Friday, 30 November 2018

Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister

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George Hamilton-Gordon, the 4 th Earl of Aberdeen and Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855, was born in 1784.  He was a member of the C...
Thursday, 29 November 2018

Catherine of Braganza, Queen Consort of England

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Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) may have had a privileged life surrounded by luxury, but she must also be counted as one of the more unf...
Saturday, 24 November 2018

Robert William Thomson: inventor of the pneumatic tyre

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If asked to state who invented the pneumatic vehicle tyre, most people would answer that the honour belongs to the Scottish veterinary...
Sunday, 28 October 2018

George Washington and the cherry tree

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When George Washington was six years old he was given a hatchet, which he used to inflict serious damage on his father’s young cherry ...
Thursday, 25 October 2018

What really happened to Grigori Rasputin?

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History is full of stories that “everybody knows” but which later turn out not to be true after all. One of these concerns the assassi...
Monday, 22 October 2018

The murder of Prince Arthur by King John

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King John of England (reigned 1199 to 1216) is widely regarded as one of the country’s “bad kings”. This was largely due to his tyrann...
Thursday, 4 October 2018

The death of Olympe de Gouges

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Olympe de Gouges lost her head to the guillotine on 3 rd November 1793. Her mistake had been to question whether the French Revolutio...