1423
The popular monk was elected as bishop of Menevia in Wales in 550.
St David is the Patron Saint of Wales. His life shows just how closely connected the churches of Britain were to those of the Mediterranean world, even before the arrival of St Augustine of Canterbury in 597.
Picture: © Pauline E, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted February 28 2016
1424
The leader of 5th-century BC Athens lavished public money on the city and its adoring citizens, and wherever he led they followed.
The story of Pericles, the 5th-century BC Athenian leader, is one of personal magnetism and a matchless cultural legacy, and also a warning. Democracy should give us the freedom to demand more of ourselves. If we use it merely to demand more from politicians, we corrupt ourselves and them too.
Picture: © Thermos, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.5.. Source.
Posted February 26 2016
1425
A little fable of encouragement for all the suffering.
This touching tale appears almost out of nowhere in Jerome K. Jerome’s comic novel. It reminds us that only those who utterly despair understand hope, and only those who truly grieve know the meaning of joy.
Picture: © frielp, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted February 25 2016
1426
Michael Faraday showed that gases could be compressed and evaporated to preserve food and make ice.
The development of modern refrigeration involved French, American and Australian inventors, but it was a Scottish professor and an English chemist who made the key breakthroughs.
Picture: © Nonnietang, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted February 24 2016
1427
The prospect of facing daunting odds made his cousin quail, but Henry V acted like a true King.
The centrepiece of William Shakespeare’s play Henry V (?1599) is the Battle of Agincourt on October 25th, 1415, when Henry V clashed with the Dauphin (heir to the French crown) in a winner-takes-all struggle for England’s estates in France. That morning, an edgy Duke of Westmoreland regrets not bringing more men from England; but his cousin, King Henry, will have none of such talk.
Picture: © Mike Quinn, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted February 24 2016
1428
Hoping to please opinion at home, the French Emperor pressured the Turks into new outrages against their Christian population, and Russia hit back.
The Crimean War of 1853-1856 cost over 600,000 lives, and in the short term changed very little for those involved. It all started because the French Emperor, Napoleon III, wanted to curry favour with Roman Catholic opinion in Europe, but in no time at all France, Russia and Britain had committed themselves to positions from which they could not back down.
Picture: By William Simpson (1823-1899), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted February 22 2016