1805 - The start of the Battle of Trafalgar.
1879 - Thomas Edison patents the electric light bulb.
1926 - Birth of comedian Leonard Rossiter - who went on to become famous for his roles as Rigsby and Reginald Perrin - in Liverpool.
1966 - In Wales, more than 140 people - at least 114 of them children - are killed in the small mining village of Aberfan, when tonnes of slush from a nearby coal slag tip weakened by rain, slides downhill and engulfs the village school, a farm and a row of terraced houses.
1975 - Unemployment in the UK reaches 1 million for the first time.
1997 - Elton John's re-make of Candle in the Wind is officially declared the biggest selling single in music history.
The one that stands out form the above list is Aberfan.
We remember today as the fortieth anniversary of that tragic event, but to hundreds of grieving parents and family it is 40 years of agonising and painfully thinking every single day since that tragedy "what would my little child have be doing now?"
Posted by: Colm | October 21, 2006 at 02:57 PM
Colm
Agree absolutely.
Posted by: Andrew McCann | October 21, 2006 at 03:02 PM
Dreadfully sad.
I remember talking to a child surviver who in her teens had a really bad time with it all. She used to stick pins in under her fingernails. This was linked to the grit under her nails.
The understanding of the effcts on such things was in inst infancy in those days and in particular adults did not seem able ot face up to the impact on children and they were just expceted to bounce back.
Posted by: aileen | October 21, 2006 at 03:07 PM
Terrible event.
Posted by: David Vance | October 21, 2006 at 04:29 PM