The first person to fly the English Channel in an airplane was a Frenchman called Louis Bleriot. The flight took place on 25 July 1909 and won Bleriot a prize of £1,000 from the Daily Mail. An earlier attempt five days earlier, by Englishman Herbert Latham, had ended when he had ditched in the sea.
Bleriot, a motorcar headlamp manufacturer, had injured his foot and walked to his plane with the aid of crutches. He took off at 4.37am and, guided by smoke from a French destroyer, he spotted St Margaret’s Bay. Turning towards Dover he was caught by the wind and made a crash landing in Northfall Meadow, behind the Castle, breaking the undercarriage and propeller. The whole journey had taken 20 minutes.
A memorial in the form of a stone silhouette of Bleriot’s plane is set into the ground at the place where he landed.
Here is an aerial view from Google Maps (Scroll down to see Dover Castle )
A Facebook page records the level of litter and rubbish in a Kent town.
Take part in cliff walk which recalls murder of two teenage sisters in Dover - Kent OnlineOne of East Kent's most notorious crimes will be recalled during the White Cliffs Walking Festival, which starts tomorrow.
Colorized Images Bring the Past to Life | Daily Planet - Air & Space MagazineShould you colorize some of the most iconic black-and-white images in photographic history? Wolfgang Wild and Jordan J. Lloyd think you should, and the ...
10 fascinating journeys into British history - The TelegraphFrom stone circles to Viking invasions and wars that changed the world, Britain's history is rich, diverse and at times, more than a little gory.
Wife of Woodbridge's Don Spall to undertake wing walk for Parkinson's UK | Latest Suffolk and Essex News - East Anglian Daily TimesThe wife of a well-known Suffolk entertainer is set to undertake a daring “wing-walk” on Saturday in her husband's memory.
