8th April 2011

And on Monday….

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Mic Porter

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Events1093 – The current Winchester Cathedral is dedicated, originally founded in 642, becomes a monastery in 971 but the “new” Cathedral is planned, work starts in 1079 “opened” 08/04/1093. A further 500 years before “finished”! Dedicated to Saint Swithun (among others) sometime Bishop of Winchester, famed for predicting the weather that follows, for 40 days, his feast day of 15th July.Buried here – many Saxon Kings of England, Jane Austin & Izaak Walton.Stars in Trollop’s Chronicles of Barsetshire and in songs by The New Vaudeville band , Crosby Stills & Nash and Clinic

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EventsWinchester Cathedral is shored up by the diver William Walker who, for 6 years, packed vast amounts of concrete and brick into the flooded foundations at depts. Of up to 6M. During which time he cycled back and forth to Croydon (150 miles each way) each week for the family weekend.Glass and decoration by Burne-Jones and William Morris, statues by many, including Anthony GormleyBuilt of Isle of Wight Stone much loved by Pevsner and has the only ring of 14 bells in the world.

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• Sound II by Gormley in the still flooding Crypt (1986).

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Events1906 – Auguste Deter dies, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the, still poorly understood, degenerative and terminal disease. [Named after the German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and first describer.]1908 – Harvard (Univ.) Business School founded.1946 – Last meeting of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations, is held.1968 – BOAC Boeing 707-465 (Speedbird 712 ) crashes at Heathrow from which it had taken off 3 minutes earlier, 5 (of 127 ) die. Cause was metal fatigue in engine followed by fire but situation (?)worsened by poor several poor decisions/actions.

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Events1985 – Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 3,000 (subsequently another 7/8000) and injured another 200,000 (estimated at over ½ million in 2006). Legal actions ongoing (Feb. 2011)The plant was destroyed in an explosion overnight (2/3 -12-1984). (?)42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC – a pesticide intermediate) vaporized and drifted over a nearby slum development. The cause was an introduction of water causing an exothermic reaction within a plant designed to make MIC by a process that would be not be permitted elsewhere (and without safety systems). (Eg in the US.)

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Ins and an Out…1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian actress, film producer and “angel” (d. 1979)1916 – Alfie Bass, “jobbing” actor (d. 1987)1918 – Betty Ford, First Lady of the US and founder in 1982, with Leonard Firestone of the Centres (Clinics) that bear her name and work in the field of alcohol and drug addiction – both of which she had experience of.1944 – Hywel Bennett, Welsh “jobbing” actor; married for 21 years to married to Cathy McGowan of the mid 60s music programme Ready Steady Go”Death, 1906, Auguste Deter; the first Alzheimer’s diagnosis. (b. 1850)

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And fifty years ago, Monday (11th)

Yuri Gargarin (1934-1968) first (single) orbiting astronaut and Russian “heart throb”. Selected

because at 5’2” (1.57M, UK c ½%ile) he could fit in!