The "Riot Act" was read at Mochdre in the Vale of Clwyd on 28th June 1887, during the "Tithe War". 

Tithe payments entitled the Church to a tenth of people's annual income and was usually paid in the form of produce, such as crops, wool and milk.  Then in 1836, the  payment became required in cash with Tithe Maps being drawn up of the Welsh landscape to show how much landowners should pay.  These measures caused much contention, as most farmers at the time were Nonconformists and also contributed to the upkeep of their own churches. Being required to contribute to Anglican Churches as well, provoked bitterness and anger.

These tensions were further aggravated by the agricultural depression which began in the 1870's and resulted in many people refusing to pay the tithe.  The authorities responded in the 1880's by enforcing the sale of land and property to collect the money and this led to confrontations between the farmers and the authorities, particularly in Denbighshire, where, the Welsh National Land League was established, based on the model of the Irish Land League.  Also in Denbighshire, Thomas Gee, the owner of the Welsh-language newspaper ‘Baner ac Amserau Cymru’  very active in the anti-Tithe campaign. 

There were violent protests in Llangwm, Llanefydd and Mochdred, where 84 people were injured including 35 police officers and the following year troops were deployed to maintain order.  However the ‘Tithe War’ only came to an end, when in 1891 the Tithe Bill was introduced that made the responsibility for paying the tithe, that of the landlord and not the tenant. 

The Treaty of Versailles and its Welsh connections

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty at the end of World War I, which was signed on 28 June 1919. The final conditions were determined by the leaders of the "Big Three" nations: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and American President Woodrow Wilson and included

-  A League of Nations was to be created to prevent further world conflict.

-  Germany had to accept the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage during the war -  the War Guilt clause.

-  Germany had to pay reparations to the value of 132 billion Marks ( UK £284 billion in 2013). 

-  German armed forces were reduced to 100,000 troops, with no tanks.  Its navy was to have six battleships and no submarines -  Germany was banned from having an Air Force  -  All German and Turkish Colonies were taken away and put under Allied control.

-  Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Czechoslovakia all became independent countries

-  Austria-Hungary was split up and Yugoslavia was created. 

Welsh connections;

*  Lloyd George

*  The reparations imposed on Germany by the treaty, in which they were able to pay some of their debts in coal production, were to have  a dramatic impact on the  South Wales coalfield. In 1913, 57 million tons of coal were being produced in South Wales and 250, 000 men were employed.  However when many foreign markets were lost to German mines and the effects of the post-war depression came into to play, coal production in South Wales fell from being a third of world output in 1916, to just 3% in 1929. 

*  Leader of the Australian delegation, Prime Minister Billy Hughes ( a Welsh speaker from Holyhead)  and Lloyd George were known, when agitated, to argue in Welsh.

On 28th June 1960, at approximately 10.45, an explosion took place in the West District of the Old Coal Seam at Six Bells Colliery at Aberbeeg, near Abertillery, which killed 45 men and boys.   A public enquiry into the disaster concluded that the probable cause of the explosion was firedamp ignited by a spark from a stone falling onto a steel girder.

On the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2010, a 20m high steel sculpture of a miner, named "Guardian of the Valleys"  was unveiled in tribute those who lost their lives.

asedqwed

A Welsh-born Osprey, leg ringed and named "Black 80" on the 28th June 2006, was to become the first Welsh-born osprey known to have returned to Britain to breed.   During the middle ages, ospreys would have been widespread throughout Wales and the rest of the U.K.  Due to a heavy reliance on fish in the human diet, most big houses and monastic sites would have had a fishpond.  These, in turn, would have attracted birds of prey such as the osprey, who were themselves hunted and killed.  This led to decreasing numbers, which combined with the activities of  egg collectors, and trophy hunters, resulted in the osprey becoming totally extinct by 1916.

*  The Mabinogion tells the tale of “The Eagle of Gwernabwy”, described as being “the one who has wandered most”, attempting to catch a salmon from Llyn (lake) Lliw, so large that it is almost drowned. This eagle is likely to be an osprey. 

*  The Coat of Arms of the city of Swansea, granted in 1316, features an osprey suggesting that they once bred in the area.

*  A Flemish engineer working on drainage systems in the Dyfi estuary in 1604 mentioned several “fishey hawkes” breeding close together along the River Dyfi. This is almost certainly a reference to ospreys and the earliest date that can be given to them breeding in Wales, 

Ospreys had been reported as migrating over Wales for many years. Llandudno in 1828 and Caernarfon in  1937, but it wasn't until  May 2004, that a pair of ospreys were found nesting near Croesor in the Glaslyn Valley, becoming the first to be officially recorded as breeding in Wales.  On 26th May 2008 Black 80 a male from the 2006 Glaslyn nest became the first Welsh-born osprey known to have returned to Britain to breed.