The Anniversaries …
Below are the Arsenal (and for historical context, occasionally one or two non-Arsenal) anniversaries for today taken from the files of over 6000 Arsenal anniversaries which appear on the Arsenal History Society website. You will also find links to the month by month listing of anniversaries in the right hand column of this page.
Our headline comes from 1911, 1905, 1991, and 1995
The series “Henry Norris at the Arsenal” is now complete.
The index to all the articles can be found at Henry Norris at the Arsenal. We are now preparing a more concise edition for publication as a book.
The Anniversaries for Today
16 December 1893: In its first year in the FA Cup, Woolwich Arsenal won through to the first round proper beating 2nd Scots Guards.
16 December 1905: William Garbutt (the man who created Italian football) joined Arsenal from Reading. He was part of the Arsenal side that reached two FA Cup semi-finals in successive seasons; but was then displaced by Jackie Mordue and played in the reserves before moving to Blackburn at the end of the 1907/08 season.
16 December 1906: George Stead who wrote as Redshirt in the Woolwich Gazette died aged 49. He served in the Royal Horse Artillery and was a shareholder in the club, and was said to be very active in meetings.
16 December 1911: Arsenal played Middlesbrough with Dick Roose in goal, and 11,000 turned up – far more than would have been expected. He had been brought in by Norris to bring in the crowds, and it certainly worked. Arsenal won 2-1
16 December 1914: There was a German naval raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, a raid that claimed extra significance as it saw the death of the first Kitchener “your country needs you” volunteer, Theo Jones.
16 December 1921: Parliament ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty thus formally ending the conflict in Ireland.
16 December 1922: With just three of the original XI from the first day of the season playing, bottom of the league Arsenal got a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield – and indeed Arsenal could have won the match but for having a goal disallowed for the whole ball not crossing the line. Rutherford got the goal that was allowed. Arsenal moved up to 20th out of 22.
16 December 1911: First game for Leigh Roose. He joined from Aston Villa in what was to be his final season in football and in many ways his transfer was as much a publicity stunt as anything else, as he was just about the most famous footballer in the country at the time – an absolute showman whom the crowds would turn out to see.
16 December 1963: Mel Charles scored in the first of three consecutive wins including in the middle of the three a welcome 2-1 home win over Tottenham in front of a pre-Christmas crowd of 63,400.
16 December 1970: Charlie George played his first game for the first team since an injury on the opening day of the league campaign. This match was against Beveren in the Fairs Cup 3rd round.
16 December 1983 Terry Neill was dismissed. He was the 15th most successful manager at the club with a win percentage at under 45%. He did however lead the side to one FA Cup triumph: against Man U.
16 December 1983: Don Howe became manager, having previously been reserve team coach for Bertie Mee and first team coach in 1968. See also here
16 December 1988: Sydney Cartright died. He signed for Arsenal on 24 April 1933 and his final game was on 15 April 1939, a 2-1 home win over Manchester United. The article highlighted here has several interesting additions from members of his family for which we are very grateful.
16 December 1991: Micky Thomas, the man who scored the winning goal to beat Liverpool 0-2 and thus win the league for Arsenal was transferred to Liverpool. Thomas played 206 games, and scored 30. But it is said that he and George Graham had a row in 1991 and so he was sold to that team from up north. Souness paid £1.5m for an icon.
16 December 1995: Arsenal drew with Chelsea during disastrous 15 match run which gained just four wins. Dixon scored what was only Arsenal’s second goal in four consecutive games.
