May 11th

It is the Feast Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They were 9th Century Byzantine Greek brothers who are attributed with devising the Glagolithic and Cyrillic Alphabets.

912AD Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1310 Fifty-four members of the Knights Templars are burned at the stake for heresy.

1812  Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. . .(what we would give for a John Bellingham today!).

1820 HMS Beagle is launched,it will be used later by Charles Darwin on his scientific expeditions to find 'The Origin of Species'.

Crime News. Three Bears in home invasion shock. Police name main suspect as 'Goldilocks'...obviously an assumed name!

Foreign News - Vladimir Putin offered to put his arms around Ukraine to show his support. His arms were 1,900 tanks,3,675 aircraft, 6 ships and 276,000 firearms.

1888 - American composer Irving Berlin was born as Israel Isidore Beilin near Mogilyov,Russia.

1904 - Surrealist painter,Salvador Dali, was born in Figueres, Catalonia. Best known for paintings that look like a 7yo might have painted. Also provided the 'Dream Sequence' in Hitchcock's 'Spellbound'.

Financial News - Barclays Bank announces plans to axe a further 7,900 jobs . When asked about shortages in staffing, Chief Executive, Antony Jenkins said, " We've trained up a troop of monkeys to man the cashier desks...as you know they literally work for peanuts, so it's a great saving that will allow my bonus to be even bigger next Spring!"

1911  Sergeant Bilko alias Phil Silvers is born in Brooklyn ,New York. He players the scheming Ernie Bilko in 142 episodes of the Phil Silvers Show plus a special in 1959.

1941 - Lead Singer with The Animals, Eric Burdon, was born in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne

1950  Chief Inquisitor of Newsnight, Jeremy Paxman is born in Stonor, Oxfordshire.

Politics - London Mayor, Boris Johnson, denies he is homophobic, " It is complete nonsense, ask any of my queer friends and they'll tell you I'll bend over backwards for them!"

1963 British actress ,(and Mrs Liam Neeson), Natasha Richardson,was born in Marylebone, 
London

1964   1991 Snooker World Champion, John Parrott, was born in Liverpool.

1973 Ex Tarzan star, Lex Barker, died of a heart attack walking in a New York Street aged just 54yo.

1974. Wrestling star Billy Kidman was born Peter Alan Gruber jnr in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

1988 Harold Adrian Russell Philby died in Moscow. He was one of the so called 'Cambridge Five', a Soviet Spy Ring.

2001 No more hiking! Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams died after suffering a heart attack aged 49yo.