The Northolt siege was a hostage situation which developed in Northolt,
West London, on 25 December 1985. After a domestic dispute, Errol
Walker forced entry into his sister-in-law's flat in Poynter Court
(pictured). He killed the woman, keeping her daughter and his own
daughter hostage. He released his daughter, but held the other girl
hostage. After more than a day, he ventured onto the communal balcony to
pick up an abandoned riot shield. Armed officers tried to intercept him
but he made it back to the flat. They threw stun grenades through the
windows, their first use by British police, and climbed through the
kitchen window. One officer found Walker lying on a sofa, holding a
knife to the child, and fired three shots, the first shooting by the
Metropolitan Police's Firearms Wing. Walker was shot twice, and was
later given life imprisonment for murder and other offences. One
historian of the unit felt that the incident showed that the police had
an alternative for crises that could not be resolved peacefully.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northolt_siege>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
Angered by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket
spectators rioted and attacked the England team during a match in
Sydney, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Riot_of_1879>
1910:
William D. Boyce established the Boy Scouts of America,
expanding the Scout Movement into the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America>
1965:
After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just
after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport,
Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing
all 84 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_663>
2010:
A freak storm triggered a series of avalanches that buried more
than 3.5 km (2.2 mi) of road near the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan,
killing 175 people and trapping more than 2,500 travellers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Salang_avalanches>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tufty:
1. Having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair,
etc., held together at the base”).
2. Covered in or having many tufts.
3. (obsolete, rare) Covered with tufts (“small clumps of bushes or
trees”).
4. Growing in tufts.
5. (obsolete) Of a cow: seeking a bull to mate with.
6. (Britain, informal) The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tufty>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy.
Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be
based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised, as the lights in the
firmament, which have rule over the day and over the night.
--John Ruskin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ruskin>