Her Maj's Birthday

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It’s another long weekend here in Oz, thanks to Her Maj and her birthday. Actually it’s not her birthday, she was born on 21 April 1926 but the birthday is celebrated on the second Monday in June to accord with better weather in the Northern Hemisphere. It is used to announce the Honours List, there also being a New Year’s Honours List approximately 6 months later. 

I have previously posted facts about Her Maj and that can be viewed by clicking on: 

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2018/06/happy-birthday-your-majesty.html

Here are some more . . . 

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The Queen was born at 2.40am on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. At the time she stood third in line of succession to the throne after Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and her father, The Duke of York. But it was not expected that her father would become King, or that she would become Queen. 

Elizabeth as a baby, with her mother 

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The Princess was christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. She was named after her mother, while her two middle names are those of her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and paternal grandmother, Queen Mary. 

Elizabeth and her father George V1 

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Princess Elizabeth was educated at home with Princess Margaret, her younger sister. She received tuition from her father, as well as sessions with Henry Marten, the Vice-Provost of Eton. She was also instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Princess Elizabeth also learned French from a number of French and Belgian governesses, a skill which has stood The Queen in good stead stead when speaking to ambassadors and heads of state from French-speaking countries, and when visiting French-speaking areas of Canada. 

In 1940, at the height of the Blitz, the young Princesses were moved for their safety to Windsor Castle, where they spent most of the war years. 

Elizabeth and Margaret with their mother, 1940

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At age 18, known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she donned a pair of coveralls and trained in London as a mechanic and military truck driver. The Queen remains the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II. 

Elizabeth changing a tyre

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Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip first met when they attended the wedding of Prince Philip's cousin, Princess Marina of Greece to The Duke of Kent, who was an uncle of Princess Elizabeth, in 1934. The engagement between Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten RN was announced on the 9th July, 1947. Prince Philip was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. He joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and after the war, in February 1947, became a naturalised British subject. 

Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh are photographed for the first time since the announcement of their engagement in the summer of 1947.

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Elizabeth’s father, George VI, was born into the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, but during World War I the family name was changed to Windsor amid anti-German sentiment. Similarly, her husband Prince Philip dropped his father’s Germanic surname, Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and adopted that of his maternal grandparents, Mountbatten, during their engagement. But when Elizabeth ascended the throne, her mother and Prime Minister Winston Churchill did everything in their power to prevent the Queen and her line from becoming the House of Mountbatten. They succeeded, but several years later Elizabeth proclaimed that some of her descendants would carry the name Mountbatten-Windsor—probably in an attempt to placate her fuming husband. He was created "Duke of Edinburgh" by King George VI on marriage. 

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The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh were married in Westminster Abbey on the 20th November, 1947 at 11.30am with 2000 invited guests. Held during the postwar recovery years, their wedding was a relatively understated affair, at least compared to the lavish union of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981. With austerity measures still in effect, Elizabeth had to save up ration coupons to purchase the material for her wedding dress, an ivory satin gown designed by Norman Hartnell and encrusted with 10,000 white pearls. 

The day after the wedding, Princess Elizabeth followed a Royal tradition started by her mother, of sending her wedding bouquet back to the Abbey to be laid on The Grave of the Unknown Warrior. 

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Although he was The Queen's husband, The Duke of Edinburgh was not crowned or anointed at the Coronation ceremony in 1953. He was the first subject to pay Homage to Her Majesty, and kiss the newly crowned Queen by stating "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God." 

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The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have four children: Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales (b. 1948), Princess Anne, The Princess Royal (b. 1950), Prince Andrew, The Duke of York (b. 1960), and Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex (b. 1964). With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, the Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to give birth to a child since Queen Victoria, whose youngest child, Princess Beatrice, was born in 1857. 

Queen Victoria with Princess Beatrice 1862, and on right 1868

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The Queen has delivered a Christmas message every year except in 1969, when she decided the royals had been on TV enough after an unprecedented family documentary. Her greeting took the form of a written address. In her 1991 message, the Queen silenced rumours of abdication as she pledged to continue to serve. The Queen issued a writ against The Sun newspaper after it published the full text of her 1992 broadcast two days before transmission. She later accepted an apology and a £200,000 donation to charity. 

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The Queen's grandfather, King George V, delivered the first royal Christmas broadcast live on the radio from Sandringham in 1932. George V was at first unsure about using the relatively untried medium of the wireless, but eventually agreed. There was no Christmas broadcast in 1936 or 1938, and it was the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 that firmly established the tradition. 

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The Queen is the only person in Britain who can drive without a licence or a registration number on her car. And she doesn't have a passport. 

Because she issues the passports and the driver licences, she does not need to issue one to herself.

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The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June. 

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Queen Elizabeth II is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror 

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She is the only British monarch in history properly trained to change a spark plug 

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On VE Day she and her sister slipped into the crowd to celebrate 

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The Queen has a bank account at Coutts & Co. There is a Coutts cash-dispensing machine in Buckingham Palace 

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The Queen introduced a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi", when one of the corgis mated with a dachshund named Pipkin 

The Queen and dorgi

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The Queen is the first British monarch to see three of her children divorce 

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She demoted a footman for feeding her corgis whisky.  The footman was disgruntled at corgis nipping at his heels and thought it was funny to see them staggering after giving them whisky in their food whilst the Queen was away.  Unfortunately one died of alcohol posioning.  Footman Matthew King was demoted by the “furious” Queen, who reportedly told courtiers: “I don’t ever want to see him again.”

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The Queen has nine Royal thrones - One at the House of Lords, two at Westminster Abbey, and six in the throne room at Buckingham Palace. 

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Quote for the Day

"Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are."

- Will Ferrell

Photographs taken at just the right moment

Quote for the Day

Alfonso X (also occasionally known as Alphonso, Alphonse, or Alfons, 1221 – 1284), called the Wise, was the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be Roman-German king on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in 1275, and in creating an alliance with England in 1254, his claim on Gascony as well. Alfonso X fostered the development of a cosmopolitan court that encouraged learning. Jews, Muslims, and Christians had prominent roles in his court.

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Interesting Pics and Stories

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Continuing: Photos of Historical Events That Will Give you a New Perspective 

From: 

https://playjunkie.com/articleid-435345677/4/?dai=5ygvRV023KUkiscU828cK

The photos and text are from the above source, the additional text is by moi.

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Shameful Past 

The Nazi regime ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945, and was in charge of enslaving, torturing and killing millions of people in infamous concentration camps, especially after the beginning of the Second World War. 

Solders fighting for Hitler were too busy trying to survive the war to actually think about all the atrocities he was committing off the battlefield. That changed after the war finally came to a close in 1945 and these German prisoners had a rude awakening once they saw some of the footage filmed inside concentration camps. 

Additional comment:

Horrific photographs of the conditions of the Nazi death camps and labour camps canm be viewed at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/10/world-war-ii-the-holocaust/100170/

These include photographs of local citizens being made to look at the remains of the inmates and to assist in the disposal of the remains.

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Deathly Sword 

Inejiro Asanuma was one of the most controversial Japanese figures of his generation, and most residents of this country weren’t crazy about his socialist agenda. 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi was one of his biggest haters – he killed this political leader with a traditional Japanese blade in 1960. 

The incident was captured by a Japanese television company, and the whole country got to see it on their small screens. Right-wing groups celebrated Yamaguchi as a martyr after he committed suicide in prison, three weeks after the assassination. 

Additional comment:

This photograph has been the subject of a 2013 Bytes post in the series of Pulitzer and World Press Photos of the Year.  That post can be looked at by clicking:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/search?q=Inejiro+Asanuma

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Breaking Down 

The Vietnam War has taken a toll on almost every US citizen at the time. President Lyndon Johnson was obviously among the people affected by the wat. 

Just like everyone else in the country, Johnson had had family members fighting in Vietnam. This photo shows the president listening to a tape that his son-in-law, Charles Robb, sent him from the battlefield in 1968. 

Additional comment:

Charles Robb was married to Johnson's daughter Lynda Bird Johnson. Robb, then a captain in the Marine Corps, had met Lynda Bird while serving as a military aide at the White House. Johnson had asked Robb to send him reports of what was really happening on the ground in Vietnam, where Robb served with distinction. Robb later became Governor of Virginia and a US Senator. The above pic, often referred to as showing the anguish of LBJ in a private moment, happened at a time when it must have felt like the fabric of US society being torn: 1968 was the time of the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam, increasing opposition to the war, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and martin Luther King Jnr months before this photograph and increasing civil unrest.

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Safe Landing 

Apollo 8 went down in history as the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth. The three-astronaut on board – Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders – became the first people to ever see Earth as a whole planet. 

People around the world were happy to hear their mission went smoothly, but no one was more excited than their wives. This photo shows them their husbands voices from orbit. 

The crew safely returned to Earth on December 27, 1968. 

Additional comment:

The crew of Apollo 8 addresses the crew of the USS Yorktown after a successful splashdown and recovery

The command module on the deck of the USS Yorktown after retrieval.

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Welcome to Deadwood 

Deadwood went down in history as one of the most lawless cities the world has ever seen. It all started in 1874, when Colonel George Armstrong Custer announced he had discovered gold on French Creek during an expedition he led into the Black Hills. 

This discovery triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush, and Deadwood was never the same again. This small town in South Dakota quickly reached a population of around 5,000 and became a cradle of sin that attracted gold-seekers from all over the country. 

Additional comment:

Deadwood was established in 1876 during the Black Hills gold rush. In 1875, a miner named John B. Pearson found gold in a narrow canyon in the Northern Black Hills. This canyon became known as "Deadwood Gulch," because of the many dead trees that lined the canyon walls at the time. The name stuck for the town.

Wild Bill Hickok was killed in Deadwood.

James Butler Hickok (1837 – 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his work across the frontier as a drover, wagon master, soldier, spy, scout, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, showman, and actor. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales that he told about his life. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation, along with his own stories.

A cabinet card photograph of Wild Bill Hickok taken in 1873, three years before he made his fateful trip to Deadwood. 

On August 1, 1876, Hickok was gambling at Nuttal and Mann’s Saloon when a drunken Jack McCall joined the game and began losing heavily. When McCall lost most of his money and could no longer cover his bets, none of the other players would extend him any credit. Hickok told him to get something to eat and offered him some money to pay for a meal. Although McCall took Hickok’s money he apparently considered the manner in which it was offered to be insulting. Hickok and the others continued the game. McCall sulked over his perceived insult until the following day.

The next day Hickok was drinking at the bar in Nuttal and Mann’s when he was invited to join another game, at which the only open seat had its back to the door. Hickok’s habit was to face the door, and he twice asked to exchange seats with another player, who refused. While they were playing, McCall entered the saloon and shot Hickok once, in the back of his head, with the bullet exiting through the victim’s cheek. McCall fled, tried to steal a horse but fell from it, and was found hiding behind a butcher shop. Hickok was killed instantly, although some attempts were made to revive him. He had been playing stud poker, and his four displayed cards were black aces and eights, but there are varying reports of what his hole card had been.

Calamity Jane, seen here at Hickok’s grave in the 1890s, claimed to have pursued his killer while wielding a meat cleaver.

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Easter Eggs for Hitler 

Finding humor in the middle of war is pretty much impossible, but these American soldiers found a way to laugh in the face of misery. 

They didn’t have any eggs they could color just in time for Easter, and decorated bombshells instead. They put Hitler’s name on the bomb shells and symbolically delivered them to him by sending them to the front line in Germany. 

This photo of US soldiers, members of the 969th Field Artillery Battalion, was taken back in 1944. 

Additional comment:

Grinning servicemen from the 424 squadrom celebrate their 200th sortie with a bomb that has the words “An Easter egg for Hitler” painted on its side

RAF crews pose proudly in front of bomber called Aussie at their base in Breighton, East Yorks

Canadian Lancasters of 428 Ghost Squadron were decorated with a shark design

Members of the 626 squadron pose for a group photo with many standing on the plane's wings

7,377 Lancasters carried out more than 150,000 missions by the end of the Second World War, including the supremely audacious Dambuster Raids of 1943. The men who flew them had the most perilous posting of the war - Bomber Command – and 3,249 aircraft and their crews would be lost in action. 

The seven-man Lancaster crew consisted of a pilot, bomb aimer or nose gunner, wireless operator, flight engineer, navigator and mid-upper and rear gunners.

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Thought for the Day