by David West | Aug 21, 2026 | News
On the 21st of August, 1959, US President Dwight D Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii as the 50th state of the union. The first settlers of Hawaii were Polynesians, probably arriving between the fourth and eighth centuries AD, though exact dates...
by David West | Aug 20, 2026 | News
On the 20th of August, 1968, Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia and crushed the Prague Spring. The Prague Spring was one of the defining political crises of the Cold War: a bold attempt to create “socialism with a human face” inside the Soviet bloc, followed by...
by David West | Aug 19, 2026 | News
Operation Ajax was the code name for the covert Anglo-American operation that overthrew the government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in August 1953. Planned jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI6, it remains one of the most...
by David West | Aug 18, 2026 | News
Sunday the 18th of August, 1940, is known as The Hardest Day of the Battle of Britain. Although Sunday the 15th of September is celebrated as Battle of Britain day, and the climax of the battle, the combined losses of allied and German aircraft on the 18th of August...
by David West | Aug 17, 2026 | News
On the 17th of August, 1597, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores. With Essex was Sir Anthony Standen, the elder brother of my 10th great-grandfather. The voyage is an episode in The Spy who Sank the Armada,...
