Monday Miscellanea

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 141 months ago
Monday Miscellanea

This Week In London’s History

  • Monday11th June 1988: The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (a.k.a. Mandela Day Concert) takes place at Wembley Stadium. On a scale approaching the Live Aid concert that took place some three years earlier, more than 600 million people worldwide tune in to watch the epic day-long concert featuring dozens of high profile bands protesting against the apartheid regime in South Africa and the ongoing incarceration of Nelson Mandela.
  • Tuesday12th June 1991: The Outrage! gay rights group stage a mass “queer wedding” in Trafalgar Square to demand equal rights for same-sex partners as for married couples.
  • Wednesday13th 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.
  • Thursday14th 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.
  • Friday15th June 1215: King John puts his seal to the Magna Carta at Runnymede (about half-way between Heathrow Airport and Windsor).

Random London Quote Of The Week

So poetry, which is in Oxford made

An art, in London is only a trade.

John Dryden, Prologue to the University of Oxon

Picture of a Magna Carta memorial in Egham by M@.

Last Updated 10 June 2012