1513 Battle of Flodden: English forces defeat the Scots near Branxton in Northumberland and kill King James IV of Scotland, the last monarch in Great Britain to be killed in battle.
1543 Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned Queen of Scots in the central Scottish town of Stirling.
On 9th September 1680, Henry Marten (regicide of King Charles I of England) died a prisoner in Chepstow Castle. choking whilst eating his supper. Henry Marten, an ardent republican was a lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1653. Having escaped the death penalty for his involvement in the regicide Marten was sent into exile in the north of England and then Windsor Castle until Charles II ordered him to be moved to Chepstow, away from such close proximity to himself. Marten remained there for twelve years, imprisoned in what is now known as Marten's Tower, until his death. He is buried in the Anglican Church in Chepstow.
1839 English scientist and astronomer John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph.
.. 1899 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is sentenced on unjust grounds.
Dreyfus affair, political crisis, beginning in 1894 and continuing through 1906, in France during the Third Republic. The controversy centred on the question of the guilt or innocence of army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been convicted of treason for allegedly selling military secrets to the Germans in December 1894. At first the public supported the conviction; it was willing to believe in the guilt of Dreyfus, who was Jewish. Much of the early publicity surrounding the case came from anti-Semitic groups (especially the newspaper La Libre Parole, edited by Édouard Drumont), to whom Dreyfus symbolized the supposed disloyalty of French Jews.
The effort to reverse the sentence was at first limited to members of the Dreyfus family, but, as evidence pointing to the guilt of another French officer, Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, came to light from 1896, the pro-Dreyfus side slowly gained adherents (among them journalists Joseph Reinach and Georges Clemenceau—the future World War I premier—and a senator, Auguste Scheurer-Kestner). The accusations against Esterhazy resulted in a court-martial that acquitted him of treason (January 1898). To protest against the verdict, the novelist Émile Zola wrote a letter titled “J’accuse,” published in Clemenceau’s newspaper L’Aurore. In it he attacked the army for covering up its mistaken conviction of Dreyfus, an action for which Zola was found guilty of libel.
By the time of the Zola letter, the Dreyfus case had attracted widespread public attention and had split France into two opposing camps. The anti-Dreyfusards (those against reopening the case) viewed the controversy as an attempt by the nation’s enemies to discredit the army and weaken France. The Dreyfusards (those seeking exoneration of Captain Dreyfus) saw the issue as the principle of the freedom of the individual subordinated to that of national security. They wanted to republicanize the army and put it under parliamentary control. ….
On 9th September 1953, Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas handed the barely completed script for the play for voices Under Milk Wood to the BBC before embarking on a reading tour of the United States. His intention was to revise the script before its first broadcast. However, Dylan died during the American tour and was never able to edit the play.
An omniscient narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of a fictional small Welsh fishing village Llareggub ("bugger all" backwards). These include the nagging Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard; Captain Cat, remembering his life at sea; Organ Morgan ; the two Mrs. Dai Breads and Polly Garter. When the town awakes, we see them go about their business and how their hidden emotions affect their daily lives.
There is no doubt that Dylan based many of these characters on the inhabitants of Laugharne, a small seaside town in Carmarthenshire where Dylan had lived for several years. It is the author of this ‘History of Wales’ post's small claim to fame that the character of Captain Cat was based on Great Uncle Johnny, a retired sea Captain who was almost blind, and who spent many hours conversing with Dylan Thomas in Laugharne.
Furry has been to Laugharne on a rugby trip!
1972 Soviet Union beats the United States 51-50 in the most controversial game in international basketball history; with the US leading 50-49, the final 3 seconds are replayed three times until the Soviets finally win.
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On September 9th 2009, Carnedd Uchaf, a peak in the Ogwen valley in Snowdonia, was renamed Carnedd Gwenllian in honour of Princess Gwenllian, the daughter of Llywelyn, the last native Prince of Wales.
9 Sep 1977 David Bowie appeared on Marc Bolan's ITV show, Marc, singing ‘Heroes’ as well as a duet with Bolan, ‘Standing Next To You’, which was prematurely terminated when Bolan fell from the stage, much to Bowie’s amusement. After the show the pair recorded demos together which were never finished because Bolan was killed in a car crash a week later.
9 Sep 1975 Paul McCartney and Wings kicked off their historic 13-month world tour. US performances were recorded for the triple live album Wings Over America. The North American leg constituted McCartney's first live performances there since the The Beatles' final tour, in 1966.
My fourth form English teacher had the BBC programme of Under Milk Wood (on LP I think) and played it to us as part of several English lessons, in 1969. We were mesmerised.
I don't think Richard Burton's narration can be bettered.
