Showing posts with the label England

John Stringfellow And The World's First Powered Flight

Mar 5, 2024

In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine. Unlike previous attempts made...

Bedford Level Experiment: The 19th Century Experiment That Laid The Foundation of The Flat Earth Society

Jan 31, 2024

In 1838, English writer and socialist, Samuel Rowbotham, set out to disprove what the ancient Greeks as well as modern scientists had long e...

Pratt And Smith: The Last Men To Be Executed For Sodomy in England

Jan 8, 2024

On the morning of November 27, 1835, two men—James Pratt and John Smith—were publicly hanged in front of Newgate Prison in London. Just thre...

Barkway Carriage Wash

Jan 3, 2024

What looks like a pool of stagnant water by the side of the road in Royston, in Hertfordshire, is really the oldest carriage wash in the wor...

Bottle Kicking in Hallaton

Dec 18, 2023

In the village of Hallaton in Leicestershire, England, a unique tradition unfolds every Easter Monday. The residents of Hallaton and the nea...

The Logan Rock of Treen

Dec 5, 2023

On the edge of the cliffs overlooking the English Channel, on a headland one mile south of Treen, in Cornwall, England, is a famous rocking ...

The Leicester Balloon Riot of 1864

Nov 13, 2023

During the latter part of the 18th century and most of the 19th century, there was a notable surge in public fascination with ballooning. Th...

The Sinking of U-boat 864

Nov 9, 2023

During World War II, German U-boats wrought havoc upon Allied supply lines and commercial shipping inflicting heavy losses on merchant convo...

Arthur John Priest: The Unsinkable Stoker

Oct 18, 2023

If there was anyone on board the Titanic that truly deserved the title “unsinkable” it was a coal stoker named Arthur John Priest, who surv...

Adrian Carton de Wiart: The Most Battle-Scarred Soldier

Oct 13, 2023

No one who has been touched by war has emerged from the experience unchanged. In the case of Adrian Carton de Wiart, who had participated in...

The Shipwrecks of Fylde Coast

Oct 10, 2023

The Fylde coast in western Lancashire have seen some of the foulest weather in England’s northwest coast. The area around Blackpool is in pa...

Purton Hulks: The Ship Graveyard

Aug 30, 2023

One of the largest ship graveyard in mainland Britain was created not by accident, but by the deliberate sinking of tens of old trawler and ...

That Time When Hartlepool Hanged a Monkey

Aug 17, 2023

On the coast of northeast England, lies the town of Hartlepool, and from this large town in County Durham comes a humorous legend about a mo...

The Great Yarmouth Suspension Bridge Collapse of 1845

Aug 9, 2023

The year was 1845 and the Cooke's Royal Circus was in town. All of Great Yarmouth was brimming with excitement. The Cooke’s Royal Circus...

How Students Stole Britain’s Coronation Stone, The Stone of Scone

Jun 13, 2023

For more than seven hundred years, British monarchs have sat on a large block of rectangular sandstone during their coronations. This block ...

Martin van Butchell: The Dentist Who Put His Dead Wife on Display

May 25, 2023

Quackery in dentistry has existed as far back as the earliest days when sufferers from dental problems sought treatment at the hands of some...

John ‘Half-hanged’ Smith

May 3, 2023

A man can lose a life in the most silliest of mishaps, like tripping over his own foot and breaking his neck. Yet, some people have an uncan...

5 Historical Figures Who Were Assassinated in The Lavatory

Apr 24, 2023

When a person is on the toilet, moving bowels, they are in a particularly vulnerable position. They are exposing parts of their body that ar...

Marching Soldiers And Collapsing Bridges

Apr 19, 2023

All suspension bridges are prone to vibration and swaying caused by moving traffic and wind. These vibration are not a problem as long as th...

Cosmati Pavement at Westminster Abbey

Apr 18, 2023

In May 2023, following the coronation of King Charles III and the Queen Consort, Camilla, at Westminster Abbey, the church’s historic Cosmat...