May 19th

Feast Day of St Dunstan. Patron Saint of blacksmiths, locksmiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths and Musicians! Also famous for outwitting and re-shoeing the Devil in a Harp playing contest...kind of an early 'Devil Went Down to Georgia'.

It is also Malcolm X Day in America. The day first took place in Washington DC in 1971.

1536 Anne Boleyn is beheaded for adultery, treason and incest. Well at least it saved Henry VIII the cost of a divorce.

1568 Elizabeth I ordered the arrest of Mary Queen of Scots, they really had it in for their relations that family!

1870 Albert Fish, serial killer also known as the Brooklyn Vampire was born , it is alleged that he killed nine children aged 4-17yo, though he was only charged with four murders. He was also known to be a child rapist and cannibal, he was executed by the electric chair upon January 16th 1936.

1879 The first woman ever to sit as an MP in The House of Commons, Nancy Astor, was born in Danville, Virginia,USA.

1897 Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol after serving two years hard labour for various homosexual offences. Whilst in the prison he wrote 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', with many memorable passages, i.e.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves 
By each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

1900 On this day a Mr D. Anglford of Bury,Lands was convicted of riding a motor scooter at over 12mph! He pleaded guilty and was given 9 months Hard Labour, breaking rock at Blackpool. The magistrate told Anglford as he sent him down," Let this be a lesson to you! If God had intended us to go at such speeds he would have fitted us with combustion engines, I hope 9 months of breaking sticks of rock will let you see your folly.".

1932 Singer Alma Cogan was born in Whitechapel, East London. Known as 'The Girl With A Giggle In Her Voice', she had a string of hit records up until her untimely death from ovarian cancer aged 34.

1946 Andre The Giant, French-American wrestler and actor was born Andre Rene Roussimoff in Grenoble, France.

Connected to the above item in 1978, Norman Potts of Oldham beat Andre the Giant in a televised wrestling bout by a knockout! Potts was so terrified of the monstrous wrestler, that he peed his pants and fouled the ring, Andre in his haste to teach the Little Englander a lesson slipped in the resulting pool of pee, fell hitting his head hard and staying down for the big ten count...as Norman danced around wet trunks and all he too slipped in the mess and knocked himself out. As Kent Walton said "A legend is born grapple fans, you'll be seeing the name Piss-Potts on Wrestling Bills for years!"

2006 Pop star Freddie Garrity of "Freddie and the Dreamers" died from complications related to emphysema on holiday in Bangor, North Wales. He was 69yo.