1087
MacPherson’s tireless efforts to promote Russian sport earned him a unique Imperial honour, and the enmity of the Communists.
Arthur Davidovitch MacPherson (1870-1919) was born in St Petersburg. He played a key part in establishing both Association football and tennis in his native land, helping Tsar Nicholas II to send a clear signal that Imperial Russia was becoming a modern and liberal society – the last thing the Communists wanted to see.
Posted June 12 2017
1088
British factory workers started a historic three-cornered league in the Russian city of St Petersburg.
In the 19th century, Russia’s Tsars began to recognise the link between freedom, trade and prosperity. Merchants from Britain and other European neighbours were encouraged to relocate industries such as shipping, steel and textiles to Imperial Russia’s increasingly open society, and none was more important than Association football.
Posted June 11 2017
1089
St Bede explains how the Exodus and the Ten Commandments are related to Easter and Whitsuntide.
Just as the Jewish festival of Passover commemorated the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt, so the Feast of Weeks fifty days later commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. St Bede explains how these two feasts are taken up in the Christian year as Easter and Whit Sunday or Pentecost.
Posted June 4 2017
1090
A marble statue in Venice bears witness to Europe’s long history of brave defeats and fruitless victories.
The Piraeus Lion has seen some remarkable history pass before his eyes, from the days when Scandinavian and English mercenaries were taking the fight to the Normans in Italy, to the day when the Turks came knocking imperiously on the doors of Vienna.
Posted June 2 2017
1091
Louisa Musgrove thought she had hit on a sure method of winning Captain Wentworth’s affections.
Anne Elliot has no expectation that Captain Wentworth will ever forgive her for turning down his proposal of marriage eight years before. Nonetheless, the Captain’s attentions to young Louisa Musgrove have been noted, and events on the promenade at Lyme in Dorset complicate matters further.
Posted June 1 2017
1092
A twelve-year-old girl from Lyme Regis made a historic discovery while selling seashells to tourists.
Around the time that the fictional Anne Elliot paid a visit to Lyme Regis in Jane Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion’, in real life a young girl named Mary Anning was chipping away at the nearby cliffs, and had already entered the history books.
Posted May 31 2017