January 24: On This Day in World History … briefly
Churchill's reputation among the general British public remains high: he was voted number one in a 2002 BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons of all time.
1965: ‘The Lion’ lies down
Perhaps Britain’s greatest statesman since his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, Sir Winston Churchill, dubbed the ‘last lion of British politics’, sadly dies at his home.
Speculation was rife that Churchill may have had Alzheimer’s disease in his last years, although others are of the opinion that his reduced mental capacity was simply the result of the chain of ten strokes and increasing deafness he suffered from 1949 to 1963. In 1963, US President John F Kennedy, acting under authorisation granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed Winston Churchill an Honorary Citizen of the United States, but he was unable to attend the White House ceremony.
Despite poor health, Churchill still tried to remain active in public life and on St George’s Day 1964, he sent a message of congratulations to surviving veterans of the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid attending a service of commemoration in Deal, Kent, where two casualties of the raid were buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery.
Churchill suffered a severe stroke and died at his London home aged 90, on the morning of Sunday, 24 January 1965, 70 years to the day after his own father’s death.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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