Good Times.

I have made a list of bad times in my lifetime (I was born in 1952) I thought of doing this when Covid 19 started in 2020 thinking while that was bad there had been a lot of other things in my time on this earth. I now I am looking on the positive side in writing about the good times. These are not about me as such but things that I have seen as good things at home and around the world. This is in no order. I will say the “bad things” came to mind a lot easier and faster, that must say something, I am afraid!!!

1. England wining the football World Cup – 30^th July 1966.

I had to start with this one. I did in fact go to one of England’s games during the tournament. It was a group game of England v Mexico. Bobby Charlton scored from outside of the penalty area, and I was in line with it.

     While I was about six weeks off my 14^th birthday I remember the day as if it was yesterday, as I do the rest of that tournament. I and my mate Bob Baynham spent two weeks with my Grandad in north London. The problem was he did not have a TV. He took us to my uncle and aunts by bus to east London where we watched it. It was a great day and one of the reasons I want us to do it again is so that younger people have those memories.

     When we were on the bus traveling we went pasted my Uncle Jimmy’s pub, ‘The Mitre’ in Islington we saw he had a big sign outside saying, "England for the World Cup." It turned out he had a bet with his locals saying “the night England win the World Cup, I will give you all free drinks.” And that’s what he did, must have been some night. One memory I love from that day is, Nobby dancing!  

    2. Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon – 1977. 

                                                                               

Another sport item here, I do have a few as while I don’t know lots about all sports I do follow a lot and look at a lot of results. While football has always been my number one sport, tennis is well up there as my Mum and sister Jean were well in to it.

     My memory of it was that was on a the 1^st July which was a Friday afternoon (this was before Wimbledon payed on the Sunday) and I was a hod carrier at work. The bricklayers had it on their radio and I used to carry the muck (mortar) up the ladder to them, so I heard what was happening every time I got to the top of the house.

     It was the centennial anniversary of the tournament and the Queens 25^th Silver Jubilee that year which made Virginian’s victory a lot better. She beat Betty Stove 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. 

3. Band Aid – Live Aid. 1984 – 1985.

      

This was brought together by Bob Geldof (Boom Town Rats) and Midge Ure (Ultravox – Thin Lizzy) after they saw a BBC News item on the starving in Ethiopia

    The first thing they did was to bring out single at Christmas 1984 (at this point December 2021, it has now been out four times) Do They Know it’s Christmas? Which went straight to number one in the record charts. The USA did one in 1985 which was called, USA for Africa – We Are the World.

    On the 13th July 1985 Live Aid was held at Wembley Stadium in London UK and the same day one was also held in the JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, USA. Phil Collins played in both of them, flying to the US after Wembley.

   I remember the Live Aid day so well. We had all the family and friends around our house and watched it all day on the TV, it was great. The best act? That had to be Queen, Freddie was very good, he was then dead six years later. 

   While the reason they got together was really bad, I have put this in Good Times as what they did to help was so good!    

4. Queens Sliver (25^th) Jubilee 1977 + other jubilees.                                                                                                 

While I have said 1977, I will look at others ones as well. As the Queen came to the throne in 1952 it was also the year I was born, so if she has a jubilee with a 0 on the end it means I have a big birthday that year. At the moment it is the 01/01/2022 which mean later this in June will be her Platinum Jubilee it will also be my 70^th birthday. But let start with 1977.

      I remember this well because I saw the Queen, all be it passing in her car in the opposite direction as we came back from work, driving into Bracknell. There were street parties which I had not seen in my lifetime before, the last before that, I think was the end of WWII?

     I suppose the last two are the ones I remember the most of, 2002, Gold and 2012 Diamond. Both times we went to parties and there are some very good memories from them for us.

   The Queen became the longest severing British monarch on the 9^th September2015. She had surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria in 2007 to become the longest-lived British monarch, become the longest-reigning British monarch.  

5. Miners being released from underground. Chile 5^th August 2010.                                                                         

     

I followed this story all the way through and have since seen the film.  It began with a cave-in on the 5^th August 2010 at the San Jose copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert near Copiapo, Chile. The accident trapped 33 men 77 meters (2,300 ft) underground, they all survived for a record 69 days.

   After the state-owned mining company, Codelco, took over the rescue efforts from the mine’s owners, exploratory boreholes were drilled. Seventeen days after the accident, a note was found taped to a drill bit pulled back to the surface saying: We are well, in the shelter, the 33 of us.

   Three separate drilling rig teams, nearly every Chilean government ministry, the US space agency, NASA, and a dozen corporations from around the world cooperated in completing the rescue. On the 13^th October the men were winched one at a time to the surface in a specially built capsule. An estimated 5.3 million people watched it worldwide..

6.  England win cricket World Cup – Sunday 14^th July2019.

  

       

Back to sport for this one. This was the cricket One Day International series, it was held in Briton and the final was at Lords, London. This was the fifth time on this ground, which was record for hosting the final at the time.

     As always, I had followed the tournament all the way through and had really enjoyed it. The final was England v New Zealand. After 50 overs each it was a tie on 241 each. A "super over" had to be played to break the tie. England scored 15 in their over, NZ also got 15 after Martin Guptill was run out on the final ball by Jason Roy and Jos Buttler. England won on the boundary count-back rule, having scored 26 to NZ 17. How close was that? The match has been described as one of the greatest and most dramatic in the history of sport. 

        As it was a Sunday afternoon, I was in our local, I go to watch the sport etc on a Sunday. The "super over" took it past my going home time at 7 pm. But I was watching it with everyone in the pub and could not leave. It was a very good day. 

7. Release of Terry Wait CBE – November 18^th 1991.

                                                                                     

     

Terry was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980’s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.

    A total of 10 captives were released through Terry’s efforts before Shiite Muslims seized him during a return mission to Beirut on 20^th January 1987. He was held for over four years before he was finally released. He is still alive today (January 2022) at the age of 82. He had a book published, Taken on Trust.

   While I was working overseas when this first started I followed it all the way. I used to listen to the BBC World Service on the radio each day and was at home when Terry was released. The hostage issue went on for a long time and he had done a great job negotiating other releases. I watched a TV program about how he and others where held. To say it was awful is understatement it was totally inhumane how they were treated. I used the word, inhumane because it means, "without compassion for misery or suffering; cruel, and that's what it was.  It was really good when he was let go.  

 8.  The Berlin Wall coming down – 9^th November 1989.                                                                               

       

This really is a thing to put in the “Good Times.” I remember it well as I do when it went up in 1961, I was 9 years old. When it came down I was working at Gatwick Airport and first heard about it on the 6/30am news while I was on the M25. It was such an important moment, after nearly 30 years.

    The opening of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary had happened on the 19^th August that year at the Pan-European Picnic and set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no more East Berlin and the Easton Bloc had disintegrated.

   In 1989 there was political changes and civil unrest in Germany which put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany. The people came to pull it down and it was the first step towards German reunification.

 9. Man, on the moon – 1969.                                                                                    

        

Apollo 11 (July 16-24) was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the on the moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on the 20^th July 1969.

      Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface, Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent two and a quarter hour’s outside on of the module and collected 47.5 pounds of moon rock.

     Commander module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while the others were on the moons surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent a total of 21 hours 36 minutes on the moons surface, at a site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing, before lifting off to re-join Columbia in orbit.

     I was 2 months short of 17 years old at the time and remember it very well. There were six moon landings in all, and of course Apollo 13 did not make it but this was the most exciting being the first one.

10. Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France – 2012.

        

Back to sport. Bradley or Sir Bradley as he is now, became the first British man to win the Tour de France on the 22^nd July 2012. He won it by three minutes 21 seconds, in the 99^th edition of the race.

    Shortly after the Tour, Bradley completed at the London Olympics. There he won a gold medal in the time-trial event, becoming the first Tour de France champion to win Olympic gold on the track; he also became the only person to win the Tour and win a gold medal in the same year.

    I followed this the whole way through as I do most years. It was really good to see Bradley win, I watched it with my mate Tony in the pub on the Sunday afternoon. Chris Frome who was born in Nairobi Kenya to British parents won the Tour the next 2013, in it’s 100^th episode, then 2015, 2016, 2017. Gareth Thomas won the tour in 2018 becoming the first Welshman to do so.

11. USA hostages released in Iran.

               

This is other which could be in, Bad Times, but I chose to put it in here because of the ending. The Iran hostage crisis ran from 1979 to 1981. Militants in Iran seized 66 American citizens at the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 of them hostage for over a year. The crisis took place during the chaotic aftermath of Iran’s Islamic revolution, 1978-79.

    It started on the 4^th November 1979 when a group of militarized college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imams Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution seized the hostages. They were held for 444 days, before being released on the 20^th January 1981.

    Six American diplomats who evaded capture were rescued by a joint CIA-Canadian effort on 27^th January 1980. This is shown in a very good film called, Argo. I would highly recommend it if you have not seen it. 

    One Iranian civilian and eight US servicemen died on the 24^th April 1980, in a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. This was another thing I followed all the way through.

 12. Apollo 13.

This one is in the good times as it had a happy ending but could have been in the bad times. Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third that was meant to land on the moon. The craft took off from the Kennedy Space Centre on April 11^th 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the moon and returned safely to earth on the 17^th April.

    The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.

    There was very good film made of it in 1995, which we saw in the cinema. Tom Hanks played Jim Lovell and as always was very good in the part. The pilot who did not go up, Ken Mattingly helped on the ground to work out how to make the repairs. While I knew the outcome, the silence when they came back was very nervous, the whole cinema held its breath.   

13. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win Olympic Gold 14^th February 1984.

     

I read an article a little while ago (January 2022) saying this was a 1966 World Cup moment, remembering where you were when it happened. I was working in the Falklands, and while I heard  about it on the radio and papers I never got to see it for some years. We only had videos there, no real telly. More than 24 million people watched it in the UK on TV.

     It is well known now that they danced to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero on Valentine’s Day 1984. The story goes that when they did their final run-through that morning that it was so perfect that the cleaners in Sarajevo’s Zetra ice rink downed their work tools to applaud.

    I have now seen it many times and the fact that Bolero has been my favourite classical piece of music since I was at school makes it perfect for me along with their 12 perfect sixes. The whole story of Torvill and Dean is all a bit of a fairy tail for me, an insurance clerk and a police constable from Nottingham who went on to concur the ice-skating world. 

14. Nelson Mandela being released from prison.

Nelson Mandela was an iconic figure of anti-racism, and the leader of a movement to end South African apartheid, he was released from prison on the 11^th February 1990. He had spent 27 years inside, split between, Robin Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure and fears of racial civil war, President F.W. de Klerk released him.

       Nelson Mandela (18/07/1918 – 05/12/2013) was the first black head of state in South Africa from 1994 to 1999. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutional racism and fostering racial reconciliation.

       This is another one of “where was I moments?” It’s a bit boring for me as I was at home watching it on TV. We had been fowling it and it was really good when he got out. I had travelled through South Africa to work in the Falkland Islands in the early in 1980’s, and a person could see how things were, not very nice at all. 

15. Andy Murry winning Wimbledon. 2013.

Another sports thing. I really enjoyed this, as always being a tennis fan, I had never seen a British male win Wimbledon. He had won the men’s single London Olympic gold medal a month before and the US open the year before. He beat Novak Djokovic in 3 sets, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, to become the first British man  to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry 77 years earlier. We were away on holiday in Devon when he won the US open, and I watched the highlights the next day, but I saw this live on the Sunday afternoon. I watched the first part at home and then him winning it in the pub with my mate Tony.

     Sir Andy Murray OBE has won Wimbledon twice, (to date January 2022) (2013, 2016) US Open (2012) Australian open final 5 times (2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016) French Open final (2016). Olympic Gold (2012, 2016) and Silver mixed doubles (2012).

16. End of the Iranian Embassy – 1980.

I have put this in the “Good Times” because of the ending, which it interrupted the world snooker final on TV, it was something to see.

    The Iranian Embassy siege took place from the 30^th April to 5^th May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate in South Kensington London. The gunmen, Iranian Arabs campaigning for sovereignty of Khuzestan Province, took 26 people hostage, including embassy staff, several visitors, and a police officer who had been guarding the embassy. They demanded the release of prisoners in Khuzestan and their own safe passage out of the UK. The British government quickly decided that safe passage would not be granted and the siege ensued. Police negotiators secured the release of five hostages in exchange for minor concessions.

     By the sixth day the gunmen were increasingly frustrated and the lack of progress to their demands. That evening, they killed a hostage and threw his body out of the embassy. The Special Air Service (SAS) initiated “Operation Nimrod” to rescue the remaining hostages, abseiling from the roof and forcing entry through windows. During the 17-minute raid they recued all but one of the remaining hostages and killed five of the six hostage-takers. The sole remaining gunman served 27 years in prison in Briton.  

17. England win Rugby World Cup – 22^nd November 2003.

      

Sport again. While I follow rugby a bit, it is mainly international matches and of course the World Cup. This was in Australia against the hosts. Anne and I were not married then and she still lived in London, we watched it there before going to the football at Tottenham in the afternoon. What a finish!

    With 28 seconds remaining, Johnny Wilkinson scored a drop goal with his right foot to secure a 20-17 victory for England to win their first Rugby World Cup title. They were the first Northern Hemisphere team to win the tournament, ending 16 years of dominance by Southern Hemisphere teams.

   At the football in the afternoon before the start, the whole crowd sang, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” which is of course the England rugby teams theme song. It was in fact very emotional. 

18. Muhammad Ali.

         

I am just going to do a section on Muhammad, mainly because of his incredible life. He was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr on January 17^th 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, US. When he first came out in the early 1960’s I did not like him at all. That was mainly because of his “I am the greatest,” but I have to say he did grow on me over the years. I wanted him to win when he made his come back after being banned from boxing for not joining the army. I stayed up many nights at the time to listen to his fights on the radio. 

    His record as a boxer is very good, at 18 he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on the 25^th February 1964 at the age of 22.

  He changed what he called his “slave name” in 1964. In 1966 Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs. He did not fight for some years which of course was really his peak.

    Just a few of his nicknames: The Greatest, The people’s Champion, The Louisville Lip. Muhammad past away on June 3^rd 2016 aged 74. As I said he did grow on me over the years, and I now think, he was the, “greatest!” 

19. The year 2000.

         

Well there seemed a very long build up to this all through the 1990’s, but now (February 2022) 22 years have gone in what seems a flash. 

       We had a big party at home which we planned for over a year and we did in fact have a family committee for people to do different things. It was all day, we had games during the day, for adults and children and a booze up at night. We didn’t have any fireworks but at midnight even with it pouring of rain the sky was totally alive with them.

    It was known as the millennium I didn’t use that term as I can not say it. This is the third millennium AD. I think there was a big con in the build up with people saying that computers where going to crash etc, and were getting people to buy packages to stop it. Like I said before, it seems a long time ago now.

20. The End of ‘Lockdown’ – 2020 - 2022?

       

Well I am not sure if we have seen the end of Lockdowns or not? It has gone on for sometime now! We first went into 'Lockdown' in March 2020 because of Covid 19 as a way to stop it. It is now the 9th of March 2022, and it is sort of over here, but it has gone on for over two years. Boris Johnston the PM said in the first year it would be over by Christmas, the problem was, he did not say which one, ha-ha!

    We have seen many things in the past two years, along with the lockdowns, and that has been tiers – mask wearing – keeping tow-meters apart – only going out for exercise (Boris Walks) during lockdown - only essential shops opening, furlough's and many other restrictions, and fines handed out to people who broke them, 10 Downing Street?

    Most people are totally fed up with it and want to get back to normal, or the new normal as it will be and learn to “live with it!”

21. Sir Lewis Hamilton – winning world drivers’ championship for the first time.

        

I will give some information on Lewis to start with before I do a write up on his first world drivers championship. Sir Lewis Cark Davidson Hamilton, MBE HonFREng was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England on the 7^th January 1985. He currently (March 2022) drives for Mercedes, having previously driven for McLaren from 2007 until 2012. In Formula One, Hamilton has a joint-record seven World Drivers’ Championship titles, tied with Michael Schumacher and holds the record for most wins (103), pole positions (103) and podium finishes (182). And of course there was a very interesting end to the drivers championship in the season just gone, 2021.

   He started his professional Formula One career 2007 and won his first title in 2008 at the Brazilian Grand Prix to become the then-youngest champion in the history of the sport. The race was on the 2^nd of November 2008. This was a few days after my Grandsons Joshua's 14^th birthday, we had been out for a meal with him and the  family then returned to our local pub, The Green Man to watch the end of the race, he came 5^th which won him the title. There was a great atmosphere in the pub. 

22. Release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – 16^th March 2022.

          

Nazanin is a British-Iranian woman who was detained in Iran for nearly six years. The 43-year-old was arrested in 2016 and accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denied. 

  I Have just seen this on BBC breaking news. Her MP, Tulip Siddiq, tweeted that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was at the airport in Tehran and was “on her way home.” This news is moving all the time so I try and keep up with it. The news yesterday said that she had been given her passport back. This has been going on for so long and is some good news for everyone, as we have the war in Ukraine going on and of course we have had Covid 19 for the past two years, so this is good news. 

   The British government has owed the Irian government about £400 million since the 1970’s and word is this is what this has all been about, they have also been holding another person who is British-Iranian, Anoosheh Ashboori. He is on the same flight, going into Brize Norton airbase tonight.

   They landed at Brize Norton at 1/00am this morning, and the news is fall of it. Some good news for a change.    

23. First heart transplant 1967.

        

1967 saw the first heart transplant in The Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town South Africa on the 3^rd December that year. I remember it really well as it was such big news. I was 15 years old at the time and left school the next year. 16 years later, while on my way to the Falkland Islands, we passed the hospital on the coach from the airport to the docks.

  The operation was carried out by a South African cardiac surgeon Christiaan Neethling Barnard who was 55 years old at the time. The transplant was from an accident victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky. The patient did regain full consciousness and being able to talk easily to his wife, but did die 18 days later of pneumonia, largely brought on by the drugs.

   Barnard's second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg whose operation was at the start on 1968, lived for 18 months and was able to go home from hospital.

24. Rosa Parks. 04/02/1913 – 14/10/2005.

       

Rosa was a black American activist and in the civil rights movement and was best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott when she refused to give her seat up on a bus to a white man. The US Congress has honoured her as “the first lady of civil rights. The bus protest was on the 1^st December 1955. A very brave lady.

25. The lady on the Russian TV.

               

This lady, Marina Ovsyanmjova 44 years old, is a Russian journalist came on to Russian TV news behind a news reader waving a placard regarding the war in Ukraine that read, “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are always lying to you.”

   A lot of people in Russia have distanced themselves from her, I would say mainly as they know what happens to people who cross the government there. Her boss said, “she is a British spy.”

   I would say this woman is the new Rosa Parks. Another very brave lady!

26. Music – The Beatles.

      

I will do this on the Beatles as they brought about a lot of "good times" for many people, and for people who don’t know much about them.

  They were from Liverpool in the north west of England and were formed in 1960. The band members were, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time. The Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era’s youth and sociocultural movements.

   I really like the Beatles as what they did was unbelievable. But I didn’t like them when they first came out, because my older sister Jean was mad on them. She did in fact see them as a backing band to Billy Fury before they were famous. I remember her coming and saying about this band with “funny haircuts!”

27. First human in space – Yuri Gagarin 1961.

       

     

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27^th March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Travelling in Vostok 1 capsule, Gagarin completed one orbit of earth on the 12^th April 1961. By achieving this major milestone in the Space Race, he become an international celebrity, and was award many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation’s highest honour.

   In February 1968 Gagarin was allowed to fly regular aircraft. Gagarin died five weeks later when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with fight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach. I was just under eight and a half when he went into space but do remember it well.

28. Colour TV. Our first one.

              

Well in my research of this I came up with a lot of interesting information. I put this in because at the time when we got our first colour TV it was a really big thing. We got ours in 1977, but I remember going to my mate Eddie Armstrong’s house in the late 1960’s and them having one then, they were very posh!

   Television broadcasting station and networks in most parts of the world upgraded from black-and-white to colour transmissions between 1960’s to 1980’s. This is an important part of television history. I remember watching the build up to the 1978 football World Cup in Argentina (in 1977) and that was in black-and-white, they got colour for the World Cup. When the game came on, son Paul who was 10 at the time, asked, “why is it not in colour?” I said, “they have not got colour TV yet.” He replied, “oh those poor children in Argentina!” 

 29. Martin Luther King, "I have a dream” speech (1963).

             

“I have a Dream” was a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr, during the march on Washington for jobs and freedom on the 28^th August 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end of racism in the US. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement and among the most iconic speeches in American history.

   Martin Luther King Jr was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the 4^th April 1968. He died in hospital at 7:05 that evening. 

30. First mobile phone.

           

Where do we start with mobile phones? We did not have a phone in our house until the mid to late 1980’s, as it was, “another bill!” There was no way then that I would have thought that not many years on most people would a phone in their pocket/bag etc.

   Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first publicized mobile phone call on a prototype DyanTAC model on the 3^rd April in 1973. This was the size of a house brick. I got my first mobile in 1999, it was brought for me at Christmas by daughter Jean and my Mother as they said, “they could never contact me.” I am not sure how we used to contact people before we had these, it does seem a long time ago now!

31. Discovery of treatment for Aids.

             

AIDS was about one of the worst diseases which has been seen in my lifetime. When it really came out in the early 1980’s it really hit the world, and of course we still have it today, May 2022.

    Currently there’s no cure for HIV/AIDS. Once you have the infection, your body can’t get rid of it. However, there are many medications that can control HIV and prevent complications. These medications are called antiretroviral therapy (ART).

    I had a friend, Steve who had it and ended up taking his own life. His wife had it, as a haemophiliac she caught it through contaminated blood she was given. She passed on to him before she passed away. It is just awful!!! 

32. First black US President (Barack Obama 2008).

                 

Barack Hussein Obama was the first African American president of the USA. He is an American politician who served as the 44^th president of the USA from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party. He was born on the 4^th August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His Vice President was Joe Biden who is now president (May 2022) after Donald Trump had been in for two terms.

    Like all presidents a lot happened in his eight years in office. But during Obamas terms in office, the USA reputation abroad, as well as the American economy, significantly improved. Scholars and historians rank him among the upper to mid-tier of American presidents. 

33. Rock and Roll – mid 1950’s.

               

I have done the Beatles and while I was very young when this was all happening I do remember it well as we had the radio on all the time and I still enjoy hearing these songs today. When I looked it up it said it evolved in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s which surprised me a bit, I thought it was a bit later.

   It originated from black American music such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, as well as country music. The genre did not acquire its name until 1954. I believe a radio DJ in the US said, "this is just a load of, rock and roll!" He was putting it down, little did he know what he had just said?

  Some of the early ‘rock and rollers,’ where, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and his Comets, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and of course not to forget Elvis Presley!

34. The forming of the BBC Radio 1-2-3-4.

          

I remember the start of this so well. In fact, it was Radio 1 we had on at home. It started at 7.00am on the 30^th September 1967 with Tony Blackburn playing Flowers in the Rain by the Move, followed by Massachusetts from the Bee Gees. Radio 1 was instantly popular, doubling the Light Programme (which it took over from) audience within the first month of its launch, and going on to command more than 24 million weekly listeners at its peak.

   Like a lot of older listeners, I moved on to Radio 2, over 20 years ago now. I had a short time with Virgin Radio when it first came out, but I can’t stand the adverts. Tony still has a couple of slots at the weekend (May 2022) but he has also moved on to Radio 2. He was 80 earlier this year and the stations will be 55 years old this year, where has that gone?  

 35. Hula Hoop – 1958.

I have put the Hula hoop in this list of Good Times, mainly because as a child in the late 1950’s and 1960’s I had a lot of fun along with my two sisters, Linda and Jean and friends. I also remember my Mum playing with them from time to time.

   A hula hoop is a toy a toy hoop that is twisted around the waist, limbs or neck. In research I found that they had been around and used by children and adults since 500 BC. The modern hula hoop was inspired by Australian bamboo hoops. The new plastic version was popularized in 1958 by the Wham-O toy company and became a fad.

36. Frist Digital Camera – 1975.

Out all the things that have been invented in my lifetime, I really like the digital camera. Over all I take a lot of photo, for events etc, it is so easy now. When a person thinks back to the days when they had put a film in a camera and take a limited number of photos and then have to take it to be processed, which of course cost money.

    These days so many people take photos all the time, and video things on their phones. I got a digital camera when I brought my first computer in 2001. I brought another one in 2012 for the London Olympics’.

    The first digital still camera was developed by Eastham Kodak engineer Steven Sasson (photo of him above) in 1975. He built a prototype from a movie camera lens, a handful of Motorola parts, 16 batteries and some newly invented Fairchild CCD electronic sensors.

37. Transistor Radio – 1954.

Well I am going to say nearly all of us must have had (Transistor Radio) (Trainee) at some time in their lives. Of course, it has moved on a lot over the years (now June 2022) but I have loved the radio over the years and working overseas a fair bit, I was able to listen to the BBC World Service on ‘Short Wave.’

   Following the invention of the transistor in 1947 which revolutionized small but powerful convenient hand-held devices-the Regency TR-1 was released in 1954 becoming the first commercial transistor radio.

38. The Internet – 1990.

This is a thing that almost all of us have got into? It is really great, but of course like a lot of things it has been totally abused by a lot of people, but we are looking at good things here.

   When a person thinks back to how things were, and I am thinking of letters. While we still have letters (I am not sure for how long?) with emails a person can almost get an answer at once. Also, on the computer one can look things up about almost anything, almost anywhere in the world.

  The internet has its origin in information theory and the efforts to build interconnect computer networks that arose from research and development in the US and involved international collaboration particularly in the UK and France.  

39. Frisbee or Flying Dish.

A frisbee (pronounced FRIZ-bee), also called a flying dish or just a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-moulded plastic and is roughly 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitively for throwing and catching, as in a flying disc game.

  Water Frederick Morrison and his future wife Lucile had fun tossing a popcorn can lid after a Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1937. They soon discovered a market for a light-duty flying disc when they were offered 25 cents for a cake pan they were tossing to each other on a beach in the USA.

    We had one for our children in the 1970’s/80’s  and had many hours of fun playing in the parks with it. This is a bit like the Hula Hoop in so much as each generation seems to play with it at sometime or another. 

40.   Skateboards.

Skateboarding was first invented in the 1950’s in California. It is hard to pin down the very first skateboard, (I don’t think it was Marty McFly, if you have seen the film?) but it was a sport created by surfers who wanted something to do when the waves were low. In the US it grew in popularity until it peaked around 1963, before a crash in the market in 1965.

  A 2009 a report found that the skateboarding market was worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue, with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world. In 2016 it was announced that skateboarding would be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021 because of Covid) in Tokyo, for both male and female teams.

41.  Drones – 1994.

Some of the earliest military drones appeared in the mid-1850s. The concert of drones may well date back to 1849, when Austria attacked Venice using unmanned balloons stuffed with explosives. Austrian forces, who were besieging Venice at the time, launched around 200 of these incendiary balloons over the city.

    I have put this in Good Times but reading all I have about them, they do of course get used for a lot of bad things, but I am more looking at the good side to them. So here are a few good things they are used for below.

1.       Drones are having a huge positive effect in animal conservation and habitat protection.

2.       Capturing live events, surveying dangerous areas.

3.       Delivering small items.

4.       Law enforcement.

5.       Spraying pesticides.

6.       Scare away crop-eating birds.

The list does go on but they are a few of the good things that they do.

42. Louise Brown – the first test tube baby.

While in vitro fertilization may seem like a normal process today for parents having difficulty conceiving, it was a brand-new process in the 1970’s, and Louise Brown was the first success.

  Her parents had attempted to conceive naturally for nine years prior to this and were helped in conception by scientists Jean Purdy, Patrick Steptoe, and Robert Edwards. Edwards, as the only surviving member of the trio, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 210.

   Louise Joy Brown was born on the 25^th July 1978 at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Oldham.   

43. Blood donations.

I have tried to do write ups on things that first happen in my lifetime, from 1952, and that has always been the case, and it is not in this one.

   The first recorded successful blood transfusion was in England in 1665. Physician Richard Lower kept dogs alive by transfusion of blood from other dogs. In 1667 Jean-Baptiste Denis in France and Richard Lower in England separately reported the transfusions of blood from lambs to humans.

  Blood donations are very important and I gave over 50 times, but did pack up because of my health. If you are able, please give! 

44. Thailand football team in flooded caves – 2018.

On the 23 June 2018, 12 members of the Wild Boars a Thai boys football team and their coach Ekkaphon Chantawong got trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non-cave by torrential rain. The boys were apparently performing a sort of initiation ceremony in the cave, and got stuck when the cave flooded, blocking their way out.

    They were trapped in there for 18 days. Rick Stanton and John Volanthen British cave divers were members of the rescue team, and earned George medals for rescuing the lads who were aged between 11 and 16. There were two deaths during the rescue. I followed this all the time on TV and in the papers. July 2022, four years on and they are about to make a film of it.

45. The first organ transplant – 1954.

      

I have already done a bit on the first heart transplant, but I came across this while doing research. Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin, Richard, in a pioneering operation on the 23^rd December 1954. The successful surgery kept Herricks brother alive for eight years and was the first successful organ transplant.

     The operation was performed by Dr Joseph Murray in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Of course, this was such a major breakthrough for an organ to be transplanted. For it to happen today is really “no big deal,” but then, it would have been massive!

46. Malala Yousafzai.

I first put this story in “Bad Times,” but on refection I have move it. Yes, it was a bad story, a young girl shot in the head in Pakistan in 2012 for trying to speak up for girls/women in a country where they have very little voice. But it has turned into a "Good Times," story.

   Malala is Pakistani activist for female education and the 2014 Noble Peace Prize laureate. Award when she was 17, she is the world’s youngest winner the second Pakistani and first from Pashtun.

   On October 9^th 2012, while on a bus in the Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by Taliban gunmen in an assassination attempt in retaliation for her activism for women’s rights. While unconscious and in a critical condition she was in hospital in Pakistan, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to a hospital in Birmingham, England, where she made a fully recovery. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support for her and women's rights. 

47. The 1950’s

I am going to pick lists of good events from every decade since I was born, in 1952. We will start with that year with the Queen coming to the throne after her father George VI died, it was a short time before I was born, but it was the same year.

   Mount Everest was conquered on May 29^th 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay. They reached the 29,035-foot summit becoming the first people to stand on the on the top of the world’s highest mountain.

    This was also the years of the “Baby Boomers,” this was babies born after WWII, which I am one of along with my sisters. In my research I have found that Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.

     I was too young to know this but, in my research, it says that life seemed to be easier, safer and more innocent in the 50’s. The economic boom was increased by British government spending. The 1950’s also saw the start of the civil rights movement in the USA, I have already mentioned Rosa Parks, in the Good Times.

48. The 1960’s.

There was a lot of change in the world in the 1960’s. The 1960’s “saw” people organizing groups and actively working for change in the social order along with government. This included gay rights movement, student and women’s movement, and a push by the courts to expand general rights. There was also a very large anti-war movements around the world.

   This decade was known as the Swinging Sixties. This was because of the fall or relaxation of the social taboos that occurred during this time, but also a wide range of music; from the Beatles-inspired British Invasion from the folk music revival, to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan.

     1969 saw the Woodstock Festival, in Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York. The Woodstock music festival was not a smoothly-run event, but it was electrified with moments-musical and otherwise-that made it unforgettable. I saw the film when it came out the next year.

     I mentioned it before, but I can't leave off England winning the football World Cup on the 30th July 1966. I remember the whole day, as if it was yesterday!

49. The 1970’s

Like all decades the 1970’s saw a lot of change, as always, lets look at some. The 1970 are famous for bell-bottoms and the rise of discos. There were was a lot of cultural change and technological innovation.

    The world saw the first jumbo-jet, a Boeing 747-made its first commercial passenger trip from New York to London.

    The floppy disk was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart. The fist Star Wars opened in the cinemas. The first Apple II computers go on sale. The TV mini series “Roots” is aired, I really enjoyed this. The first commercial Concord flight.

    Affordable foreign holiday were very popular in the 1970’s. BBC Open University broadcasts for the first time in the UK. I read an article a while ago about how this helped so many people. Apollo 15 astronauts became the first to ride on the moon in a lunar rover. The UK saw its first female Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher was mainly in power in the 1980’s but came in 1979, depending a person’s views this could be in Good or Bad Times!

    The UK also saw decimalization in 1971, prior to this British currency could be a little confusing for anyone born outside of the UK. The 1^st January 1973 saw the UK joined the EU, again depending on a person’s views it could be in “Good or Bad Times?”

50. The 1980’s.

Looking through the decade it reminds a person of how fast the years go by. I will start in the UK with the marriage of Charles the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer got married in 1981. There was public holiday for this, but I worked as I was paid double time for it! In 1984 we saw Band Aid with, Do They Know It’s Christmas? Followed the next year by Live Aid.

    In 1982 “The Computer” was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. Not that I have ever watched it, but in 1987 “The Simpsons” made its debut on the Tracy Ullman Show. 1989 saw the Berlin Wall torn down at the end of the Cold War.

    1981 saw the Iranian hostages released, 1983 saw the first US woman astronaut. 1989 saw the start of the World Wide Web (WWW) server and browser. This last one was arguably the most significant technical advance of the 20^th Century. 

    The decade also saw the rise of the “yuppie,” (“young upwardly-mobile professional”) an explosion of the blockbuster movies and the emergence of cable networks like MTV, which introduced the music video and launched the careers of many iconic artists.  

51. The 1990’s.

Looking at the 1990’s I am going to jump straight away to 1997, that was when the new Shakespeare’s Globe opened on the South Bank, London. We have now been there many times and like it very much. London’s Dockland opened with One Canada Square. On the 31^st December 1999 the Millennium Dome opened.

    The Soviet Union fell, ending decades-long Cold War, and the reunification of Germany. There was also a rise of the internet, which ushered in a radical new era of communication, business and entertainment. Smartphones, the digital camera, targeted internet searches. Emojis, and even Snapchat and Instagram are all built on the ideas that came about in the 1990’s.

     Aldi and Netto each opened their first store in the UK. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after serving 27 years and was president of South Africa from1994 till 1999.

    The first women were ordained as priests in the Church of England in 1994. We saw the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and 1996 saw the birth of the cloned sheep Dolly.

    1992 saw the start of the Primer League in England for football, which the down side of that was we had to start paying to watch football on TV, along with a lot of other things I may add. 

52. The 2000’s

The decade was known as the aughts or noughties. Of course, this decade started with all the celebrations, excitement and fireworks of the new Millennium, which was a word I always had a problem saying, so I just said, “the year 2000!” We also saw the Millennium Wheel open on London’s South Bank. I got to go to it in the first year, along with the Dome. London got awarded the 2012 Olympics which I will come in the 2010’s.

    Just looking through this decade I came across a film I really liked, that came in the year 2000, and that was Billy Elliot, very enjoyable. The euro entered European currency in 2002. The growth of the internet contributed to globalization during the decade, which allowed faster communication among people around the world, social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch from distant locations, as long as they have the internet that is! There was a massive bank crash in 2008, which was worldwide, the company I worked for went out of business because of it.

    J.K. Rowling was the bestselling author in the decade overall thanks to the Harry Potter book series (that started in the 90’s) although she did not write the bestselling book which was The Da Vinci Code. Eminem was named the music artist of the decade by Billboard. 

53. The 2010’s

This one brings us up to date, just about, maybe I will do one of the 2020’s one day? Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar scored the first double century in a One Day International. UK economy comes out of recession, this was because of the bank crashes of 2008. Some could say it is still not totally sorted (2022) if a person looks at the current bank interest rates on savings. Donald Trump became president of the USA in 2016, some people may say I should have put it in the Bad Times, ha-ha!

    Instagram was founded in 2010. While I don’t like anyone being killed, Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals. The 2010’s saw the ‘Arab Springs,’ in Africa and the Middle East were many people fought for independence from harsh dictators.

    2012 saw the Olympics come to London, (photo above) which I looked forward too from when it was announced in 2005.  This decade saw two royal weddings, and gay marriages became law in a lot of countries around the world. There was Superhero movies, Marvel Entertainment via YouTube and the rise in smartphones.

     Oh, and I retired from work on the 1^st January 2019 after 51 years in the construction industry.  

 

There seems to be problems with people trying to make comments. Should you have any, please feel free to email me on tomwheeleris2003@yahoo.co.uk and title it Toms Blog. I will put comments on the Blog which are appropriate. Thank you.