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The first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis was made 250 years ago, on 7th August 1771, by Scottish botanist and artist James Robertson. At 1345 metres (4411 ft), it is the highest mountain in the British Isles. Some 100,000 people now make the climb each year. Robertson wrote: “A third part of the hill from...

Just 90 years ago, on 19th August 1931, the Yangtze River and Huai River floods peaked in China. It was one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century: up to four million people died, and the floods lasted from July to November. The inundation followed a two-year drought and a particularly harsh winter...

Seventy-five years ago, on 16th August 1946, the Great Calcutta Killing took place in Kolkata, India. Muslim and Hindu mobs rioted across the city following the Muslim League’s demand for the creation of Pakistan. More than 4,000 people were killed and 100,000 left homeless. The riot sparked further religious violence in other provinces, leading to the...

Scientists have been trying to work out a ‘formula’ for happiness.  The result is incomprehensible to most of us, beginning as it does with Happiness (t)=w0=w1, running on for three lines, and then ending with jRPEj…… But, in plain English, the neuroscientists at University College London (UCL) have concluded that happiness depends not so much...

According to Natural England, thorny scrubs and floodplains should be seen as more beautiful than manicured fields. Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, which is the government’s adviser for the natural environment, has said a ‘cultural revolution’ is necessary to help people appreciate the beauty of a messy countryside. He strongly supports the increasing popularity...

All in the month of JULY 100 years of the Chinese Communists Bombing of the King David Hotel, Jerusalem Remembering Princess Diana A tribute to Dolly the Sheep Twitter marks its 15th birthday How climate change could affect your cup of tea Ivy on your house is not really so bad after all ** Editor: ...

It was: 100 years ago, on 1st July 1921 that the Chinese Communist Party was founded. Also 100 years ago, on 10th July 1921 that Belfast’s Bloody Sunday took place.  Protestant loyalists attacked Catholic enclaves and set fire to homes and businesses, sparking rioting and gun battles. At least 17 people were killed and more...

One hundred years ago, on 1st July 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was founded. It had its roots in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and at first worked with the Chinese Nationalists. But the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, turned violently against them in 1927 and for a while the Communists, under Mao Zedong and...

It was 75 years ago, on 22nd July 1946, that the King David Hotel bombing took place in Jerusalem. The Irgun – a militant right-wing Zionist group – bombed the hotel which housed the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, and 91 people were killed, with dozens more injured. The dead and injured were of many...

Lady Diana Spencer – later Princess of Wales – was born 60 years ago, on 1st July 1961 at Sandringham in Norfolk. Twenty years later, on 29th July 1981, she married Prince Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Diana was not an academic child,...

The first cloned mammal – Dolly the sheep – was born 25 years ago, on 5th July 1996, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. The news was generally greeted with either direct opposition or considerable suspicion. Richard McCormick, a Jesuit priest and professor of Christian ethics at the University of Notre Dame, voiced the feelings of...

It was 15 years ago, on 15th July 2006, that Twitter, the American micro-blogging social network, was launched. The first tweet – or short message – had been sent internally in March that year and was recently sold for over £2 million. The service was originally known as twttr (by analogy with the photo site...