June 24th

24th
Today is Midsummer's Day in England. In Great Britain from the 13th century, Midsummer was celebrated on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve, June 23) and St. Peter's Eve (June 28) with the lighting of bonfires, feasting and merrymaking.



1542 John of the Cross a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite friar and a priest who was born at Fontiveros, Old Castile.


1842 American author Ambrose Bierce is born in Meigs County, Ohio. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters", and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce"

1846 Adolphe Sax patented the Saxophone in Paris.


1902 King Edward VII develops appendicitis thereby delaying his Coronation.



1904 American singer and actor Phil Harris was born in Linton, Colorado. Though successful as an orchestra leader, Harris is remembered today for his recordings as a vocalist, his voice work in animation (probably most famous later in his career for his roles as bears, one being Baloo in Disney's The Jungle Book, and as Little John in Disney's Robin Hood). He also voiced Thomas O'Malley in Disney's The Aristocats and probably best known for doing his last role as Patou in the 1991 Don Bluth film Rock-A-Doodle.



1912 English broadcaster and cricket commentator Brian Johnston was born at Little Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Affectionately known as Johnners, he was a BBC cricket commentator & TV presenter from 1946 to 1993. Johnston was renowned for his on-air schoolboy humour and puns. In one famous incident during a Test match at the Oval, Jonathan Agnew suggested that Ian Botham was out hit wicket because he had failed to "get his leg over" , Johnston carried on commentating (and giggling) for 30 seconds before dissolving into helpless laughter.


1916 The Battle of the Somme begins . The battle was one of the largest of World War I, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed, making it one of humanity's bloodiest battles.


1924 Australian rugby league great Brian Bevan is born in Sydney, New South Wales. Bevan scored a world record 796 tries, mainly for the Warrington RLFC. 
In his career in Britain, Bevan scored a hat-trick of tries or more in a single game 100 times. Twice he scored seven tries in a single game for Warrington, which is still a club record.


1942 English singer/songwriter Arthur Brown was born at Whitby, North Yorkshire, he is best remembered for his 1968 single "Fire!" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.


1944 English singer/songwriter, guitarist and actor Jeff Beck was born at Wallington, Surrey. He is one of the three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.

1947 Chef, writer, ex lawyer and academic Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright was born at St. John's Wood. Best known as one half, along with Jennifer Paterson, of the Two Fat Ladies television cooking programme. She was an accredited cricket umpire, and one of only two women to become a Guild Butcher.

1968 English comedian, writer and actor Anthony John 'Tony' Hancock died. Popular during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James around 1960 disappointed many of his fans at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work ("The Blood Donor"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career took a downward course because of his alcoholism. Hancock committed suicide, by overdose, in Sydney, on 24 June 1968 aged 44yo. He was found dead in his Bellevue Hill flat with an empty vodka bottle and a scattering of amylo-barbitone tablets, In one of his suicide notes he wrote: "Things just seemed to go too wrong too many times".



1981 The Humber Bridge opens to traffic.  It is the seventh-longest of its type in the world. It spans the Humber (the estuary formed by the rivers Trent and Ouse) between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Hessle on the north bank, connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

1982 English footballer Kevin Nolan was born at Liverpool. After growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool, Nolan signed for Bolton Wanderers at the age of 16. In the 2009 transfer window he moved to Newcastle. In the summer of 2011 Nolan joined West Ham United on a five-year contract, joining up once again with new West Ham boss, Sam Allardyce. He was appointed captain soon after his arrival and led the team to an instant return to the Premier League.

1986 England Test Cricketer Stuart Broad was born at Nottingham. At the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 tournament, Broad entered cricketing history by conceding a record-setting six sixes in a single over to Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh. The over stands as the most expensive fully completed over bowled in International-level T20 cricket.

1987 Argentine footballing God Lionel Messi was born at Rosario, Argentina. By the age of 21, Messi had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2009, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the inaugural FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010, and then again in 2011 and 2012. He also won the 2010–11 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. At the age of 24, Messi became Barcelona's all-time top scorer in all official club competitions. At age 25, Messi became the youngest player to score 200 goals in La Liga's matches.

1988 Micah Lincoln Richards was born in Birmingham. Richards is an English professional footballer who plays for Manchester City as a right back. On making his full England debut in November 2006, he became the youngest defender ever to be called up to the England squad. Richards has won 13 caps for England and played in the Great Britain squad for the 2012 Olympic football tournament.


2000 English actor and singer David Tomlinson died at Westminster after suffering from a sudden stroke.He was 83 years old. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.



2007 Northern Irish footballer Derek Dougan died at age 69 from a heart attack at his home in Wolverhampton. In 18 years in the English League, Dougan scored 294 goals in 685 matches, including 95 in 258 for Wolves.

2007 Canadian Wrestling Superstar Chris Benoit killed himself aged 40yo.  Over a three-day period, Benoit had killed his wife and son before hanging himself, His wife was bound before the killing. Benoit's son was drugged and likely unconscious before Benoit strangled him.Benoit then committed suicide with a weight machine.
During his professional wrestling career, Benoit worked for such major promotions as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE).




2013 Archaeologist and academic Mick Aston died unexpectedly at his home in Somerset.  As an academic, he taught at a number of universities across the United Kingdom, and helped popularise the discipline amongst the British public by appearing as the resident academic on the Channel 4 television series Time Team from 1994 to 2011. Through the series, Aston became well known to the viewing public for his trademark colourful jumpers and flowing, untidy hairstyle. He also published a number of books on the subject of archaeology, some of which were written for an academic audience, and others for the general public.

Politics: Following the alleged massaging of job creation figures by the coalition, (150,000 jobs 'created' at the Royal Mail, appearing at the push of a button), Esther McVey announced that over a million jobs would be created by McDonalds and KFC, when she was pressed she admitted that she did not know exactly when the jobs will appear but stressed," I can assure you that this million jobs are a figure that I totally recognise!" McVey also announced that around 3 million "jobs" will be created as 3 million children enter education, when challenged about the validity of these jobs McVey said," No they work very hard in schools so should be classed as full time jobs, what do you mean they don't get paid? Neither do zero contract don't get paid most of the time but we count those as full time jobs! As I say I strongly recognise these figures as does Lord Duncan Smith...what do you mean he isn't a Lord? I think that if you check out his excellent CV you will see that he is!". A Number Ten spokesman stressed that the coalition jobs creation was a thing of wonder to behold! He then left singing, " Juncker out! Juncker out! Juncker out", as he skipped along.



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