1591
Arkwright invented the factory, without which modern life would be impossible.
Richard Arkwright (1732-1792), the son of a Lancashire tailor, was knighted in 1786 in recognition of his role as one of the architects of the Industrial Revolution - not for the inventions once credited to him, but for developing the idea of factories.
Picture: © JThomas, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1592
Once a year, regular as clockwork, the little snakes slither into the convent for a Feast of the Virgin Mary.
Every August, on a great feast of the Virgin Mary, small snakes slither into the chapel of a tiny village on the Greek island of Kefalonia. There is a curious story behind it, going back to the days when Greece was under the Ottoman Empire, and pirates roamed unchecked among the islands.
Picture: © Jeffrey Sciberras, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1593
A gifted composer of classical music in the romantic tradition, admired by Stanford, Elgar, and Sullivan.
Daniel Taylor, a medical doctor who was later a coroner and magistrate in the Gambia, had a brief affair with an unmarried woman in London named Alice Martin. The result was a boy she named Samuel Coleridge Taylor, after the famous poet (it was Samuel who hyphenated it as Coleridge-Taylor).
Picture: Photo from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1594
Edward Stone wondered if the willow tree might have more in common with the Peruvian cinchona tree than just its damp habitat.
Edward Stone was a mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society, so when he discovered something interesting about willow bark, he thought he would write to the President and tell him about it.
Picture: © Derek Harper, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1595
Lost for seventeen centuries, caught up in a war, and used as a pedestal for a plant pot, this is the world’s oldest surviving song.
The Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest surviving song to be completely written down, text and music. It has made it through almost two-thousand years by the skin of its teeth.
Picture: © inharecherche, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 13 2015
1596
A tortoiseshell laments his hard life among heartless humans.
A tortoiseshell cat is chatting with a rather skinny grey cat. It is so difficult, he says plaintively, for a cat to find a proper home.
Picture: . Source.
Posted March 13 2015