On This Day in History - 1st December

1st December

Louis V1 of France
(Source: Medieval Lydia)

1081 - Louis VI of France born. Famously called "Louis le Gros" or Louis the Fat due to his size, he seemed to spend most of his reign either fighter Barons that kept invading Paris for their own personal gain, or defending Normandy against the Norman Kings of England who treated their original homeland of Normandy as a further extension of England.

Henry I of England
(Source: English Crown)

1135 - Henry I Beauclerc, King of England, died. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and gained power from William in 1100 when William died in a hunting accident. He is also recognized as the first King of England to be truly fluent in English, rather than his native tongue of French. He seized the English throne before either of his brothers could get hold of it. He married Matilda of Scotland, but had many mistresses and illegitimate children by them. His only true heir William Adelin died in 1120 in a shipwreck, so he decreed that his daughter, Matilda would become Queen and married her off to Geofrey of Anjou. However, Henry became ill during the later part of November and after a week of illness died. This threw the Royal Family into turmoil as Henry's nephew, Stephen, seized the throne, putting England into a period of civil war known as "The Anarchy".

Henry V of England
(Source: English Crown)

1420 - Henry V of England enters Paris - As part of the Treaty of Troyes signed earlier on 21st May in 1420 after Henry's win over the French forces, King Charles VI of France would remain in power, Henry would marry Charles' daughter Katherine and thus become the rightful heir to the throne once Charles died. He marched into Paris on the 1st December and was greeted by the Armagnacs. This small rebellion was put and Henry did well in France, returning to England in early 1421 as Parliament had failed to send further funds to Henry to carry on his campaign.

Edmund Campion
(Source: Jesuit Institute)

1581 Edmund Campion (later to be canonised and called St. Edward) and three other Jesuits were martyred. He was tried on a charge of treason for promoting Catholicism and was hanged in London

Marie Tussaud
(Source: British Museum)

1761 Birth of Madame Marie Tussaud (Grosholz), Swiss-born French waxworks modeller. During the French Revolution she made death masks from the severed heads of the famous. In 1800, separated from her husband, she toured Britain with her waxworks, eventually setting up a permanent exhibition in London

Hans Christian Anderson
(Source: Denmark Net)

1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his 1st book of fairy tales - called in Danish (his native language) Eventyr. Translated it means "Fantastic Tales". Later in 1836 he published more tales that were then bound into a larger volume and became Fairy Tales for Children.

Woody Allen
(Source: IMDB)

1935 - Woody Allen, actor born - Woody Allen - birth name Allen Stewart Konigsberg, was born in The Bronx, New York. At age 17 he changed his name to Heywood Allen and by the age of 19 he was a script writer for various American comedy shows including the Ed Sulivan Show during the mid to late 1950's. By 1965 he was helping co-write film scripts and by 1969 he wrote, directed and starred in his first film Take the Money and Run. He had written or starred in earlier films, but this was the first film which he had done all three, which soon became a trademark of his genre.

Sir William Beveridge
(Source: Liberal History)

1942 The Beveridge Report, written by Sir William Beveridge, proposed a welfare state for Britain, offering care to all from the cradle to the grave. It revolved around a compulsory National Insurance scheme to provide all adults with free medical treatment, unemployment benefit and old age pensions

1947 - Aleister Edward S Crowley, British occultist, died aged 72. Famous for being called "The Wickedest Man in the World" he started life being born into a very pro-Christian family that were part of a strict Order known as "Plymouth Brethren" After he reached his teens, he rebelled against his families upbringing and travelled the Middle East, claiming that he had experienced a vision from an Ancient God who gave him the "Book of the Law" and using this as a template set up his own cult, known as The Temple of Thelema. He gained his reputation for being wicked due to his open bisexual nature, his openness with recreational drug experimentation and his social criticism.

1987 - Digging begins to link England & France under English Channel. The

Tunnel Boring Machine
(Source: BBC)

tunnels were created using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM's) which were large cylindrical steel "shields", that supported the weight of the chalk rock above, whilst the miners using the cutting teeth on the central part drilled forward. As the machine moved forward, the tunnel lining was erected, thus driving the tunnel forwards. When the TBM's were getting close to each other, the British TBM was aimed downwards and driven deeper into the rock and the French machine driven over the top to intersect with the English tunnel. The French TBM, costing £millions to build, was removed piece by piece and taken back to France for re-use elsewhere, whereas the English machine was stripped of the hydraulics and running components, but the cutting teeth and shield itself, being made of very strong steel, was used to perform the role of an earthing rod for the electrical works for the tunnel

1990 - British & French workers meet in English Channel's tunnel (Chunnel) - it took three years, but the work started on the tunnel (see above) comes to fruition as the French and English tunnels meet, called "Breaking Through". When a tunnel drive "Breaks Through" all work stops and a celebratory party is held to commemorate the achievement.

The Big Freeze
(Source: Metoffice)

2010 Large parts of the UK were brought to a standstill by the early freeze. Temperatures plunged again overnight to -16C (3F) in the Scottish Highland after one of the coldest starts to December in more than 20 years. Some 4,000 schools were closed, the Forth Road Bridge was closed for the first time since it opened in 1964 and Edinburgh and Gatwick airports were shut.