The Welshman who founded the Ukranian city of Donetsk.

John Hughes  was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1815, where his father was an engineer at Cyfarthfa ironworks.  John also became an engineer, working in Ebbw Vale and Newport, where he  patented inventions in armaments and armour plating.

Hughes later moved to London, where he became a director of the Millwall Engineering and Shipbuilding Company who specialised in iron cladding the wooden warships of British Admiralty.

When the company  received an order from Russia in 1870 to plate a naval fortress  at Kronstadt on the Baltic Sea, Hughes went out with eight shiploads of equipment and specialist ironworkers and miners, mostly from south Wales, to build a rail producing factory and metallurgical plant.

The settlement which grew in the shadow of Hughes' was named after him and hence, the town of Hughesovka (now called Donetsk) was born.  The town grew rapidly and Hughes provided schools, a hospital, tea rooms, bath houses, a fire brigade and an Anglican church dedicated to St David and St George. 

Hughes died on 17th June 1889 and the company was taken over by his four sons.  They rapidly expanded the works, especially with the need for artillery shells  at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.  However, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 led to the departure of almost all the company's foreign employees, but the works prospered under Communist rule.

House of the Long Shadows  was released on 17th June 1983 

Set in a remote Manor House in the heart of Wales, the film is of historical importance in  that it is the only co-starring effort of the four masters of terror: Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and John Carradine.  This is also the last film in which Cushing and Lee appeared together.  An American writer goes to a remote Welsh manor on a $20,000 bet: can he write a classic novel like "Wuthering Heights" in twenty-four hours, however,he discovers some rather odd inhabitants on his arrival. 

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This was the day in 1282 that the Battle of Llandeilo Fawr took place.  In 1282 Edward I, was attempting to subdue Wales by surrounding the armies of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in Gwynedd.  His plan was to invade Wales on three fronts.  In south Wales, Edward ordered Gilbert de Clare to hold that area and to prevent Welsh forces travelling to reinforce Llywelyn in the north. De Clare’s army of 1,600 infantry and 100 cavalry had just taken Carreg Cennen Castle and were returning with the spoils when they were ambushed by the Welsh at Llandeilo Fawr destroying most of the English army.  The Welsh victory stalled Edward’s plans and de Clare was replaced by William de Valence 1st Earl of Pembroke.

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Born this day 1773 in London

William Madocks , the Georgian entrepreneur who built the Cob across the Glaslyn Estuary and who was also instrumental in creating the communities of Porthmadog and Tremadog

Madocks's connection with Wales had begun when his father had inherited property at Llangwyfan and Wrexham and he would have spent time there in his childhood, he later became an MP in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire, but when he inherited his fathers lands, his interest turned to Wales and especially improving its road and communication links.  To this effect, he proposed an embankment (later known as the Cob) across the Glaslyn estuary, which would connect Mid-Wales and the Llyn Peninsula.  Its contruction was long and difficult and had put Madocks into considerable debt, but it was completed in 1811 and Maddocks organised  a four-day feast and eisteddfod in celebration.

The diversion of the river caused a natural harbour and a new port  at Ynys y Tywyn (renamed Port Madoc) capable of handling ocean going sailing ships became established as the demand worldwide for Welsh slate began to grow from the nearby Blaenau Ffestiniog's slate quarries,  Maddock died in France on 17 September 1826, whilst on a family holiday and this coincided with the start of the decine in the use of Porthmadoc, because of the development of Aberystwyth and its better rail links and then when World War One broke out in 1914, the lucrative German slate market totally disappeared. 

Born this day 1983 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland  (she and her mother moved to Hayscastle nr Fishguard when she was four and she now considers herself Welsh and is a fluent Welsh speaker) 

Connie Fisher, winner of the 2006 BBC talent contest,  How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? subsequently playing the part of Maria von Trap in The Sound of Music in London's West End and has gone on to star in many varied singing roles, even though she suffers from "congenital fusion anomalies" which resulted in her having to undergo an operation on her vocal cords. .  She has also been in a recurring role as Amanda in the TV drama series Casualty and starred in her first TV drama. Caught In A Trap.   In August 2009, she was made a member of the Gorsedd at the National Eisteddfod in Bala.

A research study  by Peter Donnelly, professor of statistical science at Oxford University and published on 17th June 2012, concluded that the Welsh are among the "most genetically distinct" inhabitants of Britain.

500,000 points in the DNA of, 2,000 rural dwelling people who had all four grandparents born in the same area were tested, with the results showing that the Welsh carry more DNA  dating back to the tribes that colonised Britain after the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago, than most other parts of Britain.  However, the most genetically distinctive were the people of the Orkneys, whose genes show them to be of mainly Scandinavian origin.

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Born on this day 1886 in Staylittle, near Llanidloes

Sir David Brunt - regarded as the "Father of Meteorology".

During military service in the First World War, Brunt first got involved in the practicalities of weather forecasting,  following concerns about the irresponsible use of poison gas as no one at the time knew how winds would disperse it.

After the war, he joined the Met Office at a time when the use of aircraft was rapidly increasing and the need for detailed weather forecasting was paramount.  Brunt was a brilliant mathematician and excelled at the collection and analysis of the highly complicated and vast amount of data regarding the temperature, pressure and wind strength of atmosphere. He served as President of the  Royal Meteorological Society  from 1942 to 1944

When nearing the end of his career, Brunt tried to link weather conditions and human health and concluded that the ideal climate for healthy humans is in New Zealand.