Blue Monday Crash 2009 Blue Monday Crash 2009 On Monday, 19 January 2009, a date previously known as Blue Monday, British banking shares collapsed in a rout of selling after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced the biggest corporate losses in British history. The shares fell over 67% in a single day. Shares in all other British banks suffered heavy losses. The next day Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays fell sharply again. RBS and HSBC continued to fall. News reports on RBS indicated a £28 billion loss for 2008, and the UK government pledged to increase its stake in the company to 70% .
Koehler Depressing Carriage Koehler Depressing Carriage The Koehler Depressing Carriage was a novel type of gun carriage invented in 1782 by Lt George Frederick Koehler of the Royal Artillery. It was devised to enable cannons to be fired at a steeply downward-facing angle and was made necessary by the peculiar circumstances that the British Army faced during the Great Siege of Gibraltar between 1779–83. The carriage saw active service during the siege, when it was used to support the British counter-bombardment of Spanish and French artillery batteries during the successful defence of Gibraltar. Its success made Koehler famous and has been commemorated in