28 August

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 28 August:

1. Born on this date in 1906 was John Betjeman, English poet Laureate. He wasn't a fan of a certain Berkshire town: he wrote, "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now."
2. In 1992, Philip Hodges, 34, was cutting a yew hedge at Fownhope, near Hereford, when he slipped on a wet, grassy bank and cut the jugular vein in his neck with the shears. He bled to death before an ambulance arrived.
3. In 1999, South Park infants school in Reigate was renamed The Orchards to avoid association with the TV series. So parents who had named their kid Kenny would not be afraid to send him to school, perhaps?
4. In 1837, two pharmacists from Worcester, John Lea and William Perrins, began the manufacture of Worcestershire Sauce.
5. The first Horse to run a 2 minute mile achieved the feat on this date in 1897. Star Pointer, a Tennessee-bred light-harness stallion, ran a mile in 1:59.25 minutes on a Maryland track.
6. In 2000, Mark Goldsmith received a £5 note in change in Harrogate. He recognised it as the same note he had earlier spent in a petrol station in Cheltenham. He knew it was the same note because his daughter had drawn a moustache and glasses on the Queen.
7. In 1857, a lawyer named Abraham Lincoln defended William Armstrong, who'd been charged with murder. The prosecutor claimed Lincoln’s client had murdered a man on this date, by the “light of the Moon”. Lincoln held up the 1857 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac for the jury to see, pointing out that on this night, the moon was "riding low”. Armstrong was found not guilty as a result.
8. This date in the year 888 was made up entirely of even numbered digits (28/08/888). This would not happen again until 02/02/2000, 1,112 years later.
9. In 1938, Northwestern University awarded an honorary degree to a ventriloquist's dummy: Charlie McCarthy, belonging to Edgar Bergen.
10. This date has been a significant one for Roller Coasters. In 1997 The Sirocco train roller coaster in Brussels got stuck, leaving some passengers hanging upside down for 2 hours. On the same day, at American Adventure world in Derbyshire, Alex Ferguson banned Manchester United players from taking part in the publicity test drive of the 80mph SkyCoaster. Then in 2003, Richard Rodriguez, 43, set the record for the world's longest roller coaster ride, at Holiday Park in Western Germany. He spent 192 hours or exactly 8 days riding 2 different roller coasters with only a 15 minute break every 8 hours.

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