Scott Allsop's Blog, page 217

10th June 1916: Battle of Mecca starts the full Arab Revolt

The Arab Revolt began fully on June 10th 1916 when Grand Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the guardian of the holy city of Mecca, ordered his troops to attack the Ottoman Caliphate’s garrison in the city. Hussein’s troops, drawn from his tribe, significantly outnumbered the Ottoman soldiers but were considerably less well equipped. Consequently, despite impressive initial gains, Hussein’s troops were unable to win the battle until Egyptian troops sent by the British arrived to provide artillery suppor...

9th June 68: Emperor Nero commits suicide

Nero, the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, committed suicide. Nero was Augustus’ great-great grandson and was adopted by his great-uncle, Claudius, after he married his mother Agrippina the Younger. Following Claudius’ death in 54 CE, the sixteen year old Nero became emperor with the support of the Praetorian Guard whose leaders were loyal to his mother. There are few surviving sources relating to Nero’s reign, with the majority of what we know being drawn from Tacitus, Sueto...

8th June 1972: Photo taken of Vietnamese girl running from napalm

On the 8th June 1972 one of the most iconic photographs of the Vietnam War was taken of Phan Thị Kim Phúc, a nine-year-old girl from the South Vietnamese village of Trang Bang. In the photograph, she is shown running away from a napalm attack, having stripped off her clothes after being severely burned. The photograph, which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, was taken by Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photographer for the Associated Press. He was one of number of press photographers who were with the g...

7th June 1520: Henry VIII and Francis I meet at the Field of Cloth of Gold

In 1518 the English Cardinal Wolsey had negotiated the Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact that was signed by the twenty major European powers of the time. However, peace held for barely a year before two of the signatories went to war and Wolsey began to arrange meetings between Henry VIII and the other monarchs to salvage the agreement. Francis I of France was barely three years younger than Henry and, like his English counterpart, was keen to display the grandeur of his court. Conseque...

6th June 1944: D-Day landings mark the start of Operation Overlord

The 6th June 1944 saw the largest seaborne invasion in history, when the Allied forces of the Second World War launched Operation Neptune – more commonly known as the D-Day landings.  The amphibious landings in Normandy marked the start of the Allied invasion of Nazi-held Western Europe. The invasion was focused on a 50-mile long stretch of Normandy coastline that had been divided into five codenamed sections known as Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. German Field Marshall Erwin Romm...

5th June 1883: First Orient Express train departs Paris

The first Orient Express train, known at the time as Express d'Orient, departed Paris. The Orient Express was created by Georges Nagelmackers, a wealthy Belgian and the founder of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits that specialised in luxury travel. A number of biographers refer to him being inspired to create the trans-continental route after seeing George Pullman’s lavish sleeper cars in the United States. Having returned to Belgium where he began work on his vision, Nagelmackers’...

4th June 1913: Suffragette Emily Davison hit by a racehorse at Epsom Derby

On the 4th June 1913, suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was hit by King George V’s racehorse at the Epsom Derby after she stepped onto the track. She died four days later from a fractured skull and other internal injuries. Davison joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1906, and soon began to take part in their militant and confrontational activities that were designed to win the right to vote for women. She quickly developed a reputation as a particularly violent campaigner, and wa...

3rd June 1956: Rock and Roll music banned in the Californian city of Santa Cruz

Authorities in the Californian city of Santa Cruz banned rock and roll music at public gatherings. The previous evening had seen around 200 teenagers attend a concert at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium by the Los Angeles-based Chuck Higgins and his Orchestra. Higgins and an earlier band, the Mellotones, had scored a West Coast hit four years earlier with the saxophone instrumental “Pachuko Hop”. This jump blues single has since been described as one of the key releases that bridged the upbeat...

2nd June 1946: Italians vote to turn their country into a republic

On the 2nd June 1946, Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and turn their country into a republic. The question was simple: Monarchy or Republic? More than 89% of eligible Italian citizens voted in the referendum, with 54.3% voting in favour of a republic. Italy had emerged from the Second World War as a country torn apart by conflict. The royal family was blamed by many people for allowing the growth and domination of Mussolini’s fascist regime, and was therefore also held...

1st June 1495: First written reference to Scotch whisky (distilled at @LindoresAbbey)

The royal Exchequer Rolls from Scotland recorded the first known written reference to Scotch whisky. The Scottish Exchequer was responsible for recording royal income and expenditure in Scotland. The well-preserved calfskin parchment, better known as vellum, bears an entry on 1 June 1495 that records “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” The Latin term aqua vitae means ‘water of life’. In Scottish Gaelic this same phrase translates as uisge-beatha,...