Commodore Perry & the ‘Unequal Treaties’
The Commodore meets the Shogunate / mickmc.tripod.com Matthew Galbraith Perry was born into the American ruling class in 1794. He entered the Navy in his teens and was soon a naval officer. It [...]
How did the Tudors do it?
Imaginative re-construction of the marriage of Catherine and Own Tudor / womenshistory.about.com The ‘gentry’ in English history were and are middle to upper class folk, untitled except for the odd baronet or hastily-dubbed [...]
Don’t forget to read books!
Don't neglect your reading! Expert or inexpert, millions of people read blogsites, blogspots, online books, political pamphlets etc. The offer is endless using the Internet. But one should NOT forget the good old book . [...]
Plagues, Epidemics & Pandemics
Asian ‘flu patients / healthline.com In the book of Isaiah you will find records of outbreaks of pestilence, when God is supposed to have punished the Chosen People for offences against Him. He [...]
Correct behaviour of gentlemen
/ illustration by 10best.com 'Tea at the Ritz' Four Europeans of different nationality sat down at a tea table with the great lady who was their host. As they sipped the Lapsang or [...]
The revolutionary plot of M. Babeuf
Gracchus Babeuf was one of the first communists in history, not counting almost mythical characters such as such as Spartacus. He was born the son of a poor office clerk about twenty years before the [...]
England versus New Zealand (1842)
The Haka Dance in 2011 / newzealand.com At all international rugger matches played by the ‘All-Blacks’ (New Zealand) against an arguably apprehensive adversary, the fifteen big men perform a war dance especially designed [...]
‘The Stab in the Back’ – Myth or Reality
/ snipview.com After the Normandy Invasion of 1944, the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, and during the last few months of the Third Reich, with Russian and Allied armies closing on Berlin, Hitler [...]
20th century Chinese warlords
/ history.cultural-china.com These provincial military self-appointed rulers were one of the collateral results of the Taipan Revolt (q.v.). Their power base was a private army, which each lord raised and maintained. Government of [...]
The Taiping Revolt
/ mason.gmu.edu This uprising, which started in 1850 and ended fourteen years later, was the greatest peasant rebellion in China in the 19th century. The 18th had seen a rise in China’s population [...]
The 12 basic verb English tenses (with examples)
Present: I work = I work hard all day Past: I worked = I worked hard all last year. Future: I will work = I will work hard after I have finished my exams. Present [...]
1811: W.M. Thackeray is born
/ sk.wikipedia.org One year before the birth of Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta. It was 1811, and William was the son of a prosperous official on the Board of [...]
1572: Ben Jonson is born
/ etc.usf.edu Jonson was born, a Londoner, a month after his father died, and nine years after the birth of Shakespeare. His mother re-married, to a bricklayer, for whom Ben became an apprentice [...]
1564: Shakespeare and Marlowe are born
Rupèrt Everett as Kit Marlowe in the film ‘Shakespeare in Love’ / moviestarspicture.com If Christopher Marlowe had not been killed in a tavern brawl at the age of twenty-nine, he might have equalled [...]
Revolutionary Lajos Kossuth
/ britannica.com One of the great Hungarian heroes, about whom much fact and fiction has been mixed, Kossuth was born in 1802. His family was poor but noble. He was part Slovak, part [...]
US President Monroe & his Doctrine
/ biography.com James Monroe was born in Virginia in 1758, and became the 5th President of the United States. He did not shine as a diplomat but he did manage to orchestrate the [...]
The wit of two conductors
Sir Thomas Beecham / dailymail.co.uk It is possible that many players in orchestras have heard very funny comments made to them during rehearsal, or even during the actual performance of an orchestral piece. [...]
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