June 20th
The Feast Day of  The Blessed Margareta Ebner a 14th century German nun, who is considered to be part of the tradition of German mysticism and a visionary. She was beatified on February 24th 1979 by Pope John Paul II.


840 Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious died at his hunting lodge on an island in the Rhine by his palace at Ingelheim.  Louis was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz.


1837  Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne after the death of William IV. She would reign for 63 years and seven months, which is longer than any other monarch.


1840 Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph.
One of the most efficient ways of communication over great distances was created during the exciting times of early 19th century. Samuel Morse’s invention of his simple and ground breaking mode of communication united the entire world, and forever changed our social and economic way of life.


1893 Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murder of her father and stepmother. 
The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme:
Lizzie Borden took an axeAnd gave her mother forty whacks.When she saw what she had done,She gave her father forty-one.


1900 The Boxer Rebellion began. The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55 day siege of the Legation Quarter in Peking, China.


1909 Tasmanian hell raiser and legendary film star Errol Flynn was born in Hobart. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his playboy lifestyle. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1942.




1914 The Israeli poet Zelda is born in Slupsk, Poland. During her lifetime she became very famous and renowned her life story being “The Legend of Zelda!”




1916 Animal Magic host Johnny Morris is born in Newport, Wales. Famous for his irreverent ‘commentary’ on the real life animals. He was also the narrator on the Watch With Mother programme “Tales of the Riverbank”.




1925 One of the most decorated soldiers of World War II, American actor Audie Leon Murphy was born in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas. The 19-year-old Murphy received the ‘Medal of Honor’ after single-handedly holding off an entire company of Germans for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition. He played himself in the 1955 autobiographical To Hell and Back based on his 1949 memoirs of the same name, but most of his films were westerns.


1934 English actress Wendy Craig is born in Sacriston, County Durham. Best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Not in Front of the Children, Butterflies, …And Mother Makes Three and …And Mother Makes Five. She played the recurring role of Matron in the TV series The Royal (2003-11).





1937 American singer/songwriter Jerry Keller was born at Fort Smith , Arkansas. Keller’s biggest self-penned hit was 1959’s “Here Comes Summer.” It climbed to #14 in the Billboard Hot 100. The record reached number one in the UK the same year.


1945 Canadian singer Anne Murray is born in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, “Snowbird” (1970).


1947  American mobster Benjamin ” Bugsy” Siegel was shot dead at the home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, the murder is still unsolved to this day.


1954 England Test cricketer Allan Lamb was born at Langebaanweg, Cape Province, South Africa. He joined Northamptonshire so he could enhance his career and eventually play Test cricket for England, as his native country South Africa were to be banned from International cricket due to the apartheid régime. He retired in 1995 at the age of 41 and currently works for Sky Sports and other foreign TV cricketing broadcasts as an analyst.


1956 England International  footballer and club manager Peter Reid was born at Huyton, Liverpool. He was voted as the PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 1985 and came fourth in the World Soccer Player of the Year award, behind Michel Platini, Preben Elkjær and Diego Maradona.





1990 The asteroid Eureka is discovered by the Palomar Observatory



1999 The hemorrhoid Aghstinga! is discovered by the Pilesomore Laboratory.



Animal News: A new World wide law outlawing cruelty to donkeys is to be introduced. From September of 2014 it will be an offence to make a donkey carry heavy loads or pull laden carts. Prime Minister David Cameron is to demand that Donkeys on Blackpool beach are to be exempted from the law, whilst UKIP leader Nigel Farrrrrage stated that this was another disgusting example of the world picking on good honest British customs and reiterated his intention to withdraw from the world if voted in next year. A Donkey spokesman said, ” Hee Hawwww, he haww!,” and munched on a carrot while another donkey who gave his name as Eeyore said, “Never mind, deary me, I suppose we will just have to put up with it, no one cares, I’ll just carry on being miserable…same as every day!”