1830 Duke of Wellington opens George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
1830 William Huskisson becomes the first passenger killed by a railway train while attending the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Parkside station in England.
1916 First use of tanks in warfare, Britain's Mark I "Little Willies" at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme.
1935 Hitler's regime introduces the Nuremberg Laws, depriving German Jews of citizenship and making the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain visits Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, Germany.
On 15th September 1939, the regular passenger service on the Ffestiniog Railway ceased to operate.
The Ffestiniog Railway was opened as a horse-drawn tramway in 1836 to transport slate from the Blaenau Ffestiniog quarries to the harbour at Porthmadog. The increase in cargoes (100,000 tons by the 1890s) led to the introduction of steam locomotives from the middle of the 19th century. However, the subsequent decline in the demand for slate saw the complete closure of the line. However, in 1954, a group of enthusiasts stepped in to reopen the line and with twisting turns, steep gradients and a complete spiral, the Ffestiniog is now regarded as one of the U.K's most spectacular narrow-gauge lines.
On 15th September 1984, a memorial stone was unveiled by a Prifardd (chaired or crowned bard) to mark the site in the churchyard at Talley where a deeply-rooted tradition asserts that the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym (c.1315 - c.1350) lies buried. However, for many centuries, the rival claims of Talley and Ystrad Fflur have been debated as his burial place. It is generally regarded that he was born at Brogynin, Penrhyn-coch (Llanbadarn Fawr parish), Ceredigion.
Dafydd ap Gwilym is regarded as one of Wales' foremost poets and was responsible for popularising the metre known as the 'cywydd'. His main themes were love and nature, with his work full of his own feelings and experiences and the troubadour poetry of Provençal, seen as a significant influence on his work. Around one hundred and seventy poems of his have survived.
1963 The Beatles headline The Great Prop Prom at Royal Albert Hall, London; The Rolling Stones are one of the opening acts.
1994: A recording of John Lennon's Quarry Men playing at St. Peter's Parish Church garden party in 1957 fetches £125,000 at Sotheby's of London. It is the earliest known recording of Lennon.
The Ffestiniog Railway is the best of the Welsh narrow gauge railways. There is strong competition, of course, but I am biased having once slogged away on building the spiral deviation back in the 60s. The embankment pictured is still there but trees now cover the view.
