In this week: 10th - 16th May

In a week where we remember the births of guitarist Bert Weedon and footballer Alan Ball, an early British computer ran its first program and the first McDonalds restaurant opened. Meanwhile Jeremy Paxman, Stevie Wonder and Olga Korbut all celebrate birthdays.

Read on for further details…..

10^th May

100 years ago: Bert Weedon, British jazz/blues/pop guitarist and guitar teacher was born. He is remembered for his best-selling “Play in a Day” tutorials, with which many major musicians (including the Beatles, Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend) credit with their success. He died aged 91 in 2012 after a long illness.

70 years ago: in 1950, One of the first British computers, the Pilot ACE, ran its first program, at the National Physical Laboratory. The ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) was designed by Alan Turing.

Birthdays

Barbara Taylor Bradford - English-American author, 87.

Carl Douglas - Jamaican singer-songwriter (Kung-Fu Fighting), 78.

11^th May

200 years ago: in 1820, The British Royal Navy sloop HMS Beagle was launched from the Woolwich dockyard on the River Thames. This was the ship that took the naturalist Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage around the world (1831–36).

50 years ago: in 1970, the Lubbock Tornado, one of the worst tornados in Texan history struck in the city of Lubbock, USA killing 26 people and injuring 500. The F5 tornado caused about $250 million worth of damage (over $1.5 billion in today’s money).

Birthdays

Eric Burdon - lead singer with The Animals, 79.

Jeremy Paxman - English journalist and presenter of TV’s University Challenge, 70.

12^th May

200 years ago: in 1820, Florence Nightingale, Italian-born British social reformer and statistician was born. She came to prominence during the Crimean war where she organised the care of wounded soldiers with her night rounds giving her the title of "the Lady with the Lamp." She is considered to be the founder of modern nursing.

75 years ago: in 1945, the youngest member of England’s World Cup-winning team in 1966 Alan Ball was born. He played as a midfielder for various clubs including Everton and Arsenal and scored 180 goals in a career spanning 22 years. He died aged 61, from a heart attack.

Birthdays

Burt Bacharach - legendary American songwriter, 92.

Catherine Tate - English comedian and actress, 52.

13^th May

70 years ago: in 1950, the first Formula One World Championship race was held, at Silverstone in England (known as the 1950 British Grand Prix.)

25 years ago: in 1995, British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest unaided (i.e. without the use of bottled oxygen or Sherpas). (She died in August when she was hit by a storm while attempting to climb K2.)

Birthdays

Harvey Keitel - American actor known in the UK for starring in the Direct Line TV adverts (Winston Wolf), 81

Stevie Wonder - legendary American singer-songwriter and keyboard player, 70.

14^th May

65 years ago: in 1955, the Warsaw Pact was established (officially the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance). It was a Soviet-led mutual defence treaty between eight communist European states during the Cold War. (It was dis-established in December 1991.)

50 years ago: in 1970, the Red Army Faction, (also known as the Baader–Meinhof Gang), was established in West Germany. The far-left terrorist organisation’s activities included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police. It was declared disbanded in 1991.

Birthdays

Cate Blanchett - Australian actress, 51.

Olly Murs – English singer-songwriter. 36.

15^th May

90 years ago: in 1930, Ellen Church from Iowa, USA became the world’s first airline stewardess when she went on duty aboard a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

80 years ago: in 1940, the first McDonald’s restaurant opened, in San Bernardino, California, USA. Operated by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald, it was a far cry from the McDonald’s outlets seen worldwide today.

Birthdays

Ted Dexter – English cricketer, 85.

Sophie Raworth – English broadcaster/newsreader, 52

16^th May

30 years ago: in 1990, amid the spread of “Mad cow disease” in the UK, in an attempt to calm public fears and refute the growing evidence for BSE/Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the British Minister for Agriculture, John Selwyn Gummer, tried to get his 4 year old daughter to eat a beefburger in front of the media. She refused, so he ate it himself. Presumably it didn’t do him any harm as he is now 80 years old and lives in Suffolk.

Also 30 years ago, in 1990, Sammy Davis Jr. American singer, dancer and entertainer died in Beverly Hills. With an 80-a-day cigarette smoking habit, he died from complications from throat cancer at the age of 64.

Birthdays

Judy Finnegan – English TV presenter, 72.

Olga Korbut – Belarussian gymnast, 65