by David West | Dec 13, 2024 | News
On 13th December 1577 Sir Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on his three year circumnavigation of the globe. It was an extraordinary expedition that cemented his reputation as one of England’s greatest explorers and privateers. Commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I,...
by David West | Dec 12, 2024 | News
The On This Day website tells me that on the twelfth of December 1792, Beethoven had his first lesson in composition from Haydn. I’ve posted about being interviewed at the Dartmouth Book Festival by John Suchet. I doubt that anyone knows more about Beethoven than...
by David West | Dec 11, 2024 | News
The Battle of Villaviciosa was fought on 10th and ended on 11th December, 1710. It was a pivotal moment in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). This engagement, between the Bourbon forces led by Philip V of Spain and the Habsburg-allied forces under Austrian...
by David West | Dec 10, 2024 | News
The 10th of December holds a special place in the calendar of global achievements—it marks the day the Nobel Prizes are awarded each year. This tradition began in 1901 and commemorates the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and philanthropist who established...
by David West | Dec 9, 2024 | News
Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade was published on 9th December 1854 in The Examiner, a weekly intellectual journal. The military action had taken place on 25th October of the same year against the Russian army at the Battle Balaclava during the Crimean...
