On this day

1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest
The New Zealander Edmund Hillary, and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, have become the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on the Nepal-Tibet border.
They reached the top of the world at 1130 local time after a gruelling climb up the southern face.


A symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit


Edmund Hillary


The two men hugged each other with relief and joy but only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes because they were low on oxygen.

Mr Hillary took several photographs of the scenery and of Sherpa Tenzing waving flags representing Britain, Nepal, the United Nations and India.

Sherpa Tenzing buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods.

They looked for signs of George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine who had disappeared in 1924 in a similar attempt to conquer Everest, but found nothing.

Then they began the slow and tortuous descent to rejoin their team leader Colonel John Hunt further down the mountain at Camp VI.

When he saw the two men looking so exhausted Col Hunt assumed they had failed to reach the summit and started planning another attempt.

But then the two climbers pointed to the mountain and signalled they had reached the top, and there were celebrations all round.

Careful planning

Col Hunt attributed the successful climb to advice from other mountaineers who had attempted the feat over the years, careful planning, excellent open-circuit oxygen equipment and good weather.

Mr Hillary described the peak, which is 29,028 feet (8,847 m) above sea level, as "a symmetrical, beautiful snow cone summit".

He was one of the members of the expedition led by Eric Shipton in 1951 that discovered the southern route to the top of the mountain.

A year later, Tenzing reached the record height of 28,215 feet (8,599 m) during a Swiss expedition led by Raymond Lambert.

Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest, the surveyor-general of India who was the first to produce detailed maps of the Indian subcontintent including the Himalayas.



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Watch/Listen

The two men only stayed on the summit for 15 minutes



Interview with Sir Edmund Hillary





In Context
News of the conquest of Mount Everest did not reach the outside world until 2 June, the eve of the Queen's coronation.
Colonel Hunt and Edmund Hillary were knighted on their return.

Sir Edmund took part in several expeditions after that including a trip across Antarctica to the South Pole in 1958. He set up a medical and educational trust for the Sherpa people in 1961 and was New Zealand High Commissioner to India in Delhi from 1984 to 1989.

He died aged 88 in January 2008.

Tenzing Norgay was awarded the George Medal for his achievement and later became director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling. He died in 1986.

The body of George Mallory who had attempted the ascent in 1924 was found on Mount Everest in 1999.

By the 50th anniversary of the ascent in May 2003 over 1,300 people had reached the summit of the roof of the world.



Stories From 29 May
1968: Manchester Utd win European Cup

1985: Fans die in Heysel rioting

1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest

1972: Japanese kill 26 at Tel Aviv airport

1982: Pope makes historic visit to Canterbury

1984: Miners and police clash at Orgreave





Everest 1953 Witness Special
Charles Wylie
The Gurkha officer who looked after 350 porters


Mike Westmacott
The 28-year-old who kept the treacherous Khumbu icefall open


George Band
A student and youngest member of the Everest team

1453 - Mohammed II, founder of the Ottoman empire, captured Constantinople.

1660 - Charles II marched into London and was restored to the throne, 11 years after the execution of his father Charles I.

1884 - The first steam cable tramway began operating in London's Highgate.

1911 - The first running of the Indianapolis 500 took place.

1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, California.

1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected the president of Russia.

70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. The Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometres.

1431 - Joan of Arc, the French peasant girl who became a national heroine leading French troops against the English, was burnt at the stake in Rouen for heresy.

1536 - Eleven days after he had his second wife Anne Boleyn beheaded, King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, former lady-in-waiting to Anne.

1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1859 – Westminster's Big Ben rang for the first time in London.

1914 – The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.

1933 - Sally Rand performed her famous fan dance for the first time, at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition.

1942 - World War II: The RAF carried out its first 1,000 plus bombing raid of Germany, sending 1,047 aircraft to bomb Cologne.

1971 – Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars.

1998 –Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt.

2002 – 272 days after the September 11 attacks, closing ceremonies are held for the clean up/recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site in New York City. The last remaining steel beam is removed and transported to the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island.

2003 - The Air France Concorde made its final commercial flight from Paris to New York City.

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1933 - Sally Rand performed her famous fan dance for the first time, at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition.
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30th May 1981 - Bangladesh president Ziaur Rahman, was assasinated in the city of Chittagong.

1985: English teams banned after Heysel
The Football Association has banned English clubs from playing in Europe following the Heysel stadium tragedy two days ago in which 39 fans died.
The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, supported the ban which was announced by FA officials outside Number 10 Downing Street and called for tougher sentences on convicted football hooligans.

"We have to get the game cleaned up from this hooliganism at home and then perhaps we shall be able to go overseas again," she said.

Last Wednesday evening, 39 people died and more than 400 were injured when a wall collapsed at the stadium in Brussels during violent riots just before the European cup final between Liverpool and Juventus (Turin).


We have to get the game cleaned up from this hooliganism at home and then perhaps we shall be able to go overseas again


Margaret Thatcher


The match went ahead despite the tragedy and Juventus won 1-0.

The ban, decided after the return from Mexico of FA chairman Bert Millichip and secretary Ted Croker, will affect Everton, Manchester United, Liverpool, Norwich City, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton. They are all due to compete in major contests next season.

"It is now up to English football to put its house in order," said Mr Croker outside Number 10.

Mr Millichip acknowledged the ban was a pre-emptive move and that Uefa (the Union of European Football Associations) would have imposed it anyway.

"It was very important that the FA took positive action and immediately," he said, saying it was the most difficult decision he had ever had to take.

The Labour leader of the Opposition, Neil Kinnock, said the ban of English teams would only benefit those who caused the "murderous riot" in Belgium.

The Football League which was not consulted is also opposed to the decision.

The Belgian government has already banned all British clubs from its territory until further notice.

Liverpool, whose fans were blamed for much of the violence, had decided to pull out of next season's Uefa cup competition before the FA announcement.




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Liverpool fans were blamed for the violence




In Context
The horrific scenes at the Heysel stadium unfurled shortly before the European Cup final when Liverpool fans charged towards Juventus supporters, causing a dividing wall to collapse and crushing fans to death. The final death toll was 39 - most of the victims were Italians.
The ban was lifted in 1990.

Violence in football grounds has been largely eliminated thanks to closed circuit TV, seating in stadiums, segregation of rival fans and the banning of alcohol.

More recently any violence has taken place outside the ground as happened during World Cup matches in France in 1998 when England fans went on the rampage in Marseille destroying shops.

England fans behaved well during at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan as well as Euro 2004 in Portugal.



Stories From 31 May
1985: English teams banned after Heysel

1973: US Senate stops Cambodia bombing

1957: Arthur Miller guilty of contempt

1966: Vietnam Buddhist burns to death

1998: Ginger leaves the Spice Girls





On This Day
29 May 1985
Fans die in Heysel rioting

1279 BC – Rameses II (The Great) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.

1043 - Lady Godiva rode naked through the market square in Coventry, England.

1859 - The clock in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament was started, with the bell (Big Ben) sounding for the first time on 11th July 1859.

1884 - Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for flaked cereal.

1889 - A painting of a small dog listening to a phonograph was shown to the general manager of 'The Gramophone Company' in London, the phonograph was painted out and a gramophone substituted. It soon became the famous trademark for the company 'His Master's Voice'.

1902 - Great Britain and the Boer states signed the Treaty of Vereeniging, officially ending the 3.5-year Boer War.

1911 - The White Star liner R.M.S. Titanic was launched at Belfast.

1962 - Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Nazi holocaust, was hanged in Israel for his crimes against humanity.

2005 - Former FBI official W. Mark Felt admits that he is the anonymous source, Deep Throat, in the Watergate scandal.

1533 – Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England.

1670 – In Dover, England, Charles II of Great Britain and Louis XIV of France sign the secret treaty of Dover, which will force England into the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

1831 - The magnetic North Pole was located by Sir James Clark Ross on his Arctic exploration expedition with Admiral Parry.

1935 – The first driving tests are introduced in the United Kingdom.

1938 - The Bren gun was issued to the armed forces. The name of the gun was derived from Brno, the Czech town where it was first made, and Enfield, where it was made in Britain.

1946 - Television licences were issued in Britain for the first time. They cost £2.

1974 – The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

1990 - President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to end production of chemical weapons and begin destruction of the reserves.

2003 - The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam.

(01-06-2011 11:29 )skully Wrote:  1938 - The Bren gun was issued to the armed forces. The name of the gun was derived from Brno, the Czech town where it was first made, and Enfield, where it was made in Britain.

Dog: Fucks that, what the fuck is that?
Mickey: It's me bren gun.
Dog: Couldn't you have thought of something more practical?

455 – Sack of Rome: The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks

1896 - Great Britain granted Guglielmo Marconi the first wireless radio patent.

1953 - Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.

1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.

1988 - The Australian High Court rejected Britain's bid to ban further publication of the 'Spycatcher' memoirs of former British secret agent Peter Wright.

2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.