Popular Nostalgia

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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On the 21st of July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. He walked into the Sea of Tranquility at 0256 GMT and reported back with the words: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

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Everyone remembers the spontaneous emotion displayed by the last governor of Hong Kong -Chris Patten. He was upset to leave the place he loved and it showed. He later left the Foreign Office.

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Following the death of King George VI on 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth immediately became Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith. She was the first monarch in over 200 years to succeed to the throne whilst abroad. However, the desire for a sunny day and a big party to accompany the coronation […]

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OJ Simpson flees the scene of his wife’s murder and the chase is caught on camera. OJ goes on to plead not guilty to the murder and is set free after hiring some of the country’s best lawyers.

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I remember watching on the news as French and British workers shook hands in a miracle of engineering after having tunnelled all the way underneath the English Channel. They exchanged flags and posed for photographs as Britain prepared itself for an end to its 8,000 year-old isolation. Phillipe Cozette was the lucky man to drill […]

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Whilst scouring youtube for a video of the Chunnel workers finally breaking through to France, I happened across this hilarious Memphis newscast which was broadcast on the very same day.

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Responsible for mentally scarring a whole generation of 9 year olds, the death of Mufasa made children cry -all over the world. In the same league as the death of Leonardo di Caprio in Romeo & Juliet and the death of Jack in Titanic, Mufasa’s death was cruel and horrible. I’m glad to consign this […]

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I used to live about 300 metres from a Safeway’s store and most of the teenage population of my town worked there. In addition to picking up the groceries I could obtain the entire month’s gossip in the time it took to scan the bread and vegetables.
However, when Morrisons took over, not only did they […]

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In true BBC style, Michael Fish urges a stiff upper lip and insists that there is nothing to worry about. Devastation ensues.

The news the next day:

Unfortunately for Michael Fish, this one clip then followed him for the rest of his career but a little research […]

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I remember hearing of Princess Diana’s death when I watched morning TV at a friend’s house. Everyone was really shocked and incredulous that such a strange thing could occur. Where were the bodyguards and assistants?
I remember watching the Prince’s at the funeral along with a few other million people. Most of all, it seemed like […]

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During the late nineties, somebody started a rumour that got old the middle-age technophobes into something of a bind. Fear spread like the plague that everything electrical would explode when the countdown reached 2000. Just as people were buying revamped copies of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (or squiggle) ’s “We’re gonna party like […]

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My paternal Grandad retired from coal mining two weeks before the strikes began. The government punished him and others by withholding pensions for former miners for 18 months before a journalist threatened to put them on the national front pages.
A colleague in Newcastle once recalled to me how her […]

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Britain is used to bomb attacks from the IRA -and even the Cornish liberation movement, so to hear that four bombs had gone off was upsetting but not unusual.
After the usual frantic three days of accounting for loved ones, life went on much as usual with a stiff upper lip. The only change after […]

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I was about to leave my history class for the end of the day when another teacher burst into the room and interrupted our eccentric history teacher to tell him to turn on the TV.
We all watched in silence at the awful pictures and then were sent home early to watch the news. My […]

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