18 October

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 18 October:

1. On this date in 1865, Lord Henry Palmerston died at the age of 80. His last words were, “Die, my dear doctor? That’s the last thing I’ll do.”
2. In 1989, Communist rule ended in Hungary, and the country was proclaimed a free republic.
3. The première in Hollywood of Douglas Fairbanks's Robin Hood took place on this date in 1922. The occasion was also was also the opening of Sid Grauman's Egyptian Theater and the first time searchlights were used at a première.
4. Henri Matisse's Le Bateau attracted huge crowds when it went on show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York on this date in 1961. It was not until 116,000 people had seen it, 46 days later, that someone noticed it was hanging upside down.
5. In 1969, The Small Faces recruited Ron Wood to play guitar, and Rod Stewart as vocalist. Rod replaced Steve Marriott, who'd left to form Humble Pie with Peter Frampton.
6. In 1776, the back of a bar in New York was decorated with birds' tail feathers. A customer jokingly asked for a glass of those "cock tails," and a new word was born!
7. This date in 1963 saw the first Cat in space. The moggy, Félix, was sent into space in a capsule on top of a French Véronique AG1 rocket. Félix went 120 miles into space, descended back to Earth by parachute and was recovered.
8. In 1982, the first cattle grid to incorporate an escape ramp for Hedgehogs was opened on the A117 near Ludlow by Major Adrian Coles.
9. In 1927, dancing Bears were banned from the streets of Berlin.
10. In 1998, eight tons of mud belonging to a Volgograd health spa, worth £650, was stolen.

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