On this day in history : 13th September 1970 – Concorde makes its first landing at Heathrow Airport to a barrage of complaints about the noise from local residents….
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Concorde 002 (G-BSST) was Britain’s first Concorde and made its maiden flight on the 9th of April 1969…. It took off from Filton for RAF Fairford, where it was to be based for testing and development…. The pilot was chief test pilot Brian Trubshaw, who made a faultless landing at Fairford despite the altimeters failing to function….
The Concorde was shown at the Farnborough Airshow on the 1st of September 1970 – shortly before making its landing at Heathrow on the 13th – its first landing at an international airport….
During its flight history Concorde 002 made 438 flights, 196 of which were supersonic…. Its final flight was on the 4th of March 1976, when it was delivered to Yeovilton Air Museum – where it can be seen today….
Concorde 002 G-BSST at Yeovilton Air Museum – Photo credit : Alan Wilson CC BY-SA 2.0
On this day in history : 12th September 1440 – Eton College is founded by Henry VI to provide free education for 70 poor boys – who would then go on to King’s College, Cambridge – which he also founded….
Statue of founder King Henry VI in Eton College Quadrangle
Eton was founded as Kynges College of Our Ladye of Eton beside Windsor…. The earliest records held by the college date to the 1500s…. The students had a strict, spartan and gruelling routine…. Their day would begin at 5am, prayers would be chanted whilst they prepared themselves for the day ahead – at 6am their lessons began, which were all in Latin…. They were supervised by prefects – or ‘praepostors’ – senior boys who had been appointed by the headmaster….
The boys only had one hour of recreation per day…. It seems that football was a favourite game; according to a Latin translation from 1519 it was known as playing with ‘a bag full of wynde’…. Lessons ended at 8pm and there were just two holidays per year, Christmas and Summer….
Eton College by Loggan, 1690 – Public domain
Eton College is nowadays one of England’s most prestigious and largest independent secondary schools, with attendance fees in the region of £42K per year…. It has produced twenty of the nation’s prime ministers, including Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson….
On this day in history : 11th September 1895 – The original FA cup trophy is stolen from a shop window in Birmingham…. 63 years later an 83 year old man confesses he melted it down to make counterfeit coins….
Aston Villa players posing with the FA cup trophy 1887 – Public domain
Aston Villa had beaten West Bromwich Albion 1-0 to become the cup holders and it was on display in a sports shop in Aston, owned by William Shillcock, for fans to admire….
The cup, which had been made in 1872 by Martin Hall & Co of Birmingham, was much smaller than today’s trophy – and had cost £20…. Efforts were made to find it with a reward of £10 offered for information to its whereabouts….but with no success…. Eventually Aston Villa were forced to pay out £25 for its replacement as the trophy had been in their care at the time….
The second FA cup trophy, used between 1896 and 1910 – Public domain
Over 60 years later, on the 23rd of February 1958, a Sunday newspaper ran the headline ~ “Soccer’s biggest riddle” ~…. Henry James Burge – known as Harry – had confessed to committing the burglary of the sports shop…. He claimed to have broken in through the rear door by using a crowbar…. He and two accomplices had then allegedly entered the shop and after helping themselves to several pairs of football boots had taken the cup…. Harry said the trophy had been melted down that very night to produce forged half-crown coins…. He even posed for his picture to be taken demonstrating how he had broken in….
Harry Burge – Fair use
However, there was some discrepancy to his story…. Other reports say the thieves had got in by making a hole in the roof of the building…. Harry was a career criminal…. During his lifetime he received sentences totalling up to 46 years and 11 months…. After his final release in 1961 he was placed in an old folks home….and died in September 1964…. We will never know if he really did steal the FA cup trophy….
On this day in history : 10th September 1973 – London fashion store Biba opens its iconic department store in West London’s Kensington High Street….
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Biba had been started by Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki, aided by her husband Stephen Kitz-Simon, primarily as a mail order business…. Their first shop opened on Abingdon Road, Kensington in September 1954…. It was nearly ten years later, in the May of 1964, that they ran a promotional advert in the Daily Mirror for a dress similar to one worn by Brigette Bardot…. Biba were inundated with orders….selling 4,000 overnight…. The business then began to snowball….
Barbara Hulanicki – Image credit : AVESSA – source : High Gloss 2018 : The Art of Fashion. Trendencias with Carlos Marrero CC BY 3.0
In 1971 Biba purchased the seven storey building that had been occupied by London department store Derry and Toms…. The store, famous for its roof garden, had originally opened in 1938…. Biba spent £1m refurbishing the Art Deco store – and with the backing of Dorothy Perkins and property development and investment firm The British Land Company – ‘Big Biba’ opened in September 1973…. Not only did the new department store sell Biba’s own collection of clothes and accessories but it also stocked household goods, cosmetics, sports equipment and children’s clothing…. It had a children’s toy department, a food hall and a restaurant….
The Art Deco interior had a touch of the Golden Age of Hollywood and quickly attracted a million visitors a week – bringing a welcome boost to the rest of Kensington High Street at a time when the UK was suffering a recession…. However, the problem was that most of Biba’s visitors were tourists – and not customers – there to see the sights but not to buy…. Within two years Biba itself had become a victim of the recession – the store closed its doors in 1975….
The former ‘Big Biba’ building circa 2006 – Image : Thomas Blomberg (assumed) CC BY-SA 2.5
On this day in history : 9th September 1949 – The birth of English figure skating champion John Curry – the Olympic, European and World Champion of 1976….
1976 Press photograph – Public domain
John Anthony Curry was born in Birmingham…. As a child he wanted to be a dancer – but his parents did not see this as a fitting career for a boy…. So at the age of seven he took up figure skating instead, at the Summerhill Road Ice Rink, where he was taught by Ken Vickers….
Curry’s father died of TB when he was 16…. It was soon after that he moved to London where he was coached by Swiss figure skating coach Arnold Gerschwiler and gained his first British national title in 1971…. Then in 1972 he found an American sponsor, which enabled him to commit full time to figure skating – he relocated to the States to train with coaches Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi…. Curry was to become British National Champion again in 1973 and held the title until 1977….
Under Fassi he was to achieve the European, World and Olympic Champion titles in 1976…. He was the first to win all three titles in one season – and the first British figure skater to win an Olympic Gold…. Curry brought men’s figure skating to a new level – with his elegant, ballet-inspired style…. He was awarded with an OBE….
After 1976 Curry turned professional, forming a touring dance orientated skating company – and establishing a skating school in New York in 1978…. He would both choreograph and direct productions and his Broadway credits included Icedancing in 1978, in which he both directed and performed – and as an actor in Brigadoon in 1980 and Privates on Parade in 1989….
In 1987 Curry was diagnosed with HIV which was then to develop into AIDS…. He returned to live with his mother for the last years of his life…. He passed away from an AIDS related heart attack on the 15th of April 1994 in Binton, Warwickshire….
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