Henry’s birthday and some of the weirdest refereeing ever seen

Here are the Anniversaries from 17 August – part of our regular daily look at Arsenal’s history.

Our most recent article on Arsenal’s history is Arsenal’s first ever FA Cup match at Highbury and a challenge for promotion: Jan 1914


 

17 August 1896: Andrew Young born.  He was signed by Knighton in 1921 from Aston Villa.  He played 68 games for the club up to 1926/7.

17 August 1909.  Wilf Copping born.  He became a miner while playing for local teams and tried for a place with Barnsley in 1929, but failed to get in.  He kept on trying and later in the year he signed for Leeds United of the first division.

17 August 1943: Wally Barnes joined Arsenal.  He played in every position during the remaining time before the end of the war and then settled down at left back in the 1948 championship winning team.

17 August 1955: Wally Barnes final appearance on the 12th anniversary of his signing.  He retired in 1956 having played 294 matches and having scored 12 goals.

17 August 1956: John Kosmina born.  He played for Polonia and then West Adelaide, before signing for Arsenal in February 1978.

17 August 1960: First league appearance of Geoff Strong in a 5-0 win over Newcastle.  His impact was instant, playing 19 league games in 1960/1 and scoring 10 goals.

17 August 1966: Colin Addison played his first match.  He had signed for York in 1957, moving to Nottingham Forest in 1961, Arsenal in 1966 for £45,000 but his career was hampered by injury and was sold on in 1967.

17 August 1970: Match 2 from the first Double season.  WHU 0 Arsenal 0 thus making it played 2, drawn 2, showing that one should never draw too many conclusions from the opening games.

17 August 1974: Arsenal beat Leicester 0-1 away in what was the first of no less than seven matches against Leicester in League and FA Cup during the season.

17 August 1977: Thierry Henry born in Essonne, Paris and played for various local sides.  He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed immediately.

17 August 1977: Pat Howard transferred to Birmingham City.  He had made 15 starts and 1 sub appearance for Arsenal during his one year in the club but had slipped down the order after the arrival of Willie Young.

17 August 1990: Steve Gatting’s testimonial match.  Brighton 2 Arsenal 2.  He had played 58 games for Arsenal and by the time he left Brighton had played 316 games for them.

17 August 2009: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas loaned to Blackpool.  He played 11 games for them before moving on to loan spells with Doncaster and Cardiff.

17 August 2012: Thomas Vermaelen promoted to club captain and Mikel Arteta to vice-captaincy.  Arteta took over as captain after Vermaelen’s departure, but both suffered significant injuries following their acceptance of the captaincy.

17 August 2013: Arsenal lost the first match of the season to Villa at home 1-3 amid referee decisions so odd that even the press start mentioning them.  Arsenal won the next five to go top of the league where they remained apart from one week until 8 February.

17 August 2016: Tafari Moore loaneed to Jong FC Utrecht for the season.

And elsewhere on this day

August 17, 1892.  Mae West was born.  What is often forgotten is that she wrote most of her own stage plays and film scripts.

August 17, 1896.  The first pedestrian to be killed by a car is knocked down in Croydon.  the car was travelling at 4mph.


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…

There are details of many other series covered by this site on our home page.

 

 

 

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