This Week in History: New England Goes Dark

Almost 250 years ago this week, morning turned to night for the states of New England as darkness descended. New Englanders had noticed something seemed wrong in the days building up to May 19th, 1780. The sky had appeared yellow, and the sun had turned blood red. But that was nothing compared to what happened […]

This Week in History: Golfer who Drank 1,400 Bottles of Radioactive Water Dies

This week, American millionaire and amateur golfer Eben Byers died after drinking radioactive water for years.

This Week in History: Birth of Napoleon’s Greatest Diplomat

This week, over 250 years ago, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born. Talleyrand (the man in the flowing white wig stood directly behind the table) was a French politician and diplomat who served under, and later conspired against, Napoleon.

This Week in History: The World is Created (According to a 17th century Archbishop)

This week, Archbishop of Armagh James Ussher established the date of creation as October 22nd, 4004 BC. These days, the majority of people believe that the Earth was created a few billion years ago. And so they should – the science is right there. But just a few hundred years ago, there was no such thing […]

This Week in History: 10 Second Barrier for the 100m Broken

This week, almost fifty years ago, Jim Hines became the first person in recorded history to run the 100-metre sprint in under 10 seconds. With modern day sprinters regularly completing 100 metres in under 10 seconds, it’s almost surprising to see that just a few decades ago it was rarely seen. In fact, before 1990, the […]

This Week in History: West Vs East in the Battle of Lepanto

This week saw arguably one of the greatest naval battles of the Renaissance period, as the Ottoman Empire’s fleet suffered their first major defeat at the hands of Christian forces. It was 1570 and the Ottomans were making designs on Western Europe yet again. The Pope at the time, Pius V, heard about their recent invasion […]

The Year the Dutch ate their Prime Minister

The Dutch Republic, with Johan de Witt as their Grand Pensionary – the rough equivalent of a modern day PM – had been one of the world’s leading superpowers since the turn of the 17th century. Pretty incredible for a country smaller than Ireland and with a population of just 2 million. However, disaster struck […]