May 17th

Count your blessings...or potatoes! Today is National Famine Memorial Day in Ireland.

Also the Feast Day of  Saint Restituta.

1590 Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland. (Seems a little mixed up!).

1849 A large fire almost destroys the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Luckily the Trumpton Fire Brigade were on an exchange visit at the time and using their exquisite skills extinguished the conflagration quickly.

1935 The great English Television Playwright,Director, Author and Novelist,Dennis Potter, was born in Berry Hill, Gloucestershire. Best known for the BBC series 'Pennies From Heaven', which gave the big break to Bob Hoskins.

1936 American icon, actor and director Dennis Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas. Fondly remembered for his portrayals of 'Billy' in Easy Rider,(which he also directed), Clifford Worsley in True Romance, the mad bomber, Howard Payne and of course 'King Koopa' in Super Mario Brothers. He passed away on this day from prostate cancer aged 74yo.

1942 One of the most secret operations of the Second World War took place in the 'Schleswig-Holstein Sweep'. A group of specially trained chimpanzees and orangutans were parachuted into the area of the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal,(later renamed the Kiel Canal). Their target was a fleet of mini U-Boats, armed with new and experimental torpedoes and grenades, the apes aim was to steal three of the craft and destroy the others. Though details are scarce to this day the monkeys succeeded in grabbing two craft, sailing them safely back to Blighty and all 37 of the remainder were destroyed completely thereby shortening the war by several months. Hitler was so incensed by the raid he stormed, "Verdammt, diese Menschenaffen wie sie es wagen,einen Affen aus mir machen!", (Damn those apes, how dare they make a monkey out of me!).
The apes lost sixteen of their party, the returning thirty two were awarded the P.G.T. and the leader was awarded the Victoria Banana. Winston Churchill later said," Never in the trees of Ape's conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few monkey-brothers. We should be grateful forever to our hairy cousins for giving the Führer a bloody nose. God save the Apes!"

2000 The 101st Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, died aged 90yo in Winchester.

2004 American actor Tony Randall died aged 84yo in New York City from pneumonia. Best remembered for his role as Felix opposite Jack Klugman's grouchy Oscar in the TV version of 'The Odd Couple', he starred in more than 30 feature films.

2005 Frank Gorshin, American actor and brilliant impressionist died aged 72yo from lung cancer in Burbank, California.  He is probably best known for his portrayal of The Riddler in the 1960s Batman TV series.

2012 American diva Donna Summer died aged 63yo from lung cancer.