LONDON FOG: After reading Thursday’s column on the London Smog, Ray Saunders of Bradford called with his own story about the fog in London.
“After the 1952 smog attacks in London, the City of London banned coal burning in fire places in the city limits.
“This eventually eliminated smog, but they will always have fog.
“In the early ’60s, we lived in Twickenham, a suburb of London, and in the spring of 1963, we had dinner with friends from Houston at the Dorchester Hotel, across the street from Hyde Park near downtown London.
“After dinner, we started home, and after about a half a block we had to stop because of a very dense fog. You could not see anything out the window. All traffic was stopped.
“We sat for about 45 minutes, and the fog lifted to the point we could continue safely.”
HISTORY: Dec. 8 has been a busy day in history.
According to the Associated Press, on Dec. 8:
• in 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• in 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.
• in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction for the South.
• in 1962, typographers went on a 114-day strike against four New York City newspapers.
• in 1980, rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparent deranged fan.
