On 19 April 1951 Eric Morley, an executive with Mecca Ltd., held the first Miss World Beauty Contest, called the Festival Bikini Contest, to coincide with the Festival of Britain. Curiously although it was promoted as ‘Miss World’ only five girls were foreign, the other 25 contestants were British. Even so Miss Kiki Haakonson, a Stockholm policeman’s daughter, won. It’s the oldest running international beauty pageant.

On 19 April 1012 Archbishop of Canterbury, Ælfheah, was killed by Viking raiders at Greenwich after they had held him captive for 7 months

Formed to stop the Stuarts bankrupting the country one of the Bank of England’s first directors embezzled £29,000, it was never recovered

In 1918 Philip Tilden designed a monumental tower to put atop Selfridge’s so tall and heavy if built it would have squashed the store flat

On 19 April 1881 British Prime Minister, statesman and author Benjamin Disraeli died at 19 Curzon Street, Mayfair

When the Victoria Embankment was constructed its 37 acres was claimed by Prime Minister Gladstone to build offices their revenue used to cancel Income Tax

London’s largest collection of Buddhas can be found in Soho’s Fo Guang Temple Margaret Street formerly All Saints’ Church

Market Ouvert meant that until 1995 any stolen goods purchased between sunrise and sunset at Bermondsey Market became the buyers property

The first lawn tennis sets were launched in 1874 by Major Walter Wingfield at £6, 1,050 were sold from 46 Churton Street in the first year

Demonstrating Trumph’s latest car to Princess Margaret at the Motor Show chairman Sir John Black pulled the wrong lever and incinerated the vehicle

WH Smith whose first newsagency was on the Strand was also the First Lord of both The Admiralty and Treasury and commissioned our first sewers

On 19 April 1935 actor, composer, musician and comedian Dudley Moore was born in Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith

Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.

On 12 April 1709 Isaac Bickerstaff, the pseudonym of Richard Steele published the first edition of the innovative journal, The Tatler. Appearing two or three times a week, it purported to publish news and gossip heard in various London coffeehouses, he declared in the opening paragraph, to leave the subject of politics to the newspapers, while presenting Whiggish views and correcting middle-class manners.

On 12 April 1665 England’s first Black Death victim, Margaret Ponteous, was buried in the churchyard of St Paul’s Covent Garden

The last nobleman tried by ‘God and his Peers’, Lord Edward Southwell Russell de Clifford who in 1935 faced the Lords on a manslaughter charge

There are 24 bridges over the Thames the original wooden London Bridge opened in 1209; the newest pedestrian Millennium Bridge in 2000

Albert Memorial has 61 human figures Albert died 1861; 19 men Albert born 1819; 42 women he died aged 42; 9 animals Albert had 9 children

Charles I’s neck vertebrae lost after being sliced through by the executioner’s axe appeared later as Queen Victoria surgeon’s salt cellar

In 1925 George Gershwin’s premier performance of Rhapsody in Blue was broadcast from the Savoy Hotel by the BBC

On 12 April 1911 the first non-stop flight from London to Paris a distance of 290 miles was completed by Pierre Prier in 3 hours 56 minutes

London’s only bespoke motor racing track was at Crystal Palace, opening in 1936, during its life it would attract crowds of 60,000 a day

For London’s first scheduled bus route from Peckham to Oxford Street was operated Thomas Tilling, they earned the nickname of ‘Times’, which later appeared on their sides

In 1766 at his London private laboratory Henry Cavendish discovered hydrogen calling it “Inflammable Air”, a rich man, upon his death he was the largest depositor in the Bank of England

In 17th century London Tomias Smollett reported cherries would be made to glisten afresh by being gently roll around the greengrocer’s mouth

Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.