1327
British sympathy for Roman imperial progress evaporated when officials began asset-stripping the country.
In AD 60, corrupt Roman officialdom pushed the dowager queen of the Iceni, in what is now Norfolk, too far. But Britain’s military Governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was far away in Anglesey (dealing, as he supposed, with the last British resistance) when he learnt of it.
Posted June 8 2016
1328
The Scottish missionary and medic believed that slavery could better be eradicated by trade than by force.
By the 1840s Britain had so repented of her involvement in slavery that she was the leading force in worldwide abolition. One of the most beloved anti-slavery campaigners was Scottish missionary, Dr David Livingstone.
Posted June 8 2016
1329
A young George Stephenson takes responsibility for the team spirit at Black Callerton mine.
In 1801, the job of brakesman at Black Callerton pit was given to a young George Stephenson. It was a very responsible job, as it involved lowering and raising miners in the deep and dangerous mineshaft, but Stephenson felt he had a wider duty to the whole mine.
Posted June 7 2016
1330
Howard gave his life to saving the ‘great gifts and strange inconsistencies’ of Britain’s unique democracy.
Leslie Howard Steiner (1893-1943) was born in London, to an English mother and a Jewish father who had emigrated from Hungary. Howard became the quintessential British matinee-idol, languid, slightly detached, but with a sense of something more beneath: a curious case of art imitating life.
Posted June 6 2016
1331
In a Christmas broadcast in 1940, actor Leslie Howard explained why British sovereignty was worth fighting for.
In a radio broadcast just before Christmas in 1940, British actor Leslie Howard spoke movingly of the remarkable and indeed unique character of his country, built on individual liberty and democratic government, and contrasted it with the ‘new European order’.
Posted June 6 2016
1332
Thetis snubs Eris, goddess of Discord, and sets off a series of events leading to the Trojan War.
The god Ares took the form of a bull and won a contest of strength against a majestic beast belonging to Paris, son of the King of Troy. The mortal’s grace in defeat impressed Zeus, but Paris (and many others) came to regret his new-found reputation on Olympus for sporting behaviour.
Posted June 5 2016