May 16th

To cheer us al up it is 'Mass Graves Day' in Iraq.

One of the twelve Apostles of Ireland today is also St. Brendan's Feast Day.

1435 Albert Blenkinsop led the Lancastrian Peasants' Revolt against Henry VI. The revolt arose when the King decreed that a tithe would be placed upon offal to raise money for the Royal Coffers in order to bolster his fight for the disputed throne of France. Blenkinsop and his followers marched upon Bacup on Easter Saturday battling the infamous Brittannia Coconut Men. a battle commemorated to this very day , they got as far south as Bury before the King's Army intercepted them and the Peasants were routed. Blenkinsop was tried for treason and was found guilty . He was hung,drawn and quartered in Bury's town square and his entrails are believed to have been used to create the very first Bury Black Pudding.
To this very day the revolt is remembered by people who eat tripe in honour of Albert Blenkinsop and his battle against Henry's Awful Offal Tax.

1905 Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island ,Nebraska.

1936 English comedian and actor Roy Hudd is born in Croydon ,England.

1953 Remmington Steele himself is born .Pierce Brosnan arrived in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland , he later became the fifth James Bond before joining the Swedish pop group Abba in 2008.

1957 Nigel Twiston - Davies National Hunt jockey and trainer is born. He has trained the winners of The Cheltenham Gold Cup.(Imperial Commander), and The Grand National twice(Earth Summit and Bindaree ).

1957 American Federal Agent Eliot Ness, ( Yes he was a real person!), died aged 54yo.

1990  Sammy Davis Jnr , "A One-Eyed Negro Jew", as he famously said when asked what his golf handicap was. Primarily a dancer,singer,musician and a gifted impressionist Davis died fom lung cancer on this day aged 64yo.

1990 Father to the Muppets , Jim Henson, died from organ failure resulting from streptococcal toxic shock syndrome aged just 53yo.

2013  And it's 'Hi-Di-Hi, Ho-Di-Ho' no more for Ted Bovis as Paul Shane dies in a hospice at Rotherham after 'a short period of illness' aged 72yo.