Wikipaedia tells me that the first account of a blood transfusion was published as a letter from the physician Richard Lower to the chemist Robert Boyle on the 17th of December, 1665, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. I recently made my 16th...

On the 16th of December, 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbour in protest against the Tea Act. It was a direct protest against the British government’s attempts to assert greater control...

On the 15th of December, 533CE, the Byzantine general Belisarius defeated the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimar at the Battle of Tricamarum. The Vandals were a Germanic people whose story intersects with the declining power of the Western Roman Empire. By the time of...

On the 14th of December, 1542, Mary Stuart became Queen of Scots on the death of her father, King James V of Scotland. Mary was just six days old. I have taken an interest in Mary since discovering Sir Anthony Standen, an Elizabethan spy, and the only man I know to...

The Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval engagement of the Second World War, fought from the 13th to the 17th of December 1939 off the coast of South America. It pitted the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee against a small force of Royal Navy...

On the 12th of December, 627, a Byzantine army commanded by Emperor Heraclius defeated Persian Emperor Khosrow II’s forces commanded by General Rhahzadh at the Battle of Ninevah during the climactic final phase of the Byzantine–Sassanian War of 602–628. This battle,...

The Battle of Orewin Bridge was fought on the 11th of December, 1282, and the last native Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was killed. Born around 1223, Llywelyn was the grandson of Llywelyn the Great (Llywelyn ab Iorwerth), the ruler who had united much of...

On the 10th of December, 1684, Edmund Halley read Isaac Newton’s paper De motu corporum in gyrum (which I will loosely translate as On the motion of bodies in orbit) to the Royal Society. This short Latin treatise, only about nine pages long, served as the immediate...

I have posted about a number of inventors and scientists, such as Edison and Einstein. Now it’s time to give policemen their due. On the 9th of December, 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. They were modelled on...

Wikipaedia tells me that the first account of a blood transfusion was published as a letter from the physician Richard Lower to the chemist Robert Boyle on the 17th of December, 1665, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. I recently made my 16th...

On the 16th of December, 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbour in protest against the Tea Act. It was a direct protest against the British government’s attempts to assert greater control...

On the 15th of December, 533CE, the Byzantine general Belisarius defeated the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimar at the Battle of Tricamarum. The Vandals were a Germanic people whose story intersects with the declining power of the Western Roman Empire. By the time of...

On the 14th of December, 1542, Mary Stuart became Queen of Scots on the death of her father, King James V of Scotland. Mary was just six days old. I have taken an interest in Mary since discovering Sir Anthony Standen, an Elizabethan spy, and the only man I know to...

The Battle of the River Plate was the first major naval engagement of the Second World War, fought from the 13th to the 17th of December 1939 off the coast of South America. It pitted the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee against a small force of Royal Navy...

On the 12th of December, 627, a Byzantine army commanded by Emperor Heraclius defeated Persian Emperor Khosrow II’s forces commanded by General Rhahzadh at the Battle of Ninevah during the climactic final phase of the Byzantine–Sassanian War of 602–628. This battle,...

The Battle of Orewin Bridge was fought on the 11th of December, 1282, and the last native Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was killed. Born around 1223, Llywelyn was the grandson of Llywelyn the Great (Llywelyn ab Iorwerth), the ruler who had united much of...

On the 10th of December, 1684, Edmund Halley read Isaac Newton’s paper De motu corporum in gyrum (which I will loosely translate as On the motion of bodies in orbit) to the Royal Society. This short Latin treatise, only about nine pages long, served as the immediate...

I have posted about a number of inventors and scientists, such as Edison and Einstein. Now it’s time to give policemen their due. On the 9th of December, 1868, the first traffic lights were installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. They were modelled on...