Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 153 months ago
Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

  • Monday6th June 1997: The Bank of England uses its newly granted independence to set interest rates for the first time (raising them by 0.25% to 6.50%).
  • Tuesday7th June 1695: Hackney carriages are banned from Hyde Park, following an incident where a cab full of “unruly ladies” affronted “several persons of quality”. The ban stays in place for almost 230 years.
  • Wednesday8th June 1999: At the Old Bailey, ex-cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken is sentenced to jail for 18 months, having been found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
  • Thursday9th June 1958: Queen Elizabeth II flies into a revamped Gatwick to officially open London’s second biggest airport.
  • Friday10th June 2000: The Millennium Footbridge opens, spanning the Thames between Bankside and the City. It would initially suffer from ‘synchronous lateral excitation’ (a.k.a. wobbliness), necessitating its closure and the fitting of dampers.

London Quote Of The Week

Pitt is to Addington what London is to Paddington.

George Canning, The Oracle

Picture by curry15 via the Londonist Flickr pool.

Last Updated 05 June 2011