ON THIS DAY: 9 June 68 AD

Nero

Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide at the age of 30.  Nero was adopted at the age of three by his great-uncle, Emperor Claudius, who had married his mother, Agrippina. Nero ascended to the throne at the age of 17 in AD 54 following Claudius’s death (caused by a dish of mushrooms poisoned by Agrippina). Initially, … Read more

ON THIS DAY:  31 May 1859

Big Ben

The Great Bell, known as ‘Big Ben’ in the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster, started ticking for the first time. The clock, designed by Edmund Beckett Denison and constructed by John Dent, chimed for the first time on July 11, 1859. A clock tower is thought to have been on the present site … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 23 May 1934 

Bonnie and Clyde

Bank robbers Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut ‘Champion’ Barrow were gunned down on State Highway 154 south of Gibsland, Louisiana. Bonnie was 23 years old, and Clyde was 25. Six officers hiding in the bushes fired 130 rounds into the car that Bonnie and Clyde had slowed down to assist a decoy car parked … Read more

ON THIS DAY: May 14, 1762

Orange girl

As reported in Lloyd’s Evening Post, ‘Yesterday a Gentlewoman going along Cheapside trod upon a bit of orange peel, by which accident she fell down and sprained her ankle. The like accident happened to a Gentleman in Fleet Street the same day. As many accidents of this kind daily happen, oranges being plenty, it is … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 26 April 1986 

Chernobyl

The meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine occurred. The accident was caused by a system test that ultimately led to explosions, releasing radioactive contaminants that spread across Europe and the Soviet Union. Two plant workers died in the explosion, and 28 people died within weeks due to acute radiation syndrome. 350,000 people … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 6 April 1787 

East Indies Tea Auction

Sales by Candle, as reported in The Times at the New York Coffee House, Sweeting’s Alley, announced the availability of the following goods by auction: 30,000 fine parchment beaver skins, 1,000 beaver coats, and 30,000 ‘Deer in the Hair and Shaved’ [this means the deer skin has been cleaned of flesh]. Sales by candle were popular in … Read more

ON THIS DAY: April 1st, 1918

© Imperial War Museum, London.

The Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom was founded. It amalgamated the Royal Flying Corps (April 13, 1912 – April 1, 1918) and the air arm of the Royal Naval Air Service (July 1, 1914 – April 1, 1918). The newly created RAF was the result of the Smuts Report, prepared by South African … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 26 March 1998

Marshall Applewhite

21 women and 18 men were found dead at 18341 Colina Norte in Rancho Santa Fe, California. All were members of a cult named Heaven’s Gate, and they had committed suicide by drinking vodka laced with phenobarbital and apple sauce. The cult leaders, Peep (Marshall Herff Applewhite) and Bo (Bonnie Lu Nettles), were convinced that … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 14 March 1959

Hai ba trung Dong Ho

In Saigon, Vietnam, a celebration was organised to commemorate two sisters who, in 43 AD, led an uprising to banish their Chinese occupiers. The Trưng sisters hailed from a tribal, Lạc Việt aristocratic family in a district that is now part of modern-day Hanoi. When Trưng Trắc’s husband was executed for opposing the Han regime, … Read more

ON THIS DAY: 3 March 1845

Oyster Eaters by Jacob Lucasz Ochtervelt circa 1665-1669 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

An advertisement appeared in The Times asking for an oyster dealer ‘who does not wash his hands in the same water as the oysters, and who is not fronted when civilly asked to wash them before he uses them to open the oysters’. Nowadays we associate oysters with champagne and luxury. But in the nineteenth century they … Read more