Prof. Frank McDonough

PHOTO OF THE DAY. Napoleon's death mask, cast in bronze, was created 40 hours after his death (1821). 📷 google images

18 October 2021. Colin Powell died (aged 84). He was 65th US Secretary of State (2001-2005) and the 1st African-American in the role. He was also the 16th US National Security Advisor (1987-1989), and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993).

18 October 2007. Journalist and critic Alan Coren died (aged 69). He was best known as the team captain on the popular BBC TV series, Call My Bluff. His son Giles is a Times columnist and TV and radio presenter and his daughter Victoria presents BBC panel game, Only Connect.

18 October 1995. Red Rum, 3 times winner of the Grand National at Aintree, died (aged 30). Red Rum won the 1973, 1974 and 1977 Grand Nationals and finished 2nd in the 1975 and 1976 races. He was arguably the best loved British racehorse of all time.

18 October 1989. East German Communist leader Erich Honecker resigned after 18 years in power thereby paving the way to German unification.

18 October 1966. Elizabeth II granted a Royal Pardon to Timothy Evans, who was wrongly convicted and hanged for the murder of his wife and child in 1950 at 10 Rillington Place, London. John Christie was the real murderer. It’s one of the greatest miscarriages of justice.

18 October 1963. Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister due to “ill health”. His popularity fell during the damaging “Profumo Sex Scandal” which had dominated the news for most of 1963, but he seemed to have weathered the media storm. He was replaced by Alec Douglas-Home.

18 October 1957. Paul McCartney performed with The Quarrymen for the 1st time in the Conservative Club at New Clubmoor Hall, Liverpool.

18 October 1956. Martina Navratilova was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She’s one of the greatest tennis players of all time. She won a total of 18 Grand Slam Women’s Singles Titles: Wimbledon (9) US Open (4), Australian Open (3) and French Open (2).

18 October 1945. Argentine military officer and politician, Juan Perón, married the little known actress, Eva (“Evita”) Duarte. When they met he was a 48 year old widower and she was 24.

18 October 1939. Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with the murder of John F Kennedy, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. 5 US government investigations concluded he murdered JFK with a telescopic rife from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Many are unconvinced.

18 October 1926. Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was one of the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll music and rock guitar playing. His influence over the development of rock music was enormous, earning him the nickname: “The Father of Rock and Roll.”

18 October 1922. British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was officially formed by a group of leading radio manufacturers including the Italian radio inventor, Guglielmo Marconi. Daily broadcasting by the BBC began in Marconi’s London studio 2LO on 14 November 1922.

18 October 1919. Pierre Trudeau was born in Montreal. He was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, between 1968 and 1984. His tenure of 15 years and 164 days makes him Canada’s 3rd longest-serving PM.

18 October 1871. Charles Babbage died (aged 79). On 14 June 1822, he proposed an “automatic mechanical calculator” which is considered to be the 1st mechanical programmable computer.

Goodnight all

USA No.1 on this day in 1981: Christopher Cross - Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) via @YouTube

UK No.1 on this day in 1979: The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star via @YouTube

18 October 1964. 1st episode of the English language version of Magic Roundabout was broadcast on BBC1. It used footage from the French animation show, Le Manège enchanté, with English scripts written and voiced by Eric Thompson.

18 October 1981. 1st episode of the BBC1 private detective series, Bergerac, was broadcast. It was set in Jersey with John Nettles as title character, Jim Bergerac. There were 9 series and 87 episodes until 26 December 1991.