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Three hundred years ago, on 25th August 1724, George Stubbs was born in Liverpool. Best known for his paintings of horses, he lived mainly in the north of England at first, but eventually his success enabled him to move to Marylebone in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. Fascinated by anatomy,...

The moment the Church of Scotland defied King Charles I is among a vast number of historical documents now available to view on the ScotlandsPeople website.  (www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk) As part of a wider release of almost 4,000 volumes of church court records, National Records of Scotland (NRS) has added papers from the church’s governing court, the...

August is the perfect month to look out for bats, when our soft, warm twilight evenings are full of the tiny flying insects that attract them. But these days bats need our help, and so this annual celebration will include a good few ‘bat events’ this month. If you like bats, you may enjoy one...

All in the month of July Remembering the Rwandan genocide 1984 – the burning of York Minster The Lord of the Rings turns 70 125 years of Gideons and Bibles Prime Ministers ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks at memorable dates in the month (this time, June) down the years. Here is a...

It was: 750 years ago, on 11th July 1272 that Robert I (Robert the Bruce) was born. He was King of Scotland 1306-29. 125 years ago, on 1st July 1899 that the Gideons International was founded. The evangelical Christian association places free Bibles in hotel rooms, hospitals, schools, military bases and prisons around the world....

Thirty years ago, on 15th July 1994, the Rwandan genocide ended. Up to 1.1 million people were killed by the Hutu-led government and other militias between April and July. Rwanda is a small central African country in the Great Rift Valley, dwarfed by the Democratic Republic of Congo to its west and close to the...

Forty years ago, on 9th July 1984, York Minster was struck by lightning, which set fire to the roof and destroyed the south transept. It was the most recent of five fires that have occurred there over the years: the causes have ranged from workmen burning coals (1753) through arson using torn-up hymnbooks (1829) to...

Seventy years ago, on 21st July 1954, the first part of J R R Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Ringswas published. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of a trilogy later published together, was a much more adult-oriented sequel to The Hobbit, published in 1937. It occupied the same ground...

It was 125 years ago, on 1st July 1899, that Gideons International was founded.  The evangelical Christian association places free Bibles in hotel rooms, hospitals, schools, military bases and prisons around the world. It started when two traveling salesmen from Wisconsin in the northern USA – John Nicholson of Janesville and Samuel Hill of Beloit –...

Britain had its first Prime Minister (PM) in 1721 when Sir Robert Walpole took the job; he was a Whig. In total thus far we have had 81 Prime Ministers; this excludes First Ministers and doesn’t count separately an existing PM who wins the election and continues in office. If s/he loses but subsequently wins another...

All in the month of June The D-Day Normandy Landings The RSPCA celebrates 200 years George Orwell of Nineteen Eighty-Four The disappearance of George Mallory on Everest The back story to what is happening in Sudan ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks at memorable dates in the month (this time, June) down the...

It was: 200 years ago, on 16th June 1824, that a London vicar, Arthur Broome, and some 22 of his friends, including the MPs William Wilberforce (anti-slavery campaigner) met at Old Slaughters Coffee House to found the SPCA – the first national animal protection society in the world. By1840 Queen Victoria had given permission for...