Anniversaries in Early Summer 2021

Special Report

Anniversaries in Early Summer 2021

125 YEARS

The world’s first car theft: Baron de Zuylen’s Peugeot was stolen by a mechanic when he took it back to the manufacturer in Paris, France for repairs. It was found in a nearby town. The UK alone now sees around 300 cars a day stolen, with only a tiny percentage ever recovered.

100 YEARS

• Chanel No 5 perfume was launched. • London’s Southwark Bridge was opened. • Birth of Prince Philip, Duke of

Edinburgh. • Ireland was divided into

Northern Ireland and Southern

Ireland (now the Republic of

Ireland). • The Royal British Legion was founded. • The Chinese Communist Party was founded.

70 YEARS

The Peak District National Park was established in England in April 1951, being Britain’s first national park. It was another 51 years (2002) before Scotland established Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. The Talyllyn Railway in Wales reopened after ceasing operations in October 1950. It was the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway operated by volunteers. There are now around 130 heritage railways in the UK and Ireland. Collectively, that’s enough track to cover the route from London to Inverness

50 YEARS

The then British Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher, announced that free school milk for children over the age of seven would end from the beginning of the new school year in September. The British press dubbed the future Prime Minister “Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher”.

40 YEARS

British pop group Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Making Your Mind Up.

20 YEARS

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs returned to the UK from Brazil where he had lived as a fugitive for 36 years. He was immediately arrested and sent to prison to complete his sentence. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 and died in 2013. British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott punched a man who threw an egg at him while he was campaigning in Rhyl, north Wales. He is noted as stating afterwards: “[…] when Tony [Blair] asked me, er, what happened I said I was carrying out his orders; he told us to connect with the electorate, so I did.”

10 YEARS

Portugal became the third European country (after Greece and Ireland) to request a bailout from the International Monetary Fund because of its financial crisis. Its request for a €78 billion bailout package was approved on 16th May, and it received the money in June. (It had fully recovered by June 2014 and made its final repayment to the IMF in November.) The wedding of Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London.

They were given the titles the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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