In November 1942, the education ministers of the allied governments then exiled in London attended a meeting at the invitation of the President of the Board of Education of England…

In the late eighteenth-century, Napoleon Bonaparte charged a survey team with the task of discovering the remnants of an ancient waterway that once joined the Mediterranean Sea and the Red…

The most famous footballer of all time was born Edison Arantes do Nascimento in the city of Três Corações in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. In spite of his…

On 20th November 1970, “The Godfather of Soul”, James Brown, went into the King Records studio in Cincinnati, Ohio to record a session with his band, the James Brown Orchestra.…

The 21st November 1846 issue of Edward Lloyd’s ‘penny dreadful’ The People’s Periodical and Family Library contained the first part serialised story entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance. The…

The early life of the pirate known as Blackbeard remains something of a mystery, as does his real name. Edward Teach (or Thatch, or possibly Drummond) probably grew up in…

In December 1962, a Canadian-born science fiction fan called Sydney Newman took over as Head of Drama at BBC Television. The following March, he was given the task of filling…

In January 1866, at a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone proposed the creation of a new organisation with the goal of…

In May 1938, Congressmen Martin Dies and Samuel Dickstein created the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate Communist and Nazi activities in the United States. The committee was…

On the night of 26th November 1703, the gale force winds that had swept over Britain for a week reached a climax. Winds travelling at an estimated 120 mph blew…

Richard Strauss was born in June 1864 in Munich, where his father, Franz, was the principal horn player at the Court Opera. Richard received a musical education from his father…

The late-nineteenth century saw the emergence of an Arab patriotism that opposed Ottoman rule. The British exploited this opposition during the First World War by sending Captain T. E. Lawrence…

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, then part of the Electorate of Cologne, in December 1770. He came from a musical family: his grandfather was musical director at the…

The issue of the sporting journal Bell’s Weeklypublished on 8th December 1870 included the following challenge issued by the captains of five Scottish rugby clubs: “with a view of really…

On 28th March 1910, Henri Fabre made the first successful flight in a seaplane at Martigues, near Marseilles. Fabre took four years to design and build the Fabre Hydravion, nicknamed…

In 1884, the French structural engineer and architect, Gustave Eiffel, started to draw up plans for a 300-metre tall iron tower. He submitted his design as an entrance arch to…

On 2nd April 1792, the U.S. Congress passed An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States, more commonly known as The Coinage Act. This legislation…