Julkaisuseuranta
Athletics Oscar Pistorius (b1986) was born in the Transvaal, South Africa. As a toddler he was diagnosed with the rare medical condition, Fibular Hemimelia. At a year old, both his legs were amputated below the knees. He studied at Pretoria Boys High School, and played rugby. Oscar only stopped competitive rugby when he severely hurt…
30.11.2021
Brides of Christ appeared on TV in 1991, giving the ABC national broadcaster its biggest-ever audience for a non-sporting programme. The series became an international hit, attracting c8 million viewers in the US and UK. Critics lavished the series with praise and secondary school students read it in English classes. The history of the series…
26.11.2021
The book Anne of Green Gables, a children’s novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), was published in 1908. Born in Cavendish in the Gulf of St Lawrence off the Canadian coast, Montgomery wrote a charming growing up story about a highly spirited orphan girl who found a home with elderly siblings; it became…
23.11.2021
Note the influence of British royal names in England and Wales of 2020. George was very popular, after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge chose it for their first son. Archie, the name chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their son, entered the top 10 for the first time since records began. Harry and…
Rio de Janeiro is Brasil’s second city and was its capital from 1763-1960, when Brasilia took over. I was at an academic conference in Rio and only had time to visit the following tourist attractions, based on usnews.Christ the RedeemerChrist the Redeemer is an iconic landmark. Recognised as one of the Seven Wonders of the…
16.11.2021
In the 1960s, a group of unwed mothers wrestled with their decisions to give birth in secret at St Paul Minnesota’s Booth Memorial Hospital. With the help of revealing interviews, historian Kim Heikkila told their stories and shed light on the consequences of the mid-C20th’s devastating sexual double standard. In 1952-6 alone, c1.5 million babies…
12.11.2021
Arrest of Guy Fawkes at the Houses of Parliament 5th Nov 1605, GettyWhy was Guy Fawkes Night so popular? The first reason was the spectacular nature of the event that it commemorated. Had the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 succeeded, it would have killed much of the English political nation, including some of the royal family, aristocracy…
Clacton PierJohn Hannavy's book coverTaking the waters, fresh air and exercise were so popular for the Georgian moneyed classes that Jane Austen featured spa towns in her novels. These trips were an excuse for high society to mingle, since they could stay at lovely hotels, attend the theatre and wear fashionable clothes. Coastal towns offered a…
Vancouver actually started in Gastown, the core of the city named for Gassy Jack Deighton. He was a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area’s first saloon. The town soon prospered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill and seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and…
Candy Feldt 73 passed in Phoenix AZ this year, from kidney failure, surrounded by family. She was born in Nov 1947, to Florence and Max Feldt in Temple Texas. She grew up in Temple and Stamford TX, and went to high school in Denver CO. She won a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music from…
Newspaper coverage on their execution dayLos Angeles TimesRead Anne Sebba’s biography, Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy (2021). Ethel came from modest Belarusian immigrants, leaving school at 16 to support her family during the Great Depression and singing only at fundraisers. In 1936 the lovely young soprano Ethel Greenglass (b1915) was invited to perform at…
29.10.2021
James Cook (1728-79) lived in a thatched cottage in Marton Yorkshire during his youngest years. Shortly after, Cook Snr left Aireyholme to become a stonemason and in 1736, they all moved to Ayton. Until young James left Ayton to enter his apprenticeship with a grocer in Staithes in 1745.Cottage belonging to Capt Cook's parentsGreat Ayton…
26.10.2021
When the Irish Experiment was conceived at the Melbourne Football Club in the early 1980s, Gaelic Football was seen as more like Australian Rules than soccer, rugby or gridiron. The experiment was very positive, especially for Jim Stynes (1966-2012) who was born into a large Dublin family. Jim attended Ballyroan Boys School and as an 8-year-old…
19.10.2021
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was born in London, oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Kingston-upon-Hull. Given access to her family’s huge home library, this clever child taught herself Latin, corresponded with bishops, charmed her social circle, and quickly decided to become a writer. And she was independent enough to reject her father’s…
Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725) ruled alone from 1694. Although Russia was huge, its navy was weak at a time when European powers like Britain and the Dutch were exploring and colonising the globe, and expanding their borders. So to learn from European nations’ successes, Peter spent 1697-8 travelling in Europe in a Grand Embassy.Peter…
12.10.2021
Thank you to the Jewish Writers’ Festival in Sydney who will be discussing this book on Zoom at 8 PM Thurs 14th October 2021.sisters Berta and Katka Kohút, 1941 and 2013Times of IsraelAmid the horror of the Holocaust, a select group of hand-picked Jewish women and girls, were segregated from their peers in Auschwitz. They set…
9.10.2021
King Gustavus Adolphusfighting in Battle of Breitenfeld, 1631Christina of Sweden (1626-89) was born in Tre Kronor castle, only surviving child of King Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, last of the Vasa dynasty to rule Sweden.King Gustavus had made Protestant Sweden into a great European power. He was a major leader in the Thirty Years’…
Tainionkosken kansakoulu perustettiin jo vuonna 1897 AB Tornator Oy:n toimesta. Vuonna 1899 koulu alkoi saada valtion avustusta ja samalla se otettiin valtion valvontaan. Ensimmäinen virallinen lukuvuosi oli 1900-1901. Alkuvuosina koulu oli tehtaan koulu, ja se oli tarkoitettu vain Tornatorin tehtaan väen lapsille. Tuolloin koulu toimi Tainionkosken torin läheisyydessä, Vuoksen rannan tuntumassa puurakennuksessa, joka on sittemmin…
5.10.2021
As I discussed, Charles Darwin (1809-82) was sick all his life, but he had no idea why. It wasn’t until 2013 that John Hayman solved the problem in Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria. Charles’ illness, his brother's, mother's and others on the mother’s side showed a genetic pattern of maternal inheritance that was the hallmark of mitochondrial mutations. The…