Arsenal History Society: The Woolwich Walk and visiting Arsenal’s first ground
Day by Day the stories – a key moment in Arsenal and footballing history for each day of the year
Day by Day the videos– An Arsenal video for (almost) every day of the year in order.
Arsenal History Society: The Woolwich Walk and visiting Arsenal’s first ground
And now on with the Arsenal anniversaries of today… (and as ever one or two others). The answer to our headline question comes on this day in 1996
12 August 1917: Frank Boulton born. He started out with Bristol City, before moving on to Bath City, from where he was transferred to Arsenal for £700 in October 1936. He then played in the 1937/8 title winning team
12 August 1933: Winston Churchill made his first speech warning of the dangers of German rearmament.
12 August 1949: In a fitting benefit match for Dennis Compton Arsenal played Middlesex county cricket club… at cricket… at Highbury. Exactly as his brother did in 1955.
12 August 1977: First appearance of Pat Jennings in a friendly v Luton. Reportedly he played for the under 18 team of Shamrock Rovers while aged 11, and then moved across to Gaelic football returning to Association Football with Newry Town before moving to Watford in the third division in 1963. And then Tottenham.
12 August 1978: In the final pre-season friendly Arsenal played a 1-1 home draw with Crystal Palace, Stapleton scoring.
12 August 1984: Armenia Bielefeld (West Germany) 0 Arsenal 1 (Anderson). The third of five pre-season games.
12 August 1989: Arsenal lost 1-0 to Liverpool in the Charity shield. Arsenal had won the league in the last couple of minutes of the season, but Liverpool got a tiny amount of revenge.
12 August 1994: Goalkeeper Alan Miller transferred to Middlesbrough for £500,000. He played just nine games for Arsenal and had three separate loan spells before going on to play 57 times for Middlesbrough.
12 August 1996: After four consecutive pre-season defeats against Birmingham, Celtic, Rangers and Fiorentina, Bruce Rioch was sacked as Arsenal manager. The only victory came in the opening game against St Albans City on 19 July – 6-0.
12 August 1996: Stewart Houston took over the management of Arsenal and immediately oversaw a 1-3 away defeat in a pre-season friendly against Northampton. He later left to be manager of QPR with Rioch as his assistant.
12 August 2002: Anyone who ever argued with the notion that the FA was made up of control freaks had their defence of the Association blown away as they demanded to see advance copies of Roy Keene’s autobiography on this day. They subsequently gave Keene a five match ban – probably the first player ban for writing – although Henry Norris had been threatened with a life ban over a match report he wrote suggesting a game had been fixed.
12 August 2004: Francis Jeffers transferred from Arsenal to Charlton after a period on loan to Everton. He had 11 clubs in all, retiring in 2014 before moving into coaching with Everton.
12 August 2007: Arsenal continued their unbeaten run from the end of the previous season by beating Fulham 2-1 in the opening day’s game; Van Persie and Hleb scoring. Arsenal played 19 more games before facing defeat – in the Champions League.
12 August 2012: Arsenal beat Koln 4-0 in the final pre-season friendly having lost to Man C and drawn with Kitchee with the match in Nigeria being cancelled.
12 August 2015: Following goalkeeper Josh Vickers’ release on 10 June 2015, he signed for Swansea City.
12 August 2018: Unai Emery’s first league game as Arsenal manager – against the reigning champions Manchester City. Arsenal lost 2-0.
12 August 2022: Academy player Brooke Norton-Cuffy was awarded a professional contract with Arsenal.
The Statues: Arsenal History Society and the Arsenal statues
Henry Norris at the Arsenal: There is a full index to the series here.
Arsenal in the 1930s: The most comprehensive series on the decade ever
Arsenal in the 1970s: Every match and every intrigue reviewed in detail.
