The Moscow Fire
It was started on 14th September 1812, curiously the Fire of Moscow started just before Napoleon’s troops reached the city. The 1812 Fire of Moscow broke out on 14 September 1812, when Russian troops and most of the remaining residents had abandoned the city of Moscow just ahead of the French Emperor Napoleon’s troops entering […]
The Great Seal of Office
The “Great Seal” signifies that a document carries the force of the will of the Monarch. Interestingly, on December 11th 1688, while attempting to flee to France, James II threw his Great Seal into the River Thames, hoping that the machinery of government would stop. It didn’t. His successors, William III and Mary II just […]
What was the worst storm in Britain?
When asked this question most people say that the storm in 1953 was the worst peacetime weather disaster. It was one that claimed 307 lives in England and devastated parts of East Anglia.. However, the 1703 storm, caused by an extratropical cyclone that spread across the country and wiped out 1/3rd of our Navy! The […]
The Gunpowder Plot – a fool proof plan that wasn’t!
Let’s make history fun, this was a plan that the conspirators, pictured above, thought was fool proof, unfortunately it wasn’t! The Church of Egland had been formed 80 years before, but the conspirators were not happy, they wanted to bring the Catholic religion back to England, and it was obvious to them that James 1, […]
The Afterlife and the process of Mummification
Do you find this weird? The Ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, and their belief was that parts of them went to the Afterlife, in fact those parts that went into the Afterlife were: The Ka, Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul, which could bring the corpse back to life. The Ba, the spirit, […]
Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun’s tomb
On November 4th 1922 Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun. He had been employed by Lord Carnarvon since 1907 looking after the excavations of the tombs in Deir el-Bahri, near Thebes. Then in 1914, Lord Carnarvon received the concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings, and again he asked Howard Carter […]
The canal of the Pharaohs
The Suez Canal blocked, what can they do? The Suez Canal became famous recently when the container ship Evergreen got stuck in the canal. The Suez Canal is today’s major route for goods coming from the Far East to Europe. When it got blocked, the world panicked. Today’s canal, which took ten years to build, […]
Did Christopher Columbus discover America?
October 16th 1492 Christopher Columbus’ fleet anchored at “Fernandina” He thought he had reached America! No, he hadn’t he had reached Long Island in the Bahamas. However, he goes down in history as having found America, which of course he didn’t, well not this time. He crossed the Atlantic another three times starting the Spanish […]
A novel way to invent
Elias Howe Jr This is one of those amazing stories, so amazing you have to hear it On September 10th 1846 Elias Howe Jr was granted a patent for the sewing machine. However, I am fascinated by the story as he told everyone how he came up with the invention. He claimed it came to […]
Nellie Bly – Went round the world in 72 days
Well, on November 14th 1889 Nellie Bly left New York in the steamer Augusta Victoria as she thought she could, and she did, returning to New York 72 days later. Nellie Bly was a New York World journalist. She was fascinated by the book Around the World in Eighty Days in which Phileas Fogg fictionally […]