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

Cecil Rhodes was so rich he bought a mountain for his garden.

Quote of the Day

"Water knee deep and up to the waist in places. Rumours of being relieved by the Grand Fleet. "

~ British First World War soldier writing about the trenches in his diary

On This Day

1846 Scottish surgeon Robert Liston was the first European to use anaesthesia during an amputation. He could amputate a leg in two and a half minutes.

1898 Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1937 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', the world's first full-length animated film, premiered in the USA

1946 A tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake killed at least 1,362 and left thousands homeless in Japan.

1967 Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died in Cape Town, South Africa, 18 days after his operation.

1988 Pan Am Flight 103 exploded as it was flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed