The English and Scottish crowns were united when James VI of Scotland became King James 1st of England.

1707 - The Acts of Union 1707 was signed, officially uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1944 - World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners began breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1958 - Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army.

1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of petroleum after running aground.

1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.

1999 - NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. The NATO offensive came in response to a new wave of ethnic cleansing launched by Serbian forces against the Kosovar Albanians.

2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

(24-03-2012 14:51 )skully Wrote: [ -> ]1999 - NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. The NATO offensive came in response to a new wave of ethnic cleansing launched by Serbian forces against the Kosovar Albanians.

Yugoslavia had ceased to exist a few years earlier.

From wikipedia

1807 - The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent, eventually bringing an end to the slave trade. British merchants transported nearly three million black Africans across the Atlantic between 1700 and the early 19th century. The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act outlawed slavery itself throughout the British Empire but slaves did not gain their final freedom until 1838.

1949 - The film Hamlet, starring Laurence Olivier, won five Oscars. It was the first British film to win an academy award.

1957 - France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed a treaty in Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market.

1969 – During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).

1992 – Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.

1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.

1923 - BBC Radio started regular weather forecasts.

1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3.

1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

1976 - Queen Elizabeth II sent the first royal e-mail, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Worcestershire.

1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita International Airport, a group of protestors destroys much of the equipment in the control tower with Molotov cocktails.

1999 - Ex-miners suffering from lung diseases won a compensation deal worth £2 billion. It was the biggest industrial injuries case in British legal history.

1999 – The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.

2006 - From 6 a.m. the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places came into force in Scotland.

1980: North Sea platform collapses
At least 120 oil rig workers are feared dead after a North Sea accommodation platform collapsed during gales.
Reports say a massive wave hit one of the legs of the platform, causing it to break and send the 208 people on board into the sea at around 1830 GMT.

Some were able to make it to the lifeboats before the platform fully capsized while others were thrown into the sea as the rig began to tilt.

Most of those missing from the Alexander Kielland platform, which was situated 235 miles east of Dundee, are Norwegian.


The rig is now bottom up after capsizing completely and dropping people into the sea

Phillips Petroleum spokesman

There were some Britons and Americans on board. Many of the crew are thought to have been in the platform's cinema at the time of impact.

A spokesman for Phillips Petroleum, the American owners of the rig the platform was connected to, said: "The rig is now bottom up after capsizing completely and dropping people into the sea."

RAF and Norwegian helicopters have been sent to the area along with local ships who have been asked to help with the rescue.

An RAF Nimrod, complete with searchlights and flares is on its way to the scene.

However, poor weather conditions are making the rescue very difficult and there are reports of people being swept away as they attempt to reach rescue boats or neighbouring rigs.

The Norwegian Government is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the disaster.

The accommodation platform contains bedrooms, lounges, kitchens and leisure facilities for workers. It was attached to the Edda oil rig in the Ekofisk field where work was being carried out.

The platform is a semi-submersible that floats on two pontoons with legs supporting the main deck. It houses workers while they carry out jobs on the oil rigs.

This is the second major accident at Ekofisk field. A blow-out on the Bravo platform in 1977 caused a mass evacuation of all on-board.



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Watch/Listen

The rig was 235 miles east of Dundee


Eye-witness accounts of the collapse




In Context
The final death toll when the Alexander Kielland accommodation platform collapsed was 123.
A previously undetected crack in one leg of the platform is thought to be the reason the structure gave way.

Experts believe it took 15 minutes for the platform to collapse into the sea.

It was not until 1983 that the platform was salvaged.

In 1988 a total of 167 oil workers were confirmed dead after a series of explosions on the oil rig Piper Alpha.


Stories From 27 Mar
1977: Hundreds dead in Tenerife plane crash
1980: North Sea platform collapses
1963: Railways to be slashed by a quarter
1989: Millions of Russians go to the polls
1994: Maiden flight for future fighter jet

1306 - Robert the Bruce (eighth Earl of Carrick) was crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace, near Perth.

1854 – Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia.

1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

1899 - Italian inventor Marconi achieved the first international radio transmission (a Morse Code message) between England and France.

1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

1964 - Six months after the 'Great Train Robbery' in Buckinghamshire, 20 of the gang were still at large, but the ten who were arrested were found guilty of stealing more than £2.6m from mailbags. They included Ronnie Biggs. Sentences totalled 307 years in jail.

1964 - The strongest earthquake in American history, at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

1994 - The future warplane, Eurofighter, made its inaugural flight two years later than expected, at Manching in Germany. Eurofighter is the most expensive combat aircraft built in Europe, and was developed by a consortium of European companies.

1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra (made by Pfizer) for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.