First World War

Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots…

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Fact of the Day

King John used the fat from 40 pigs to blow up the southern wall of Rochester Castle during a siege in 1215

Quote of the Day

"I have offended God and mankind in not having laboured at my art as I ought to have done "

~ Leonardo da Vinci, speaking during his final illness to Francis I

On This Day

1579 Thomas Gresham, merchant, financier, and founder of the Royal Exchange, died suddenly, apparently of apoplexy. He bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company to set up a college to provide free lectures to the public; Gresham College thus became London's first institution of higher education.

1916 The hospital ship Britannic, sister-ship of Titanic, hit a mine and sank, killing 30.

1918 Ten days after the Armistice, the German navy surrendered to the British in the Firth of Forth.

1920 The assassinations of British intelligence officers ordered by Michael Collins in the Irish War of Independence led to thirty-one dead (from both sides) in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.

1974 21 people were killed and 182 injured when bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs. The IRA was probably responsible, but the real culprits have never been found. The Birmingham Six, originally convicted of the bombings, were released because of dodgy police practices.

1981 The proceedings of the House of Commons were televised live for the first time.