September 16th is the anniversary of the proclamation in 1400, of Owain Glyndwr as Prince of Wales and is now celebrated annually as Owain Glyndwr Day. Owain Glyndŵr's uprising began with a dispute during 1399 and 1400 over a piece of land that Glyndwr claimed had been stolen by his neighbour, the Marcher Lord, Sir Reginald de Grey. When Glyndwr received no justice from King Henry IV and his repeated appeals were ignored, he felt that he was left with no option other than to rebel against the unjust and oppressive rule of the English.
1620 The Mayflower departs Plymouth, England, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World.
1822 George Canning becomes British Foreign Secretary for the second time, serving until 1827.
1859 British explorer David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Lake Nyasa, which now forms part of Malawi's borders with Tanzania and Mozambique.
The Llandudno Pier Pavilion opened on 16th September 1886.
The 2,000-seat theatre quickly became successful, with hundreds of top acts, such as George Formby, Petula Clark, Arthur Askey, the Beverley Sisters and Cliff Richard, appearing there over the years. The theatre also hosted political conferences, which were attended by such political heavyweights as Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Oswald Mosley, Winston Churchill and Edward Heath.
The basement of the Pier Pavilion housed what was then the largest indoor swimming pool in Britain, but it did not prove successful, as there were problems with the water quality. The theatre closed in 1984 and was destroyed by fire in 1994.
The Vancouver Island Coal Strike began on 16th Sept 1912. Many Welsh immigrant miners joined other miners at the Canadian Collieries, Dunsmuir Mines in Vancouver in declaring an unofficial holiday in protest to the sacking of Oscar Mottishaw, for reporting the presence of explosive gas in the mine. The mine owners proceeded to lock them out and hire in strikebreakers. They then evicted the striking miners from their company houses, which forced them and their families to live in tents over winter, on what became known as 'Striker's Beach'.
On this day in 1918, the steam cargo-ship Serula was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire with the loss of 17 lives. U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, meaning undersea boat. At the start of World War I, Germany had twenty-nine U-boats, but by its end, this had increased to 360. They were most effectively used in an economic warfare role, with their primary targets being the merchant ships bringing supplies into Britain and to counteract their effectiveness, Britain introduced escorted convoys.
Millicent Lilian 'Peg' Entwistle was the Port Talbot-born stage and screen actress, who on 16th September 1932 gained notoriety by jumping to her death from the 'H' of the Hollywoodland sign at age 24.
On 16th September 2001, actress Siân Phillips unveiled a memorial statue to Owain Glyndŵr's daughter Catrin ferch Owain Glyndŵr in St Swithin's Church Garden, London.
Catrin was probably the eldest daughter of Margaret Hanmer and Owain Glyndŵr and in November 1402, she married Edmund Mortimer, an unransomed hostage who had entered into an alliance with her father. Edmund Mortimer died during the siege of Harlech Castle in 1409 and Catrin was subsequently captured alongside her three daughters, her mother and one of her sisters. They were taken to the Tower of London and the deaths and burials at St Swithin's Church of Catrin and her daughters are recorded in 1413.
1970: The Beatles are finally knocked off the top of Melody Maker's 'Best Group' poll after eight years by Led Zeppelin.
1977: Marc Bolan is killed when the car he is travelling in, driven by girlfriend Gloria Jones, crashes into a tree on Barnes Common, south-west London.
Time to give my sources a mention The History of Wales On this Day This Day on the Caroline website. Anything inaccurate…it’s their fault!
