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‘D-Day’ on 6th June, 1944, kicked off the Allied invasion of Europe and raised hopes of an end to the Second World War.
The Normandy Landings began with ‘D-Day’ set for 5th June, 1944, though unfavourable weather postponed it to the following day. The landings heralded the start of the Allied invasion of Europe and the end of the Second World War, though it was nearly a year before victory could be declared.
Posted May 28 2016
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The mayor and bishop of Zakynthos went to extraordinary lengths to protect the most vulnerable people of their island.
In February 1943, the Italians, who had captured the Greek island of Zakynthos two years earlier, threw the island’s bishop, Chrysostom, in an Athens jail. Ten months later he returned home to find the island now in the hands of the Nazis.
Posted May 27 2016
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A proudly British group of islands far off in the South Atlantic.
The Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean were discovered by the British in the 17th century, and given their first government by London early in the 19th. The islands are an important centre for farming and trade, a haven for extraordinary wildlife, and British to the core.
Posted May 25 2016
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England’s first and greatest historian explains why history is so important.
St Bede begins his famous ‘History’, written in AD 731, with an open letter to the King of Northumbria, Ceolwulf, explaining that history, rightly told, teaches us to refuse the evil, and choose the good. King Ceolwulf later resigned his throne to become a monk, and a saint.
Posted May 25 2016
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Elizabeth Bennet began to wonder if being Mr Darcy’s wife might have had its compensations.
Elizabeth Bennet has recently turned down a proposal of marriage from Mr Darcy; now, having recently visited his snobbish aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she is on a guided tour round Mr Darcy’s own magnificent country house in Derbyshire, ‘Pemberley’.
Posted May 24 2016