10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 13 July:
Two famous actors were born on this date. In 1940, Patrick Stewart, whose long career includes performances in Shakespearean productions. However, he’s best known for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Xavier in the X-Men films. In 1942, Harrison Ford, US actor best known for playing archaeologist and action hero Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., space pilot Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and android tracker Rick Deckard in Blade Runner.
In 1997, a 22 year old man in Virginia died bungee jumping from a 70ft railway trestle. He’d carefully measured the length of his ropes to make sure they were less than 70ft, but forgot that they would stretch.
This was the night of the 1911 Census. A suffragette hid in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons overnight so she could record The House of Commons as her address.
In 1973, The Everly Brothers had a barney on stage during a concert at Knott's Berry Farm. Phil smashed his Guitar and stormed off stage.
In 1985, the Live Aid concerts for starving people in Africa were held in Philadelphia and London. The shows were organised by Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldof and the shows were either watched or listened to by an audience of one and a half billion people in 160 countries, making it the biggest live broadcast ever known. The act which kicked off the proceedings was Status Quo. The event raised over £40million.
In 1865, Englishman Edward Whymper first climbed the Matterhorn.
In 1773, a group of London brokers bought a building in Threadneedle Street, London, and called it the Stock Exchange. Any broker could use it for a daily fee of two and a half pence. Before this, shares were bought and sold in Coffee shops.
Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace on this date in 1837 and became the first monarch to call the 600 room mansion home.
The world’s most expensive birthday party was held on this date in 1996. The birthday boy was the Sultan of Brunei and it was his 50th. The highlight of the party was concerts featuring Michael Jackson, who was paid $16 million to perform. The total bill came to $27.2 million.
In 1816, there was rain, hail and Snow in New England. It appeared that the unseasonal freak weather had been correctly predicted by Robert B Thomas, founder and editor of the Farmer’s Almanac, but his forecast was as freaky as the weather. He’d been ill in bed with flu and hadn’t sent in his prediction for 13 July. The printer sent an office boy to Thomas’s home for the weather forecast. As he was feeling somewhat, well, under the weather, he sent the boy away, saying the printer could put in whatever he damn well liked. The printer, in a fit of pique, one presumes, wrote ‘Rain, hail and snow’ for the height of summer. When Thomas recovered and saw the forecast, he was horrified, and fearing for his reputation, ordered that the proofs be destroyed. Some, however, had already found their way into circulation. When it actually did rain, hail and snow on July 13, Mr Thomas became established as the foremost weather forecaster of his time, and put most of his competitors out of business.
I write Fiction, too.
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