On this day ......

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On this day ......

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1883: The Clyde shipyards suffered their worst accident when the SS Daphne capsized at her launch.

The packet steamer had been built by the Linthouse yard of Alexander Stephen and Sons and immediately sank into the River Clyde, taking the lives of the 195 workmen on board. It was later discovered that the 460-ton ship had little stability when it was launched, and rolled over forty-five degrees, taking huge amounts of water through a large deck opening.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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1295: Scotland and France form an alliance, the origin of their 'Auld Alliance', against England.

1530: Border reiver, John Armstrong of Gilnockie, and 50 of his men were hanged for blackmail by James V.
Armstrong was a well-known laird in the Borders area, and although a frequent marauder in England, he is not known to have attacked in Scotland. However, his wealth and power in a troublesome region brought the resentment of James V. Armstrong was tricked into attending a royal hunt only to be seized on his arrival. He faced the king, and volubly remonstrated with him that he had "asked grace at a graceless face".
Legend has it that the trees at Carnlanrig, where Armstrong and his followers were hanged, withered, and none have grown there since.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Blackmail? Of a King? imagine trying to blackmail Henry Viii!
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1535: Sir Thomas More is executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

1685: In the last major battle on English soil, James II defeats James, Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor.

1988: The Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea was rocked by a huge explosion.
Blasts continued on the platform throughout that night, and by morning 167 men had died. Only 61 men were taken from the platform alive, and two seamen on the rescue vessel, Sandhaven, also died.

2005: London is selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, narrowly beating favourites Paris.
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SRD wrote:1535: Sir Thomas More is executed for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
.
See?
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1307: King Edward I of England died on his last punitive expedition to Scotland at Burgh-on-Sands, near Carlisle.
The epitaph to him in Westminster Abbey, London, reads "Edwardus Primus Scotorum Malleus hic est." - "Edward the First, hammer of the Scots".
His successor, Edward II, was to prove less successful in dealing with Scotland.

1814: The novel "Waverley", by Sir Walter Scott, was published.
Waverley was Scott's first novel, and written mainly as a way of proving himself a superior literary talent to Byron. Although it was published anonymously as a safety net against its failure, it was an open secret who the author was. Scott needn't have worried: the book was a runaway success and Scott became regarded as the leading author in Europe.
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1553: Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed queen of England in succession to Edward VI, who died three days earlier.

1867 Queens Park Football Club was formed, the first senior club in Scotland.
The club dominated the early days of Scottish football, supplying all 11 players to the first ever Scottish international side. With the advent of professionalism, the club determined to retain its amateur status and as a result slid down the leagues. Nicknamed the Spiders, Queen's Park are still the only amateur team in the Scottish senior football set-up, and still play their games at Hampden Park, Glasgow, the home of the Scottish national side.

1877: The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club opens its first tennis tournament at Wimbledon.

1900: The bill bringing into existence the Commonwealth of Australia (on 1 January 1901) receives royal assent.
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1989 Glasgow Rangers signed Maurice Johnston.

One of the last bastions of Scottish Protestant sectarianism, Rangers shocked many of its supporters when the club, under manager Graeme Souness, signed Maurice Johnston from the French club, Nantes, for £1.5m. Johnston had not only played for arch-rivals Celtic, but was the first well-known Roman Catholic player to sign for Rangers in modern times.
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1370: Marjory Stewart, the daughter of King Robert II, married John Dunbar, the first Earl of Moray, against her father's consent.

Dunbar died after injuring himself at a tournament in London in 1391, but their son Thomas succeeded the title.
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1450: A rebellion against war taxes ends when its leader, Jack Cade, is driven out of London and later killed.

1698: A small fleet of five ships set out for the Isthmus of Darien in Panama carrying Scotland's hopes of founding a new empire on board.

The driving force behind the expedition was William Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England. The expedition arrived on 30th October 1698 and the first act of the pioneers was to bury those among them who had died en route. Within seven months of their arrival a third of the 1200 who had travelled were dead and the consensus among those left was to abandon the venture.

1965: The creation of Britain's comprehensive education system begins with the publication of 'Circular 10/65'.
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That last bit isn't quite true. My school - Walworth Comprehensive school - was one of the pioneers of comprehensive education that was in full flow well before that date. I know. I was there.
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1965 was when the plans to make comprehensive schooling a national project (the only way it can work) by 'encouraging' local education authorities to change from the secondary modern/technical college/grammar school model of education and separation at aged 11.

Prior to that some LEAs set up comprehensive schools but they suffered badly as brighter kids just went off to the grammar school in the next borough turning the early comprehensives into little more than secondary moderns, many without fifth and sixth forms, thus negating the whole principles of comprehensive education.

Circular 10/65 was the first effort made to turn the nations education system into a comprehensive one.

Needless to say one of Maggie Thatcher's first actions as Education minister was to turn what had been a virtual mandatory change (due to the financial penalties on LEAs that failed to change) into a 'voluntary' one with Circular 10/70.

This created a two tier education system throughout the country where areas that went comprehensive started to lose out on the brightest kids as middle class families either moved out of the area (as happened in Sutton in Surrey) or put their kids into private education (Bromley being a classic example of that).
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It is my belief (and I could easily check it out if I could be bothered) is that my school became comprehensive in 1948.
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Here you go. This link was sent to me by my old English teacher who is doing a bit of research about the school and the teaching of English:-

http://remakingenglish.org/the-schools/walworth/
Walworth School started life as school board elementary school in the late nineteenth century and became two central schools (boys’ and girls’) which were reconstituted in 1946 into a single mixed ‘experimental’ comprehensive school, one of five set up in the London County Council’s tentative first move to a totally comprehensive system that was never in the event to be achieved
So it was 1946 not 1948.
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Little John wrote:It is my belief (and I could easily check it out if I could be bothered) is that my school became comprehensive in 1948.
I didn't dispute that, but pointed out that comprehensive education can only work on a national basis otherwise the schools simply become secondary moderns. That happened in Swanley where the brighter kids were encouraged to take the 11+ and, if they passed went off to Dartford Grammar, if they failed they went to Wilmington Secondary Modern, but it was rare that any failed as they had already been pre-selected as likely passes. If they weren't likely to pass they didn't take the 11+ and went to Swanley Comprehensive (which had been St. Mary's Secondary Modern). This had the effect of turning Swanley Comprehensive into a secondary modern school. It wasn't until I was there in the early 70s that they actually had enough pupils getting through GCE O-levels to warrant the introduction of a sixth form that wasn't just involved with GCE and CSE retakes. I bet if you looked around the Walworth area there were neighbouring boroughs, who hadn't gone comprehensive, that creamed off the best of the local youth into their grammar schools. Just because you call a school a comprehensive doesn 't make it one.

And your subsequent post has just proved what I say:
... that was never in the event to be achieved
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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