1495
An English monk warned of a flaw in the world’s most widely-used calendar.
Until 1752, the British Isles used the Julian Calendar brought here by the Romans in the first century AD. It had its problems, as even vocal champion St Bede acknowledged; but when Rome updated it in 1582 they trampled needlessly on ancient Church rules, offending the Greeks and Russians, and the Reformation was in full swing, which meant the English were in no mood to comply either.
Posted November 5 2015
1496
The ruthless diamond magnate and Prime Minister of the Cape divided opinion in his own lifetime as he still does today.
Basil Williams sat on the board of inquiry into the infamous ‘Jameson Raid’ of 1895 that was instigated by Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) and helped to ignite the Boer Wars. He came to know Rhodes quite well, and just after the Great War published a biography of him in which he suggested ways for the reader to respond constructively to the challenge of Rhodes’s controversial life and vision.
Posted November 5 2015
1497
Robert Clive helped to establish a lasting bond between India and Britain, laying the foundations of modern India.
Robert Clive was a brilliant and courageous officer in the private army of the British East India Company. More than anyone else, he ensured that India’s princes and people became partners with Britain rather than Dutch or French possessions, so shaping the character of India’s democratic, legal and economic institutions to this day.
Posted November 5 2015
1498
Only an anonymous tip-off prevented England losing her sovereignty as well as her King.
The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to assassinate King James I and his entire government on the 5th of November, 1605. Had it succeeded, it would have ended English sovereignty and made England and Scotland junior partners to the great Catholic states of Europe.
Posted November 5 2015
1499
General Gordon’s death was a sensation and a scandal in its day.
In 1884, General Charles Gordon was sent to the Sudan, then under British control, to deal with a revolt by Muhammad Ahmad, who claimed to be a figure of Islamic prophecy, the ‘Mahdi’. Gordon found himself cut off in Khartoum, and the events that followed forced Prime Minister William Gladstone to resign.
Posted November 5 2015
1500
What Dr Mortimer saw beside the body of Sir Charles Baskerville sent him hastily to London, to consult Sherlock Holmes.
The legend of the Baskerville hound, a ghostly dog haunting every generation of that respectable Devonshire family, was not the kind of thing a man of science like Dr Mortimer took seriously. Yet after Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead, something made him rush up to London to consult Sherlock Holmes.
Posted November 3 2015