On the Seventh day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

Seven Swans a' Swimming,

On the Sixth day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

Six Geese a' Laying.

On the Fifth day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

Five Gold Rings,

On the Fourth day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.


Four Calling Birds,

On the Third day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

Three French Hens,

On the Second day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

Two Turtle Doves,

On the First day of Christmas....

....my true love gave to me.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

21st December 1988

Pan Am flight 103 detonates over Lockerbie Scotland, by means of a remote control radio bomb. All 259 aboard are killed as well as 11 on the ground struck by falling detritus. The PFLP faction of the PLO was responsible, assisted by Libyan sponsorship.

21st December 1970

President Nixon meets with prescription drug addict Elvis Presley at the White House to discuss The King's becoming a special drug enforcement agent. He presents Nixon with a pistol, and receives a special DEA badge in return.

For food?

WARNING!!!!

15th December 1967

At 5:00 PM, the Silver Bridge collapsed claiming 46 lives and injuring 9. The Christmas rush applied an extra load to the 40 year old bridge causing a cleavage fracture in one of the "eyebars". This was followed by a ductile fracture near the pin. Unable to support the weight of the entire bridge, the south side chain also snapped. The structure only took about 1 minute to completely fall into the river below. An investigation, led by John Bennett, immediately followed the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The bridge was constructed of carbon steel, which tends to crack. Many cracks were found throughout the bridge among extensive corrosion. The failure resulted from stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue, two concepts which were not known in 1927. It was also found that the flaw could not have been detected, even by today's methods, unless the bridge was taken apart and tested.In addition to the investigation, the federal government mandated the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). The new standards required periodic inspection of all the nation's bridges.

11th December 1936

After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. The eldest son of King George V, Edward ascended to the throne in January 1936. He enjoyed immense popularity with his subjects until he announced his intention to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee. Many in Britain opposed the marriage, but the King refused to call off his engagement. With no compromise possible, Edward announced his abdication, saying, “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love”. That evening, parliament passed a bill of abdication, and the next day Edward’s younger brother was proclaimed King George VI. The former king was granted the title of Duke of Windsor, and in 1937 he married Wallis Simpson in France.

Swans reflecting elephants.

Ooooops.......

.....too late!

Be warned.....

Its official!!!!

Its now officially Christmas in my house.

I was out last night Christmas shopping for all those special people in my life. I managed to get the majority of what I wanted, just a couple more bits and bobs this weekend and thats me done.....

....and Saturday, the tree will be going up...... the traditional 12 days before.

8th December 1980

Musician John Lennon is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. The British star, formerly of the rock group The Beatles, had once caused outrage when he declared that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Love and peace were Lennon’s central themes; he found love when he married singer Yoko Ono, but peace was shattered on 8th December 1980, when he was shot outside his apartment building in New York City. He died on the way to the hospital. His assailant, Mark David Chapman, was convicted of murder and sent to jail. Bereaved fans kept vigil in front of the entrance to his home for an entire week.

3rd December 1992

Two bombs planted by the IRA explode in the centre of Manchester injuring 65 people, A telephone warning of other devices force police to evacuate the whole of the city centre causing widespread disruption.

3rd December 1979

Eleven "WHO" fans were killed at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was set up as "festival seating" meaning the entire show was first come-first serve to get as close to the stage as possible. The crowd started lining up in the cold waiting to get in. The crowd got impatient as time went on.

The band got off to a late start and had a late sound check before the doors opened. The crowd outside heard this and took it as if the show had started and they were missing the set. This resulted in the crowd pushing, shoving, and trampling others to get into the assumed on-going show. In result eleven people died and dozens were injured on various levels.

The band were not informed of the deaths until after the show.

2nd December 1942.

Italian-born American physicist Enrico Fermi demonstrates the first controlled nuclear fission reaction in an unused squash court in a basement at the University of Chicago. Two years earlier, Fermi, along with Hungarian-born physicist Leo Szilard and German-born physicist Albert Einstein, wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt warning of the danger of Nazi development of an atomic weapon. In 1942, Roosevelt approved a U.S. atomic program, the ‘Manhattan Project’, to build an atomic bomb. Fermi, who won the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics, scored one of the program’s early triumphs with his demonstration of a nuclear reaction. In July 1945, the United States successfully tested the world’s first atomic bomb, and in August two such bombs were dropped on Japan. Fermi died in 1954, and the element fermium was named in his honour one year later.