Scott Allsop's Blog, page 224

6th May 1983: The Hitler Diaries proven to be forgeries

West Germany’s Federal Archives revealed that forensic tests proved the Hitler Diaries were forgeries. In the final days of the Second World War, an aeroplane carrying some of Hitler’s closest staff members crashed near the German border with Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s personal valet, Sergeant Wilhelm Arndt, was killed and the personal effects he was carrying on behalf of the Fuhrer were lost. On hearing of the crash, Hitler allegedly exclaimed that, ‘In that plane were all my private archives...

5th May 1260: Kublai Khan declared Mongol Emperor

On 5th May 1260, Kublai Khan was declared Emperor of the Mongolian Empire.  A grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai reigned for 34 years and established the Yuan dynasty that was the first non-Han dynasty to control the whole of China.  This is significant, because the Mongols were traditionally a nomadic tribe who ruled by the sword rather than diplomacy. The area governed by Kublai Khan was enormous, sweeping from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Black Sea in the west, and from Afghanistan i...

4th May 1970: Ohio National Guardsmen shoot Kent State University students

Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State University students. President Richard Nixon had promised to end American involvement in Vietnam following his election in 1968. Opposition to the war increased when the My Lai Massacre became public knowledge the following year and the draft lottery was reintroduced for the first time since the Second World War. By the time news broke that Nixon had authorised military action against Cambodia to eliminate suspected Viet Cong forces on 3...

3rd May 1830: First timetabled passenger railway begins service

On the 3rd May 1830, the world’s first timetabled steam-powered passenger service began operating on the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. Due to Whitstable being a seaside town, the line became affectionately known as the Crab and Winkle line, and continued to operate a passenger service for just over a hundred years before becoming goods-only. It’s important to add some clarification to the Crab and Winkle line’s claim to fame.  Firstly, it wasn’t the world’s first passenger railway – that...

2nd May 1945: The Battle of Berlin ends with the German surrender to the USSR

The Battle of Berlin ended after German General Helmuth Weidling surrendered to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Determined to capture Berlin before the Western Allies, Stalin’s generals began their assault on the defensive line of the Oder and Neisse rivers on the morning of 16 April. 2 million German civilians and no more than 200,000 German soldiers were in and around Berlin when the USSR broke through the defences having suffered casualties in the tens of thousands. Travelling at up to 30-4...

1st May 1952: Mr Potato Head goes on sale for the first time

On the 1st May 1952, Mr Potato Head first went on sale.  The idea for making a “funny face man” using a vegetable and plastic body parts was first proposed by George Lerner from Brooklyn in the 1940s.  In 1951 he successfully sold the idea to a breakfast cereal manufacturer who planned to include the accessories in their cereal packets, but when the Hassenfeld brothers – the founders of Hasbro – met with Lerner later that year they agreed to buy the concept back off the cereal company and to...

30th April 1963: The Bristol Bus Boycott against discriminatory recruitment begins

A boycott against the Bristol Omnibus Company in England was launched due to their racist employment policy. Around 3,000 people of West Indian origin lived in the city of Bristol in 1963, predominantly around the St Pauls area. There was not yet any legislation against discriminating on racial grounds so it was common in both housing and employment, while so-called “coloureds” often suffered violence at the hands of gangs of white Teddy Boys. In 1955, the same year as the Montgomery Bus Boyc...

29th April 1975: USA leaves Vietnam in Operation Frequent Wind

On 29th April 1975, America began Operation Frequent Wind – the evacuation of over 1,000 American civilians and a further 6,000 "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon.  The largest ever helicopter evacuation lasted for 19 hours and involved 81 helicopters shuttling the evacuees to US Navy ships moored in the South China Sea. With North Vietnamese troops closing in on the capital by March 1975, the US had already evacuated 45,000 people by April 29th.  However, with fixed-wing evacuations impossible...

28th April 1789: The crew of HMS Bounty mutiny against Captain William Bligh

23-year old Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty. Bounty had departed England in late 1787 to collect and transport saplings of the breadfruit tree from Tahiti to various British colonies in the West Indies as a cheap source of food for slaves on the plantations. The ship, a three-masted cutter, was commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh who had previously accompanied Captain James Cook on his third and final voyage. Bounty arrived in Tahiti on...

27th April 1509: Entire republic of Venice excommunicated by the Pope

On the 27th April 1509, Pope Julius II excommunicated the entire republic of Venice.  Having been elected pontiff six years previously, Julius II was determined to reclaim Italian territory that had been gradually taken by Venice throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Having joined together with France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to form the League of Cambrai in December 1508, the Papacy was ready to mount military action to seize control of the Romagne region from Veni...