1 November

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 1 November:

Scene from Othello

1. Born this date in 1762 was Spencer Perceval, British statesman and Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated.
2. Also born on this date, in 1887, was Laurence Stephen Lowry, painter famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of northern England during the early 20th century. He is best known for urban landscapes with many human figures (the matchstick men of the 1970s hit song).
3. In 1999 the director of a French zoo was crushed to death by a Hippopotamus in rut. Jean Ducuing was cycling around the park in Pessac, near Bordeaux, when Komir, a seven-year-old randy male hippo, charged through an electrified fence. Posters for the zoo featured a picture of Komir with M Ducing's head in his mouth.
4. In 1889, North and South Dakota entered the union as the 39th and 40th states.
5. It's been a day for premiers of Shakespeare plays. In 1604, Othello was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London. In 1611, The Tempest was first presented, also at Whitehall Palace in London.
6. In 1848, W H Smith opened their first railway bookstall at Euston Station, the start of Britain’s first multiple retailer.
7. In 1871, composer Gustav Mahler, aged 20, wrote that he'd become a vegetarian. He said he thought it would regenerate the human race if everybody stopped eating meat.
8. Barbed Wire was invented by Joseph F. Glidden on this date in 1873.
9. Martin Shenton fell down 109 stairs at the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster on this date in 1988, and walked away uninjured. He was a stunt man and staged the whole thing for charity. He was sponsored per step in his fall and he not only helped out the charity, but also set the record for the world's longest fall down stairs.
10. In 1999, a cleaner at Buckhurst Hill mistook a gooey plastic Alien Egg toy for a human foetus, and called Transport Police, who took it to Whipps Cross Hospital.

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