On the 8th of August, 1963, £2.61 million was stolen from a Royal Mail train on the West Coast Main Line. I spent around a third of my career working on railway projects and have written about railway events. Sadly there have been a few railway accidents as well as...

I have posted about my career as a civil engineer. Thomas Telford was the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and he was born on the 8th of August 1757. He was one of the greatest civil engineers of the Industrial Revolution, a man whose roads,...

On the 7th of August, 1819, Simon Bolívar triumphed over Spanish forces in the Battle of Boyacá. Simón Bolívar is one of the towering figures of Latin American history, remembered as “El Libertador” — the Liberator — for his leading role in freeing much of northern...

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....

On the 8th of August, 1963, £2.61 million was stolen from a Royal Mail train on the West Coast Main Line. I spent around a third of my career working on railway projects and have written about railway events. Sadly there have been a few railway accidents as well as...

I have posted about my career as a civil engineer. Thomas Telford was the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and he was born on the 8th of August 1757. He was one of the greatest civil engineers of the Industrial Revolution, a man whose roads,...

On the 7th of August, 1819, Simon Bolívar triumphed over Spanish forces in the Battle of Boyacá. Simón Bolívar is one of the towering figures of Latin American history, remembered as “El Libertador” — the Liberator — for his leading role in freeing much of northern...

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....