This Week In London’s History
- Monday – 13th June 1981: Teenager Marcus Sarjeant fires six blank shots at the Queen during the Trooping the Colour ceremony. The Queen is unharmed, and Sarjeant is later imprisoned for treason.
- Tuesday – 14th June 1961: George O’Dowd is born in Eltham, South-East London. In the 1980s he would become better known as Boy George, the androgynous lead-singer of Culture Club.
- Wednesday – 15th June 1215: King John puts his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede (about half-way between Heathrow Airport and Windsor).
- Thursday – 16th June 1838: The London Working Men’s Association is formed, marking the beginnings of a significant movement for social and political reform.
- Friday – 17th June 1974: An IRA bomb explodes at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage, and minor injuries to 11 people.
London Quote Of The Week
It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither.
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
Picture by John Quintero via the Londonist Flickr pool.
