by David West | May 21, 2026 | News
On the 21st of May, 878, Syracuse on Sicily was captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine month siege. Amongst other events I could have chosen to write about, Charles Lindburgh landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris on the same day in 1927 having crossed the...
by David West | May 20, 2026 | News
The first calling of the Council of Nicaea was on the 20th of May 325. The First Council of Nicaea was a landmark assembly of Christian bishops convened in 325 AD in the city of Nicaea (modern İznik in Turkey). Called by the Roman Emperor Constantine I, it was the...
by David West | May 19, 2026 | News
On the 19th of May, 1051, King Henry I of France married Anne of Kiev. Anne of Kiev (c. 1024–c. 1075), also known as Anna Yaroslavna, was a princess of Kievan Rus who became Queen of France through her marriage to Henry I of France. Her life forms a remarkable bridge...
by David West | May 18, 2026 | News
The Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, Omar Khayyám, was born on the 18th of May 1048. Omar Khayyám (c. 1048–1131) was one of the most remarkable intellectual figures of the medieval Islamic world: a mathematician of the first rank, a serious astronomer, and...
by David West | May 17, 2026 | News
On the 17th of May, 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason. He was one of the many victims of Henry VIII’s suspicions, although it was before his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and before his jousting injury. Having looked at it myself, I...
