This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 19th September 1997: Six people die as a high-speed Intercity 125 train collides with a freight train in Southall, north London. An inquiry would find that the driver missed two warning signals, and that the train’s two safety systems that could have averted the accident were inoperative.
- Tuesday – 20th September 2000: An anti-tank missile is fired at the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, causing minor damage to the eighth floor. The Real IRA is later blamed for the attack.
- Wednesday – 21st September 1969: More than 200 policemen storm a mansion in Piccadilly, Central London, evicting a large number of squatters.
- Thursday – 22nd September 1955: A new television channel, ITV, launches at a ceremony at the Guildhall. Its broadcasting initially only covers the London area, but would be spread to the other UK regions over the next seven years.
- Friday - 23rd September 1939: Renowned psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, suffering from cancer, commits ‘assisted’ suicide at his home in Hampstead.
Random London Quote Of The Week
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford
Picture by Peter Denton via the Londonist Flickr pool.
