On this day in history: Eiffel Tower inaugurated, 1889

In 1884, the French structural engineer and architect, Gustave Eiffel, started to draw up plans for a 300-metre tall iron tower. He submitted his design as an entrance arch to those responsible for the Exposición Universal de 1888, a World's Fair to be held in the Spanish city of Barcelona. The city governors, the Consistory of Barcelona, rejected the idea because they considered it not only to be too expensive, but also ill-fitting with the surrounding architecture.

Undaunted, Eiffel submitted his design to the planners of the Exposition Universelle, another World's Fair to be held in Paris in 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution. His plans met with approval and work commenced in January 1887. Over the next two years hundreds of workers cleared the site by the River Seine, constructed the foundations, and fabricated and assembled over 18,000 different parts of the three platformed Tower using over 2,500,000 rivets.

On 31st March 1889, Eiffel and members of the Council of Paris climbed the 1,710 to the top of the construction, where he planted a French flag to inaugurate the 312 metre tall Tower that now bears his name. At that time it was the tallest tower in the world, a distinction that it held until the completion of New York's Chrysler Building in 1930, despite Eiffel only holding a permit for the Tower to stand for twenty years. Indeed, the original contest rules required that the structure be easily dismantled. Nevertheless, the addition of an antenna proved the Tower's value for radio and then later for television broadcasts.

Initially the object of disgust of the many Parisians who considered it to be an eyesore the Tower soon became a major tourist attraction, having over two-million visitors in its first year alone. The Eiffel tower has become arguably the most recognisable landmark in the city and a symbol of French pride. To learn more you can download a pdf file telling you All you need to know about the Eiffel Tower from the official website.

Related posts
Lincoln Memorial dedicated: 30th May 1922
Hollywood sign dedicated: 13th July 1923
Work finishes on Mount Rushmore sculpture: 31st October 1941

On this day in history: First seaplane flight, 1910

On 28th March 1910, Henri Fabre made the first successful flight in a seaplane at Martigues, near Marseilles. Fabre took four years to design and build the Fabre Hydravion, nicknamed Le Canard ('The Duck'), aided by the mechanic Marius Burdin and the naval architect Léon Sebille. Le Canard had three floats, a small wing and a control surface at the front, and a large wing at the back, where a Gnome Omega 50 hp rotary piston engine powered the 2.6 metre propeller.

After several unsuccessful attempts during the preceding weeks, Fabre finally achieved a distance of 457m (1500ft) reaching an altitude of over two metres (6ft) above the Étang de Berre on the first of four consecutive flights that day. Following his success, Fabre patented the innovative floats designed by an engineer called Bonnemaison, which provided extra lift to the aircraft and proved popular with other seaplane pioneers. He also went on to design several other seaplanes, setting up a factory to make them during the First World War.

Related posts
Montgolfier Brothers first public balloon flight: 4th June, 1783
First Zeppelin flight: 2nd July, 1900
First successful powered aeroplane flight: 17th December 1903
First flight around the world: 28th September, 1924
Charles Lindbergh arrived in Paris: 21st May, 1927

On this day in history: First Rugby Union international, 1871

The issue of the sporting journal Bell's Weekly published on 8th December 1870 included the following challenge issued by the captains of five Scottish rugby clubs: "with a view of really testing what Scotland can do against an English team we [...] hereby challenge any team selected from the whole of England, to play us a match, twenty-a-side, Rugby rules, either in Edinburgh or Glasgow". Frederick Stokes, captain of Blackheath F.C. in London accepted the challenge and raised a team. The Scottish committee arranged for the game to take place on 27th March 1871 at Raeburn Place, the home of the Edinburgh Academical Club.

On the day of the match, over four-thousand people paid a shilling to watch the match, which was played over two fifty-minute halves. The Scots, captained by Francis Moncrieff, wore brown shirts, and the English, captained by Stokes, wore white shirts emblazoned with a red rose. The match umpire was Hely Hutchinson Almond, headmaster of Loretto School in nearby Musselburgh.

The Scots scored first when William Cross converted Angus Buchanan's try. John Arthur went over the English goal-line for the second Scottish try, but he knocked the ball on before grounding it. While this was not allowed in the English game, it was perfectly acceptable in Scotland. The umpire judged the knock-on to be inadvertent and ruled that the try stood, to the annoyance of the English. Further controversy was avoided when the Scots failed to convert the try and thus received no points, as were the rules of the day. The English also failed to convert a try, so the first international rugby match ended with the Scots winning 1:0.

Related posts
First black international footballer: 12th March 1881