Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
When Polydectes, King of Seriphos, sent Perseus to get the Gorgon’s head, he hoped the boy would never come back.
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© Mez Merrill, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Open Government v1.
Armistice Day is the anniversary of the end of the First World War on the 11th of November, 1918.
By Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1735–1811), via the National Trust and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Robert Clive helped to establish a lasting bond between India and Britain, laying the foundations of modern India.
Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
An English monk warned of a flaw in the world’s most widely-used calendar.
© PHParsons, Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY-SA 3.0 Licence.
The ruthless diamond magnate and Prime Minister of the Cape divided opinion in his own lifetime as he still does today.
© xlandfair, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.
It lasted barely forty minutes, but it brought slavery to an end in the little island territory.