The History Thread

[HanoiVillan]

 

[snowychap]

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

 

1.

Nice find/tweet/question.

[choffer]

 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, choffer said:

 

Urban myth. 

[choffer]

16 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Urban myth. 

As urban myths go though, it's a good one

 

[tonyh29]

23 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Urban myth. 

I believe it was a Stan boardman joke  ... got him quite a lot of trouble if I recall

 

that said , the Douglas Barder foundation have the story on their page and whilst they don't verify it , they do print it along with the lines

Many of the pilots got through the ordeal with their sense of humour.The most famous pilot of all – Douglas Bader – showed just how wicked that humour could be after the war, when he gave a talk at a posh girls’ school.

some could take that to be confirmation I guess

 

For me it's false , not least because Fokkers are Dutch planes and thus the joke makes no sense to a fighter ace like Bader , the german plane was a Focke Wulf

Edited February 23, 2018 by tonyh29

[mjmooney]

21 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

For me it's false , not least because Fokkers are Dutch planes and thus the joke makes no sense to a fighter ace like Bader , the german plane was a Focke Wulf

Fokkers WERE German fighter planes - but in the FIRST World War, not the Second. 

The joke long predates Stan Boardman's mid-1980s rendition, though - it was doing the rounds when I was at school in the sixties (but not attributed to Bader). 

Edited February 23, 2018 by mjmooney

[tonyh29]

7 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Fokkers WERE German fighter planes - but in the FIRST World War, not the Second. 

The joke long predates Stan Boardman's mid-1980s rendition, though - it was doing the rounds when I was at school in the sixties (but not attributed to Bader). 

yeah I should have added a WW2 bit to my post , didn't think anyone would notice   , should have known better  

 

 

 

[Ikantcpell]

[Mark Albrighton]

Probably a good as place as any for this in case anyone has missed it.

Walter Tull

28th April 1888 - 25th March 1918

Quote

He was one of English football's first black players and the British Army's first ever black officer to command white troops.

But 100 years after he died aged 29 on the battlefields of World War One, the name Walter Tull means little to most people.

Tull was an orphan who had to overcome adversity all of his life, including being racially abused while a pioneering forward for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town.

His death received little media attention at the time, and it is only in recent years that his powerful story has started to be fully recognised, in large part due to the work of historian and biographer Phil Vasili.

A campaign for Tull to be awarded the Military Cross is ongoing, with renewed calls for the prime minister to intervene.

This is the forgotten story of a footballer and war hero.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/43504448

Edited March 23, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[mjmooney]

I'm surprised nobody's made a film of that. 

[Mark Albrighton]

While I was reading about him, another name was referenced that I hadn’t heard of before, a William “Billy” Clarke Gibb.

From the little I’ve read about Billy, it seems he was the first mixed race/non white player to score a league goal in the English First Division.

As far as I can see (i’m not sure where to verify it) he scored the goal on Christmas Day, 1901 against Everton at Goodison Park in a 3-2 win for...Aston Villa.

Clearly, the fact that these men achieved what they did in the game is the most important thing, who they played for is secondary. But I love that he scored it while playing for us.

Here’s a picture I found of him at his time at Bradford City who he joined after us.

Edit - oh and it would seem that after scoring the goal, he played for Villa on Boxing Day the next day, beating Small Heath 1-0 

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[mjmooney]

2 hours ago, Shropshire Lad said:

While I was reading about him, another name was referenced that I hadn’t heard of before, a William “Billy” Clarke Gibb.

From the little I’ve read about Billy, it seems he was the first mixed race/non white player to score a league goal in the English football league.

As far as I can see (i’m not sure where to verify it) he scored the goal on Christmas Day, 1901 against Everton at Goodison Park in a 3-2 win for...Aston Villa.

Clearly, the fact that these men achieved what they did in the game is the most important thing, who they played for is secondary. But I love that he scored it while playing for us.

Here’s a picture I found of him at his time at Bradford City who he joined after us.

Edit - oh and it would seem that after scoring the goal, he played for Villa on Boxing Day the next day, beating Small Heath 1-0 

 

Good enough for me. He's One Of Our Own.  

[Rodders]

 

Was passed this history tid bit. Awesome. 

[VILLAMARV]

Quote

An eight-year-old found a pre-Viking-era sword while swimming in a lake in Sweden during the summer.

Saga Vanecek found the relic in the Vidostern lake while at her family's holiday home in Jonkoping County. The sword was initially reported to be 1,000 years old, but experts at the local museum now believe it may date to around 1,500 years ago.

"It's not every day that you step on a sword in the lake!" Mikael Nordstrom from the museum said.

The level of the water was extremely low at the time, owing to a drought, which is probably why Saga uncovered the ancient weapon.

"I felt something in the water and lifted it up. Then there was a handle and I went to tell my dad that it looked like a sword," Saga told the Sveriges Radio broadcaster.

Saga's father Andy Vanecek told the English-language website The Local he initially thought his daughter had found an unusual stick or branch in the water. It was only after he asked a friend to take a closer look did he discover that it was likely to be an ancient relic. The local museum, where the sword is now being kept, said it was extremely well-preserved.

Saga's discovery led the museum and local council to carry out further excavations at the site, finding a brooch from the 3rd Century. The Jonkoping county museum said that its investigation of the lake is unfinished and it could yet turn up more ancient items.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45753455

3rd Century!

Nuts.

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, VILLAMARV said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45753455

3rd Century!

Nuts.

We've found the ninth Supreme Court justice. 

[VILLAMARV]

20 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

We've found the ninth Supreme Court justice. 

Listen, strange women, lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. If there's ever going to be any progress.....(etc)

[VILLAMARV]

suffering from mixedupmyquotesis too I now realise.

Edited October 5, 2018 by VILLAMARV
added an s

[chrisp65]

 

On this day 78 years ago, Lluis Companys, President of Catalonia, executed by a Fascist Spanish Army firing squad.

Problems remain.

[chrisp65]

Aberfan, 21st October, 1966

116 children and 28 adults killed under a coal spoil slip that had been knowingly built up over the village school and on top of a natural spring.

The Coal Board were found guilty, but not prosecuted. The NCB refused to make other similar spoil heaps safe as it would cost too much. Eventually, public donations were forcibly taken from the relief fund by the government to contribute to the removal of other similar spoil tips.

The NCB offered £50 compensation per family, regardless of the number of dead per family. This was resisted by what the NCB described as 'a hardcore of parents looking to capitalize'.

The money raised by public donation was initially stopped from being distributed by The Charities Commission, they required proof that individual parents had suffered sufficiently and had been sufficiently close to their children to warrant a pay out.