1189 Richard the Lionheart is crowned in Westminster, and 30 Jews are massacred after the coronation; Richard orders the perpetrators to be executed.
1650 Oliver Cromwell's English New Model Army defeats a Scottish force in a surprise attack at the Battle of Dunbar.
… Charles II's aborted escape through Wales after The Battle of Worcester. The Battle of Worcester took place on 3rd September 1651. It was the final battle of the English Civil War, where the Parliament defeated the Royalist forces of King Charles II. The King was attempting to regain the throne that had been lost when his father Charles I was executed.
The following six weeks was one of the most astonishing episodes in British history, as Charles desperately tried to avoid capture and reach safety in France. It became known as the Royal Miracle because he narrowly escaped discovery and capture so many times.
Once Charles realised that all was lost, legend has it that he fled as out the back door of his lodgings as the enemy entered at the front and escaped out of the last unguarded city gate. When the King arrived at Whiteladies, some 50 miles from the battlefield, his hair was cut, his face and arms stained and he was dressed in the coarse clothes of a woodman. With the road to London blocked by Commonwealth troops and the route to Scotland choked with the remnants of his fleeing Royalist Army, Charles made the decision to head for Wales and the port of Swansea, where there were known royalist sympathisers. Travelling at night, the King found all the bridges and ferries across the River Severn heavily guarded and so decided that escape through Wales was impossible.
The King continued to evade capture, even by hiding in an oak tree, just as Parliamentary troops were searching the woods nearby and over the next six weeks, he made his way to Shoreham near Brighton, riding with a woman, and disguised as a servant. It was an improbable venture, as he was a noticeable man at six feet two, but he rode right under the noses of Cromwell’s soldiers time after time, without being recognised. He was sheltered and helped by dozens of people – mostly simple country folk and minor gentry, who despite the reward of £1000 offered for his capture, put their lives in jeopardy to help him. He sailed for France on October 15, not to return until The Restoration of The Monarchy in 1660. After his return to the throne, he told the story frequently for the rest of his life, and it is said that the hardships he endured gave him an understanding of the common people such as no other king had.
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1812 The world's first factory to preserve food in tinned iron containers (Donkin, Hall, and Gamble) opens in London, England, to supply food to the Royal Navy.
… World War II. On 3rd September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1st September. The war would subsequently cost Wales around 15,000 lives. There was a feeling of inevitability after the announcement, there were no wild scenes of patriotism as there had been in 1914 and the streets were virtually empty as the deadline of 11.00am approached.
The Second World War changed Welsh society, bringing employment and improved incomes. Many war industries were established in Wales and troops, workers, civilians, government departments and evacuees totalling as many as 200,000 were moved to Wales between 1939 and 1941.
Food shortages led to enhanced prices for food and farmers enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. Coal was central to the war effort, as, after the loss of French and Belgian coalfields, Welsh coal became very important. Initially, 25,000 Welsh workers left mining for the armed forces and other jobs between 1938 and 1941, which led to a serious labour shortage. To combat the problem, the government exempted coal miners from military service.
The labour shortage also led to the introduction of the 'Bevin Boys' in 1943 - named after Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National service. One in ten eighteen-year-olds were draughted into mines rather than the forces.
Wales was believed to be too far to the west to be subject to German air raids, however, the docks and industrial works of Cardiff and Swansea made them obvious targets. Over the course of the war, 33,000 houses were damaged and over 500 demolished in Cardiff, with 355 civilians killed. In Swansea, which suffered the most intense attack in Wales, a raid that lasted three nights in February 1941 and destroyed half the town's centre, 11,084 houses were damaged and 282 demolished, with 227 people killed.
Even rural communities were bombed. Caernarfonshire, which was near the flight path of bombers targeting Liverpool, suffered five deaths in bombing raids during the war and 27 people were killed as a result of a raid on Cwmparc in the Rhondda. …
1940 Adolf Hitler orders an invasion of Great Britain for September 21 (Operation Seelöwe/Sealion). ….
The last hanging at Cardiff jail occurred on 3rd September 1952. Mahmood Hussein Mattan's case was the first to be referred to the Court of Appeal, who found the judgement to be "demonstrably flawed" and his family were awarded compensation, which was the first award to a family for a person wrongfully hanged.
Mahmood Hussein Mattan was a Somali merchant seaman who was convicted of the murder of Lily Volpert in the Docklands of Cardiff, mainly on the evidence of a single prosecution witness. In 1996, the family were given permission to have Mattan's body exhumed and moved from a felon's grave at the prison to be buried in consecrated ground in a Cardiff cemetery and his conviction was quashed in 1998. …. 1975 England cricket batsman Bob Woolmer scores 149 on the final day to save the 4th Test against Australia at The Oval in the longest first-class match played in England, lasting 32 hours and 17 minutes. …
1972: Test transmissions begin from the radio-ship Mi Amigo anchored off Scheveningen, Holland in preparation for Radio Caroline's return. However, a storm and broken mast puts pay to the station's plans for a while. Furry was an avid listener and I’m listening as I compile this.
