On this day

[Detective Osprey]

Guns 'N Roses song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was released today, a day before I was born. 

[Kyng]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of an infamous football match between Honduras and El Salvador, which was won by 3-2 by El Salvador after extra time. The match took place amid violent tensions between the two countries - which escalated into outright war in mid-July:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

While the football games themselves just happened to coincide with the violence, rather than being the cause of it, the timing has led to this conflict becoming known as the "Football War".

[Kyng]

Today marks 15 years since the Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. The exact number of people killed in this disaster will never be known; however, the official estimate is that 227,898 people lost their lives in 14 different countries.

R.I.P. to all the victims - and, my thoughts are with the hundreds of thousands more who lost homes or loved ones during this tragedy. (Hopefully, over the past 15 years, things will have improved for this people - but obviously, they'll never quite be the same again )

[Kyng]

Today would have been the 60th birthday of the magnificent Ayrton Senna - arguably the greatest driver to ever sit in a racing car.

Here's Top Gear's tribute to him - because, when they weren't being stupid, they were capable of producing some quite serious, moving stuff:



R.I.P. Ayrton Senna da Silva
21/03/1960 - 01/05/1994

[Kyng]

Today marks 50 years since the Apollo 13 explosion, which triggered the line "Houston, we have a problem":

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14...13_part_2/

Thankfully, of course, they all made it back alive (and now I want to watch the movie !)

[Kyng]

On this day 70 years ago, the first ever Formula One World Championship race took place (it was the 1950 British Grand Prix, at Silverstone):



The sport's changed quite a lot since then!

[Kyng]

On this day 50 years ago, Austrian Formula One driver Jochen Rindt was killed in practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8cCDM8jVx8

He won the World Championship that year; however, he never lived to collect his trophy at the end of the year. Instead, it was picked up by his widow Nina.

To this day, Rindt remains the only posthumous Formula One World Champion. Needless to say, I hope there's never another one.

[JHG]

Battle of Flodden-Scottish Highlanders invade and lose. What a plot twist! Looks like James IV blew his mind!

[Kyng]

Today marks the anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - surely the single most pivotal event in recent world history.

I haven't seen too much attention paid to them this year (perhaps understandably since they were almost 20 years ago now) - but still, I think it's worth taking a moment to remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on that terrible day .

[JHG]

Or alternatively...
Stirling Bridge! Where Spears were splintered, shields were shattered, and William Wallace triumphed over Longshanks!