26th June 1986: Anti-divorce poster at the Father Mathew Hall in Ireland on polling day for the Divorce Referendum. The referendum failed, and divorce was not legalised until 1995.
Tag Archives: Vintage
On this day…
The railway station in Aintree, England (famed for its racecourse), photographed on the 12th of June, 1959.
Queen’s Birthday
Today is our holiday for the Queen’s “official” birthday (though not her actual birthday). The tradition of celebrating the British monarch’s birthday around summer began with King George II in 1748, largely to ensure fine weather for the occasion.
On this day: Italy declares war.
Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini stands on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome to declare war on France and Great Britain on the 10th of June, 1940.
Meanwhile, in Turin in the north of the country, people gather in a piazza to listen to the declaration on the radio.
D-Day
This image – from the 6th of June, 1944 – shows British troops taking part in the iconic Normandy landings of the Second World War.
Some 156 000 troops from more than a dozen nations took part in the invasion, which was a turning point in the war.
On this day: the mysterious death of a king.
Ananda Mahidol, Thailand’s king Rama VIII, died on the 3rd of June, 1946. He was only twenty at the time.
A child when he was elected successor to the throne in 1935, he continued to be educated in Switzerland, not visiting Thailand as king until 1938 when he was thirteen.
The Japanese invaded Thailand the same day in 1941 they bombed America’s Pearl Harbor. The young king was not in the country at the time and did not return home until the end of 1945.
Only six months later a single gunshot was heard, and Ananda Mahidol was found dead.
King Ananda Mahidol and Louis Mountbatten. 19th January 1946.
More than one theory has been put forward as to how this happened.
He was the older brother of Bhumibol Adulyadej, who inherited the title and achieved cult status in Thailand; during his long reign both locals and foreigners were imprisoned for insulting him in any way. Even “liking” a Facebook post was enough for some people to be arrested.
The circumstances around Rama VIII’s death are still debated.
On this day…
Dancers from the London Festival Ballet on the 31st of May, 1952. They are photographed on London’s Southbank.
The company was renamed the English National Ballet in 1989, and is today home to some of the world’s most famous ballet stars, many of them from overseas.
