…. The Siege of Pembroke took place between 31st May and 11th July 1648 during the Second English Civil War. This was the culmination of a rebellion by Parliamentarian troops in Wales against not being paid. The main protagonists were Colonel John Poyer, the governor of Pembroke Castle, his district commander, Major-General Rowland Laugharne and Colonel Rice Powell, governor of Tenby Castle. IMG_1896.jpeg
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On this day in 1578, 15 ships and 400 men, led by English mariner Martin Frobisher , set sail from England to the Canadian Arctic. They would return months later with a bounty: 1,225 tons of ore that they believed to be gold. Five years of efforts to prove the treasure's value later revealed it was nothing but iron pyrite-fool's gold. ….
In 1859, the iconic Big Ben clock tower in London rang for the first time. This landmark has since become a symbol of the UK.
…. May 31st 1900 saw the installation of The Welsh Hospital at Springfontein, South Africa .
The Welsh Hospital was a private initiative by Professor Alfred W Hughes, the first Dean of the School of Medicine at Cardiff University and a team of surgeons, medical students, nurses and volunteers from Wales that operated during the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902). The mobile hospital initially treated the wounded at Springfontein but was later moved to Bloemfontein to help deal with a typhoid epidemic which was wiping out the British troops.
Hughes, from Garneddwen, near Corris, contracted typhoid and died while on service in November 1900. A memorial obelisk commemorating Alfred W. Hughes was erected in 1905 overlooking Corris.
….1911 The RMS Titanic was launched from Belfast, where it was also constructed.…
.. 1962: Nazi Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust, is hanged in Israel after being captured in Argentina two years earlier by members of Mossad.
Music1976: The Who play at the Valley, the home of Charlton Athletic football club, in what is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's loudest concert, at over 120 dB. The record will stand for more than ten years.
1977: Led Zeppelin set a new attendance record for their concert at the Silverdrome, Michigan in front of 76,229 fans.
On May 31, 1977, the song “God Save The Queen” earned a total ban on radio airplay from the BBC. Such a ban might signal the kiss of death for a normal pop single, but it proved a powerful endorsement for an anti-establishment rant by the British punk group known as the Sex Pistols.
