On 30th April 1980, terrorists stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and took twenty-six hostages. A six-day siege ensued, during which the embassy’s press attaché,…
Military history and RPG books
Category: History
I’m not a fan of Christmas songs, so I thought it would be interesting to make a playlist of music related to, or about history. With one exception, all the songs here are from my personal collection. Consequently, there’s a lot of folk and rock, particularly Billy Bragg and Iron Maiden. I’ve added a few notes about some tracks.
Last week, The Sun ran a story about how the CIA wanted to force Britain to hand over the Falkland Islands to Argentina and force…
“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” The above words were spoken by Sir…
It is generally accepted that the First World War was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip. In recent years, however, an extra twist has been added: that the only reason Princip was in a position to fire at the Archduke was because he happened to be eating lunch when the Archduke’s car drove past. Millions of lives were lost during the war that followed. The Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Second World War, and even the atomic bomb can arguably be attributed to the First World War, and thus, to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It’s sobering to think that all of those terrible things might never have happened if Princip hadn’t felt a little hungry and stopped off at Schiller’s delicatessen for a sandwich.
The sandwich theory, however, is deeply flawed. The Smithsonian blog published an excellent debunking of it back in 2011. It appears that the original source of the sandwich was a novel by a Brazilian TV host. The post is very interesting, and well worth a read.
Today is the 72nd anniversary of the destruction of Lidice. Last year, the Unearthed project created a sculpture to raise awareness of, and remember, both the atrocity and the incredible generosity of North Staffordshire’s miners.
The story of Lidice is one that should be shared far and wide. If you don’t know it, see this blog post. If you do know it, tell others. Don’t let the atrocity be forgotten – it’s when we forget that we allow such things to happen again. But also, don’t let the miners’ generosity be forgotten – it can, and should, inspire future generations to be the best they can be.
As well as a beautiful sculpture, the project created a series of videos, which illustrate the story of Lidice.
My wife posted the following to Facebook earlier today. I’m copying it here with her permission, because I think it deserves to be shared far…
I’ve written before that I’m not really concerned about bookshops closing, but I do care when libraries close. In a similar vein, I am a…
In 1982, most Britons didn’t know where the Falkland Islands were. That changed when Argentina invaded, but although many Britons are aware of events during the Conflict, knowledge of the events that led to it seems to be much less widespread. The death of Baroness Thatcher, and her funeral (with military honours) is bound to bring the subject to the public’s attention. I think it’s worth remembering how her government’s actions led the Argentinians to believe that an invasion would not be contested.
Below I have set out a timeline of events leading up to the invasion.
Earlier this month, I saw a film put on by the Unearthed Project at the Potteries Museum. The project aims to improve awareness of the…