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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

PHOTO OF THE DAY. The famous Hollywood sign which was originally called Hollywoodland (1923) 📷 S H Woodruff

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

USA No.1 on this day in 1970: Neil Diamond Cracklin Rosie youtu.be/MGemtjVtfZM?si… via @YouTube

youtu.be

Neil Diamond Cracklin Rosie 1970

YouTube video by Kathleen Mosley

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 2004. Christopher Reeve died (aged 52). He’s best known for playing Superman in 4 films. Other films include The Bostonians, and Remains of the Day. He became severely disabled after a riding accident in 1995 and campaigned for disability rights.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 2003. Michael Peterson was found guilty of the murder of his wife Kathleen. It was known as the “Death on the Staircase”. Peterson claimed his wife fell down the stairs and maintained his innocence, even though in 2017 he accepted an Alford plea admitting manslaughter.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1985. Yul Brynner (Yuliy Borisovich Briner) died (aged 65). He played King of Siam 4,625 times on stage in The King and I and in the film musical. Other films include The Magnificent Seven, Ten Commandments, The Brothers Karamazov and Westworld.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1971. Old London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA. It was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London, dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona and rebuilt.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1964. Opening ceremony of 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, took place. The 1964 Games were the 1st Olympics held in Asia and marked the 1st time South Africa was excluded due to its apartheid system in sports.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1963. Édith Piaf died (aged 47). Known as the "Little Sparrow" (La Môme Piaf), she rose from singing on the streets of Paris to global superstardom. Her most famous signature song was the defiant "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No Regrets"),

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1962. BBC banned The Monster Mash by Bobby (“Boris”) Pickett & The Crypt Kickers from being played on radio or TV. It was deemed “too ghoulish”. Even so, it became a graveyard smash and a US No 1 hit.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1959. Kirsty MacColl was born in Croydon. She’s best known for her contribution to the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York with The Pogues. Other hits include There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis, A New England, They Don’t Know and Days.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1957. A major radiation leak occurred at the Windscale (now known as Sellafield) nuclear plant in Cumbria after a fire at the plant. The radioactive fallout spread across the UK and the rest of Europe. It’s estimated the radiation leak caused many cancer deaths.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1953. James (“Midge”) Ure was born in Cambuslang, Scotland. Best known as lead singer of Ultravox. He was also co-founder of Band Aid and co-organised the Live Aid and Live 8 charity concerts with Bob Geldof. He also co-wrote charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1930. Harold Pinter was born in London. He was one of the most influential modern British playwrights. His cinematic adaptations and iconic theatrical works, most notably, The Birthday Party and Betrayal won wide acclaim. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1903. Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). It became the leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918, engaging in acts of sabotage and terrorism.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1881. Savoy Theatre, 1st British public building to be lit by electricity, opened. Its construction was financed by theatre impresario, Richard D’Oyly Carte, on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1871. Great Chicago Fire, which began after a barn accident 2 days earlier, was finally brought under control. It killed approximately 300 people, destroyed 3.3 square miles of the city and left more than 100,000 residents homeless.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 1846. Triton, largest moon of Neptune, was discovered by English astronomer William Lassell. It’s the only large moon with an orbit in the direction opposite to its planet’s rotation and it’s the 7th-largest moon in the Solar System.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 15h

10 October 19. Roman general Germanicus Julius Caesar died in Antioch under mysterious circumstances (aged 33). The historian Tacitus believed he’d been poisoned. Germanicus gained significant popularity due to his success in military campaigns.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

PHOTO OF THE DAY: John Lennon playing piano in his apartment in New York’s Dakota (1980). 📷 Kishin Shinoyama

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

UK No.1 on this day in 1971: Rod Stewart - Maggie May youtu.be/KbI_awR4CKE?si… via @YouTube

youtu.be

Rod Stewart - Maggie May (1971)

YouTube video by fkwk101

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 2015. Geoffrey Howe died (aged 88). He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Foreign Secretary. He also delivered a devastating resignation speech, which began the Cabinet coup that brought down Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1990.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 2004. French post-modern philosopher Jacques Derrida died (aged 74). He’s best known for his contribution to semiotic analysis, known as deconstruction and he was associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1995. Alec Douglas-Home died (aged 92). He was the Conservative Prime Minister from October 1963 to October 1964. He was the last Prime Minister to be appointed while being a member of the House of Lords but he had renounced his peerage before taking office.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1986. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. It’s the 2nd longest-running West End musical after Les Misérables and the 3rd longest-running West End show overall behind The Mousetrap.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1975. Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was born on his father’s 35th birthday in New York City. Julian Lennon is his half-brother and Elton John his godfather.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1974. Oskar Schindler died (aged 66). He’s credited with saving at least 1,200 Jews from death during the Holocaust. His story featured in the Hollywood film Schindler’s List. He was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and buried on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1967. Ernesto (“Che”) Guevara (aged 39) was shot dead by Bolivian armed forces for inciting revolution. Guevara opposed US economic and political interference in Latin America. His stylized image photographed by Alberto Korda made him a 1960s poster boy for rebellion.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1966. David Cameron was born in London. He was UK Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016. He announced his intention to resign as PM on the morning after Britain voted to leave the EU.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1955. Steve Ovett was born in Brighton. He was gold medalist in the 800 metres and bronze medalist in 1500 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games when the Ovett v Coe events grabbed world attention. Ovett also set 5 world records for the 1500 metres and the mile.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1944. John Entwistle, the original bass guitarist for the English rock band The Who, was born in London. In 2011 he was voted the greatest bass guitarist of all time in a Rolling Stone magazine readers’ poll.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1940. John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool. He was the founder of The Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in pop music history. In a 2002 BBC viewer poll he was ranked the 8th “Greatest Briton” of all time.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1936. British actor Brian Blessed was born in Mexborough, Yorkshire. He’s best known for playing PC (“Fancy”) Smith in Z-Cars, Augustus in BBC series I Claudius and Boss Nass in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He also shouts a lot in TV advertisements.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1935. Donald McCullin was born in London. His photo work has specialised in examining the reality of war, the plight of the unemployed and the impoverished. He also photographed The Beatles “Mad Day Out” around London for Life magazine on 28 July 1968.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1934. Alexander I of Yugoslavia (left) and Louis Barthou, French Foreign Minister (right) were assassinated during a motorcade in Marseille, France. The assassin Vlado Chernozemski was a member of a Macedonian revolutionary group and killed shortly after the shootings.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1900. Alastair Sim was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His best loved roles were in Scrooge and as headmistress in the St Trinians films. Other films include Green for Danger, Hue and Cry, The Happiest Days of Your Life and An Inspector Calls.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1834. Dublin and Kingstown Railway, 1st public railway on the island of Ireland, opened. It linked Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour (Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin. The historic route now forms part of the modern Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) system.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1799. HMS Lutine sank near the Natherlands. The ship’s bell was salvaged and was rung at Lloyds of London after every maritime disaster. With the advent of the internet, ringing the bell was no longer deemed necessary, but it’s still rung on ceremonial occasions.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

9 October 1779. 1st Luddite riots against industrial machinery broke out in a lace factory in Loughborough. Skilled artisans and workshop owners rebelled because factories mass-produced items much faster and cheaper destroying local livelihoods.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Congrats Peter. Another fascinating book. 👍

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

PHOTO OF THE DAY. An East London “knocker-up” whose job was to wake up workers in the morning (1929). 📷 J Gaiger

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 October 2015. Scottish-born singer-songwriter Jim Diamond died (aged 64). His heyday was in the 1980s when he had a UK No 1 hit with I Should Have Known Better. He had previously fronted the trio PhD that notched up a UK No 3 hit with I Won't Let You Down.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 October 2015. Jürgen Klopp became Liverpool’s new manager replacing Brendan Rodgers. In 2019 Klopp led Liverpool to victory in European Champions League. In 2020, he became 1st German to manage English top division football champions. He resigned in 2024. Now German manager.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 October 1992. Willy Brandt died (aged 78). He was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974 and 1st Social Democratic German chancellor since 1930. He was awarded the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize for assisting European cooperation.

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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 October 1982. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats opened on Broadway in New York City. It’s based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by TS Eliot. It’s the 5th longest-running Broadway show and 8th longest-running London West End show.

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