Melanie King 
ON THIS DAY: 28 June 1928 – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen flew into the Arctic on a rescue mission from which he would never return. Amundsen, already famous as the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, undertook what would become his final and fatal expedition when he joined an international effort to … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 16 June 1963 – Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she launched aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6. Born in 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, in what is now Russia, Tereshkova came from a working-class family. Her father, a tractor driver, was killed during the Soviet-Finnish War. She … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 4 June 1913 – during the running of the famous Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Emily Wilding Davison stepped onto the racetrack as the horses thundered past. She was struck by the horse Anmer, owned by King George V. The collision knocked Davison to the ground and brought down both horse … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 30 May 1971 – Norman Wilkinson, the British inventor of dazzle camouflage for ships during World War I, died on this day. During World War I, German submarines (U-boats) posed a severe threat to Allied shipping. Traditional camouflage – making ships blend into the sea – proved ineffective, because ships were still … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 22 May 1762 – The magnificent Trevi Fountain in Rome was officially inaugurated, marking the completion of what would become one of the most famous fountains in the world. The ambitious project took 30 years to complete. Construction was finished under architect Giuseppe Pannini, but the fountain itself was originally designed by … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 5 May 1795 – England introduced a tax on hair powder—an essential part of wig-wearing at the time. The fee was set at one guinea per year. Interestingly, the new law did not tax the powder itself; instead, it taxed the right to use hair powder. Wigs had first become fashionable among … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 22 April 1889 – The Oklahoma Land Rush was one of the most dramatic land-distribution events in United States history. In a single day, tens of thousands of settlers raced to claim land in what had previously been designated as Native American territory. After the American Civil War, the U.S. government increased … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 11 April 1864 – Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived in London to scenes of extraordinary public enthusiasm – one of the most remarkable popular welcomes ever afforded to a foreign political figure in Britain. His visit came just a few years after his dramatic campaigns in southern Italy, most famously the 1860 Expedition of … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 1 April 1957 – British viewers tuning in to the BBC’s news programme Panorama were treated to what would become one of the most famous April Fools’ pranks in broadcasting history: a straight-faced, three-minute report about a Swiss family harvesting spaghetti from trees in the canton of Ticino, near the Italian border. … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 27 March 1966 – a four-year-old collie named Pickles made headlines around the world after discovering the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy, better known as the World Cup. Just one week earlier, on 20 March, the trophy had been stolen while on public display at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. Remarkably, the thieves … Read more