The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
On this day
1695: Henry Purcell, English composer, died of tuberculosis, aged 36. It is said that a friend asked him if he had made his peace with God, and he replied: “We’ve never quarrelled.”
1783: Man’s first free-flight was made by Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes in the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon. They flew above Paris and, after 25 minutes, landed a few miles south.
1787: Sir Samuel Cunard, shipowner, was born in Nova Scotia in Canada. He came to Britain in 1838 and, with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line. 1843: Thomas Hancock patented vulcanised rubber. 1918: The German battle fleet surrendered to the Allies at Scapa Flow in Orkney.
1934: Cole Porter’s Anything Goes opened in New York and made a star of Ethel Merman.
1936: The first television gardening programme was broadcast by the BBC – In Your Garden with Mr Middleton.
1953: The discovery of the Piltdown Man skull by Charles Dawson in Sussex in 1912 was finally revealed as a hoax. 1974: IRA bombs in two Birmingham pubs killed 19 people and left a further 180 injured.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two metal detectorists were convicted of stealing a £3 million Viking hoard of coins and priceless jewellery.