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It was: 750 years ago, on 7th March 1274 that St Thomas Aquinas, Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, philosopher, and theologian, died. 500 years ago, on 19th March 1524 that Florentine explorer Giovanni de Varrazano became the first European to reach the Atlantic coast of North America. He reached North Carolina, continued northwards to New...

The month of March brings us the Great Daffodil Appeal. This annual campaign is a fundraising initiative by the Marie Curie charity, which provides care and support to people living with terminal illnesses and their families. The Great Daffodil Appeal says: “Right now one in four people don’t get the care they need at the...

It was 30 years ago this month, on 12th March 1994, that the first 32 women were ordained as priests in the Church of England. The service was officiated by Bishop Barry Rogerson at Bristol Cathedral. Bishop Rogerson ordained the women in alphabetical order, so Angela Berners-Wilson was the very first woman to be ordained....

It was 65 years ago, on 9th March 1959 that the Barbie doll was first launched at the International Toy Fair in New York City.  So, 9th March is Barbie’s official birthday. Here are some things you may not know about the doll: Barbie is arguably the world’s most popular doll. In fact, more than...

You will probably have taken aspirin, in one form or other, many times. But how much do you know of its history? It was 125 years ago this month, on 6th March 1899 that the German pharmaceutical company Bayer first patented aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). But this is based on salicylic acid, which was used in...

Crufts has well been called the greatest dog show in the world. Everything about Crufts is big: last year more than 155,000 visitors flocked to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) at Birmingham for a show that lasted four days, to see more than 24,000 dogs compete. In addition, there were numerous displays of agility, obedience,...

World Water Day became a UN observance day in 1993. It wants to focus attention on the global water crisis, and raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people still living without access to safe water. It hopes to inspire action to tackle the water and sanitation crisis. This year, World Water Day 2024 will focus...

All in the month of February Ukraine – Two Years Later 20 years of Facebook Torvill and Dean – and the Bolero that made Olympic history The Day the Music Died Remembering Sir Ernest Shackleton Don’t forget those nestboxes! ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks at memorable dates in the month (this time,...

It was: 150 years ago, on 15th Feb 1874 that Sir Ernest Shackleton was born. This Irish-born British polar explorer was one of the leading explorers during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. 100 years ago, on 5th Feb 1924 that BBC Radio broadcast the ‘six-pips’ Greenwich...

Although Russian troops were massing near the borders of Ukraine in February 2022, we naively believed their denial that an attack was imminent. Since then, an all-out war has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. A quarter of the Ukrainian population has been displaced. Eight million are now...

Twenty years ago, on 4th February 2004, Facebook, the social media networking platform, was launched. Originally known as thefacebook.com, it was intended by Mark Zuckerberg and four other Harvard students – Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes – to create “a directory of information for college students”, but it soon expanded, and each...

Forty years ago, on 14th February 1984, figure skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the gold medal in ice dancing at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. They scored the first perfect 6.0 in Olympic history. Both are from Nottingham and, despite the obvious chemistry between them, they have never been romantically involved with each...