THE ULTIMATE
On this day, May 9th 1860, Scottish author J.M. Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Angus.
J.M. Barrie is most famous for creating Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, who could fly and lived in Never Never Land, whilst living in London. Barrie devised the character on trips to Kensington Gardens, where he regaled the children of a family he befriended with Peter Pan's exploits. You can see the statue Barrie commissioned of Peter Pan, in Kensington Gardens near the west bank of the Long Water at the spot where he landed his bird's nest boat in Barrie's book 'The Little White Bird'. The statue hs been a favourite in Kensington Gardens since 1912. In his will Barrie gave the copyright to his Peter Pan books, and character, to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the famous children's hospital in London. A right that in 1988 was set into law by a House of Lords amendment to the UK Copyright Act, that means Great Ormond Street Hospital will always have this copyright. Find out more about this special connection via: https://www.gosh.org/about-us/peter-pan/history Find out more about his birthplace in Scotland at: https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/j-m-barries-birthplace
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As VE Day (Victory in Europe) is celebrated, which drew to a close the war against the Nazis across Europe, it should be remembered that it was an international Allied effort - involving citizens from the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union (the main part of which was modern day Russia).
What is more, the war effort was even more international than the above list of countries suggests, for at that time Britain was a globe spanning Empire, and British citizens from across its Empire leapt to the defence of what they saw as the 'mother country'. Around 10,000 British citizens came from the Caribbean to fight for Britain against the Nazis, around 5,000 served in the RAF. See the story of 95 year-old veteran, Albert Jarret who travelled from the Caribbean to serve in the RAF, and the campaign to give such contributions greater recognition with a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, on the BBC at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-52543809/ve-day-the-experience-of-a-caribbean-ww2-raf-veteran On this day, 8th May 1945, Victory in Europe was celebrated!
Nazi generals had been to offer the German surrender to the US leader of Allied forces in Europe, General Eisenhower, at Reims in France the day before. The Soviet Red Army had fought from the East to Berlin, and their Western Allies were progressing from the West towards Berlin following D-Day in 1944. On 8th May, official documents were signed in Berlin, by Hitler's successor, that all German forces would cease aggression at midnight on 8th May. Celebrations were held across the Western World, especially in the UK and the USA. Street parties occurred across the UK, with a mass gathering in London's Trafalgar Square down to Buckingham Palace. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth addressed the crowds, in the city they refused to leave, along with the wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, begged to join the crowds, and did so secretly, Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, had joined the war effort as an ambulance driver. In the USA the celbrations focused upon New York's Times Square, with President Truman, dedicating the victory on his 61st Birthday to the former wartime President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR. Both Churchill and Truman recognised that the victory was only half won, as the Allies were still at war with Imperial Japan in the Pacific. The Russians celebrate VE Day on the 9th May, due to the time difference. On this day, 7th May 1840, Russian composer Pyotyr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born.
Tchaikovsky originally trained to become a Civil Servant, took music classes in St. Petersberg, and joined the newly opened St. Petersberg Conservatory. Here he learned the Western musical style, that he was able to mix with his native Russian musical culture that he knew since childhood. The result of this merging of cultures was compositions such as the 1812 Overture, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker Suite including the Dance of the Sugar PLum Fairy and Romeo & Juliet. Thus, symphonies, overtures, operas and ballets were all in his repertoire, Tchaikovsky's personal life as been the subject of censorship by Soviet and Russian governments, due to his homosexuality. Tchaikovsky found fame both internationally, being a guest conductor in Europe and the United States, and at home being honoured by Tsar Alexnder III. So much so, So much so, he is seen as the first Russian composer to gain international recognition. Banksy's latest artwork has been gifted to Suthampton General Hospital, and portrays the latest Superhero - a nurse!
The painting shows a boy playing with his toys, the old superheroes Batman and Spiderman have been discarded, as the boy plays with a nurse doll, as a child would a plane. The nurse is a caped crusader, wearing a female nurse's outfit, emblazoned with a red cross, wearing a face mask and in the superhero flight pose of Superman. The message is unmistakable, the nurses, the NHS, are the new superhero on the block in the era of coronavius, Covid-19. see more on the BBC at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52556544 Fundraising ace, and former World War Two soldier, Captain Tom Moore, has received the BBC's Blue Peter's highest award, its Gold Blue Peter Badge!
Captain Tom, has raised over £30m for the NHS charity, by walking 100 laps of his garden at age 99 before he turned 100 - in honour of the work doctors, nuses and healthworkers are doing to keep the United Kingdom safe. Then he teamed up with singer Michael Ball, and shot to Number One in the charts, with 'You'll Never Walk Alone', becoming the oldest holder of the chart topping position - beating Tom Jones' record at 68. Tom's grandchildren Benji and Georgia, aided Blue Peter presenter Lindsey Russell in giving the prestigious award, held by the likes of the Queen and David Attenborough, to Captain Tom. What can you learn from Captain Tom and his achievements, and his positivity? see more on the BBC's Newsround page at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52551934 On this day, May 6th 1840, the 'Penny Black' postage stamp went into service. It was the first postal stamp service, for pre-paid mail. The self-adhesive stamp, carrying a portrait of Queen Victoria, would enable postage of a letter anywhere in the country for the cost of the stamp - simplifying the pricing of postage across Victorian Britain. May 6th, is also the birthday of former UK Prime MInister Tony Blair, born 1953. Tony Blair became the youngest Prime Minister sibnce 1812, as his rebranded Labour Party, New Labour, swept to a landslide victory in the General Election - ending eighteen years of Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major. His victory came after having moved the Labour Party to the right, into the cehtre ground of British Politics, removing Labour's constitutional commitment to nationalistion, 'Clause iV', and embracing the Middle Class and business, and Conservative spending plans for the first term. Blair won two more elections in 2001, and 2005, before resigning from office in 2007, to be replaced as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, by his Chancellor, Gordon Brown. From 1997 to 2006 Blair didn't suffer a defeat in the House of Commons, with a range of significant achievements were racked up, Devolution of Scotland and Wales, creating the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly; a London Assembly and Mayor; reform of the House of Lords, by removing most of the Hereditary Peers giving it greater legitimacy, the Human Rights Act, bringing the European Convention on Human Rights into UK Law, and the Supreme Court, giving the judiciary greater independence; signing the EU's Social Chapter, guaranteeing Workers' Rights into law. the Minimum Wage, Sure Start and Children's Centres, as well as the greatest expense ever on Education. However, it was in the field of Foreign Policy that Blair became increasingly controversial and divided his party and the country. There were notable Human Rights successes with military interventions in Sierra Leone and Kosovo, and the UK came to the aid of a stricken USA by joining the invasion of Afghanistan to remove AlQaeda and the Taliban after the 9/11 terror strikes on New York's twin towers and the Pentagon on Washington D.C.. The protracted involvement in Afghanistan, and mounting military deaths for little gain drew criticism. Whilst, during this time Blair drew closer to the US Administration of G.W.Bush, and supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, with a claim to rid it of Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programme. The intelligence for which mislead Parliament, and Blair gained approval for the UK's involvement from the Commons with the support of Conservative MPs, with many in his own party rebelling, as his formerr Foreign Secretary, then Leader of the House Robin Cook resigned. Again the protracted nayure of this conflict and doubts about its premise led to increasing distruct of Blair amongst the Public. May 6th, is also the date of a great sporting occasion, as in 1954 Roger Bannister became the first athlete to break the four minute mile.
On this day, May 5th 1818, Karl Marx was born in Germany, he became a key Political Philosopher, whist also influencing other subjects such as History, Sociology and Economics.
His key works include Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto. Working with Friedrich Engels, who supported Marx and provided evidence of capitalism from his families factories in England. Marx put forward a radical version of Socialism, based upon the belief that all human history was that of a struggle between social classes, that eventually leads to a revolution before society advances to a new level of development. He claimed that capitalism was the last but one stage in Human History, where the divide between the Bourgeoisie (the few wealthy factory owners) and the Proletariat (the many poor workers) would grow so great that the workers would realise their position and hold a revolution, to overthrow capitalism, and replace it with a new system, Socialism, that would then develop into Communism, where all would be equal, without differences of social class. His ideas inspired Socialist / Communist revolutions around the world during the 20th Century, most famously Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, leading to the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This one's just for fun! Yes its May 4th!
Religious Studies, Philosophy and Sociology may all have a take on the 'Force' or the phenomenom that is Star Wars, that began way back in 1977 with 'Star Wars a New Hope' - which as it turns out was actually Episode IV - and the first inklings of the Jedi Force a long time ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away! Could the Force be - education and learning? Well, our owl has got into the spirit - or force - of things! On this day, May 4th 1979, Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
She had defeated James Callaghan the Labour leader and Prime Minister, after he had been forced to hold a General Election due to losing a Vote of No Conficdence in the House of Commons. Margaret Thatcher, had been the Conservative Party leader since 1975, and had led a new media style election campaign, most famous for its poster of a unemployed people queuing (a dole queue) to receive unemployment benefit, with the title '1 Million Unemployed - Labour isn't Working'. Margaret Thatcher won three elections in all, in 1979, 1983, and 1987, before resigning in November 1990. She is the longest serving Post-War Prime Minister. Her strong stance in foreign policy, repulsing the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands, and her stand against Communism with US President Ronald Reagan, as well as her negotiations within the EU to gain the UK a rebate, led to her nickname of the 'Iron Lady'. A conviction politician, her policies have been labelled New Right or Thatcherite, by rolling back the state, and reducing dependence on the Welfare State, thus overturning the Post War Consensus that had existed since 1945, so as to free up and stimulate enterprise to kick-start an economy suffering high unemployment and inflation via Laissez-Faire capitalism. Within this approach was the process of privatising nationalised utilitles such as gas and telecommunications, and the sale of Council Houses in the 'Right to Buy' scheme. Her critics emphasise the toll that this approach took on poorer working class communities, who saw a dramatic decline in job opportunities in their community, with little provision to safeguard them from the downside of such policies, as well as her reduction of the rights and power of the Trades Unions. |
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