November 20 - This day in history

Now if we could only get people to obey traffic lights. I've been hit by someone running a red light, and hit SIX times while stopped at a red traffic light (some people apparently not only don't see the red traffic light, they don't notice the cars stopped at the light either!). One of those times at a red light, a truck actually backed up into me! Sometimes I think I have targets painted on all sides of my car.

"On 9 December 1868, the first, non-electric, gas-lit traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London to control the traffic in Bridge Street, Great George Street and Parliament Street. They were promoted by the railway engineer J. P. Knight and constructed by the railway signal engineers of Saxby & Farmer. The design combined three semaphore arms with red and green gas lamps for night-time use, on a pillar, operated by a police constable. The gas lantern was manually turned by a traffic police officer, with a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced traffic.

"Although it was said to be successful at controlling traffic, its operational life was brief. It exploded on 2 January 1869, as a result of a leak in one of the gas lines underneath the sidewalk, injuring or killing the policeman who was operating it. With doubts about its safety, the concept was abandoned until electric signals became available."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light#History

As W S Gilbert wrote in a famous G&S song, "a policeman's lot is not a happy one."

This Day in World History
Nov 20, 1947: Princess Elizabeth marries Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Canada, Scott Nr 315 (1947)