Consecration of St John's Church

Information

1407: There were some controversial points behind the consecration of, and the first Mass at, St John's church by Peterborough's mitred Abbot Genge. Philip Repington, the Bishop of Lincoln, should have attended but, it was claimed, he had more pressing engagements. Bishop Repington was chaplain and confessor to King Henry VI and it was 'suggested' that he was too busy chasing promotion to come to Peterborough. Was it a coincidence that he became a cardinal in 1408? (Bull, J&V., A History of Peterborough Parish Church - St John the Baptist 1407-2007; Mackreth, Donald, Peterborough - History & Guide,Sutton, 1994)

Taken from: The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

First Distress Signal Sent at Sea

1909

Information

Early Life:

Jack Binns was born in Brigg Union Workhouse, Lincolnshire, in 1884, but moved to Peterborough in 1885 to live with his uncle, William. He left school when he was aged 14 and gained employment as a Telegraph Clerk with the Great Eastern Railway. Unfortunately for Jack, not long after he started work he sustained serious injuries to his legs in a railway accident and spent six months recuperating in Peterborough Infirmary.

He continued working for the GER but eventually left to attend the Marconi Radio Company Training School and ‘graduated’ as a ‘Marconi Man’ in the merchant marine.

Heroism at Sea:

After serving on board various German ships and doing a spell of shore duty in Ireland Jack joined the White Star Line as a Telegraphist (Wireless Operator). Jack was on duty on the RMS Republic in January 1909 when the liner was in collision with the Italian liner Florida in the North Atlantic. The Republic sustained serious damage but John was able to transmit a Morse code distress signal, 'CQD' (CQ being a call for any ships or land-based radio operators, and the 'D' being the all-important signal for distress), which was picked up by the Marconi Radio shore station on Nantucket Island. This signal is acknowledged to be the first ever distress signal sent at sea. The signal was re-transmitted to the SS Baltic which, together with other vessels, was able to steam to the assistance of the stricken ships, guided by the radio signals sent out by Jack who stayed at his post for nineteen hours, in the biting cold (part of the radio cabin had been ripped away in the collision leaving it open to the elements) working with crude equipment running on emergency back-up batteries. Six people died in the accident; all surviving passengers and crew from the Republic were transferred to the Florida which made it safely into port. The RMS Republic, however, was too badly damaged and sank in 40 fathoms south of Nantucket.

Life After the Sinking:

Jack was welcomed as a hero when he returned to New York where he was subjected to much unwanted publicity and inducements to profit financially from his experiences but these were rejected and Jack returned to England. He arrived back in Peterborough, which he considered to be his home, on Feb. 9th, where he was greeted by the Mayor and presented with a scroll of honour. Marconi presented Jack with a gold watch in recognition of his heroism. He had suggested after the 1909 collision that every merchant ship should carry two wireless operators and this principle was incorporated into the US 1912 Radio Act. In 1939 he received a medal from the ‘Veteran Wireless Operators Association'.

Jack continued his employment with the White Star Line and, in 1912, was offered a job on the company's newest liner, the Titanic. By this time, however, the young 'Marconiman' was engaged, and his American fiancee didn't want him to return to sea. He resigned his position and went to work as a journalist in New York. Ironically, his first journalistic assignment was to report on the loss of the Titanic!

Jack died of a stroke in New York in 1959. He bequeathed his gold watch, medals and scroll to the citizens of Peterborough and they are now in the possession of Peterborough Museum.

References:

Peterborough Archives

Resources

Peterborough's 2011 Census

2011

Information

The census taken in 2011 shows the diversity of people to be found in the city.

Peterborough’s population rose by 27,570 to 183,631 between 2001 and 2011. The population included people born in Italy, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, Australia, USA, and the Caribbean. The vast majority of new arrivals were of the most economically active age range, between 20 and 44 years.

Peterborough continues to be a growing, thriving and diverse city.

Immigration , Poland , Italy , Lithuania , Portugal , Pakistan , India , Caribbean , Africa , Australia , USA

Apollo 11 Lands the 1st Humans on the Moon

1969

Information

President John F. Kennedy of the United States of America set the national goal in 1961, to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth. Apollo 11 was the mission that reached this goal and was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969. Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the lunar surface with Aldrin following second. They spent 2.25 hours on the surface and collected 21.5 Kg of material.

Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours 31 minutes on the lunar surface at Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit. They landed back on earth on 24 July 1969.

Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast live to a worldwide audience, uniting the planet.

He described the event as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Reference:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html

Resources

NASA , USA , Flying

The Cold War

1945-1991

Information

The Cold War began after the Second World War, though it had its roots in earlier tensions and was an important political and ideological conflict of the twentieth century. It was a war between two ideas and ways of ruling – communism (the east)) and capitalism (the west) and saw the rise of two superpowers on the world stage: the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Social Republics (USSR). It was mostly waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts. The term ‘Cold War’ was first used by the English writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945 to refer to what he predicted would be a nuclear stalemate between “two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.”

Even in times of heightened tension neither superpower was willing to risk nuclear war by engaging in direct warfare, instead both east and west worked to extend or halt communism by engaging in conflicts in other countries, sometimes the USA, Britain, France and USSR would engage directly by putting troops on the ground at other times they would offer economic aid or military materials to support the struggles. Examples of these proxy wars are:

Korean War (1950-1953)
Cuban Revolution (1953-1959)
Vietnam War (1955-1975)
Bay of Pigs invasion (1961)
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989)

Another battle of the Cold War was the Space Race, in which the two superpowers worked to outdo each other in this new arena. The Soviets won the race to space by launching a man-made structure, Sputnik 1, into space in October 1957. Worried by this President Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to work on space exploration. This worked, for the USA ultimately won the Space Race with the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on 20 July 1969.

The Cold War itself finally ended when, in the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev began to reform the Soviet political system and did not oppose the rise to power of democratic governments in Soviet bloc countries. In late 1991 the Soviet Union fell and the Cold War was over.

References:

See link

WWII , World War 2 , USA , USSR , Cold War , Communism , Capitalism

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989

Information

With the end of World War II in 1945, Germany was split by the triumphant allies into four “allied occupation zones”: the eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and France. Berlin, Germany’s capital city, though located within the Soviet zone was similarly partitioned with the Soviets taking the eastern half and the other Allies the western. The existence of capitalist West Berlin within communist East Germany was a great annoyance to the Soviets and in 1948 they blockaded West Berlin in an attempt to starve the allies out, however this failed because the allies supplied the city by air, this was known as the ‘Berlin Airlift’ and lasted until the Soviets called off the blockade in 1948.

Tensions flared again in 1958 over the huge flow of refugees from east to west, many of them young skilled workers and on the 13^th of August 1961, after the defection of nearly 33 000 people in August alone, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin, closing the border, which became the Berlin Wall. Initially it was only possible to cross the border at three checkpoints, Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. As people from the east were not allowed to move west many tried inventive ways of getting over, under or around the wall. From 1961 to 1989 more than 5,000 succeeded, however at least 171 people were killed in the attempt.

The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when, as the Cold War began to thaw, the head of the East German Communist Party announced citizens could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself.

As the Berlin Wall was a powerful symbol of the Cold War its fall truly heralded the war's end. The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Images (in the Public Domain):

Border guards at Brandenburg Gate on August 13, 1961, the day the Berlin Wall was erected
Sign at Checkpoint Charlie

Resources

USA , USSR , Cold War , Berlin Wall , Communism , Capitalism

Peterborough Victim of the New York Terrorist Attack

2001

Information

On 11 September 2001 nineteen male terrorists hijacked four fuel-loaded US commercial airplanes bound for west coast destinations and purposely crashed them at various sites. A total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attack was orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

At the World Trade Center (Twin Towers), site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people - ranging in age from 2 to 85 years - were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the north and south towers which subsequently collapsed. One of the victims was from Peterborough;
Christine McNulty aged 42 of Orton Longueville, a marketing executive working for London-based management consultancy firm Accenture was in New York on business. At the time the planes struck she was having breakfast at the Windows of the World restaurant in the north tower. She sadly perished in the attack, leaving behind a partner and young daughter. Her name is inscribed on the memorial at the World Trade Center site.

The other crash sites were the Pentagon in Washington, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence, where 184 people were killed when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane there rather than reaching their (unknown) target because passengers and crew tried to retake control.

Image:

New York, USA - August 16, 2015: Names of the victims of attacks inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls of National September 11 Memorial. (iStock)

References

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/10/september11.uk

Resources

Americans , USA , Terrorist

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Consecration of St John's Church

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First Distress Signal Sent at Sea

1909

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Resources

Peterborough's 2011 Census

2011

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Apollo 11 Lands the 1st Humans on the Moon

1969

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Resources

The Cold War

1945-1991

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Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989

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Peterborough Victim of the New York Terrorist Attack

2001

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First Distress Signal Sent…

Peterborough's 2011 Census

Apollo 11 Lands the 1st Hu…

The Cold War

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Peterborough Victim of the…

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1909

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1989

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