Scott Allsop's Blog, page 219

21st May 1927 & 1932: First male & female solo transatlantic flights

On the 21st May 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to make a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic when he flew 3,600 miles from New York to Paris.  On exactly the same date five years later, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic when she landed in Northern Ireland, having been forced to abandon her intended destination of Paris due to technical difficulties. Lindbergh’s flight in The Spirit of St Louis earned him not only enormous fame but also...

20th May 1882: Establishment of the Triple Alliance

Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. Germany and Austria-Hungary had formed the defensive Dual Alliance in 1879 in which both countries agreed to assist each other if they were attacked by Russia and promised benevolent neutrality to the other in case of war with another nation. Two years later Italy, which had North African imperial ambitions, was frustrated by France’s seizure of Tunisia. Wishing to secure a foreign alliance in case of future aggression from France...

19th May 1536: Execution of Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London

On the 19th May 1536, Anne Boleyn – Henry VIII’s second wife and mother of the future Elizabeth I – was beheaded in the Tower of London, having been found guilty of adultery, treason, and incest. Although found unanimously guilty by a jury of 27 peers, the evidence against her was questionable.  Only one person accused of an affair with Anne admitted his guilt, and this was allegedly extracted under torture.  Some historians believe that her involvement in court politics led the influential T...

18th May 1830: The world’s first lawnmower licensed for manufacture by Edwin Budding

British inventor Edwin Budding went into partnership with foundry owner John Ferrabee to manufacture the world’s first lawn mower. Edwin Budding grew up near the Gloucestershire town of Stroud, where he often saw teams of labourers using scythes to manually cut the lawns of the landed gentry. The labour-intensive nature of this work would later inspire him to create the ubiquitous machine. Having begun work in an iron foundry as a pattern maker, Budding came across a mechanical napping machin...

17th May 1902: Ancient Antikythera Mechanism ‘computer’ identified

On the 17th May 1902, an ancient analogue computer known as the Antikythera mechanism was first identified by Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais.  The clockwork computer uses a complex system of bronze gears to calculate astronomical phenomena such as eclipses, and the cycle of forthcoming Olympic Games. Although Stais didn’t discover the mechanism, he was the first to notice inscriptions and a gear wheel embedded in a lump of corroded bronze and wood brought up from an ancient Greek wreck. ...

16th May 1916: The Sykes-Picot Agreement ratified by Britain and France

The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, formally known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was ratified. The agreement was designed to deal with the future of the Ottoman Empire, which had been known as ‘the sick man of Europe’ in the preceding years due to its declining power. After the Ottomans joined the First World War on the side of the Central Powers, the Allies began discussing policy towards their territory. Britain and France had already agreed to Russia’s claim to Cons...

15th May 1928: Mickey Mouse’s first cartoon appearance

On 15th May 1928, the first animated cartoon to feature Mickey and Minnie Mouse was shown to a theatre audience.  However, the cartoon that was shown that day was not Steamboat Willie, which is the cartoon most people know as Mickey Mouse’s debut.  In fact Mickey’s first animated appearance was in a silent short called Plane Crazy, but the cartoon failed to secure a distributor until a soundtrack was added a year later.  It was finally released on the 29th March 1929, 11 months after its firs...

14th May 1955: The establishment of the Warsaw Pact

The USSR and seven other European countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance better known as the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact was established shortly after West Germany was admitted to NATO. The USSR was concerned by the remilitarisation of West Germany, something it had tried to avoid when it proposed a new European Security Treaty that failed to gain support from the Western powers in November 1954. Just five days after West Germany joined NATO representat...

13th May 1787: The First Fleet departs for Australia

On the 13th May 1787, the eleven ships of the “First Fleet” set sail under Captain Arthur Phillip from Portsmouth, England, to establish a penal colony in Australia.  As well as over 1,000 convicts who had been sentenced to transportation, the ships also carried officers, crew, marines and their families. It took 252 days for the six convict ships, three store ships, and two Royal Navy escort ships to complete the journey.  The route involved the ships sailing first from Portsmouth to Tenerif...

12th May 1846: The Donner Party begin their ill-fated journey to California

The Donner Party departed Independence, Missouri on their ill-fated journey to California. The 1840s had seen a dramatic increase in the number of pioneers undertaking the long and dangerous journey to settle in the western United States. The California Trail shared its initial stages with the 2,170-mile (3,490 km) Oregon Trail but, after reading about a short cut in a guidebook by Lansford Hastings, a party led by George Donner and James F. Reed decided to take this route. The group of 20 wa...