Mark Over

Top of the Pops (3rd February 1983). The Fun Boy Three enter the 'Tunnel of Love'.

John Craven's Newsround (3rd February 1975). Time for an update on today's new stories.

Harry Hayes had a long military career, first enlisting with a Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1902. At the time of his death, from influenza, pneumonia and heart failure, he was serving in Scotland as a staff serjeant with the RASC.

📍Nottingham General Cemetery 🇬🇧

Our new episode on Four and Twenty Blackbirds (v2.0) is out NOW. To get you in the mood, here are lots of lovely photos from it!

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. podfollow.com/1631666318

85 years ago today:

On 3 February 1941 the Italians were preparing to abandon the Benghazi area and fall back towards Agheila from where they could defend Tripolitania. Gen O'Connor was quick to identify an opportunity to intercept this Italian move.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY. Buddy Holly walking through the centre of Chesterfield with his manager’s wife (1958). 📷 google images

FACT OF THE DAY. 3 February 1959. Rock ‘n’ Roll star Buddy Holly (aged 22) was killed in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa, USA. Also killed were 2 other rock ‘n’ roll stars: Ritchie Valens (aged 17) and J. P. (“The Big Bopper”) Richardson (aged 28). Pilot, Roger Peterson (aged 21) also died.

#OnThisDay - 3 Febuary 1831 , Henry Wilkinson, William Winterflood, and Thomas Sallows, 'three notorious characters', found themselves before the magistrates charged with stealing turnip tops from a field.

They were sentenced to a month’s hard labour.

"No plan of operation extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength. Only the layman sees in the course of a campaign a consistent execution of a preconceived and highly detailed original concept pursued consistently to the end."

- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

2 February 1943: The Soviet Union announced that the Battle of Stalingrad had ended after the last of the German Sixth Army forces surrendered. It ended the German advance into the Soviet Union and shifted the strategic initiative to the Red Army for the remainder of the war.

Sometimes a headstone gives a heartbreaking glimpse into a soldier’s life. The inscription on 27-year-old Private Abner Harrold’s headstone reveals that he left a wife and two children: Anthony, aged 7, and Ann, aged 4.

📍Cowley (SS. Mary and John) Churchyard 🇬🇧

Our new episode on Four and Twenty Blackbirds v2.0 is out NOW! Is it more fun than crickets? There’s only one way to find out…

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. podfollow.com/1631666318

Top of the Pops (2nd February 1984). The Fiction Factory are at number 6 with Feels Like Heaven.

Sir David Jason is 86 today, Happy Birthday David 🎁🎂

Remembering the late Actor, Geoffrey Hughes (2 February 1944 – 27 July 2012)

Remembering the late Comedian, Actor, Writer and Presenter, Les Dawson (2 February 1934 – 10 June 1993)

Balfour had a ride in it, McKenna announced that it was the best investment he had yet seen. CIGS expressed satisfaction. But Kitchener appeared sceptical although later, after the war, DCIGS suggested that this was a bluff by Kitchener to try and help the trials, and thus tanks, remain secret.
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110 years ago today:
On 2nd February 1916 Mother/Big Willie/HMLS Centipede was 'presented' to Lord Kitchener, Lloyd George, Lord Balfour, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer McKenna. The event went well. The tank completed the course without trouble and then crossed a nine foot trench.
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Unattributed, Canadian soldiers admire the Canadian War Memorial at St. Julien, ca. 1944*, LAC MIKAN 4233269.

*The date range given to this entire collection of WW2 photographs in colour is 1943-1965. Finding the midway point from 1943-1945 is our best guess.

What really happened?
We’re launching a new theme on the podcast, beginning with two Great War questions long obscured by myth: the real origins of the Unknown Soldier and the truth behind Kitchener’s final hours - out Sunday #WW1 #FWW

PHOTO OF THE DAY. The last photo of Buddy Holly, 2 February 1959. 📷 Mary Gerber

PERSON OF THE DAY. 2 February 1940. David Jason was born in London. He’s best known for his roles as Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in the BBC1 comedy sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost and Granville in Open All Hours, and Still Open All Hours.

Stalingrad: The Unbreakable City

The Battle of Stalingrad ended #OnThisDay in 1943.

The offensive subjected #Stalingrad’s residents to months of living hell. But few doubted that the city was worth defending.

⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free

www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...

YouTube video by Old Front Line The Tank Cemetery at Ypres - Passchendaele 1917

The Tank Cemetery at Ypres - Passchendaele 1917: the latest @OldFrontLinePod video out now:

youtu.be/lKb6QdkTQuQ

A historical black and white photograph of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. The image showcases the terminal's grand facade with its large windows and ornate clock topped by sculptures. In the foreground, people move along steps and pathways, with train tracks and cars visible below. Tall buildings surround the terminal.

#OnThisDay in 1913, New York’s Grand Central Terminal opened to the public. Grand Central has 44 platforms – more than any other station in the world – and 67 train tracks on two levels.

📸 Getty

This image is a detail from a watercolor painting Leeds by the renowned British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner. The painting depicts the industrial town of Leeds as viewed looking northwards from Beeston Hill. Turner created the work during the height of the Industrial Revolution, and it is considered one of the first paintings of an industrial city by any artist. The scene captures the gritty reality of the new industrial Leeds, with smoking chimneys and laborers working in the foreground with woollen cloth on "tenters," which were frames used to dry and stretch the material. Notable landmarks in the painting include Marshall's Mill below the tower and Fenton and Murray's foundry, which is the chimney emitting black smoke to the right.

Detail of J. M. W. Turner's 1816 painting looking northwards from Beeston Hill towards the Holbeck area of Leeds. Field tenters, were vital for drying and stretching woollen cloth during the manufacturing 'finishing' process. They ensured compliance with size standards, pattern

Victoria Wood - As Seen on TV (1st February 1985). "My mother gave birth to twins in an unheated washhouse and then got straight up and continued the mangling, so think on".

Knaresborough Castle, Yorkshire, yesterday. Built by the Normans and given by King Edward II to his “favourite” Piers Gaveston in the 14th Century.