Playwright Ben Jonson Duels to the Death
On 22 September 1598, Elizabethan actor Gabriel Spencer settled his creative differences with playwright Ben Jonson with a duel.
Months Past
John Goffe Rand Invents Paint Tubes
On 11 September 1841, John Goffe Rand patented the ‘metal rolls for paint’, sparking a revolution in oil painting.
Pompeii is Found
Identified on 20 August 1763, Pompeii’s value was as a source of antiquities for Charles VII, king of Naples.
The First Map of the Moon
At 9pm on 26 July 1609, Thomas Harriot pointed his telescope at a five-day-old crescent moon. It made him the first person to train such an instrument on the skies and map the moon.
The Menin Gate is Unveiled
The finished Menin Gate memorial, unveiled on 24 July 1927, recorded 54,896 British and imperial soldiers who died at Ypres between 1914 and 1918, and whose bodies were lost.
The Valladolid Debate on the Rights of Indigenous People
Was the subjugation of indigenous peoples a just means to expedite Christianity? On 15 August 1550, a humanist scholar and a Dominican friar debated.
An Edict of Toleration
On 14 June 1632, the Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos abdicated in favour of his son.
Birth of a Pastry Chef
Born into poverty on 8 June 1783, Antonin Carême’s spectacular confectionary constructions made him patissier to royalty.
Sancta Sophia Collapses
Disaster struck on the morning of 7 May 558, when repair works to the Sancta Sophia caused it to collapse.
Cleansing the Causeway
The soldiers of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, fought the men of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, in Edinburgh on 30 April 1520.