Happy Birthday stevecee



Hope you had a great day.

On this day 26th December

1135 The Coronation of King Stephen, grandson of William the Conqueror. Stephen's reign was marked by civil war and unsettled government. He was succeeded in 1154 by Henry II.

1716 Thomas Gray, English poet, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University, was born.

1791 The birth of Charles Babbage, English mathematician, philosopher, and mechanical engineer who originated the idea of a programmable computer.

1860 The first ever inter-club football match took place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at Hallam's Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Sandygate has been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the 'Oldest Ground in the World'.

1874 Boxing Day was officially recognized in Britain as a Bank Holiday. The name originates from the custom of Christmas boxes being given to a lord's serfs and dates back to the middle ages.

1900 A relief crew arrived at the the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, only to find that the previous crew of three lighthouse keepers had all disappeared without a trace. The mystery has never been resolved, but rumours and myths still abound.

1913 A large Hippodrome was opened at Golders Green as a variety hall to take advantage of the newly arrived London underground.

1932 The BBC presented the first televised pantomime, Dick Whittington.

1943 A Royal Navy convoy, including the battleship Duke of York and cruiser Jamaica, attacked and sank the mighty German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, of North Cape, Norway. She was the last major German battleship.

1948 The first annual Reith Lecture on the BBC. They were inaugurated to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John Reith, the corporation's first director-general.

1959 The first charity walk took place, along the Icknield Way (Buckinghamshire & Norfolk), in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1970 British Olympic medallist Lillian Board, MBE, died after losing her battle against a virulent form of cancer. The twice European Gold medallist and Olympic silver medallist who helped set four world records on the track, died late in the afternoon after she slipped into a coma on Christmas Eve.

1988 Crash investigators uncovered wreckage which they hoped would hold the key to the Lockerbie air disaster of 21st December. Two men, said to be Libyan intelligence agents were later put on trial for planting the bomb.

1990 Desert Orchid won the 'King George VI Chase' at Kempton Park for a record 4th time. Desert Orchid's ashes were buried in 2007, in a private ceremony at Kempton Park Racecourse.

2001 A man captured as he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his trainers aboard an American Airlines jet was identified as Richard Reid, a 28-year old unemployed British citizen.