2nd August 1975
Two parachute deaths in two days
Members of a parachute display team called the Black Knights, put on a display in Jersey in honour of two colleagues who had been killed in jumps in the island on consecutive days. Lance-Corporal Edward Brennan was being towed along the beach while fixed to his parachute but came down in the sea and drowned.
The following day, unperturbed by the death of his colleague, 24-year-old Bombardier David Binns was aiming for the beach at Bel Royal during his jump but, like Brennan, parachuted into the sea and drowned.
Surviving members of the Black Knights team later made a ceremonial jump in memory of the two men in the presence of dignitaries.
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Other events that occured in August
Jersey-set film The Others is released
- Starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Alejandro Amenábar, The Others is a psychological horror film set in Jersey.
- Read more…
Napoleon lays into Jersey in the French press
- Napoleon accused Jersey of granting asylum to criminals condemned to death, then sending them on raiding missions back into France.
- Read more…
The King of Patagonia invades Minquiers
- French novelist Jean Raspail claimed Minquiers in the name of the king of Patagonia, who by then had been dead for a century.
- Read more…
The first Battle of Flowers takes place
- Jersey staged its first ever Battle of Flowers in 1902, to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria.
- Read more…
