February 6: On This Day in World History … briefly
The young side was so successful that centre-forward Tommy Taylor and goalkeeper Harry Gregg were United's only major signings over a spell of almost five years.
1958: Busby’s ‘Babes’ tragically die
British sports fans were in mourning for the Manchester United team, which was virtually wiped out in an air crash in Munich.
The team had just qualified for the European Cup semi-finals in a match at Belgrade, and were returning home via Munich when their plane crashed on its second attempt to take off from the snowbound runway.
Seven players were killed, including four full British internationals.
Other players and officials were gravely injured – among them Matt Busby, the Scottish manager who forged his ‘Babes’ into one of the best teams in Europe at the time. The team picked up the affectionate nickname the ‘Busby Babes’, because of the youthfulness of many of the players Busby fielded. They won the league in both 1956 and 1957 and were runners-up to Aston Villa in the 1957 FA Cup Final.
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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