Sir Winston Churchill and his cabinet colleagues, concerned at the number of “coloured people” they thought were moving to Britain to take advantage of the welfare state, considered introducing immigration controls more than 50 years ago, according to records released yesterday from the National Archives.
In hand-written notebooks, the cabinet secretary, Sir Norman Brook, noted that [...]

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I’m dumb in school?
Whatif they’ve closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there’s poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif [...]

On Aug. 15, 1947, India and Pakistan became independent after some 200 years of British rule. (Go to article.)
1057 Macbeth, the King of Scotland, was slain by the son of King Duncan.
1769 Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.
1935 Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near [...]