This Day In History

My Diary Entry for 11th February 2010

The book I am reading at the moment ‘Wish I May’ by Justine Picardie, struck a note with me whilst I was reading in the bath this morning.  I am actually enjoying the book, although it isn’t the kind of ‘chick lit’ that I would normally go for.  In one passage the author describes the kind of house ‘Kate’, the protagonist of the book, would buy if it could be found:-

            A little wooden house by the sea:  a perfect cottage, in the sand dunes

            With a garden gate that led straight to the beach.  Inside there would

            Be sun-bleached linen and walls the colour of seashells; shelves

            Made out of driftwood and a worn teak floor.  Outside would be clean

            Air and golden light, the crash of waves beyond empty expanses of

            Unlittered, perfect sand.  Her very own Shangri-la.

This is a version of my own fantasy house and the pictures I often find in ‘Country Living’ magazine are very like the above description.  I play a game with the weekend newspapers in the Home section when I go through all the adverts and decide which house I would buy given an endless supply of money.  To be honest I have never really found one that fits my exacting imaginary requirements.  I play the same game with the television programme ‘Escape to the Country’, and in all the programmes I have watched, I have only ever seen one that I would gladly move in to.  So in all probability, the house I fantasise about is just that – a fantasy.  My dream home is just a dream!

I popped over to Janets’ house this morning to use her computer for finding some more of my ancestors, there is a puzzle I am working on concerning one of my great grandmothers x 3, and although I have accumulated a good deal more paperwork, I am still no nearer to solving the puzzle.  Perhaps that is what tracing your family is all about – solving the puzzle.

We had a snow storm this morning which lasted for about fifteen minutes, then vanished.  This has got to be one of the longest winters I can remember, I can’t seem to keep warm even with the heating on all day; albeit on a low mark, just to keep the chill off.

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Today is just an ordinary day.  But, maybe we shouldn't ignore  the ordinary days - just maybe, way back in time, something happened to mark this particular day as special.

55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.



1531 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England

1752 – Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, is opened by Benjamin Franklin.

1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.

1873 – King Amadeus I of Spain abdicates.

1942 – The first gold record is presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo".

1978 – Censorship: the People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.

1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

So you see, although 11th February is to us just like any other day,  some pretty important things have happened through out history.