It Happened Today in History

The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen's Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on this day in 1859.

Traditional observance

Troops at the Washington, D.C. Memorial Day parade, 1942.
A boy holds an American flag during the 2009 National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol.Many people observe this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. local time. Another tradition is to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff from dawn until noon local time. Volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at National Cemeteries.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars take donations[6] for poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day; the poppy's significance to Memorial Day is the result of the John McCrae poem "In Flanders Fields." gatherings, and sporting events. One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. The Coca-Cola 600 has been held later the same day since 1961.

The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol. The concert is broadcast on PBS and NPR. Music is performed, and respect is paid to the men and women who gave their lives for their country.

Some Americans view Memorial Day as the unofficial beginning of summer and Labor Day as the unofficial end of the season.

Memorial Day formerly was observed on May 30. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to this fixed date, although the significance of the date is tenuous.

June 1st

On this day in 1942, a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty Brigade, makes public the news of the gassing of tens of thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a death camp in Poland-almost seven months after extermination of prisoners began.

A year earlier, the means of effecting what would become the "Final Solution," the mass extermination of European Jewry, was devised: 700 Jews were murdered by channeling gas fumes back into a van used to transport them to the village of Chelmno, in Poland. This "gas van" would become the death chamber for a total of 360,000 Jews from more than 200 communities in Poland. The advantage of this form of extermination was that it was silent and invisible.

One month before the infamous Wannsee Conference of January 1942, during which Nazi officials decided to address formally the "Jewish question," the gas vans in Chelmno were used to kill up to 1,000 Jews a day. The vans provided the "Final Solution" for Adolf Eichmann and other Wannsee attendees. The mass gassings were the most orderly and systematic means of eliminating European Jewry. Eventually, more such vans were employed in other parts of Poland. There was no thought of selecting out the "fit" from the "unfit" for slave labor, as in Auschwitz. There was only one goal: utter extermination.

On June 1, 1942, the story of a young Jew, Emanuel Ringelblum, (who escaped from the Chelmno death camp after being forced to bury bodies as they were thrown out of the gas vans), was published in the underground Polish Socialist newspaper Liberty Brigade. The West now knew the "bloodcurdling news ... about the slaughter of Jews," and it had a name-Chelmno.

1962: 130 die in Paris air crash
A chartered Air France Boeing 707 headed for Atlanta, Georgia, has crashed on take-off at Orly Airport in Paris, killing 130 people on board.
It is the worst ever recorded air disaster involving one aircraft.

Miraculously, two of the 10 crew survived. The air stewardesses, who had been sitting at the rear of the plane, escaped with minor injuries.

Three hours after the disaster another steward was found alive in the wreckage but he died later in hospital.

1966 Football glory for England ..
England win football,s world cup for the first time since
the tournament began in 1930..


1986 Parents appeal for missing agent..
The parents of missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh make
an emotional appeal for her safe return ..

Hiroshima - Aug 6th - 1945
Nagasaki - Aug 9th - 1945

The Unforgettable Fire

Ice, your only rivers run cold.
These city lights, they shine as silver and gold.
Took from the night, your eyes as black as coal.

Walk on by, walk on through.
Walk till you run and don't look back
For here I am.

Carnival, the wheels fly and the colours spin through alcohol.
Red wine that punctures the skin.
Face to face in a dry and waterless place.

Walk on by, walk on through.
So sad to besiege your love so hang on.

Stay in this time, stay tonight in a lie.
I'm only asking, but I, I think you know.
Come on take me away, come on take me away
Come on take me home, home again.

And if the mountain should crumble
Or disappear into the sea
Not a tear, no not I.

Stay in this time, stay tonight in a lie.
Ever after is a long time.
And if you save your love, save it all, save it all
Don't push me too far, don't push me too far.
Tonight, tonight.

U2