I recently attended a lecture, via zoom, about the Anthropocene. That comes from the Greek, anthropo meaning human, and cene meaning new. It is used to describe the geological age which has been impacted fundamentally by human activity. The reason I’m prompted to...

The Gowrie Conspiracy of the 5th of August, 1600, remains one of the most mysterious and disputed episodes in Scottish history. It centres on an alleged attempt to kidnap—or possibly assassinate—King James VI and I by members of the powerful Ruthven family, chiefly...

Louis Armstrong was born on the 4th of August, 1901 in New Orleans. He gets a mention in my post on Hoagy Carmichael and James Bond, but deserves more. He grew up in extreme poverty in a rough neighbourhood known as “The Battlefield.” His early life was marked by...

On the 3rd of August, 1936, Jesse Owens won the 100 metres sprint at the Berlin Olympic Games, shattering Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy. Jesse Owens was one of the most remarkable athletes of the twentieth century, a man whose achievements on the track transcended...

The Battle of Cannae is one of the most studied and devastating military engagements in history, a masterpiece of tactical brilliance that resulted in the near-annihilation of a Roman army at the hands of Carthage. It was fought on the 2nd of August, 216 BCE, during...

On the 1st of August 30 BCE Octavian, the first Roman emperor, entered Alexandria and executed Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the son of Mark Antony by his third wife, Fulvia, who had travelled with his father to Alexandria and lived there with him and Cleopatra....

The event that catches my attention for the 31st of July is the sinking of the USS Nevada. The phrase that caught my attention is: “USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target...

Jimmy Hoffa, an American union leader, disappeared on the 30th of July 1975, and was declared dead on the 30th of July 1982. Jimmy Hoffa remains one of the most intriguing and controversial figures in twentieth-century American labour history—a man whose rise to...

Clara Bow was born on the 29th of July 1905 in Brooklyn, New York. Clara Bow was one of the most iconic figures of the silent film era, a performer whose vivacious personality and natural screen presence helped define 1920s Hollywood. She rose from a troubled and...

I recently attended a lecture, via zoom, about the Anthropocene. That comes from the Greek, anthropo meaning human, and cene meaning new. It is used to describe the geological age which has been impacted fundamentally by human activity. The reason I’m prompted to...

The Gowrie Conspiracy of the 5th of August, 1600, remains one of the most mysterious and disputed episodes in Scottish history. It centres on an alleged attempt to kidnap—or possibly assassinate—King James VI and I by members of the powerful Ruthven family, chiefly...

Louis Armstrong was born on the 4th of August, 1901 in New Orleans. He gets a mention in my post on Hoagy Carmichael and James Bond, but deserves more. He grew up in extreme poverty in a rough neighbourhood known as “The Battlefield.” His early life was marked by...

On the 3rd of August, 1936, Jesse Owens won the 100 metres sprint at the Berlin Olympic Games, shattering Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy. Jesse Owens was one of the most remarkable athletes of the twentieth century, a man whose achievements on the track transcended...

The Battle of Cannae is one of the most studied and devastating military engagements in history, a masterpiece of tactical brilliance that resulted in the near-annihilation of a Roman army at the hands of Carthage. It was fought on the 2nd of August, 216 BCE, during...

On the 1st of August 30 BCE Octavian, the first Roman emperor, entered Alexandria and executed Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the son of Mark Antony by his third wife, Fulvia, who had travelled with his father to Alexandria and lived there with him and Cleopatra....

The event that catches my attention for the 31st of July is the sinking of the USS Nevada. The phrase that caught my attention is: “USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target...

Jimmy Hoffa, an American union leader, disappeared on the 30th of July 1975, and was declared dead on the 30th of July 1982. Jimmy Hoffa remains one of the most intriguing and controversial figures in twentieth-century American labour history—a man whose rise to...

Clara Bow was born on the 29th of July 1905 in Brooklyn, New York. Clara Bow was one of the most iconic figures of the silent film era, a performer whose vivacious personality and natural screen presence helped define 1920s Hollywood. She rose from a troubled and...