Postman's Park is a 0.67-acre (2,700 m2) park in the City of London, adjacent to the site of the former head office of the General Post Office and a short distance north of St Paul's Cathedral. Opened in 1880 on the site of the former churchyard and burial ground of St Botolph's Aldersgate church, it expanded over the next 20 years to incorporate some adjacent burial grounds and nearby land previously occupied by housing. A shortage of space for burials in London meant that corpses were often laid above existing graves and covered over with soil instead of being buried, and thus Postman's Park, as an interment site for over 800 years, is significantly elevated above the streets which surround it. Since 1900 it has been the location of the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, a monument erected by George Frederic Watts to ordinary people who died saving the lives of others, and who might otherwise have been forgotten. In 1972, key elements of the park, including the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, were grade II listed to preserve their character. Following the 2004 film Closer, Postman's Park experienced a resurgence of interest, as key scenes were filmed in the park. (Full article...)
1865 – Off the coast of Crescent City, California, US, the steamship Brother Jonathan(pictured), carrying a large shipment of gold coins that would not be retrieved until 1996, struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225 people.
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