Most people know that the last woman to be hanged in Britain was Ruth Ellis in 1955. However, the last woman to be sentenced to death in Britain was Mary Wilson in 1958.
Wilson was convicted of poisoning two of her husbands with phosphorous. She was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The remains of two other husbands were exhumed and found to contain poison but it was felt there was no point in having another trial. Wilson died in prison in 1963.
You sometimes read that people got married in May because they only had a bath once a year - in May. The bridge carried bouquets to hide her BO. This is complete nonsense. People sometimes got married in May because they believed it was good luck to get married in that month. Brides did not carry bouquets to hide their smell. Flowers were once fertility symbols or charms. They were carried to ensure the fertility of the bride. Bouquets also often included certain herbs that people believed would drive away evil spirits or bad luck, in the way that garlic was supposed to repel vampires.
In the 1800s it became the custom for the bride to throw her bouquet into the air. Whoever caught it would have good luck. That soon changed into the idea that whoever caught it would be the next to get married. Today it’s a bit of fun but once people took these superstitions seriously.
On 3 April 1913 suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to 3 years in prison for 'inciting to malicious damage to property' ( she incited others to plant a bomb in the home of David Lloyd George the Chancellor of the Exchequer).
On 2 April 1877 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter known as Zazel became the first human cannonball when she was fired from a cannon.
Welcome to April. They think its name comes from the Latin word aperire meaning to open because buds open at this time. ⚘
31 March is Manatee Appreciation Day. In 1493 Christopher Columbus reported seeing three mermaids. He complained they were 'not half as beautiful as they are painted'. It's thought he actually saw manatees.
