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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...

Eighty years ago, on 6th June 1944, the D-Day Normandy Landings took place. More than 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy.  The Battle of Normandy ended on 25th August with an Allied victory. The question of what the D stood for has never been absolutely determined: some say it just stood for...

It was 200 years ago this month, on 16th June 1824, that a London vicar, Arthur Broome, and some 22 of his friends, including the MP William Wilberforce, met at Old Slaughters Coffee House in London. They were there because they were deeply concerned about the pitiful plight of many animals in Victorian England. That...

It was 75 years ago, on 8th June 1949, that George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The book focuses on a society dominated by central government, whose citizens are kept in line by force and mind control, and by restricting access to the truth. Orwell invented terms like ‘Big Brother’, ‘doublethink’ and ‘thoughtcrime’, and...

One hundred years ago, on 8th June 1924, the British mountaineer George Mallory disappeared on Mount Everest.  His body was found in 1999. The man who may have been the first to climb Everest went missing with his fellow climber Andrew (Sandy) Irvine after setting off for the summit and encountering deep snow and high...

Some 125 years ago, on 19th June 1899, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was established. It was granted independence in 1956 as the Republic of Sudan, and South Sudan gained its independence in 2011. On 15th April 2023, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, resulting in...

All in the month of May Remembering Beethoven’s greatest symphony The man who created Father Brown Rock Around the Clock Roger Bannister and the Four Minute Mile Roads at ‘breaking point’ In appreciation of our nurses ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks at memorable dates in the month (this time, May) down the...