On This Day in History - 12th December

12th December

1098 - 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria

1724 The birth of Admiral Samuel Hood, first Viscount, British naval commander and a skilful tactician. He was known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars and he acted as a mentor to Horatio Nelson.

1777 - Reverend Benjamin Russen, executed at Tyburn England for rape

1896 Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London. On the same day, in 1901, Marconi carried out the first transatlantic radio transmission from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St John’s, Newfoundland, a distance of 1800 miles

1915 - Frank Sinatra, American singer/actor born

1939 HMS Duchess sank after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men

1948 Britain introduced National Service for all men aged between 18 and 26. It extended the British conscription of World War II into peacetime

1949 - Bill Nighy, English actor born

1955 Christopher Cockerell patented his prototype of the hovercraft. He had tested his theories using a hair-dryer and tin cans and found his work to have potential, but the idea took some years to develop, and he was forced to sell personal possessions in order to finance his research

1968 - Kate Humble, English television presenter

1982 30,000 women formed a 9 mile human chain that encircled Greenham Common air base in Berkshire, in protest against the proposed siting of US Cruise missiles there

1988 Britain’s worst rail crash for 20 years killed 35 and injured 113 people when a packed express train ran into the back of a stationary commuter train near Clapham Junction

2006 - Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry