“The Death Camp” and the forgotten story of Germany’s first holocaust
Shark Island was founded in 1795 off the coast of Luderitz, Namibia. Originally named Star Island, the land sat amidst immense winds and crashing waters of the Atlantic for a […]
Why European plague doctors wore those strange beaked masks?
Four hundred years ago, dark figures with white beaks wandered the streets of Europe. But these were no boogeymen or other creepy figures, but healers, so dressed to stave off […]
How Australia was born
Back in the the 1770s and 1780s, living conditions in the United Kingdom were literally catastrophic. The Industrial Revolution meant that many workers had been replaced by machines, and small […]
Malleus Maleficarum: the sacred text used to identify witches
Between 1227 and 1235, the Inquisition against witches and heretics was established with a series of papal decrees: Pope Innocent’s bull Ad Extirpanda of 1252 authorized the use of torture […]
Hong Kong and the sad echoes of the 1894 plague epidemic
While COVID-19 are stopping the world on current days, a 19th-century pandemic still haunts Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan district. Nearly 130 years ago, the neighborhood was an epicenter of one […]
William Randolph Hearst: the “father” of fake news!
“Fake news”, very popular and read also on current days, expecially on social networkd and in a large number in this period of pandemic, has its roots, many people believe, […]
Lapu-Lapu: the Philippine hero who killed Ferdinand Magellan
Someone has compared the first circumnavigation of the globe to the first adventures in space. The reason? Magellan and his companions faced the unknown, and seas never crossed by other […]
#April 21, 753 BC: according to tradition, Romulus and Remus found Rome
According to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C., Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants. Actually, […]
#April 20, 1887: in Paris, world’s first motor race!
Historic records show that on this day, April 29, 1887, Georges Bouton “won the world’s first motor race”. But it was a hollow victory and there was no champagne celebration. […]
#April 18, 1480: wicked or sinless? The controversy life of Lucrezia Borgia, born on this day.
Lucrezia Borgia, the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (who was to become Pope Alexander VI) was born on this day, April 18 1480. Her mother, the cardinal’s lover, was […]
#April 17, 1969: Alexander Dubček, architect of Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring, resigns
Alexander Dubček, the communist leader who launched a broad program of liberal reforms in Czechoslovakia, is forced to resign on this day, April 17 1969, as first secretary by the […]
#April 16, 1850: Madame Tussaud’s dies on this day. Her bloody background
Anna Maria “Marie” Tussaud, the woman behind one of London’s most famous tourist attractions, died on this day, April 16 1850, at the age of 89. She had spent a […]
#April 15, 1912: An Iceberg sinks “unsinkable” Titanic
All we know that, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the passenger liner Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on this day, resulting in the world’s worst […]
#April 13, 1928: First nonstop flight from Europe to North America
German pilot Hermann Köhl, Irish aviator James Fitzmaurice and Baron Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, the expedition’s financier, completed on this day, April 13, 1928 the first Europe to North […]
The curious history of the Milan area that remained immune to the plague: an eccentric marquis, a witch or simply coal?
Before 1630 Milan had over one hundred thousand inhabitants. In 1632 there were forty-seven thousand. In the middle there was the most violent plague epidemic in the history of the […]
#April 3, 1957: the computer that came by truck
Today, on April 3, a regular computer would probably do the job. But back in 1957, when Norwich City Council and its forward-thinking Treasurer, Mr A.J. Barnard, became a pioneer […]
