ZUM4904426: Jan. 01, 1954 - Comet takes off on London to Khartoum speed bid.: A series Two Comet off from Hatfield early this morning in a bid for the London to Khartoum speed record. the Comet, the first production model of the Series Two, was flown by Group Captain Cunningham, de Havilland Chief test pilot. The reason for the flight to Khartoum, a distance of over 3,000 miles, and also establish a record for the outward flight / Bridgeman Images
ZUM4904619: Jan. 01, 1954 - Sea will deliver post cards to stop oil pollution: The Royal Air Force is to drop some 10,000 post cards in Plastic Envelopes in to the sea as part of a campaign to a top the Pollution of Britain's Beaches by oil residues Jettisoned by ships. the envelops will drift to the shores of Britain and Northwest Europe and requests in eight Languages inside will ask finders, who will be rewarded, to send the post cards to Britain's National institute of Oceanography, Surrey, England, thus providing valuable data that it i hoped will help plot the course of the oil bearing surface currents / Bridgeman Images
ZUM4904762: Jan. 01, 1954 - Pearly King and Queen of Southwark Handover A Doll” Toker of Thanks” to Norwegian Ambassador: Mr. and Mrs Fred in Tinsley the Pearly king and Queen of Southwark visited the Norwegian Embassy in London this afternoon to hand over a miniature” Pearly Queen” doll to the Ambassador as a token of thanks to the Norwegian Red Cross for help given last year's East Flood Disaster. The Presentation was arranged by Sir Michael Wright the British Ambassador in Oslo because the Norwegian would accept no payment for their services / Bridgeman Images
ETE4904769: Second World War (1939-1945) - World War II (WWII or WW2): Near Kornelmunster (Germany) 17 December 1944: Infantrymen from the 1st US Army examine a German parachute used the night before the day of Operation Guard's decay in the Rhine (German counter-offensive in the Ardennes). / Bridgeman Images
ZUM4904861: Jan. 01, 1954 - Naval Diving Exercises in the Thames.: Royal Navy divers began training in the river Thames, near the Houses of Parliament yesterday. The object of the exercise was to familiarise the divers with conditions in ports and rivers where the water is often murky and fraught with tidal difficulties / Bridgeman Images