8 September

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 8 September:

Harvard

1. The first recorded birth of sextuplets occurred on this date in 1866, in Chicago. James and Jennie Bushnell had three boys and three girls. Though two babies died, the surviving four lived long lives.
2. Two popular TV shows were first broadcast on this date. Star Trek, with an episode entitled The Man Trap in 1966, and Only Fools and Horses in 1981.
3. In 2000, a Chilli pepper native to the Brahmaputra river in Assam, north east India, was declared the world’s hottest at 855,000 Scoville units.
4. In 1954, Marilyn Bell became the first person to swim Lake Ontario. It took her 20 hours and 57 minutes to swim from Youngstown, New York to Toronto, Ontario.
5. Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson started his new job on this date in 2002, as an airline pilot. The heavy metal singer qualified as a £35,000pa first officer with Gatwick based airline Astraeus, flying to Portugal and Egypt.
6. In 1888, the body of Jack the Ripper’s second victim, Annie Chapman, was found at 29 Hanbury St, London.
7. 1636 Harvard College was founded on this date in 1636 by the Massachusetts Puritans. It was the first institution of higher learning established in North America, and was originally founded to train future ministers.
8. 1860 The great tightrope walker Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on this date in 1860, on a Tightrope, while wearing stilts.
9. In 1995 James Madel was sentenced to one year in prison for claiming £839,254 with two National Lottery tickets stuck together. He claimed his dog had torn it.
10. In 1999, Thimble Hall in the Peak District, the smallest detached house in England, sold for £40,000.

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