June 30th

Feast Day of St Martial. Saint Martial was the first bishop of Limoges in today's France,according to a lost vita of Saturnin, first bishop of Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours quotes in his History of the Franks.. Saint Martial also became associated with Saint Valerie of Limoges, a legendary martyr of the 3rd or 4th centuries, who is said to have carried her head to him after decapitation.

1685 English poet and playwright John Gay, author of The Beggar's Opera (1728), was born in Barnstaple. His characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.

"How the mother is to be pitied who has handsome daughters! Locks, bolts, bars and lectures of morality are nothing to them – they break through them all.”  
“A man is always afraid of a woman that loves him too much”  

1704 English pirate John Quelch was executed.  Quelch had a lucrative but very brief career of about one year. His chief claim to historical significance is that he was the first person to be tried for piracy outside England under Admiralty Law and thus without a jury. Before he was hanged, Quelch stepped up while holding his hat and bowed to the spectators. He also gave a short address and warned them, "They should take care how they brought Money into New England to be Hanged for it." He was 38yo.



1859 French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He repeated the feat a number of times thereafter, always with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omeletteand standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope.




1908 The Tunguska event occurs in remote Siberia. It is the largest impact event on or near Earth in recorded history. It is classified as an impact even though the asteroid or comet is believed to have burst in the air rather than hitting the surface. It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi), and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area,but due to the remoteness of the location no fatalities were documented. This event has helped to spark discussion of asteroid impact avoidance.




1917 American actress and singer Susan Hayward was born at Brooklyn, New York.



After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward traveled to Hollywood in 1937. She secured a film contract, and played several small supporting roles over the next few years. By the late 1940s, the quality of her film roles had improved, and she achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance as an alcoholic in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Her career continued successfully through the 1950s and she received subsequent nominations for My Foolish Heart (1949), With a Song in My Heart (1952) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955). She finally won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958).




1917 American actress, singer, and dancer Lena Horne was born as Lena Mary Calhoun Horne in Brooklyn, New York. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. Due to the Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.




1933 English cricketer Michael John Knight Smith, better known as M.J.K. Smith or Mike Smith, was born at  Westcotes, Leicestershire. He was one of England's most popular cricket captains and, as he also played rugby union, Smith was England's last double international.




1934 The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place. Leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were murdered, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary brownshirts.





1939 English pianist, composer, and producer Tony Hatch was born at Pinner, Middlesex.




1963 English film, television and theatre actor Rupert Graves is born at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, Graves's first job after leaving school was as a circus clown. He has appeared in over twenty-five films and over thirty-five television productions; including his more recent role as DI Lestrade in the television series "Sherlock".





1966 Retired Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was born in Brooklyn New York. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old.

Who's This Suarez Guy?

1973 English author Nancy Freeman-Mitford dird aged 68yo at Versailles France six months aafter being disgnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the blood. She was one of the renowned Mitford sisters and one of the "Bright Young People" on the London social scene in the inter-war years, and is best remembered for her novels about upper-class life in England and France, and for her sharp and often provocative wit.



1995 American actor and singer Gale Gordon died of lung cancer  at the Redwood Terrace Health Center in Escondido, California, aged 89. Gordon an American character actor perhaps best remembered as Lucille Ball's longtime television foil—and particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television situation comedy, The Lucy Show. Gordon also had starring roles in Ball's third series Here's Lucy and her short-lived fourth series Life with Lucy. Gordon was also a respected radio actor.



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2003 American comedian and actor Buddy Hackett died at Malibu, California, a week after suffering a stroke.  Notable roles he portrayed include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man and Tennessee Steinmetz in The Love Bug.





World Cup News: Brazil continues to go wild over the World Cup. The home team once again showed their capacity to perform with their second draw from four games. England manager Roy Hodgson bemoaned ," Oh what I would weally give for two dwawers!"  Alleged superstriker, Wayne "Thatch" Rooney said, " Well our kid, I just winned the World Cup!I beat our Kai 5-1 in the final as Brazil on FIFA 14, whilst the Mrs unpacks them 115 bags she took to Brazil, phut, should have been like me, just took a carry on bag, knew I wouldn't be there long!"

Yeah! Another Draw!

I Said Wight!

Oh Fuck! Now I've Missed My Mouth Too!

June 28th
Feast Day of Saint Paulus I.  Pope Paul I was Pope from 29 May 757 to his death in 767. He first served as a Roman deacon and was frequently employed by his brother, Pope Stephen II, in negotiations with the Lombard Kings.


928 Louis the Blind, Holy Roman Emperor between 901-905, died in obscurity. He was the son of Boso, the usurper king of Provence, and Ermengard, a daughter of the Emperor Louis II.Through his father, he was a Bosonid, but through his mother, a Carolingian. He was blinded after a failed invasion of Italy in 905.



1577  Flemish Baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens is born at Siegen, Westphalia.  He was a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasised movement, colour, and sensuality. He is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.




1909 English author Eric Ambler is born in London. Best known for writing spy novels, after the second world war he also produced film screenplays such as The October Man, The Cruel Sea, A Night To Remember and The Way Ahead.



1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princeps, a 19yo Bosnian, setting in motion events that would lead to the First World War. He was 50yo. The Archduke's wife Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg was also killed during the attack, she was 46yo.



1915 Australian cricketer Victor Trumper died as a result of Bright's Disease in Darlinghurst, Sydney aged 37yo. Trumper's most remarkable Test season was played in England in 1902. It was one of the wettest summers on record, yet Trumper in 53 innings scored 2,570 runs, and without a single not out had an average of 48.49.


1926 Mel Brooks is born in Brooklyn, New York as Melvin James Kaminsky. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies such as "Blazing Saddles", " Young Frankenstein", " High Anxiety", " The Producers", etc.




1935 English actor and singer John Inman is born at Preston as Frederick John Inman. Best known for his role of Mr Humphries in the BBC sitcom " Are You Being Served".

1945 Scottish boxer Ken Buchanan is born at Edinburgh in Scotland. In 1970 Buchanan won the World Lightweight Championship, a title he held until he was stripped of it in June 1971.



1946 American actor and director Bruce Davison was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Best remembered as playing the father of the family, George Henderson in "Harry and the Henderson's" TV series in the early 1990s.


1948 American actress Kathy Bates was born at Memphis, Tennessee asbKathleen Doyle Bates. She rose to prominence through the 1990 film Misery for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe.


1948 Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era. He was also renowned as a notorious highwayman!



1966 American actor, producer, screenwriter John Cusack was born at Evanston,  Illinois. Cusack has appeared in more than 70 films to date including Being John Malkovitch, Grossed Point Blank, Con Air, High Fidelity, America's Sweethearts, etc.


1966 American stage, film and TV actress Mary Stuart Masterson is born in New York City. She has appeared in over 30 films.


1968 English actor Adam Brinley Woodyat is born at Walthamstow in London. He has played the role of Ian Beale in EastEnders since its inception in 1985.


1976 Welsh acting knight, Sir Stanley Baker died from complications of pneumonia in Malaga, Spain aged 48yo. This followed on from his being diagnosed with lung cancer the same year that had also spread to his bones. Baker's first starring role, after a number of supporting roles and bit parts was in "Hell Drivers" in 1957, the role established him as a "star", he went on to star in many films usually as an anti-hero type. In 1964 he starred in Zulu as Lieutenant John Chard VC, the role he is probably best remembered for. Shortly before his death Baker told his wife Ellen:-
" I have no regrets. I have had a fantastic life; no one has had a more fantastic life than I have. From the beginning I have been surrounded by love. I'm the son of a Welsh miner and I was born into love, married into love and spent my life in love." 
He was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium and his ashes were scattered upon Llanwonno, overlooking Ferndale.


1992 Belgian racing driver Guy Nève was killed in practice for an endurance race at Chimay, Belgium. His Porsche 911 clipped another car hitting a grass bank and flipping several times before coming to rest on its roof. During the crash fuel ignited setting the car on fire. Neve was killed instantly at the spot, he was just 37yo and was the younger brother of racing driver Patrick Nève.



2001 English actress Joan Sims died aged 71yo from diverticular disease at Chelsea, London.



Politics: Supernanny Jo Frost has been urgently brought into the coalition government following David Cameron's display of foot stamping and petulance following the election of Jean Claude Juncker as the next President of The European Commission. She has sent the PM to the naughty step for 10 minutes and sent Chancellor Gideon Osborne to bed with no supper for his role in hiring Andy Coulson. Osborne did ask her to spank him as punishment but Ms Frost refused and told him to take off his gimp suit immediately!

I Am A Winner! They Are Wrong!

I'll sort you lot out!

Take that bloody thing off and go!

Why Am I Always On The Naughty Step?