Melanie King 
ON THIS DAY: 17 November 1950 – 15-year-old Tenzin Gyatso officially became the 14th Dalai Lama. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lamas are manifestations of Avalokiteshvara, also known as Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Amongst many Buddhists, there is the belief that Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, intervenes … Read more
A Scottish fleet of five ships put ashore on the Darién Gap, on the Isthmus of Panama, with 1,200 people. Bent on establishing a Scottish colony, New Caledonia, in the impenetrable rainforest, the settlers christened their capital New Edinburgh. In the seventeenth century, Scotland’s economy was small, its exports were limited, and the nation was … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 30 October 1938 – The War of the Worlds radio play caused mass hysteria across America. Twenty-three-year old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air, based in New York, adapted H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds into a series of fake news bulletins describing a Martian invasion of … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 23 October 1998 – Several thousand people assembled at Khulile, a small village near Debe Nek in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Nontetha Nkwenkwe, a Xhosa prophetess, healer, and black nationalist, was officially buried 60 years after her death. Nontetha had died 600 miles (960 km) away in 1935 while incarcerated in … Read more
ON THIS DAY: October 15, 1666 – Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that King Charles II was wearing a vest. This new garment was described by Pepys as ‘a long cassock close to the body, of black cloth, and pinked with white silk under it, and a coat over it…’ This marked the first … Read more