
It’s February 12, 1964, and nobody in New York City cares a farthing that it’s Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The Beatles have just arrived in NYC, and frenzied Beatlemaniacs across the street from New York’s Plaza Hotel are losing. Their. Minds.
A policeman in Cardiff, capital of Wales, leads children across the street in the 1930s. By 1934, road deaths exceeded 7000 per year, so the transport minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, introduced the striped pole topped with an orange globe.
I can’t say as I’ve ever heard of or seen a Belisha beacon (aka a pelican beacon), which began marking pedestrian crossings of roads, later painted in black and white stripes, and known as zebra crossings. Yes, like the one on Abbey Road!