History[edit]
1906–1958[edit]
Chart of table positions of Southend in the League.
Southend United F.C. was formed in 1906 and played in the
Southern League until 1920, when they co-founded the Football League's new
Third Division; they finished 17th in their first ever season. In 1921, the Third Division was regionalised with Southend United joining the southern section and here they remained until league re-structure in 1958. Southend came close to promotion twice when they finished 3rd in 1932 and 1950, the club's highest league positions until 1991.
[1]
1958–1981[edit]
Southend United joined the new national
Third Division in 1958, where they remained until 1966 when they suffered their first ever relegation, into the
Fourth Division. The club had to wait six seasons until 1972 to experience the club's first ever promotion as runners-up behind
Grimsby Town. In 1976 Southend suffered relegation again before taking another runners-up spot behind
Watford in 1978. Another relegation in 1980 was directly followed by one of the most successful seasons in the club's history as they won the Fourth Division Championship in 1981, breaking a series of club records in the process.
[1] Despite success on the pitch and low admission prices, the club's gates were low and condemned as "a bad reflection on the town".
[1](p72)
1981–1987[edit]
Many of Southend United's most gifted players were sold due to a financial strain.
[1](p74) In June 1983 Anton Johnson, a local butcher who was also chairman of
Rotherham United,
[1](p74) bought 44.9% of the club from the Rubin brothers. The club was already £250,000 in debt.
[1](p147) By August 1983 Dave Smith had been replaced as manager by
Peter Morris who lasted until February 1984. On his arrival, Morris discovered that he had a squad of only ten players.
[1](p121) Bobby Moore was installed as chief executive with Andrew MacHutcheon as chairman. The club were relegated into the
Fourth Division in 1984 with Bobby Moore as manager. One of the club's darkest hours saw a season
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Firefighters have described "one of the strangest" rescue missions of their careers - helping a rhino at Edinburgh Zoo with a toothache. 
GIANT mutant rats the size of cats have left residents living in fear after invading an entire row of terraced homes.
Associated with the plague and demonised in novels such as George Orwell's 1984, rats don’t have the best of reputations.
More than 3,000 women and 900 men — that’s the number of lovers the main protagonist in Ihara Saikaku’s 1682 novel “Koshoku Ichidai Otoko” (“The Life of an Amorous Man”) tallies up as he reminisces. Saikaku, born in Osaka in 1642, became a renowned poet who wrote about the fluid, open sexuality of Edo Period (1603-1868) pleasure quarters with a startling lack of inhibition: In the 1685 collection of stories “Koshoku Gonin Onna” (“Five Women Who Loved Love”), he explores the love lives of feisty females; in “Koshoku Ichidai Onna” (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”), published in 1686, he includes a brief lesbian scene; and then there is “Nanshoku Okagami” (“The Great Mirror of Male Love”), a 1687 collection that focuses exclusively on love between men.
Leprosy has been found in red squirrels across the British Isles and scientists believe they have been infected with the disfiguring disease for centuries.
