On This Day in History - 3rd December

On This Day in History - 3rd December

King Charles VI of France
(Source: Wikimedia)

1368 - Charles VI, King of France born. Some history records recall him as Charles V1, The Beloved, some call him Charles VI the Mad! He inherited the throne of France at age 11, but as the Age of Majority (age at which you become responsible for your own actions according to the Roman Catholic church) was 14, the country was put into Trust and run equally between his 4 uncles, however, they decided to run the country up until Charles was 21. When Charles took over, the country and its outlook improved significantly, earning him the title of "The Beloved" by the people, however in 1392 he had a "fit of insanity" and slew 4 of his knights and nearly killed his brother. These bouts of insanity grew more frequent, earning him the title of "The Mad"

Thomas Herriot
(Source: St Andrews University)

1586 - Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia. Born in Oxford in 1560m Thomas Herriot was a gifted man, pioneering in Mathematics and Astronomy, but it was his gift with foreign languages that gained him passage to America with one of Sir Walter Raleigh's expeditions.

Thomas Herriot had learned the language of the native Americans, by befriending and study the language written and spoke of two Indians brought back to England on a previous trip,Mancheo and Wanchese were the names of the two Native Americans.

This made Thomas very important to the expedition, as he could communicate with the First Nation people and gain knowledge and skills that would help the settlers. It was through this knowledge and skill sharing that he was introduced to the potatoes by members of the Ranoke Tribe, and he subsequently brought a sample back to England

Galileo
(Source: National Geographic) 

1621 - Galileo invents telescope. The original telescope is alleged to have been invented in 1608 by Hans Lippershey, but the now common refracting telescope, with its concave and convex lenses was first brought into popular acclaim by Galileo for use in astronomy. For this purpose it is safe to credit him with the telescop, but technically, the telescope for observation use, was indeed invented by Hans Lippershey.

Samuel Crompton
(Source: Bolton Museum)

1753 - Samuel Crompton, English inventor born. Whilst a young boy, his father died, meaning he had to gain employment to help the family. He gained work in a mill, spinning yarn of the infamous spinning Jenny, however, he felt it needed more work to make it a truly effective machine. In his own time he perfected his spinning machine, called the Spinning Mule. He did not have enough funds to patent the design, but released it to chosen manufacturers on demand that they paid for the designs. He received a total of £60 for his designs, which allowed him to start his own spinning mill with indifferent success.

Beecham's Pills
(Source: Science Museum)

1820 - Thomas Beecham, English manufacturer and inventor of Beecham's pills, was born. At the age of 8, he started work as a shepherd and it was through this work in the countryside that he learned his way around the hedgerows to provide medicines. He worked for a while as a village postman too, but in 1847 he moved to Wigan, where he started making and selling herbal laxative pills - Beechams Pills - as they were known.

By 1859 he had received much success and started his own network of agents and started advertising his pills, so successful was this approach that in 1880 he was able to set up a factory and start researching other medications - thus a medicinal giant -Beechams - was founded

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson
(Source: New Yorker)

1894 - Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson, Scottish novelist, dies at 45. He was born of "good stock", with his father and grandfather and other relatives all in the business of designing lighthouses, however, he was born with "a weak chest" and as such he did not pursue a career in the family business of engineering. He instead chose to write articles, novellas and novels.

He had great success with such titles as Treasure Island, The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, The Ebb Tide etc, in fact it is believed that he may well be the most translated author in history as his books have been published in many languages across the globe.

Edward and Wallis
(Source: BBC)

1936 - The Royal Family cancelled all engagements as news broke of Edward VIII's determination to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. It was viewed by the government at the time that the Nation of Great Britain would not stand by the King, if he married a woman, twice divorced, with two living ex-husbands.

Such a scandal was caused at the time by such news that eventually realising that if he were to push ahead with the marriage, the Prime Minister and the Government would be forced to resign, this would have forced a political turn of events at odds with his politically neutral position, he decided to abdicate from his throne so that he could marry Mrs Simpson.

Home Guard Stand Down March
(Source: Home Sweet Home Front)

1944 - Britain's Home Guard ('Dad's Army') is officially stood down at a special farewell parade in Hyde Park, London. The Battle of Britain in 1940 was won long ago, and the threat of invasion by Germany, having lost the Air Superiority was at an all time low, the decision was made to stand down these Home Guard Soldiers. During their existence, over 1600 had lost their lives through enemy action, all had been awarded The Defence Medal, all received a personal letter from the King to thank them for their service and around 1000 received special medals from the Military Medal, through to the George Cross 

1948 - Ozzy Osbourne, Aston, Birmingham,rock vocalist born. His full name is John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne. He rose to fame as the lead singer of Black Sabbath in the early 1970's. He left the band in 1979 but his success continues, currently he has produced and sold 11 albums as part of his solo career 

Oswald Mosley - British Fascist
(Source: Guardian)

1980 - Oswald Mosley, British politician died He served during the First World War and once service was over, became a conservative politician. After falling out with the Conservative Government over their proposed use of the Army in Northern Ireland, he left the party, crossed the floor and stood in his constituency as an Independent member of Parliament. He constituents had great faith in him and he kept his seat at the by-election.

He is famous for his outspokenness and his fascist beliefs. So much so, that some of his Fascist Ideals can easily be likened to Nazi viewpoints

Edwina Currie
(Source: Guardian)

1988 - Health minister Edwina Currie provoked outrage by saying that most of Britain's egg production was infected with the salmonella bacteria. This outraged farmers as the total production of eggs in 1987 was around 30 million eggs, yet only 26 cases of salmonella were confirmed. 

Sales of eggs crashed and the government were forced to compensate the egg producers to the tune of many millions of pounds and buy up surplus eggs and pay for the slaughter of unwanted poultry.



2012 - St James's Palace announced that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting a baby.