On this day

1415 - In the Hundred Year's War, King Henry V's Longbowmen defeated a vastly superior French Army at the Battle of Agincourt.

1854 - Lord Cardigan led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. An ambiguous order from the commander, Lord Raglan, led Cardigan’s brave cavalry to charge the Russians while fire came from three different sides.

1900 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal, a mineral and gold rich region of South Africa.

1944 - The Imperial Japanese Navy were defeated by the U.S in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, it was the largest sea engagement of World War II. This loss made them increasingly dependent on using suicidal attacks of Kamikaze fighters.

2001 - Microsoft Corporation releases its new computer operating system to the public, Windows XP.

2004 – Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned.

2009 – The 25 October 2009 Baghdad bombings kills 155 and wounds at least 721.

1760 - George III was crowned, beginning one of the longest reigns in history (60 years), during which he went insane.

1861 – The Pony Express officially ceases operations.

1881 - Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and professional killer Doc Holliday challenged the Clanton gang and the McLowerys to the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The McLowerys and one of the Clantons were killed.

1907 - The Territorial Army was formed by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane.

1929 - London's world famous buses were painted red.

1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.

1968 – Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.

1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.

1985 - An American infant, known as Baby Fae, was given a transplanted baboon's heart. Baby Fae lived 21 days with the animal heart.

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2002 – Moscow Theatre Siege: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.

1659 - Two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution...were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs.

1662 - Charles II of England sold the coastal town of Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France.

1904 - The first rapid transit subway, the IRT, opened in New York City. Today, the New York subway system is one of the largest in the world.

1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

1938 - DuPont announced its new synthetic yarn, nylon.

1958 - The first transmission of the BBC children's television programme Blue Peter.

1961 – NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.

1967 - Britain passed the Abortion Act, allowing abortions to be performed legally for medical reasons.

1994 – The U.S. prison population tops 1 million for the first time in American history.

1994 – Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.

1986: 'Evil' Bamber jailed for family murders
A 24-year-old man has been jailed for life for killing five members of his family at their farmhouse in Essex.
Jeremy Bamber will now serve a minimum of 25 years for the murders of his step-parents, sister and her two six-year-old sons.

As the guilty verdict was delivered at Chelmsford Crown Court, Bamber slumped slightly but gave no further reaction.

Sentencing Bamber to five life prison terms, the judge Mr Justice Drake said he was "warped and evil beyond belief".


No one wins, we all lose

David Boutflour, Bamber's cousin

"I find it difficult to foresee whether it will ever be safe to release someone who can shoot two little boys as they lie asleep in their beds," he said.

The trial also highlighted failings on the part of Essex police. he judge commented on the fact Bamber had "so nearly got away with five murders".

The court heard how all five victims were shot by Bamber last August at White House Farm in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex.

He then placed the rifle and a bible on the chest of his sister Sheila Caffell to imply she had committed the murders before killing herself.

Detectives suspected Miss Caffell as she suffered from mild schizophrenia and had not been taking her medication.

However Mr Bamber's fingerprints were later found on the gun and his girlfriend, Julia Mugford, revealed he had talked about killing his parents.

Her mother Mary said: "We feel very sad about it all - knowing someone that well and knowing they are capable of such an act."

Outside the court Bamber's cousin David Boutflour said: "There are feelings of sadness and relief. No one wins, we all lose".

The motive for the murders is thought to have been financial. He was set to inherit £436,000 in what he thought was the perfect crime.


E-mail this story to a friend






Jeremy Bamber (second left) at his parents' funeral



In Context
Bamber has always protested his innocence.
In July 2001 a team of police officers were given four months to complete fresh inquiries into the case.

It was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

Bamber angered his surviving family in 2002 when he offered a £1m reward for any fresh information which would help him have his sentence quashed.

In December 2002 Bamber lost his appeal against his conviction for multiple murder.

In 2004 he lost a High Court action to recover £1.27m he claimed he should have received from his grandmother's will.

He also lost another High Court case to recover £326,000 of his family's caravan site firm.


Stories From 28 Oct
1962: World relief as Cuban missile crisis ends
2001: Christians killed in Pakistan massacre
1974: Minister's wife survives bomb attack
1986: 'Evil' Bamber jailed for family murders
1979: Chairman Hua arrives in London

1831 - English physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated the dynamo, founding the science of electro-magnetism.

1886 - The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France designed by sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. It was originally named Liberty Enlightening the World.

1922 – March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.

1949 - The glove puppet Sooty, with Harry Corbett, made his first appearance on BBC TV.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 - Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1971 – Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket, the only British satellite to date launched by a British rocket.

(28-10-2011 11:12 )skully Wrote:  1949 - The glove puppet Sooty, with Harry Corbett, made his first appearance on BBC TV.

Harry Corbett (1918 - 1989) was the nephew of Harry Ramsden, the founder of the fish and chip shops. The puppet was originally all orange, and Corbett used soot to make his ears and nose black, which is how "Sooty" got his name.

Sooty became one of the most popular and longest running children's programmes on television, so it was no surprise when Corbett was awarded the OBE in 1976. However, it was later revealed that the award had originally been intended for the "Steptoe & Son" actor Harry H Corbett, who had been a long time Labour Party supporter and activist and who was a friend of the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Somewhere along the line the "H" had been lost in the ministerial processing (the "H" didn't even stand for anything, it was just to differentiate them and the other Corbett would say that it stood for "Hanything") so both Corbetts found themselves in receipt of an award!

1982: Mother jailed in dingo baby murder
Lindy Chamberlain has been found guilty of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter after a jury dismissed her claim that a dingo took the baby.
The court was told that she cut the baby's throat and disposing of the body whilst at a campsite near Ayers Rock.

Mrs Chamberlain, who is expecting her fourth child, will now start her mandatory life term with hard labour after being sentenced in Melbourne, Australia.

Her husband, Michael Chamberlain, was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of baby Azaria, but has not yet been sentenced.

Azaria Chamberlain went missing from the campsite in 1980. Her body has never been recovered but her bloodstained clothes were found and formed the main part of the investigation.

In an earlier inquest the judge accepted the Chamberlains' claim that a dingo had taken their baby but further investigations by British pathologists showed the wounds, indicated by bloodstains on the baby's clothes, could not have been caused by a dingo and a second investigation was started.


An appeal is the most expected phenomenon

Barrister John Bryson

Australian experts disagreed with the findings and claimed that assertions Azaria's throat had been cut were completely unfounded.

During the seven-week trial the jurors were taken to the Ayers Rock site. Among questions raised was the possibility that a dingo's jaw would not be strong enough to carry off a baby.

The case has taken the country by storm and become known as "Australia's murder trial of the century". It was expected to end with an acquittal and it is thought that there will now be an appeal.

Barrister John Bryson said: "An appeal is the most expected phenomenon".


E-mail this story to a friend






A dingo was thought to be responsible



In Context
Four years later on 2 February, a matinee jacket worn by Azaria was found partially buried in a dingo's lair at Ayers Rock - this seemed to back up Lindy Chamberlain's version of events.
She was released five days later. The Northern Territory government said it was because she had "suffered enough".

In September 1988 judges in Darwin pardoned the Chamberlains. Another inquest in 1995 returned an open verdict.

The body of Azaria has never been found.

The case inspired the 1988 film, A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill. An opera about the Chamberlains' story was performed at Sydney Opera House in October 2002.


Stories From 29 Oct
1999: Super-cyclone wreaks havoc in India
1998: Apartheid report accuses SA leaders
1975: Franco's 36-year reign ends
1982: Mother jailed in dingo baby murder
2003: Tory Party leader resigns

1390 – The first trial for witchcraft in Paris took place, it lead to the death of three people.

1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh, English seafarer, courtier, writer and once a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I (he named Virginia after her) was beheaded at Whitehall. He had been falsely accused of treason and sentenced to death, commuted to imprisonment. He was released after 13 years to try and find the legendary gold of El Dorado. He failed, and returned to an undeserved fate.

1787 - Mozart's opera Don Giovanni was first performed, in Prague.

1863 – Eighteen countries meeting in Geneva agree to form the International Red Cross.

1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

1964 – A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The jewels were later recovered and the thieves caught.

1967 – London criminal Jack McVitie is murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment and downfall.

1969 - The Internet was created when the first connection was made between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. That connection, ARPANET, was the precursor to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense.

1986 - The final section of the M25 was opened. The motorway around Greater London was designed to relieve traffic congestion within the capital.

1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

2004 – The Arabic news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11,

2008 - TV and radio presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were suspended. All their shows were taken off air whilst the BBC investigated their prank calls made to actor Andrew Sachs.

1485 - Henry VII of England founded the Yeoman of the Guard (Beefeaters) to guard Royal Palaces in London.

1580 - English explorer Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world when his ship, the 'Golden Hind', arrived back at Plymouth on the south coast of England.

1905 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.

1925 - In his workshop in London, Scotsman John Logie Baird achieved the transmission of the first television pictures using the head of a dummy as his image source.. He then persuaded a 15 year old office boy, William Taynton, to sit in front of a camera, becoming the first live person captured on camera

1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.

1960 – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

1961 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.

1974 - The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire. Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the 8th round to regain his world heavyweight title.

1991 - BET Holdings Inc. became the first African-American company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1997 - British nanny Louise Woodward was found guilty of the murder of baby Matthew Eappen by a court in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Post Office tower
A bomb has exploded in the Post Office tower causing extensive damage but no injuries.
The blast occurred at 0430GMT on the 33rd floor of the tower and shortly after police received a call from a man claiming that the "Kilburn Battalion" of the IRA was behind the attack.

A senior detective said: "The incident has all the hallmarks of the IRA. The explosives experts feel this was a professional job."

Security at all public buildings is now being stepped up as police fear the start of a wave of terror attacks.

It is believed the bomb, which blew out foot-thick walls, was planted in a toilet on the lowest of the public viewing galleries.

A warning was given and the building thoroughly checked but nothing was found.

General manager of the tower restaurant Guido Edwards said: "We have had about 100 hoax calls in the last five years.

"We inspected the cloakrooms and nooks and crannies and believed the restaurant was safe."


We have had about 100 hoax calls in the last five years

Guido Edwards, Tower restaurant

Police are now trying to ascertain how the bomb was planted. A search was carried out in the area where the bomb was left after the last of the public visitors had gone.

It is thought that a diner in the restaurant building may have gained access to an internal staircase leading to the other floors.

Buildings and cars up to 400 yards away were damaged in the blast and some local residents reported being shaken from their beds.

Work has begun to clear away the debris but is likely to take days due to the unsteady nature of the area.

However, there is no danger of the tower collapsing as the main support comes from an internal central structure.



E-mail this story to a friend





Watch/Listen

The blast occured on the 33rd floor


Earlier searches failed to find the explosives







In Context
Shortly after the blast the tower and the restaurant were closed to the public.
Renamed in the 1980s, the British Telecom Communication Tower was the first purpose-built tower to transmit high frequency radio waves.

It was designed to allow for the rapid expansion of telephone communications and to overcome the difficulty of laying cables in London.

The restaurant closed for good in 1980 when the owner's lease expired.

It has subsequently been refurbished and is now used for corporate entertainment.

In 2003 it was given a Grade II listed status.


Stories From 31 Oct
1984: Indian prime minister shot dead
1955: Princess Margaret cancels wedding
1971: Bomb explodes in Post Office tower
1997: British au pair guilty of murder
2003: End of Mahathir era in Malaysia