Pipe smoker, beer drinker and Hobbit watcher,
JRR Tolkien departed Middle Earth upon this very week (1973)
The death is announced of famous Belgian paramour & crime writer
Georges Simenon (1989)
And finally…
Tragedy strikes the pleasure boat `Princess Alice` on the river by Thamesmead, as it is accidentally rammed by a cargo steamer `The Bywell Castle`; More than 700 souls perish, either by drowning, or poisoned by the noxious Thames. “The sadness of the event cast a universal gloom over the whole of England” (1878)
