Owain Glyndwr Day.

September 16th is the anniversary of the proclamation in 1400, of Owain Glyndwr as Prince of Wales and is now celebrated annually as Owain Glyndwr Day.

The revolt of Owain Glyndŵr began with dispute during 1399 and 1400, over a piece of land that Glyndwr claimed had been stolen by his neighbour, the Marcher Lord, Sir Reginald de Grey.  When Glyndwr received no justice from King Henry IV and his repeated appeals were ignored, he felt that he was left with no option other than to rebel against the unjust and oppressive rule of the English.

Word of Glyndwr's stance struck a chord with other disaffected Welsh people and he became the symbolic leader of the resistance movement against the crown and the arrogant Marcher Lords.  Glyndŵr raised his banner on the outskirts of Ruthin on 16th September 1400 and was proclaimed by his followers as Prince of Wales.

The men of Wales flocked in droves to Owain's banner as word of the revolt spread like wildfire throughout the country and many exiled Welsh people returned to join what had become a widespread national uprising.  The first attack in 1400, was on Ruthin, followed by those on Rhuddlan, Flint, Holt, Oswestry and Welshpool.  Glyndŵr held a Parliament at Machynlleth in 1404 and in 1406, wrote to King Charles VI of France, asking for his support in achieving Welsh independence, explaining his vision for establishing two Welsh universities and an independent Welsh Church.

However in 1409, Glyndwr had become besieged at Harlech Castle and this in effect was the end of the rebellion.  He did make his escape and remained unbetrayed and uncaptured until his supposed death in 1416.

Born on this day 1958 in Llandudno

Neville Southall   – former Wales soccer international goalkeeper and winner of the FWA Footballer of the Year award in 1985.

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Millicent Lilian "Peg" Entwistle  was the Port Talbot-born stage and screen actress, who on 16th September 1932, gained notoriety by jumping to her death from the "H" of the Hollywoodland sign at age 24.

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On this day in 1918, the steamship Serula was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire with the loss of 17 lives.  

U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, meaning undersea boat.  At the start of World War I, Germany had twenty-nine U-boats, but by its end, this had increased to 360.  They were most effectively used in an economic warfare role, with their primary targets being the merchant ships bringing supplies into Britain and to counteract their effectiveness, Britain  introduced escorted convoys.

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The Llandudno Pier Pavilion opened on 16th September 1886. 

The 2,000-seat theatre quickly became successful, with hundreds of top acts, such as George Formby, Petula Clark, Arthur Askey, the Beverley Sisters and Cliff Richard, appearing there over the years. 

The theatre also hosted political conferences, which were attended by such political heavyweights as Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Oswald Mosley, Winston Churchill and Edward Heath. 

The basement of the Pier Pavilion housed what was then the largest indoor swimming pool in Britain, but it did not prove successful, as there were problems with the water quality.

The theatre closed in 1984 and was destroyed by fire in 1994.

The Vancouver Island Coal Strike began on 16th Sept 1912.

Many Welsh immigrant miners joined other miners at the Canadian Collieries, Dunsmuir Mines in Vancouver in declaring an unofficial holiday in protest to the sacking of Oscar Mottishaw, for reporting the presence of explosive gas in the mine. 

The mine owners proceeded to lock them out and hire in strikebreakers. They then evicted the striking miners from their company houses, which forced them and their families to live in tents over winter, on what became known as "Striker's Beach" the beach

 As a gesture of compassion, the provincial government sent supplies navy beans, to keep them alive, which later became known as "Big Strike Beans"