On the 5th of May, 1260, Kublai Khan became ruler of the Mongul Empire. Kublai Khan (1215–1294) was one of the most formidable rulers in world history, a man who transformed the vast, mobile conquests of the Mongols into a structured imperial state and became the...

On the 4th of May, 1436, the Swedish rebel Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was assassinated. My mother was a fan of Englebert Humperdink, but I know little about Englebrekt. I have posted about my Danish DNA, but I don’t have any from Sweden. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was a...

The birthday of Henri Pitot on the 3rd of May, 1695, has caught my attention today. That’s for two reasons. I was a civil engineer and so was he. I have written about my passion for aviation, and he invented the Pitot tube which is how you measure an aircraft’s...

We take GPS for granted now, don’t we? I haven’t used a paper map in the car for, probably, decades? We have paper charts on our boat for planning purposes, but Admiralty charts are no longer available to purchase in paper form. It was on the 2nd of May, 2000, that...

The May edition of Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association, has landed. I take particular encouragement from an article by Chris Nickson titled: CRIME SERIES IN BOOKS - WHY WRITE THEM? Chris explains that publishers love a series because after a...

On the 1st of May, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union whilst flying a Lockheed U2 spyplane during the Cold War. During the 1950s, the United States had limited reliable intelligence about Soviet military capabilities, particularly its...

On the 30th of April, 1859, Charle Dickens published the first edition of his literary magazine, All The Year Round, containing the first installment of A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the most celebrated novelist of the Victorian age and remains...

I can’t believe I haven’t written about James Cook before now. He got a brief mention in my post on Antarctica. Well, here goes then. On the 29th of April, 1770, Captain James Cook arrived in a bay on Australia’s south east coast which he named Botany Bay. Cook was...

As a writer of historical fiction, the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I am interested in both history and words. My pick for today’s historical event is the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, on the 28th of April, 1192. The assassination was...

On the 5th of May, 1260, Kublai Khan became ruler of the Mongul Empire. Kublai Khan (1215–1294) was one of the most formidable rulers in world history, a man who transformed the vast, mobile conquests of the Mongols into a structured imperial state and became the...

On the 4th of May, 1436, the Swedish rebel Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was assassinated. My mother was a fan of Englebert Humperdink, but I know little about Englebrekt. I have posted about my Danish DNA, but I don’t have any from Sweden. Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was a...

The birthday of Henri Pitot on the 3rd of May, 1695, has caught my attention today. That’s for two reasons. I was a civil engineer and so was he. I have written about my passion for aviation, and he invented the Pitot tube which is how you measure an aircraft’s...

We take GPS for granted now, don’t we? I haven’t used a paper map in the car for, probably, decades? We have paper charts on our boat for planning purposes, but Admiralty charts are no longer available to purchase in paper form. It was on the 2nd of May, 2000, that...

The May edition of Red Herrings, the bulletin of the Crime Writers’ Association, has landed. I take particular encouragement from an article by Chris Nickson titled: CRIME SERIES IN BOOKS - WHY WRITE THEM? Chris explains that publishers love a series because after a...

On the 1st of May, 1960, Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union whilst flying a Lockheed U2 spyplane during the Cold War. During the 1950s, the United States had limited reliable intelligence about Soviet military capabilities, particularly its...

On the 30th of April, 1859, Charle Dickens published the first edition of his literary magazine, All The Year Round, containing the first installment of A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the most celebrated novelist of the Victorian age and remains...

I can’t believe I haven’t written about James Cook before now. He got a brief mention in my post on Antarctica. Well, here goes then. On the 29th of April, 1770, Captain James Cook arrived in a bay on Australia’s south east coast which he named Botany Bay. Cook was...

As a writer of historical fiction, the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, I am interested in both history and words. My pick for today’s historical event is the assassination of Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, on the 28th of April, 1192. The assassination was...