Hi everyone and welcome to the blog. This week’s blog is entitled What You See is What You Get and is dedicated to the 20th Century’s most inspirational men who’s birthdays are celebrated and remembered this week Bob Geldof and Mahatma Gadhi .
Bob Geldof was born Robert Frederick Zenon “Bob” Geldof, KBE (born 5 October 1951) and raised in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, and attended Blackrock College. His father, Robert, (known as Rob) was the son of a Belgian immigrant, Zenon (sometimes mistakenly spelt Lenon) Geldof, a hotel chef, and Amelia “Minnie” Falk, a Jewish Englishwoman. Zenon Geldof and Amelia Falk were married in 1906 in Westminster and also had two daughters, Cleo Zenobie Geldof, and May Geldof. At the age of 41, Geldof’s mother Evelyn complained of a headache and died shortly thereafter, having suffered a haemorrhage. Geldof attended Blackrock College in Dublin, whose Catholic ethos he disliked. He was bullied for his lack of rugby prowess and over his third forename, Zenon. After work as a slaughter man, road navvy and pea canner in Wisbech, he started as a music journalist in Vancouver, Canada, for the weekly publication Georgia Straight.
Geldof’s longtime girlfriend and later wife was Paula Yates. Yates was a rock journalist, presenter of the cutting-edge music show The Tube, and later notorious for her in-bed interviews on the show The Big Breakfast. Geldof met Yates when she became an obsessed fan of the Boomtown Rats during the band’s early days. They got together as a couple in 1976 when Yates travelled by aeroplane to Paris to surprise him when the band was playing there.
Before they married, the couple had a daughter, Fifi Trixibelle Geldof, born 31 March 1983 (and while Geldof was still conducting an affair with the young Claire King). She was named Fifi after Bob’s aunt Fifi, and Trixibelle because Paula wanted a belle in the family. After 10 years together, Bob and Paula married in June 1986 in Las Vegas, with Simon Le Bon (of Duran Duran) acting as Geldof’s best man. The couple later had two more daughters, Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof (known as Peaches Geldof) on 13 March 1989, and Little Pixie Geldof (known as Pixie Geldof) on 17 September 1990. Pixie is said to be named after a celebrity daughter character from the cartoon Celeb in the satirical magazine Private Eye, itself a lampoon of the names the Geldofs gave to their other children. Geldof has stated that his children find his music ‘crap’ and him an ’embarrassment’.
In 1995, Yates left Geldof for Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, whom she had met several years previously when she interviewed him on The Tube, and again in 1994 when she interviewed Hutchence again for The Big Breakfast. Geldof and Yates divorced in May 1996 and Yates moved in with Hutchence. Yates and Hutchence had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, born 22 July 1996. Hutchence later committed suicide and was found hanged in a hotel room on 22 November 1997. Geldof soon after went to court and obtained full custody of his own three daughters and has since become an outspoken advocate of fathers’ rights. After Paula Yates’s death from a drug and alcohol overdose in 2000, and with the approval of Hutchence’s parents, Geldof became the legal guardian of Tiger Lily, believing it best that she be raised with her three half-sisters. In 2007, Geldof formally adopted her, changing her name to Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof although she simply goes by the name of Tiger Hutchence-Geldof. Geldof currently resides in Battersea, South London with his partner, French actress Jeanne Marine, and Tiger. His father died on 26 August 2010 at the age of 96.
Upon returning to Ireland in 1975, he became the lead singer of the band The Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement.
In 1978, The Boomtown Rats had their first No. 1 single in the UK with “Rat Trap”, which was the first New Wave chart-topper in Britain. In 1979, the group gained international renown with their second UK No. 1, “I Don’t Like Mondays”. This was equally successful, as well as controversial; Geldof wrote it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencer’s attempted massacre at an elementary school across the street from her house in San Diego, California, at the beginning of 1979.
In 1980, The Boomtown Rats released the album Mondo Bongo. Its single “Up All Night” in 1981 was a hit in the U.S. and its video played on MTV with heavy rotation. Geldof quickly became known as a colourful interview. The Boomtown Rats’ first appearance on Ireland’s The Late Late Show saw Geldof as deliberately brusque to host Gay Byrne and during his interview attacked Irish politicians and the Catholic Church which he blamed for many of the country’s problems at the time, and responded to nuns in the audience that had tried to shout him down by saying they had “an easy life with no material worries in return for which they gave themselves body and soul to the church”. He also criticised his old private school Blackrock College. The interview caused uproar across the country, making it impossible for the Boomtown Rats to play in Ireland again thereafter (apart from one gig at Leixlip Castle in 1980).
Geldof left the Boomtown Rats in 1986, to launch a solo career and publish his autobiography, Is That It?, which was a best-seller. His first solo records sold reasonably well and spawned the hit singles “This Is The World Calling” (co-written with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics) and “The Great Song of Indifference”. He also occasionally performed with other artists, such as David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy. A performance of “Comfortably Numb” with David Gilmour is documented in the 2002 DVD David Gilmour in Concert. In 1992, he performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with the surviving members of Queen at the old Wembley Stadium, singing a song he had co-written with Mercury, called “Too Late God”.
Geldof has also worked as a DJ for XFM radio. In 1998, he erroneously announced Ian Dury’s death from cancer, possibly due to hoax information from a listener who was disgruntled at the station’s change of ownership. The event caused music paper NME (who had been involved in a running feud with Geldof since his Boomtown Rats days primarily due to his disparagement of The Clash) to call Geldof “the world’s worst DJ”.
Along with U2’s Bono, he has devoted much time since 2000 to campaigning for debt relief for developing countries. His commitments in this field, including the organisation of the Live 8 concerts, kept Geldof from producing any more musical output since 2001’s Sex, Age & Death album.
After Live 8, Geldof returned to his career as a musician by releasing a box set containing all of his solo albums entitled Great Songs of Indifference – The Anthology 1986–2001 in late 2005. Following that release, Geldof also toured, albeit with mixed success. In July 2006 Geldof arrived at Milan’s Arena Civica, a venue capable of holding 12,000 people, to play a scheduled concert to find that the organisers had not put the tickets on general sale and that only 45 people had shown up. Geldof refused to go on stage once he found out how small the attendance was. To offer some compensation for fans, Geldof stopped to sign autographs to those who had shown up. He then played a well-attended free “Storytellers” concert for MTV Italy in Naples in October 2006.
Geldof’s first major charity involvement took place in September 1981, when he performed as a solo artist for Amnesty International’s benefit show The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, at the invitation of Amnesty show producer Martin Lewis; he performed a solo version of “I Don’t Like Mondays”. Other rock artists had ‘planted a seed’ and appeared to have affected Geldof in a similar manner. In 1984, Geldof responded to a BBC news report from Michael Buerk about the famine in Ethiopia by mobilising the pop world to do something about the images he had seen. With Midge Ure of Ultravox wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in order to raise funds. The song was recorded by various artists under the name of Band Aid. In its first week of release the single became the UK’s fastest seller of all time, entering the chart at number one and going on to sell over three million copies, making it the biggest-selling single in UK history up to that point, a title it held for almost 13 years. The single was also a major US hit, even though Christmas was long gone by the time it could be released in the States. “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” returned to the UK chart a year later, reaching number three, and eventually it raised over £8 million. Following this massive success preparations were started for the biggest rock concerts the world had ever seen, the following summer.
As Geldof began to learn more about the situation, he discovered that one of the main reasons why African nations were in such dire peril was because of repayments on loans that their countries had taken from Western banks. For every pound donated in aid, ten times as much would have to leave the country in loan repayments. It became obvious that one song was not enough. On 13 July 1985, Geldof and Ure organised Live Aid, a huge event staged simultaneously at the Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Thanks to an unprecedented decision by the BBC to clear its schedules for 16 hours of rock music, the event was also broadcast live in the UK on television and radio.
It was one of the most monumental stage shows in history, with Phil Collins flying on Concorde so that he could play at both Wembley and Philadelphia on the same day. During the broadcast of Live Aid, Geldof shocked viewers into giving cash by not only twice mouthing profanities but also by slamming his fist on the table and ordering them not to go out to the pub but to stay in and watch the show. Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he swore. The BBC presenter David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: “F*#& the address, let’s get the [phone] numbers!” It has passed into folklore that he yelled at the audience, “Give us your f*#&ing money!” although Geldof has stated that this phrase was never uttered. After the outburst, giving increased to £300 per second. The harrowing video of dying, skeletal children that had been made by photo-journalists setting their films to the tune of “Drive” by The Cars, contributed to the concert’s success.
In total, Live Aid raised over £150 million for famine relief. Geldof was subsequently knighted, at age 34, for his efforts. His autobiography, written soon after with Paul Vallely, was entitled Is That It?. This book achieved further fame for being featured on the GCSE examination syllabus in a following year.
Much of the money raised by Live Aid went to NGOs in Ethiopia, some of which were under the influence or control of the Derg military junta. Some journalists have suggested that the Derg was able to use Live Aid and Oxfam money to fund its enforced resettlement and “villagification” programmes, under which at least 3 million people are said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed. However in November 2010 the BBC formally apologized to Geldof for misleading implications in its stories on the subject of Band Aid, saying it had ‘no evidence’ that Band Aid money specifically went to buy weapons.
In January 2004, on a visit to friends in Ethiopia, Geldof came to believe that more people were at risk of starvation there than had died in the famine of 1984/85 which had prompted Live Aid. He rang the British Prime Minister Tony Blair from Addis Ababa. According to the Live 8 programme notes by Geldof’s biographer and friend, Paul Vallely, the Prime Minister responded: “Calm down Bob. . . And come and see me as soon as you get back. The result was the Commission for Africa. Blair invited Geldof and 16 other Commissioners, the majority from Africa and many of them politicians in power, to undertake a year-long study of Africa’s problems. They came up with two conclusions: that Africa needed to change, to improve its governance and combat corruption, and that the rich world needed to support that change in new ways. That meant doubling aid, delivering debt cancellation, and reforming trade rules. The Commission drew up a detailed plan of how that could be done. It reported in March 2005. In the months that followed it became clear that world leaders were not taking its recommendations seriously. To force the issue Geldof decided to create a new international lobby for Africa with eight simultaneous concerts around the world to put pressure on the G8. He called it Live 8. The Commission’s recommendations later became the blueprint for the G8 Gleneagles African debt and aid package.
On 31 March 2005, Geldof and Ure announced the Live 8 project, to raise awareness of issues that burden Africa, including government debt, trade barriers, hunger, and AIDS issues. Geldof organised six concerts on 2 July 2005 in large cities throughout the industrialised world. They featured musicians from different genres and locations around the world. The cities where Live 8 concerts were played were in industrialised countries, and drew huge crowds. The locations were London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia, Barrie, Chiba, Johannesburg, Moscow, Cornwall and Edinburgh.
The concerts were free, and were scheduled just days before world leaders gathered in Gleneagles, for the G8 economic summit, on 6 July. Ure organised the ‘final push’ Live 8 concert at Edinburgh. ‘The boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis,’ Geldof said in a statement. Pink Floyd’s performance in London was its first since 1981 to include original bassist, Roger Waters.
Although part of the campaign “Make Poverty History” (MPH), Live 8 was then accused of hijacking MPH by planning its concerts on the same day as the giant MPH march in Edinburgh, which was said to be the biggest social justice march in Scottish history. Geldof was also criticised for the lack of African acts performing at Live 8. Geldof responded that only the biggest-selling artists would attract the huge audience required to capture the attention of the world in the run-up to the G8 meeting. Geldof added that there was insufficient public interest in African music among the concert’s target markets in Europe and the United States. Including African artists at the expense of recognised artists would have been tokenist, he said, and would have undermined the effect of the concert.
In the lead-up to the G8 summit, Geldof, who had been a member of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa on which the Gleneagles recommendations were largely based, labelled critics of the summit ‘a disgrace’. Some leading African campaigners have asked Geldof to stand down from the global anti-poverty movement, and the New Internationalist (between January and February 2006) said ‘It would be long overdue if he did.’
There were also accusations that Live 8 gave unqualified support to the personal and political agendas of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, particularly in the lead up to an election. Though many felt that it was the British politicians who had accepted Geldof’s agenda, rather than the other way round, this led to accusations that Geldof had compromised his cause. In contrast with the media support given to Live Aid, Live 8 was subject to criticism by some sections of the media. The promises made for Africa at the Gleneagles summit, were widely praised: “the greatest summit for Africa ever” (Kofi Annan), “an important, if incomplete, boost to the development prospects of the poorest countries” economist (Jeffrey Sachs) or “a major breakthrough on debt” (Kevin Wakins, until recently head of research at Oxfam). But many aid agencies pronounced their disappointment with the outcome, feeling that the strict conditions imposed on African countries for accepting debt relief left them little better off than before. Some critics have claimed that Live 8 had been more about rehabilitating the careers of ageing rock stars, including Geldof himself, than it was about the poor people of Africa. Geldof himself has made no attempt to revive his music career, although, as the New Internationalist points out, since becoming prominent in the salvation of Africa, “Geldof has re-released the entire back catalogue of the Boomtown Rats.”
Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. He was born in his ancestral home, now known as Kirti Mandir, Porbandar. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as a high official of Porbander state, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India. His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, fondly called Utta Gandhi. His mother, Putlibai, who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, was Karamchand’s fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth. Growing up with a devout mother and the Jain traditions of the region, the young Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play an important role in his adult life; these included compassion for sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance among individuals of different creeds.
The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that it left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: “It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number.” Gandhi’s early self-identification with Truth and Love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.
In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to “Kasturba”, and affectionately to “Ba”) in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region. However, as was also the custom of the region, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents’ house, and away from her husband. In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple’s first child was born, but survived only a few days, and Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, had died earlier that year. Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdas. At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with some difficulty. While there, he was unhappy, in part because his family wanted him to become a barrister.
On 4 September 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to get trained as a barrister. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother in the presence of the Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving India, to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity. Although Gandhi experimented with adopting “English” customs — taking dancing lessons for example — he could not stomach the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady, and he was always hungry until he found one of London’s few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Salt’s book, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee, and started a local Bayswater chapter. Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original. Not having shown interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought and began to read both Hindu and Christian scriptures.
Gandhi was called to the bar on 10 June 1891. Two days later, he left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from him. His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, a business he was forced to close when he ran foul of a British officer. In his autobiography, Gandhi refers to this incident as an unsuccessful attempt to lobby on behalf of his older brother. It was in this climate that, in April 1893, he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire.
In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do. These events were a turning point in Gandhi’s life: they shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people’s standing in the British Empire.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill’s passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.
In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony’s Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time. He urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. The community adopted this plan, and during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of Indians were jailed, flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The government successfully repressed the Indian protesters, but the public outcry over the harsh treatment of peaceful Indian protesters by the South African government forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi’s ideas took shape, and the concept of satyagraha matured during this struggle.
Some of Gandhi’s South African articles are controversial. On 7 March 1908, Gandhi wrote in the Indian Opinion of his time in a South African prison: “Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals… The kaffirs’ sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness. They’re loafers… a species of humanity almost unknown among the Indians.” During his time in South Africa, Gandhi protested repeatedly about the social classification of blacks with Indians, whom he described as “undoubtedly infinitely superior to the Kaffirs”. Remarks such as these have led many South Africans to accuse Gandhi of racism.
In 1906, after the British introduced a new poll-tax in South Africa, Zulus killed two British officers. In response, the British declared war against the Zulu kingdom. Gandhi actively encouraged the British to recruit Indians. He argued that Indians should support the war efforts in order to legitimise their claims to full citizenship. The British, however, refused to commission Indians as army officers. Nonetheless, they accepted Gandhi’s offer to let a detachment of Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi. On 21 July 1906, Gandhi wrote in Indian Opinion: “The corps had been formed at the instance of the Natal Government by way of experiment, in connection with the operations against the Natives consists of twenty three Indians”. Gandhi urged the Indian population in South Africa to join the war through his columns in Indian Opinion: “If the Government only realised what reserve force is being wasted, they would make use of it and give Indians the opportunity of a thorough training for actual warfare.”
In Gandhi’s opinion, the Draft Ordinance of 1906 brought the status of Indians below the level of Natives. He therefore urged Indians to resist the Ordinance along the lines of satyagraha by taking the example of “Kaffirs”. In his words, “Even the half-castes and kaffirs, who are less advanced than we, have resisted the government. The pass law applies to them as well, but they do not take out passes.” In 1927, Gandhi wrote of the event: “The Boer War had not brought home to me the horrors of war with anything like the vividness that the [Zulu] ‘rebellion’ did. This was no war but a man-hunt, not only in my opinion, but also in that of many Englishmen with whom I had occasion to talk.”
In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time. In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India’s independence, Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort. In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled “Appeal for Enlistment”, Gandhi wrote “To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them…If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army.” He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy’s private secretary that he “personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe.” Gandhi’s war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence.
Gandhi’s first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha, although in the latter it was indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the militias of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation, leaving them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely dirty and unhygienic; and alcoholism was rampant. Now in the throes of a devastating famine, the British levied a tax which they insisted on increasing. The situation was desperate. In Kheda in Gujarat, the problem was the same. Gandhi established an ashram there, organising scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organised a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting for the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo and condemn many social evils such as untouchability and alcoholism.
His most important impact came when he was arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court reluctantly granted. Gandhi led organised protests and strikes against the landlords. With the guidance of the British government, these landlords agreed to suspend revenue hikes until the famine ended and to grant the poor farmers of the region increased compensation and control over farming. It was during this agitation that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Sardar Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners. As a result, Gandhi became well known in India.
Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his “weapons” in the struggle against the British Raj. In Punjab, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of civilians by British troops (also known as the Amritsar Massacre) caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi’s emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. After the massacre and subsequent violence, Gandhi began to focus on winning complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.
In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganised with a new constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline, transforming the party from an elite organisation to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy — the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning wheel that could be folded into the size of a small typewriter. This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weeding out the unwilling and ambitious and to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not respectable activities for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.
An example demonstrates popularity of Gandhi, importance of participation of people in the freedom movement and Gandhi’s words on worth of sacrifice. While he was popularising Khadi in rural Orissa, an aged poor woman who was listening to a speech by Gandhi fought her way to where he was, touched his feet and put a one-paise copper coin in front of him. Gandhi accepted the coin and thanked her.
“Non-cooperation” enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation from all strata of Indian society. Yet, just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience. According to Andrew Roberts, this was the third time that Gandhi had called off a major campaign, “leaving in the lurch more than 15,000 supporters who were jailed for the cause”. Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years.
Without Gandhi’s unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the non-violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success. This may have been due to Gandhi’s “uncanny ability to irritate and frustrate” India’s Muslim leadership.
Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. In the preceding year, the British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead of two.[40] The British did not respond. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India’s Independence Day by the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388kms (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.
The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Also as a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin’s successor, Lord Willingdon, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. But this tactic failed.
In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932. The resulting public outcry successfully forced the government to adopt an equitable arrangement through negotiations mediated by Palwankar Baloo. This was the start of a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God.
On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the Harijan movement. This new campaign was not universally embraced within the Dalit community, as prominent leader B. R. Ambedkar condemned Gandhi’s use of the term Harijans as saying that Dalits were socially immature, and that privileged caste Indians played a paternalistic role. Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi was undermining Dalit political rights. Gandhi had also refused to support the untouchables in 1924–25 when they were campaigning for the right to pray in temples. Because of Gandhi’s actions, Ambedkar described him as “devious and untrustworthy”. Gandhi, although born into the Vaishya caste, insisted that he was able to speak on behalf of Dalits, despite the presence of Dalit activists such as Ambedkar. In the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made on Gandhi’s life.
When the Congress Party chose to contest elections and accept power under the Federation scheme, Gandhi resigned from party membership. He did not disagree with the party’s move, but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party’s membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.
Gandhi returned to active politics again in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India’s future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Bose, who had been elected president in 1938. Their main points of contention were Bose’s lack of commitment to democracy and lack of faith in non-violence. Bose won his second term despite Gandhi’s criticism, but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi.
World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Initially, Gandhi favoured offering “non-violent moral support” to the British effort, but other Congressional leaders were offended by the unilateral inclusion of India in the war, without consultation of the people’s representatives. All Congressmen resigned from office. After long deliberations, Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied to India itself. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This was Gandhi’s and the Congress Party’s most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.
Gandhi was criticised by some Congress party members and other Indian political groups, both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that not supporting Britain more in its struggle against Nazi Germany was unethical. Others felt that Gandhi’s refusal for India to participate in the war was insufficient and more direct opposition should be taken, while Britain fought against Nazism yet continued to contradict itself by refusing to grant India Independence. Quit India became the most forceful movement in the history of the struggle, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of freedom fighters were killed or injured by police gunfire, and hundreds of thousands were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the “ordered anarchy” around him was “worse than real anarchy.” He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain discipline via ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro (“Do or Die”) in the cause of ultimate freedom.
Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay by the British on 9 August 1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his personal life. His 50-year old secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack 6 days later and his wife Kasturba died after 18 months imprisonment on 22 February 1944; six weeks later Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. He was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out of detention to an altered political scene – the Muslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, “now occupied the centre of the political stage” and the topic of Jinnah’s campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi met Jinnah in September 1944 in Bombay but Jinnah rejected, on the grounds that it fell short of a fully independent Pakistan, his proposal of the right of Muslim provinces to opt out of substantial parts of the forthcoming political union.
Although the Quit India movement had moderate success in its objective, the ruthless suppression of the movement brought order to India by the end of 1943. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress’s leadership. While the Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to quit India, the Muslim League passed a resolution for them to divide and quit, in 1943. Gandhi is believed to have been opposed to the partition during independence and suggested an agreement which required the Congress and Muslim League to cooperate and attain independence under a provisional government, thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim majority. When Jinnah called for Direct Action, on 16 August 1946, Gandhi was infuriated and visited the most riot prone areas to stop the massacres, personally. He made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians and struggled for the emancipation of the “untouchables” in Hindu society.
On the 14th and 15 August 1947 the Indian Independence Act was invoked and the following carnage witnessed a displacement of up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire with an estimated loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million. But for his teachings, the efforts of his followers, and his own presence, there would have been much more bloodshed during the partition, according to prominent Norwegian historian, Jens Arup Seip.
On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat, New Delhi, bears the epigraph “He Ram”, which may be translated as “Oh God”. These are widely believed to be Gandhi’s last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed. Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:
“Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.” – Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to Gandhi
Gandhi’s ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services. Most were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad. Some of Gandhi’s ashes were scattered at the source of the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008, the contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty by the family after a Dubai-based businessman had sent it to a Mumbai museum. Another urn has ended up in a palace of the Aga Khan in Pune (where he had been imprisoned from 1942 to 1944) and another in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles. The family is aware that these enshrined ashes could be misused for political purposes, but does not want to have them removed because it would entail breaking the shrines.
Events that happened this week in history:-
1st Oct – 959 – Edgar the Peaceable becomes king of all England. 1553 – Coronation of Queen Mary I of England. 1795 – Belgium is conquered by France. 1811 – The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orléans, Louisiana. 1843 – The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London. 1869 – Austria issues the world’s first postcards. 1880 – First electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison. 1890 – The Yosemite National Park and the Yellowstone National Park are established by the U.S. Congress. 1903 –The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series. 1940 – The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic. 1946 – Mensa International is founded in the United Kingdom. 1957 – First appearance of In God We Trust on U.S. paper currency. 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1962 – First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time. 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, United States. 1971 – The first brain-scan using x-ray computed tomography (CT or CAT scan) is performed at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London. 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1975 – Al Jackson, Jr., American drummer with Booker T. & the M.G.’s died. 1982 – Sony launches the first consumer compact disc player (model CDP-101). 1982 – EPCOT Centre opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States. 1986 – Archie League, generally considered the first air traffic controller died. 1999 – Lena Zavaroni, Scottish singer and Child star died. 2000 – Reginald “Reggie” Kray, British gangster died. 2004 – Bruce Palmer, Canadian musician with Buffalo Springfield. 2007 – Ned Sherrin, English broadcaster, author and stage director, and Ronnie Hazlehurst, English conductor and theme song composer died.
2nd Oct – 1925 – John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system. 1950 – Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published. 1958 – Guinea declares its independence from France. 1959 – The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television. 1764 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom died. 1803 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader died. 1985 – Rock Hudson, American actor died. 1988 – Alec Issigonis, Greek-British car designer, developer of the Mini. 1998 – Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and entrepreneur died.
3rd Oct – 1226 – Saint Francis of Assisi died. 1712 – The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor. 1778 – British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska. 1835 – The Staedtler Company is founded in Nuremberg, Germany. 1860 – Rembrandt Peale, American portrait artist, renowned for portraits of Washington and Jefferson died. 1863 – The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Abraham Lincoln as are Thursdays, November 30, 1865 and November 29, 1866. 1867 – Elias Howe, American inventor died. 1908 – The Pravda newspaper is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna. 1942 – The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space. 1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon. 1955 – The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on ABC. 1967 – Woody Guthrie, American musician & Malcolm Sargent, English conductor died. 1985 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J). 1990 – Re-unification of Germany. The German Democratic Republic ceases to exist and its territory becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany. East German citizens became part of the European Community, which later became the European Union. Now celebrated as German Unity Day. 1995 – O. J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. 1998 – Roddy McDowall, English actor died. 2000 – Benjamin Orr, American bassist and singer with The Cars, died. 2002 – Bruce Paltrow, American television and film producer died. 2004 – Janet Leigh, American actress died. 2005 – Ronnie Barker, English comic actor died.
4th Oct – 1535 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. 1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands. 1883 – First run of the Orient Express. 1883 – First meeting of the Boys’ Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland. 1890 – Catherine Booth, the Mother of The Salvation Army died. 1904 – Karl Bayer, Austrian chemist died. 1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore. 1957 – Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. 1965 – Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrives in New York. 1970 – Janis Joplin, American singer died. 1976 – Official launch of the Intercity 125 High Speed Train. 1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019 km/h), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. 1988 – U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud. 1989 – Graham Chapman, British comedian died. 1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo and Company. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million in cash which had been taken. 2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space. 2010 – Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer-songwriter and actor died.
5th Oct – 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. 1880 – Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer died. 1905 – Wilbur Wright pilots Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stood until 1908. 1921 – The Baseball World Series is broadcast on the radio for the first time. 1930 – British Airship R101 crashes in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage. 1936 – The Jarrow March sets off for London. 1945 – Hollywood Black Friday: A six-month strike by Hollywood set decorators turns into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers’ studios. 1947 – The first televised White House address is given by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. 1962 – Dr. No, the first in the James Bond film series, is released. 1968 – Police baton civil rights demonstrators in Derry, Northern Ireland – considered to mark the beginning of The Troubles. 1969 – The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs on BBC. 1984 – Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. 1990 – After one hundred and fifty years The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. 2003 – Denis Quilley, English actor died.
6th Oct – 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. 1876 – The American Library Association was founded. 1876 – The American Library Association was founded. 1889 – Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture. 1892 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet died. 1927 – Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie. 1945 – Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. 1951 – Will Keith Kellogg, American food manufacturer died. 1977 – The first prototype of the MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight. 1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House. 1980 – Hattie Jacques, British comedy actress died. 1981 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated. 1989 – Bette Davis, American actress died. 1995 – 51 Pegasi is discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it. 2007 – Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
7th Oct – 1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S. 1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands. 1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet died.1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name. 1933 – Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of 5 French airlines. 1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury. 1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon. 1982 – Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000. 1993 – The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage. 2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
Other famous birthdays being celebrated and remembered this week are:-
1st Oct – Richard Stockton, American attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence. William Boeing, American engineer. Stanley Holloway, British actor. Bonnie Parker, American outlaw. Walter Matthau, American actor. Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Tom Bosley, American actor. Sandy Gall, Malaysian-born British journalist and newscaster. George Peppard, American actor. Richard Harris, Irish actor. Julie Andrews, British actress and singer. Randy Quaid, American actor. Theresa May, British politician. Youssou N’Dour, Senegalese singer. Harry Hill, British comedian. Keith Duffy, Irish singer with Boyzone and actor. Dizzee Rascal, English rapper.
2nd Oct – Francis Hopkinson, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian independence movement figure. Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor. Bud Abbott, American comedian and actor. Graham Greene, British novelist. Don McLean, American songwriter. Trevor Brooking, English footballer. Avery Brooks, American actor. Donna Karan, American fashion designer. Mike Rutherford, English musician with Genesis. Sting, English musician and actor. Phil Oakey, English singer with The Human League. Robbie Nevil, American singer and songwriter. Frankie Fredericks, Namibian athlete. Jana Novotná, Czech tennis player. James Root, American guitarist with Slipknot. Tiffany, American singer. Simon Gregson, British actor.
3rd Oct – Eddie Cochran, American singer and guitarist. Chubby Checker, American singer-songwriter. Lindsey Buckingham, American guitarist and singer with Fleetwood Mac. Tim Westwood, English DJ and radio/TV presenter. Tommy Lee, American Drummer. Clive Owen, British actor. Gwen Stefani, American musician and actress. Kevin Richardson, American singer with Backstreet Boys. Jake Shears, American singer with Scissor Sisters. Danny O’Donoghue, Irish singer with The Script.
4th Oct – King Louis X of France. King Henry III of Castile. Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Damon Runyon, American writer. Buster Keaton, American comedian. Charlton Heston, American actor. Sir Terence Conran, English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. Jackie Collins, British author. Anne Rice, American writer. Clifton Davis, American actor. Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist. Ann Widdecombe, British politician. Chris Lowe, British musician with Pet Shop Boys. Marcus Bentley, British voice actor. Alicia Silverstone, American actress.
5th Oct – Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States. Louis Lumière, French film pioneer. Remington Kellogg, American naturalist. Ray Kroc, American fast food entrepreneur. Donald Pleasence, English actor. Glynis Johns, British actress. Richard Street, American singer with The Temptations. Steve Miller, American musician with Steve Miller Band. Brian Connolly, Scottish singer with Sweet. Brian Johnson, English singer with AC/DC. Jeff Conaway, American actor. Karen Allen, American actress. Bob Geldof KBE, Irish singer with The Boomtown Rats and activist. Lee Thompson, English saxophonist with Madness, vocalist. Bernie Mac, American actor and comedian. Daniel Baldwin, American actor. Caron Keating, British television personality. Guy Pearce, Anglo-Australian actor. Kate Winslet, English actress. James Valentine, American musician with Maroon 5. James Toseland, British motorcycle racer. Nicola Roberts, English singer with Girls Aloud.
6th Oct – Carole Lombard, American actress. Barbara Castle, British politician. Joe Frazier, American baseball player. Britt Ekland, Swedish actress. Gerry Adams, Northern Irish politician. Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver. Kevin Cronin, American musician with REO Speedwagon. Elisabeth Shue, American film actress. Niall Quinn, Irish footballer. Ioan Gruffudd, Welsh actor. Ricky Hatton, English boxer.
7th Oct – Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi official. Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and Nobel Laureate. Clive James, Australian television presenter and writer. Oliver North, American former military officer. Kevin Godley, British musician with 10cc & Godley and Cream. Dave Hope, American musician with Kansas. John Mellencamp, American singer. Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister and former President of the Russian Federation. Tico Torres, musician with Bon Jovi. Jayne Torvill, British figure skater. Sam Brown, English singer-songwriter. Toni Braxton, American singer. Thom Yorke, English singer with Radiohead. Sami Hyypiä, Finnish footballer. Alesha Dixon, British pop singer with Mis-Teeq.
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