June 19: On This Day in World History … briefly

1312:   Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall and favourite of King Edward II, is beheaded at Deddington at the instigation of the Earl of Warwick

1820:   Sir Joseph Banks, British botanist and explorer who made a round-world trip with Captain Cook, dies aged 77.

1829:   Sir Robert tells London police: ‘Keep ’em peeled’

Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel founded the London Metropolitan Police. The newly-restructured force was remodelled along the lines of the highly-respected Irish constabulary. The measures Sir Robert took to reform and humanise the criminal law – particularly those parts of it that related to offences against property and offences punishable by death – earned him much praise. As one prominent liberal Whig said Peel can rightly claim that all his legislation sought was “some mitigation of the severity of the criminal law, some prevention in abuse in the exercise of it, or some security for its impartial administration.”

1846:   At Elysian Fields it’s a whole new ball game

The Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, provided the venue for the first-ever official baseball match. The New Yorks and the Knickerbockers played according to the rules set out by Alexander J Cartwright. The New Yorks defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1 in four innings. The field had 90ft (27m) base lines and the batsman stood at home plate. Cartwright’s rules prohibited the retirement of a runner by ‘plugging’ – hitting him with a thrown ball while off base. Balls caught on the first bounce constitute an out and runs were called ‘aces’.

1924:   British climber George Mallory, who wanted to climb Everest ‘because it’s there’, disappears 1 000ft (305m) from the summit.

1935:   The British government overrides the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, by agreeing to allow Germany a massive increase in its naval strength.

1937:   Peter Pan’s creator dies

JM Barrie, the man who created ‘the boy who never grew up’ died aged 77. Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, he settled in London when he was 25. Sir James Matthew Barrie wrote many books and plays, among which were ‘Quality Street’, ‘What Every Woman Knows’, ‘Dear Brutus’ and ‘Mary Rose’. His most famous and best-loved work however, was the children’s play ‘Peter Pan’ which he wrote in 1904. Barrie was made a Bart in 1913 and received the Order of Merit in 1922.

“Some of my plays peter out and some just pan out.” JM Barrie

1953:   No clemency for Rosenbergs

Thirty-five year-old Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel, 37, were sent to the electric chair at Sing Sing accused of passing atom bomb secrets to the Russians. While thousands worldwide continued to protest, President Eisenhower turned down a final plea for clemency. “They have received the benefit of our justice … I cannot intervene,” he said, adding that their crimes were ‘worse than murder’. The Rosenbergs’ guilt – which they never admitted to – was seriously doubted throughout the world. Prison officials reported that they made no last requests, either for visitors or for a special last supper.

1963:   In Britain, the contraceptive pill was made available to women free under the National Health Service.

1967:   The Monterey Pop Festival draws thousands of flower children to hear stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Otis Reading, The Mamas and The Papas, and the Grateful Dead.

1993:   Death of Sir William Golding, author of ‘Lord of the Flies’ and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

1989:   Solid solidarity

The second round of the elections to a new Polish bicameral National Assembly was held. In the first round, the Solidarity Citizens gained 92 of the new 100 seats in the Senate, as well as all its seats in the Sejm. It won all but one seat. In the first round of the Government’s National List of 35 candidates failed – with two exceptions – to win the necessary 50% of the vote to retain their seats. Solidarity’s spectacular success in these elections reflected the bitterness the Polish people felt towards the 40 years of Communist rule.

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