Oxhill News |
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www.oxhill.com / www.oxhill.org.uk |
South Warwickshire, England. |
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The Oxhill News December 2005 |
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This months News |
Contents
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December 31 Is New Year's Eve. Start thinking about your resolutions now. It is also the Feast day of Saints Silvester I, pope, Melania the Younger, and Columba of Sens. It was the day in 1687 when the first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage. Good for the Huguenots, I say. In 1695 the window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many being bricked up, and in 1711 the Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief. New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island in 1891, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of poor huddled masses. The chimes of Big Ben were first broadcast by the BBC in 1923, and the farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender in 1960. Shame. Charles Edward Stuart, aka the Young Pretender, was born in 1720 and Henri Matisse in 1869. Anthony Hopkins was born in 1937, Ben Kingsley in 1943, and Donna Summer in 1948. Noteable deaths on 31st December are a little thin on the ground. John Flamstead (first Astronomer Royal) died in 1719 and Malcolm Campbell in 1948. Maxim Litvinov, leader of Soviet Russia, died in 1951. My ignorance of Modern History (surely a contradiction in terms) is such that I have never heard of Maxim Litvinov. Editor |
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Send mail to the editor of the Oxhill News at news-editor @ oxhill.org.uk. |
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Last modified: December 01, 2005 |
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