28 July

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 28 July:

1. On this date in 1866, Beatrix Potter, Children's writer and illustrator was born. Her books include The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. She bred prize Pigs and Sheep.
2. This date in 1655 saw the death of Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier and writer famous for having a big nose, at the age of 36. Fourteen months earlier, a plank had fallen on his head and he died of complications resulting from that.
3. In 2000, the first eviction from the Big Brother house took place. The dubious honour went to a contestant named Sada.
4. In 1914, the Foxtrot was first danced at the New Amsterdam Roof Garden in New York. Music by Harry Fox (who else?).
5. In 1988, Stuart Lack, aged 19, donated bone marrow to his father Alan to save him from leukaemia. Eight years before, Alan Lack had donated bone marrow to Stuart, to save him from the same disease.
6. In 1586, Sir Thomas Harriot brought the first Potatoes to Britain when he docked at Plymouth after sailing from Colombia.
7. In 1995, a Cricket match between England and the West Indies at Old Trafford was stopped, not because of rain for once, but because of sunshine. Sunlight reflected off a nearby glass roof was blinding the batsmen.
8. In 1983, Robert Paul Yarrington, who’d collected $210,000 for the loss of his left foot in a motorcycle accident, was convicted of insurance fraud in San Jose. He’d hired two friends to stage the accident and hack off his foot with a hatchet.
9. In 1814, Percy Bysshe Shelley, already married to Harriet Westbrook, eloped to France with Mary Wollstonecraft.
10. In 1945, a twin-engined B-25 light bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. The plane's fuel tank exploded and six floors were engulfed in flame, killing 13, and injuring 26. One engine shot through an elevator shaft, severing the cables and sending the car plummeting to the basement. A woman called Betty Lou Oliver was in the lift at the time, and fell 1,000 feet/75 floors but miraculously survived, setting the world record for the longest survived elevator fall. The pilot, Lt. Colonel William F. Smith, Jr., was concluded to be to blame as he’d ignored LaGuardia Airport when they told him to land, and decided instead to continue his flight over fog-shrouded New York City. It was Saturday, and fortunately the offices were closed.

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