8 October

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on  8 October:

1. This date in 1929 saw the birth of Betty Boothroyd, the first female Speaker of the House of Commons. In the 1940s, she'd enjoyed a career as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe.
2. On this date in 1949, Rolla Primarda was struck by lightning and killed in his garden in Taranto, Italy. Both his father and grandfather had also been killed by Lightning strikes in the exact same place.
3. In 1927 Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were first paired up in Hal Roach's The Second Century. No copies of this historic film exist, however, since they were printed on nitrate film stock.
4. In 1905, a permanent waving machine was first used on a woman's hair, by Charles Nessler.
5. In 1908, The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame's children's book, was published. It has never been out of print.
6. 1967 A breathalyser was used on a motorist for the first time, in Somerset, England on this date in 1967.
7. In 1987, the three members of ZZ Top made advance bookings for seats on the first passenger flight to the Moon. They're still waiting for confirmation of the trip.
8. The Post Office Tower in London opened on this date in 1965, with a revolving restaurant and viewing galleries which had to be closed to the public after IRA bomb threats.
9. The Great Fire of Chicago started on this date in 1871, in Mrs O’Leary’s barn in DeKoven Street when a cow upset a lantern. The fire burned for 3 days, killing over 250 people and making 95,000 homeless.
10. In 1998, the longest paper aeroplane flight in the world was achieved by Ken Blackburn at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta. Length of flight: 27.6 Seconds.

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