Here are the Arsenal (and occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the complete files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website. An index to the Anniversary files can be found in the left column of this site under “Pages”
The current historical series on this site is Henry Norris at the Arsenal. An index of all our series can be found on the home page.
30 May 1921: The AGM of the Football Association was held in London. During the course of the day it was proposed to explore the possibility of holding the cup final at Wembley.
30 May 1952: Alex Forbes made his 14th and last international appearance. The result was Sweden 3 Scotland 1.
30 May 1960: The Times published a long piece denouncing the inauguration of the Football League Cup which replaced the Southern Floodlit Cup while praising the move towards European competitions. Despite winning the SFC the previous season, Arsenal declined to be part of the League Cup.
30 May 1983: George Wood transferred to Crystal Palace. Having come from Everton he had played 60 games for Arsenal and played 192 for Palace after leaving Highbury.
30 May 1995: Death of Ted Drake – the Arsenal man who in one season scored 42 league goals in 41 games and who once scored seven goals in one league game. In 1954/5 Chelsea won the league with Ted as manager – an amazing achievement considering that in 1951/2 and 1952/3 they had come 18th, thus just missing relegation. They sacked him in the 1961/2 season.
30 May 2000: Lauren Etame Mayer transferred from Mallorca for £7.2m, where he had played 63 league games. He had started his career in Spain, playing for San Fernando, Sevilla, Levante before Mallorca.
30 May 2006: Theo Walcott became youngest England international by appearing in a 3–1 friendly victory over Hungary at Old Trafford aged 17 years and 75 days.
30 May 2013: Arsenal announced a huge clearout of fringe players – 10 in all. Arshavin, Squillaci, plus Denílson, Mannone, Gervinho and Djourou were all allowed to leave. Gervinho was the real tragedy – a brilliant player who was booed by some members of the Arsenal crowd and who had now had enough.
30 May 2014: Arsène Wenger signed a three year contract extension, presumed by many to be his last contract with the club before retirement.
30 May 2015: Arsenal 4 Aston Villa 0, FA Cup Final. Walcott, Sanchez, Mertesacker and Giroud scored as Villa had five players booked to Arsenal’s nil. Arsenal became only the second team in the 20th/21st centuries twice to win the Cup two years running. Arsenal also become the first team in those centuries to score seven in successive cup finals and the most successful FA Cup team of all time with 12 wins. Arsene Wenger became the most successful FA Cup manager of the last 100 years with six wins but within two years would exceed even his own record.
The current series: Covering all aspects of 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, our current series of articles is on Henry Norris at the Arsenal. The articles thus far are here.
“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle. Please see here for more details