Anniversaries of events which shaped the modern world
Today is the 20th anniversary of the publication of J K Rowling’s
Rowling completed the final draft of the first book of what was to become one of the world’s biggest franchises in 1995 and was turned down by 12 publishing houses, before securing a contract. Last year’s
estimated her wealth at £600m but others have indicated she may be worth up to £2.2bn – the first four
films grossed £3.5bn and the Potter universe continues to expand, with more prequels in the works. Regular updates of the phone have made Apple the world’s richest company; it is currently said to be worth $750bn, slightly higher than Google, which is estimated to be worth around $590bn. hole-in-the-wall). It was perhaps one of the technological forerunners of the modern age of convenience. The world’s first ATM was installed at the Enfield branch of Barclays, London, on June 29, 1967. There are now more than three million in the world.
Today sees the clean-up operation following the Glastonbury Festival. Last year it cost £780,000 and took more than two weeks for an 1,800-strong team to clear an estimated 500,000 sacks of rubbish, 57 tons of reusable items and 1,022 tons of recycling on the 1,000-acre site. the honours last week. The stand-in presenters have led to quite a bit of interest among the media, not least because Ed mixed up a few songs (he mistook The Verve’s
for by Queen) and introduced the show’s 7m listeners to his heavy metal singing voice.
On Friday, it will be 10 years since the ban on smoking in enclosed public places came into force in England. Prior to this, it was perfectly acceptable to walk into a pub and light up, as many television programmes made just over a decade ago testify. The ban provided some exemptions for so-called ‘designated rooms’ in hotels and even on off-shore oil rigs. has taken on soap opera proportions, with scheduled monthly instalments of plot-twisting intrigue, amply juxtaposed either side by several weeks of political tittle-tattle, banner waving and pedantic punditry. We can, therefore, expect a steady feed of (mostly alarmist) stories all to do with us leaving the EU.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will undertake an official Royal visit to Canada later this week to mark another anniversary, that being the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. The Royal couple will undertake engagements in Ontario, Nunavut and Canada’s Capital Region between June 29 and July 1. It will be the prince’s 18th visit to Canada.