This is our daily review of Arsenal anniversaries taken from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.
Our headline is taken from 24 October 2004
Below are the Anniversaries from October 24.
24 October 1883: George Allison born in County Durham. Bernard Joy said “he lacked the professional’s deep knowledge of the game”. But he still managed to win the FA Cup and the League twice and from 1910 onwards had a continuous and deep engagement with the club.
24 October 1896: Arsenal beat Gainsborough Town 6-1 away (Boyd 2, Brock 2, Haywood, Russell). It was the biggest away win thus far for the club, and the biggest in the 19th century.
24 October 1936: The East Stand, Highbury opened for game against Grimsby. It cost £130,000. With the West Stand opened three years earlier, Chapman and Norris’ vision for the stadium neared completion.
24 October 1949: Len Wills signed as a professional. Arsenal was his one and only club as a professional.
24 October 1956: Tom Whittaker died while manager of Arsenal. In nine seasons as manager he won the league twice and the FA Cup once taking over from George Allison, and winning the league in his very first season.
24 October 1970: Coventry 1 Arsenal 3. League match 14 of the first Double season. Kennedy Radford and Graham scored and it gave Kennedy nine goals in the last seven games.
24 October 1974: Terry Mancini bought from QPR. It was a surprise transfer, with Arsenal reportedly offering far more than it would have taken to prize Mancini out of west London
24 October 1997: Glen Helder transferred to NEC Breda after 39 league games for Arsenal. However he didn’t settle at any of his seven subsequent clubs, never managing more than ten games for any of them.
24 October 2004. The 49 match run ended. After years of silence Wenger finally spoke out and accused ref Riley of bias in this match. He was fined £15k, but the silence could never be restored. Someone hit Man U’s Ferguson with a pizza
24 October 2006: Armand Traore made his first appearance as a substitute for Adebayor. Arsenal beat WBA 0-2 away in the League Cup. Aliadière scored both goals as Arsenal started the journey to the final.
Yesterday’s anniversaries:
Arsenal’s assistant coach says Wenger has humiliated him.
Elsewhere on this day:
In 1937 New Zealand aviator Jean Batten broke the record flying from Australia to England in just five days 18 hours and 18 minutes. These days the time is a lot less but when flying with Emirates Airlines it still feels much the same as it did in 1937.
The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
Arsenal in April and May 1917. Norris goes missing, Arsenal continue winning.
Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
The current series from the Arsenal History Series being developed on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal, covering all aspects off the life and work of the man who rescued Arsenal from extinction, secured the club’s future by moving it to Highbury, and then brought in Herbert Chapman as manager.
The previously untold tale of how it was that Norris came to choose Highbury as the suitable location for Arsenal’s new ground.
The series is being worked on daily, and the articles thus far are here.
Among the many other series we have run are…
- Arsenal in the 30s
- Arsenal players in the 30s
- Arsenal in the summer
- The First League Season, including a review of each player who played in that season
- Arsenal day by day – over 5000 anniversaries of the club
- Arsenal in the 70s
