Derek Andrews
Annie Turnbull has died just twenty days short of her 112nd birthday in a care home in Scotland, with one of her two daughters by her side. She also had four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Born when Queen Victoria was on the throne, she lived through Two World Wars, twenty-six Prime Ministers and four Monarchs. She will have received a congratulatory birthday telegram from Her Majesty on thirteen occasions starting on her 100th birthday.
Annie spent most of her working life in "service" and met Rudyard Kipling.
She only moved into the care home at age 109, having lived in sheltered accommodation (independent living but with a warden available) since age 92. Until she moved to the sheltered housing she had not known running water. Now at this point I have to say that I do not know why that was the case unless she perhaps lived in a very remote area; a farm or something similar.
I thought it might be fun to see what was happening in the world every decade she celebrated her birthday, so here goes:
- September 1898: The Spanish-American War was in full swing.
- September 1908: Henry Ford produces the first Model T Ford.
- September 1918: Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004. First World War ends in November.
- September 1928: Alexander Fleming invents penicillin.
- September 1938: War looms again but meanwhile Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
- September 1948: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is formally declared, with Kim Il-sung as Prime Minister. Earlier in the year Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered. (Eventually all U.S. police officers would need to read those arrested their rights whilst staring into the Heavens.)
- September 1958: The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya. Earlier in the year The first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opens in Toluca Lake, California. In February a plane carrying the team and officials of Manchester United crashes on take-off at Munich's Riem airport. There were 23 fatalities and many more injured.
- September 1968: In this month both CBS 60 Minutes and the first Boeing 747 airliner are rolled out. Earlier in the year Manchester United wins the European Cup Final, becoming the first English team to do so. They would go on to win it again in 1999 and 2008 but lose a further Final in 2009.
- September 1978: Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy. Earlier the body of assassinated Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro found in car trunk.
- September 1988: The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea. In November George H. W. Bush is elected the 41st President of the United States after defeating Michael Dukakis.
- September 1998: What was to become the behemoth Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergei Brin.
- September 2008: Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In November Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States.
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1 comment:
For thirteen telegrams read twelve !!
Basic math eludes me.
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