547
Goliath, a giant of a man from Philistia, has challenged Israel’s warrior-heroes to meet him in single combat, but only a shepherd boy is brave enough to step up.
When Goliath, a mountain of a man from Philistia, challenged Israel’s warrior-heroes to mortal combat only David, a shepherd boy, stepped up. King Saul felt shame that only this brave but hopeless boy was ready to fight for the nation. On the other hand, the prophet Samuel had foretold that a man ‘better than thou’ would take Saul’s crown, and it was a relief to know that there was no such man in all his kingdom.
Picture: © Lostinafrica, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted November 2 2020
548
Sir Kay has left his sword at home, and his young brother Arthur is determined to find him a worthy blade for the New Year’s Day joust.
Sir Kay has no sword for the New Year’s Day joust, but his younger brother Arthur knows that on Christmas Day, within the Great Church of London, a marvellous sword was found struck deep through an anvil into the stone beneath. He decides Kay must have it, unaware of the prophecy written in gold about the sword: Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England.
Picture: © Birmingham Museums Trust, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted October 31 2020
549
When columnist ‘Alpha of the Plough’ was asked to select his most memorable moment of the Great War, he told the story of HMS Formidable.
Asked which event of the Great War had made the deepest impression on him, columnist ‘Alpha of the Plough’ recalled the fate of HMS Formidable, twice torpedoed by a German U-Boat during night-time exercises off the Devon coast on January 1st, 1915. The Captain, 34 officers and 512 crew died; 157 men were picked up from the water or made it ashore in two boats.
Picture: From the National Museum of the US Navy, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted October 30 2020
550
To Napoleon, the way that politicians in Paris had forced metric measurements on the public was a lesson in bad government.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s frustration at the way that metres and kilos were forced on the people of France following the Revolution of 1789 has often been quoted with grim amusement by those who lament the passing of yards and ounces. And yet the lesson he was teaching us has rarely been taken to heart, either by his critics or his admirers, though it applies in so many areas of our common life.
Picture: © Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted October 29 2020
551
The modern match is ignited by friction, a simple idea but one which had not occurred to anyone until 1826, when a Stockton pharmacist dropped a stick.
Until 1826, lighting a fire, a candle or a pipe was not an easy business. Matches as we know them were in their infancy, a toilsome affair requiring a man to juggle little bottles of noxious chemicals and perhaps a pair of pliers. But that year, a merry pharmacist from Stockton-on-Tees called John Walker (1781-1859) liberated us from all this, and quite by accident.
Picture: © lvm15, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted October 25 2020
552
After one of the worst outrages in modern British history, Winston Churchill stood up in the House of Commons to label the Amritsar Massacre an act of terrorism.
On 13th April 1919, thousands of Sikhs crowded into the Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar in the Punjab for a religious festival. Led by intelligence reports to believe that Bolshevik (communist) agitators were among them, General Reginald Dyer quietly shut the gates and gave the order to fire on the crowd. A year later, Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill rose in the Commons to deliver his verdict.
Picture: © Jmacleantaylor, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted October 23 2020