In the First World War, battalions of friends and colleagues from the same towns who had signed up to the army together.
Pals battalions
Fact of the Day
Paris society was rocked by scandal in 1787, when Madame Vigée Le Brun painted herself with a wide smile on her face.
Quote of the Day
"Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
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~ Winston Churchill
On This Day
62 The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum suffered an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of between 5 and 6. It caused severe damage and was probably a precursor to the Vesuvius eruption of 79CE.
1811 The Regency Act was passed, allowing Prince George of Wales to rule instead of his mad father, George III.
1924 The Greenwich Time Signal, more commonly known as the pips which broadcast at one-second intervals, was first broadcast.
1945 Second World War Special Operations Executive agents Lilian Rolfe, Denise Bloch and Violette Szabo were executed at Ravensbrück concentration camp after being repeatedly interrogated and tortured.
1953 Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain, eight years after the end of World War Two.
1971 Apollo 14 landed on the Moon.