{"id":13602,"date":"2022-05-16T12:59:42","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T10:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=13602"},"modified":"2022-05-16T12:59:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T10:59:42","slug":"anniversaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/2022\/05\/16\/anniversaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversaries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANNIVERSARIES<\/span><\/h1>\n\n
Helen Carr <\/strong>highlights events that took place in June in history<\/h5>\n\n
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A wood engraving of the Globe as it appeared in c1598. In 1613 the theatre went up in flames during a performance of All Is True <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

29 JUNE 1613<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

The Globe theatre burns to the ground<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Cannon fire sparks a blaze during a Shakespeare play<\/em><\/h2>\n\n

It\u2019s fair to say that All <\/em>Is <\/em>True <\/em>isn\u2019t one of Shakespeare\u2019s best-known plays \u2013 not least because it\u2019s now more widely called Henry <\/em>VIII, <\/em>and is believed to have been co-written with another playwright, John Fletcher. So its first recorded performance \u2013 at the Globe theatre on the banks of the Thames in June 1613 \u2013 might have sunk into obscurity had it not been for the disaster that brought it to an untimely end.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The production company clearly wanted the play \u2013 which centres on Henry\u2019s marriage to Catherine of Aragon \u2013 to go off with a bang. And so, at a climactic moment in the performance, a cannon was fired towards the theatre\u2019s famous open roof.<\/p>\n\n

The explosion certainly made an impact, but for all the wrong reasons. Sparks set the thick thatched roof smouldering and, before long, smoke was creeping through the rafters. At first, nobody in the crowd seemed to notice \u2013 according to one onlooker, \u201ctheir eyes [were] more attentive to the show\u201d \u2013 but soon the fire had become impossible to ignore. Remarkably, nobody was hurt in the blaze, though one man\u2019s breeches caught alight (his skin was literally saved when someone soaked him in beer).<\/p>\n\n

The Globe itself wasn\u2019t so lucky and the inferno quickly swept through the building. The theatre that had been built by Shakespeare\u2019s playing company in 1599, and had put on some of his most famous plays, was burned to cinders.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Ready to row: A c19th-century illustration of an Oxford v Cambridge boat race<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

10 JUNE 1829<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

The first Oxford v Cambridge boat race takes place <\/strong>at Henley-on-Thames, with Oxford crossing the line first to win 500 guineas. The annual event now covers a 4.2-mile stretch of the Thames between Putney and Mortlake.<\/p>\n\n

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Passengers read a newspaper before disembarking from the Empire Windrush<\/em> on 22 June 1948. They had crossed the Atlantic to help plug Britain\u2019s labour gap <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

22 JUNE 1948<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

The Windrush arrives at Tilbury<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

West Indian \u00e9migr\u00e9s answer Britain\u2019s call for help<\/em><\/h4>\n\n

Ona grey, misty day in June 1948, a former German passenger liner arrived at Tilbury docks on the Thames Estuary \u2013 to a storm of media attention. The name of the vessel was the Empire <\/em>Windrush <\/em>and its arrival in Britain that day \u2013 after setting off from Kingston, Jamaica a month earlier \u2013 is now widely remembered as a landmark moment in modern British history.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The reason for its significance lies not in the identity of the ship itself, but in the men and women it had carried across the Atlantic. The hundreds of people who disembarked from the <\/span>Windrush <\/em>made up one of the first large groups of West Indians to emigrate to postwar Britain \u2013 and they had made the journey because their help was needed.<\/p>\n\n

Three years after the end of the Second World War, severe labour shortages were proving a drag on the British economy. In response, the government came up with the British Nationality Act 1948, giving citizens of Britain\u2019s colonies and the Commonwealth the right to settle in the UK.<\/p>\n\n

Some of those who stepped off the Windrush <\/em>in June 1948 had already arranged accommodation and work. Others, however, arrived with nothing to do and nowhere to live. Some 230 passengers set up home in an old air-raid shelter in Clapham before heading to the labour exchange in neighbouring Brixton. Hostility to their arrival was widespread. Those looking for homes to rent often encountered signs declaring \u201cNO BLACKS\u201d; others were beaten for befriending white people.<\/p>\n\n

For all that, many of the Windrush\u2019s <\/em>passengers thrived in England. None more so than Sam King, a former RAF engineer. King not only went on to become mayor of Southwark, but helped launch the forerunner of the Notting Hill Carnival. Today, more than 70 years after the <\/span>Windrush\u2019s <\/em>famous journey, the carnival is cherished as a celebration of Caribbean culture in London.<\/p>\n\n

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A coloured print shows the French army outside Moscow during its ill-fated invasion of Russia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

24 JUNE 1812<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte cross the Neman river, so launching their invasion of Russia. <\/strong>The French leader captures Moscow in September but, his army largely destroyed, he retreats the following month.<\/p>\n\n

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Rebels murder Simon of Sudbury in the Tower of London, as depicted in a 15th-century manuscript. It took eight blows to remove the archbishop\u2019s head <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

14 JUNE 1381<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

The archbishop of Canterbury loses his head<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Peasants\u2019 Revolt claims its most high-profile victim<\/em><\/h4>\n\n

The Tower of London is an imposing fortress, looming intimidatingly over the banks of the Thames. However, it isn\u2019t completely impregnable \u2013 that much was proven in the most dramatic fashion in June 1381 by a group of rebels hell-bent on securing social justice.<\/p>\n\n

During the early summer, an uprising had gathered pace in England \u2013a \u201cpitchfork rebellion\u201d of the common people against the government. Known to posterity as the Peasants\u2019 Revolt, the disorder reached a climax on 14 June when rebels broke into the Tower through an open gate, aiming to arrest and punish some of the most powerful men in the realm.<\/p>\n\n

The rebels didn\u2019t find King Richard II inside the fortress \u2013 he had already ridden out that morning to make terms with the \u201cpeasant\u201d army at Mile End. However, they did <\/em>discover Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury (whom they regarded as one of their chief oppressors), cowering in the chapel of the White Tower.<\/p>\n\n

Unfortunately for Sudbury, his captors weren\u2019t in a merciful mood, and he was soon dragged away to Tower Hill to meet his maker. It allegedly took eight clumsy blows to remove his head, which was then paraded through the streets before being impaled on London Bridge.<\/p>\n\n

Sudbury\u2019s skull survives to this day, and is held in St Gregory\u2019s Church in Sudbury, Suffolk \u2013 a grisly memento of a momentary shift of power from the hands of the elite to the people of England. <\/p>\n\n

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Dickens tends to an injured woman following the fatal train crash that haunted him for the rest of his life <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

9 JUNE 1865<\/span><\/h4>\n\n

Charles Dickens survives a deadly train crash<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The author joins in with the relief effort<\/em><\/h4>\n\n

On the afternoon of 9 June 1865, Charles Dickens was sitting in a first-class train compartment racing across the Kent countryside. The author had visited Paris with his mistress, Ellen Ternan, and her mother \u2013 and now all three were heading back to London.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But the train would never reach its destination. At 3.13pm, as it sped across a viaduct at Staplehurst, it hit a missing section of the track, which had been removed by workmen. The train was thrown into the air, plunging seven carriages into the quagmire below. Dickens\u2019s carriage was dragged partially off the bridge.<\/p>\n\n

Luckily, the author was able to clamber free. He then rushed to the carcass of the crushed train to offer his help. He must have been greeted by a shocking scene: 10 passengers had died in the crash and 40 more were injured. According to one eyewitness, Dickens offered \u201ccomfort [to] every poor creature he met who had sustained serious injury\u201d, and delivered brandy to a man dying on the banks.<\/p>\n\n

Amid the turmoil, Dickens still found time to return to his carriage to retrieve an important item. There, from his overcoat pocket, he recovered the manuscript of the latest i nstalment of the novel he was working on. Dickens for the rest of his life. Following the incident, he suffered \u201cfaint\u201d and \u201csick\u201d sensations. Yet he still completed the novel. <\/span>It would be known as Our <\/em>Mutual <\/em>Friend.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Helen Carr <\/strong>is a historian and writer. She is the author of The Red Prince <\/em>(Oneworld, 2021)<\/p>\n\n

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WHY WE SHOULD REMEMBER\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
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200 YEARS AGO<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The public announcement of the Difference Engine<\/strong>, which marked the start of automatic computing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Doron Swade<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

What was the Difference Engine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an automatic calculating machine designed by Charles Babbage (1791\u2013 1871), English mathematician and polymath. He conceived the machine in 1821, in response to a dismaying number of errors in mathematical tables calculated by hand. The supposed infallibility of machinery would eliminate the risk of human error in the calculation and production of printed tables on which science, engineering and commerce heavily relied. On 14 June 1822 \u2013 200 years ago this month \u2013 Babbage announced his invention, in a paper read to the Royal Astronomical Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When was a Difference Engine successfully built?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a complex variety of reasons, Babbage failed to build a complete Difference Engine. His engineer, Joseph Clement, completed one-seventh of the full machine in 1832; it worked impeccably, but the project was <\/span>abandoned following a dispute about payment. The first complete working Babbage engine is Difference Engine No 2, designed 1847\u201349 and completed at London\u2019s Science Museum in 2002 <\/span>\u2013 built faithfully to the original 19th-century designs. It weighs 5 tonnes, has 8,000 mechanical parts and is some 3.4 metres long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Difference Engine No 2, completed at London\u2019s Science Museum in 2002. It was built to the 19th-century specifications of its inventor, Charles Babbage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did it shape the future of computing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barely, if at all; pioneers of modern computingre-inventedtheprinciples<\/span> and practice of computing almost entirely in ignorance of the detail of Babbage\u2019s work. But the legend of what he had done endured, and the viability of machine computation was afterwards little doubted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should we remember this invention today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Difference Engine was the first complete design for a computing engine. The small section completed in 1832 was the first successful automatic calculating machine to be built, and is the single most-celebrated icon in the prehistory of computing. A user, by cranking a handle, and without necessarily understanding how it worked, could achieve results that up to that time could be accomplished only by mental effort. \u201cHe [Babbage],\u201d wrote a contemporary, \u201chad taught wheel work to <\/em>think.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Babbage\u2019s engine represents the start of automatic computing, and also the start of machine intelligence, for which autonomous action is the first prerequisite. Though not itself a general-purpose machine (we would now call it a special-function calculator), the Difference Engine led directly to one that was \u2013 the Analytical Engine. This was conceived by Babbage by 1834, and its designs contain just about every logical feature of the modern digital computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doron Swade <\/strong>is a museum professional specialising in the history of computing<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

PICTURE CREDITS: GETTY IMAGES\/BRIDGEMAN\/DORON SWADE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNIVERSARIES Helen Carr highlights events that took place in June in history 29 JUNE 1613 The Globe theatre burns to the ground Cannon fire sparks a blaze during a Shakespeare play It\u2019s fair to say that All Is True isn\u2019t one of Shakespeare\u2019s best-known plays \u2013 not least because it\u2019s now more widely called Henry 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Helen Carr highlights events that took place in June in history 29 JUNE 1613 The Globe theatre burns to the ground Cannon fire sparks a blaze during a Shakespeare play It\u2019s fair to say that All Is True isn\u2019t one of Shakespeare\u2019s best-known plays \u2013 not least because it\u2019s now more widely called Henry…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13602"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14728,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13602\/revisions\/14728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}