Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Art & Design, Australia & New Zealand, Before my time, Rest of World, Sport, UK & Ireland, US & Canada on Jul 23rd, 2008
1896 ATHENS, Greece
Dates: from 6 to 15 April 1896.
Participants: 14 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), 43 events, 241 athletes (men only).
Officially opened by: King George I.
The Games of the Olympiad in Athens were financed by a donation of approximately one million drachmas from a rich businessman, Georges Averof, and by the sale of souvenir stamps and […]
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Posted in 1990s, 2000s, Cartoons, US & Canada on Jul 23rd, 2008
Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil battle it out with Angelica in the sandpit. My abiding memory of Rugrats is that everyone used to know how to play the theme tune on the piano. Angelica also got on my nerves. The babies talked in silly toddler speak with lots of missing teeth and spittal - getting […]
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Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Before my time, Food & Drink, Products, UK & Ireland on Jul 3rd, 2008
Some people chew it, some people smoke it, but no-one seems to sniff tobacco anymore.
In our local pub (very oldy worldy CAMRA type), there’s a rack by the door filled with little metal pots. They have funny flavours written in old school lettering on the lids. This is snuff and you won’t find many pubs […]
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Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, Before my time, Sport on Jun 16th, 2008
It was Queen Anne who first saw the potential for a racecourse at Ascot, which in those days was called East Cote. Whilst out riding in 1711, she came upon an area of open heath, not far from Windsor Castle, that looked an ideal place for “horses to gallop at full stretch.”
The first race meeting […]
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The Queen’s involvement with racing stretches back to before she came to the throne in 1952, with her first winner, owned jointly with her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, being Monaveen in a National Hunt race at Fontwell.
On the death of her father, King George VI, the Queen inherited the Royal string […]
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Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Before my time, Sport, UK & Ireland on Jun 6th, 2008
1780
Diomed, owned by Sir Charles Bunbury, wins the inaugural running of the Derby
on Thursday, May 4.
1784
The distance increases from a mile to a mile and a half which still prevails today,
though from 1991 the offi cial distance has been one mile, four furlongs and 10
yards.
1794 The smallest fi eld of four goes to post and […]
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Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Before my time, News & Current Affairs, Sport on Jun 6th, 2008
The Derby has been run on the Downs near Epsom since 1780 and is named after Edward Smith Stanley, the 12th Earl of Derby. The original race was The Oaks, named after Derby’s estate, and was exclusively for three-year-old fillies. The race became so successful that The Derby was created to find the best colts […]
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A 1992 hit with all the prerequisite uniform: perm, big earrings and a lot of PVC. I love the setting for this video - how exactly do you book a missile launch platform? The German duo Snap! were responsible for this club hit and UK number 1 as well as The Power which was another […]
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Remember getting spokies in your Frosties? Remember trying to out-do your friends with the number you could fit on your bike? It used to make a racket but we loved spokies. They’re still widely available - especially the Disney ones. Some clever people used to get flashing ones or spokies that made a noise […]
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Christmas would not be complete without repeats of this fantastic series of films. There are so many memorable moments, the Chinese orphan, Short Round, driving a car with boxes tied to his feet in Temple of Doom, the fight next to aeroplane propellers in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the infamous Venice boat chase […]
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Posted in 2000s, Personalities, Transport on Apr 9th, 2008
Following a crash at Charles de Gaulle crash in 2000, an investigation led to a series of safety improvements to the design of the Concorde. However, this wasn’t enough to save the service, which was eventually retired in 2003.
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Posted in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Transport on Apr 8th, 2008
Concorde quickly became a symbol of technological advance and British pride despite being a joint enterprise with the French government.
More than 2.5 million passengers flew supersonically on British Airways’ Concorde since she entered commercial service in 1976. The most frequent passenger, an oil company executive, clocked up almost 70 round trip transatlantic crossings a year. […]
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Posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Before my time, Rest of World, Sport, UK & Ireland on Apr 4th, 2008
A comprehensive history of the Grand National from its official beginning in the 1800’s. From paintings to photo finishes and radio commentary to internet broadcasting.
1839
The Grand National was run at Aintree for the first time on Tuesday, February 26 and a horse named Lottery took the honours. Captain Martin Becher was unseated from his mount, […]
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The best quality Kinder Egg toys were only available in Germany, where the sweet originated. I was given these toys to photograph by an enthusiast, TC, who was brought up in Germany
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Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Music on Mar 21st, 2008
When you think of Queen, you most probably think of Bohemian Rhapsody. The longest radio played song (five minutes and fifty five seconds!!), the first pop video ever and using ground-breaking multi-layered vocals, Queen were to change pop and rock for ever and to stay at number one for nine weeks with this fantastic and […]
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