On This Day in History - 29th November

561AD - Chlotarius I, king of the France, reigning between 558AD and 561AD, died aged around 61 years
1314AD - Philip IV, the Handsome, King of France died - Not a good day for French Monarchs it would seem!

Cardinal Thomas Wolsley

1338AD - Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III of England born today 
1530AD Thomas Wolsey, English Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, died en route from York to his imprisonment in the Tower of London during Henry VIII's rule

1745AD - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army moves into Manchester & occupies Carlisle in an attempt to conquer England
1775AD - Sir James Jay invents invisible ink - I wonder if any secret documents written with this ink survive? How would you know?
1781AD - The crew of the slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance. In a Court of Law, it was proven that the dumping of Slaves was just dumping of cargo, therefore lawful. This lead to the creation of a movement in England to abolish slavery as they weren't just cargo, but people. It disgusted some people that slaves were not considered of equal status as humans. but to that of a barrel of apples or plank of wood.

1870AD - Compulsory education proclaimed in England. Initially The National School's system started to build template schools all across England, but after a couple of decades, the building programme was issued to the Church of England, part funded by the National Schools System, and lead to an awful lot of "Church of England" schools being set up - some still existing today in nearly their original form, but most retain the name, but are now on new sites

1898AD - C. S. Lewis, Belfast, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, born

C S Lewis

1907AD - British nurse Florence Nightingale, aged 87, was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work tending the wounded during the Crimean War. The Lady with the Lamp pioneered medical treatment for soldiers and other such traumas.

1910AD - The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine
1949AD - Uranium mine explosions in East Germany kills 3,700
1962AD - Great-Britain & France decide to jointly build Concorde. The runway at Filton Airfield in Bristol was especially extended to enable the aircraft to take test flights during its development

Mary Whitehouse

1965AD - Housewife Mary Whitehouse began her Clean Up TV Campaign by setting up the National Viewers and Listeners' Association to tackle 'bad taste and irresponsibility'. Her outspokenness lead to TV censorship and reform, but also earned her ridicule by some members of the entertainment industry, even having a comedy show, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, named after her.

1973AD - Ryan Giggs, Welsh footballer born. He is the most decorated footballer in English football. He has won 13 Premier League winner's medals, four FA Cup winner's medals, three League Cup winner's medals and two Champions League winner's medals. He has two runner-up medals from the Champions League, three FA Cup finals and two League Cup finals, as well as being part of the team five times when it finished second in the Premier League. He also has been awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2007

Graham Hill

1975AD - British racing driver Graham Hill (father of Damon) was killed in an aircraft crash at Arkley, Hertfordshire 
1986AD - Cary Grant, actor, dies in Davenport Iowa at 82

George Harrison

2001AD - George Harrison, musician, actor, songwriter and former lead guitarist with the Beatles died of lung cancer, aged 58. Often referred to as the 'quiet Beatle', Harrison became an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as to their Western audiences. He lived for a time in Henley upon Thames in Berkshire, in a stately home and estate at the top of "Gravel Hill", a road that leads down into the town centre. Just because he was famous did not stop him from being a local, he would quite often walk down the hill to the shops during the early 1990's, past the home of Mrs Flo Hammond (Mike Rutland our historian's Great Aunt) and stop in to see how she was doing. Flo was aged 97 at the time and always had time for a cuppa with him if he wanted one. "lovely boy" she used to call him.