Death of a Legend – Jimi Hendrix September 18th, 1970
A performance by Jimi Hendrix was sure to be frenetic, full of energy, and wild. He would rip fast on his guitar and at times smash his instrument to pieces at the end of a show. Watching Hendrix play was more than merely observing a performance — it was an experience. But it all ended when he was found dead on September 18th, 1970, in his girlfriend’s London Apartment. He was only 27.
Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, at Seattle’s King County Hospital, he was later renamed James Marshall by his father, James “Al” Hendrix. He took an early interest in music and drew on all the legends of the time as influences. Entirely self-taught, Jimmy’s inability to read music made him concentrate even harder on the music he heard.
By the summer of 1958, Al had purchased Jimmy a five-dollar, second-hand acoustic guitar from one of his friends. Shortly thereafter, Jimmy joined his first band, The Velvetones. After a three-month stint with the group, Jimmy left to pursue his own interests. The following summer, Al purchased Jimmy his first electric guitar, a Supro Ozark 1560S and Jimi joined The Rocking Kings.
He left home and joined the army becoming a paratrooper before an injury sustained during a parachute jump saw him leave the service. By the end of 1965, Jimmy had played with several marquee acts, including Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, the Isley Brothers, and Little Richard. He then formed his own band as lead guitar rather than the backline and called it, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames.
A meeting with The Animals bass guitarist, Chas Chandler, saw him offered a chance to make it big in London, a new band and the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born. A debut single, ‘’Hey Joe’ stayed in the UK top ten for 10 weeks and was closely followed by the release of a full-length album ‘Are You Experienced,’ a psychedelic musical compilation featuring anthems of a generation. It has remained one of the most popular rock albums of all time, featuring tracks like “Purple Haze,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Foxey Lady,” “Fire,” and “Are You Experienced?”
Success in America though didn’t follow suit until a performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival where Jimi set the stage alight with perhaps his most famous performance, ‘’Wild thing’’. Almost overnight he became a sensation and embarked on a successful live career and numerous albums.
Jimi Hendrix spent the night before his death drinking wine and smoking hashish with his girlfriend Monika Dannemann. The pair left her London apartment in the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill to attend a party hosted by the singer’s business associates and returned at around 3 AM.
He was found unresponsive by his girlfriend who had left him asleep to go and get cigarettes and despite calling an ambulance, he was prounouced dead after attempts to revive him failed.
From demo recordings to finished masters, Jimi Hendrix generated an amazing collection of songs over the course of his short career. The music of Jimi Hendrix embraced the influences of blues, ballads, rock, R&B, and jazz a collection of styles that continue to make Hendrix one of the most popular figures in the history of rock music.
September 28th 1928 - An accidental discovery changed the course of medicine
Penicillin was first discovered in 1928 and is now the most widely used antibiotic in the world.
It all started with a mold that developed on a staphylococcus culture plate. Since then, the discovery of penicillin changed the course of medicine and has enabled physicians to treat formerly severe and life-threatening illnesses such as bacterial endocarditis, meningitis, pneumococcal pneumonia, gonorrhea and syphilis.
Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish researcher, is credited with the discovery of penicillin in 1928. At the time, Fleming was experimenting with the influenza virus in the Laboratory of the Inoculation Department at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
Often described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mould, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.
An article published by Fleming in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929 reads, “The staphylococcus colonies became transparent and were obviously undergoing lysis … the broth in which the mould had been grown at room temperature for one to two weeks had acquired marked inhibitory, bactericidal and bacteriolytic properties to many of the more common pathogenic bacteria.”
Fleming described the colony as a “fluffy white mass which rapidly increases in size and after a few days sporulates” and changes color from dark green to black to bright yellow.
Even in the early experimentation stages, penicillin had no effect against gram-negative organisms but was effective against gram-positive bacteria.
Published reports credit Fleming as saying: “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly did not plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did.”
Though Fleming stopped studying penicillin in 1931, his research was continued and finished by Howard Flory and Ernst Chain, researchers at University of Oxford who are credited with the development of penicillin for use as a medicine in mice.
Penicillin made a difference during the first half of the 20th century. The first patient was successfully treated for streptococcal septicemia in the United States in 1942. However, supply was limited and demand was high in the early days of penicillin.
Penicillin helped reduce the number of deaths and amputations of troops during World War II. According to records, there were only 400 million units of penicillin available during the first five months of 1943; by the time World War II ended, U.S. companies were making 650 billion units a month.
September 2nd 1666 - The Great Fire of London in Pudding Lane
Back in the 1660s, people were not as aware of the dangers of fire as they are today. Buildings were made of timber – covered in a flammable substance called pitch, roofed with thatch – and tightly packed together with little regard for planning. About 350,000 people lived in London just before the Great Fire, it was one of the largest cities in Europe.
Homes arched out over the street below, almost touching in places, and the city was buzzing with people. Lots of animals lived London too – there were no cars, buses or lorries back then – so as well as houses, the city was full of sheds and yards packed high with flammable hay and straw.
Following a long, dry summer the city was suffering a drought. Water was scarce and the wooden houses had dried out, making them easier to burn... it was a recipe for disaster.
The Great Fire of London started on Sunday, 2 September 1666 in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane belonging to Thomas Farynor (Farriner). Although he claimed to have extinguished the fire, three hours later at 1am, his house was a blazing inferno.
At first, few were concerned – fires were such a common occurrence at the time. However, the fire moved quickly down Pudding Lane and carried on down Fish Hill and towards the River Thames. It spread rapidly, helped by a strong wind from the east. When it reached the Thames it hit warehouses stocked with combustible products including as oil and tallow.
Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread south of the river – but only because a major blaze in 1633 had already destroyed a section of London Bridge.
Samuel Pepys, a man who lived at the time, kept a diary that has been well preserved. He was a Clerk to the Royal Navy who observed the fire. He recommended to the King that buildings were pulled down – many thought it was the only way to stop the fire.
“About four o’clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things, to Sir W. Rider’s at Bednall-greene. Which I did riding myself in my night-gowne in the cart; and, Lord! to see how the streets and the highways are crowded with people running and riding, and getting of carts at any rate to fetch away things.”
The Mayor was ordered to use fire hooks to pull-down burning buildings but the fire continued to spread. People forced to evacuate their homes chose to bury or hide what valuables they couldn’t carry. Pepys himself buried his expensive cheese and wine, and carted his other belongings off to Bethnal Green.
Pepys spoke to the Admiral of the Navy and agreed they should blow up houses in the path of the fire. The hope was that by doing this they would create a space to stop the fire spreading from house to house.
The Navy – which had been using gunpowder at the time – carried out the request and the fire was mostly under control by Wednesday, 5 September 1666. However small fires continued to break out and the ground remained too hot to walk on for several days afterwards.
London had to be almost totally reconstructed. Temporary buildings were erected that were ill-equipped, disease spread easily, and many people died from this and the harsh winter that followed the fire.
As well as loss of life, the financial costs were staggering. 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, The Royal Exchange, Guildhall and St. Paul’s Cathedral – built during the Middle Ages – was totally destroyed.