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Twenty years ago, on 1st February 2003, the US space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts. It was the second space shuttle disaster after Challenger, which saw a catastrophic failure during launch in 1986. In both cases the “organisational culture” at NASA was blamed, because engineers’ advice was ignored. This...

All in the month of JANUARY The great North Sea Flood Remembering Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice in Wonderland The man who made the first-ever vaccine 27th January – Holocaust Memorial Day Are you a cold-water swimmer?  Then beware. The key to a good head start in life?  Stocking up because of the war **...

It was: 250 years ago, on 17th January 1773 that Captain James Cook’s ship, the HMS Resolution,  became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle, during his second voyage. 200 years ago, on 26th January 1823 that Edward Jenner, the British physician and immunologist who created the first vaccine, died. The vaccine was for...

Seventy years ago, on 31st January 1953 and stretching overnight into 1st February, the worst North Sea flood on record took place. North-western Europe was hit by extensive flooding when severe gales combined with a spring tide and very low pressure. Over 1,800 people were killed in the Netherlands, over 300 in Eastern England, and...

Just 125 years ago, on 14th January 1898, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English author, poet, photographer and mathematician, died of pneumonia. His pen name was Lewis Carroll, and he was best known for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and the poems Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark. A brilliantly inventive writer,...

Two hundred years ago, on 26th January 1823, Edward Jenner, the British physician and immunologist who created the first vaccine (for smallpox), died of a stroke. He was the son of a Gloucestershire clergyman and the brother of another – who brought him up when his father died. He was also a violinist, a poet...

Jews had come to Poland from all over Europe, where they found freedom to worship and trade. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland, or a little over 10 per cent of the population. In the Polish town of Osweicim, that figure was 58 per cent. Jews were...

The current fashionable middle-class lifestyle trend of cold-water swimming is putting thousands of new converts in danger, as they swim in cold water for longer than their bodies can take. One lido in London recently reported that they were having to deal with cases of hypothermia every day, as some people insisted on staying in...

Learn your times tables. It seems that being able to multiply is a “basic building block for success in life.” So says the Schools Minister, as multiplication test results for hundreds of thousands of nine-year-olds were recently published for the first time. Nick Gibbs said that being able to recall any multiple up to 12...

The sales of portable generators, torches and candles have soared in recent months, amid concerns that Britain may face power cuts if it cannot import enough energy to maintain supply this winter. As the National Grid warns of possibly tight supply levels, generator sales have tripled, torch sales are up by 43pc on 2021, and...

All in the month of DECEMBER The man who gave us safe milk and saved the silk industry Lord Reith – running the BBC 100 years ago 90 years of broadcasting the Royal Christmas Messages The mysterious ways of mistletoe Protect our birds Other ways to engage with your community this Christmas ** Editor:  We...

It was: 200 years ago, on 27th December 1822 that Louis Pasteur, French biologist, microbiologist, and chemist was born. One of the fathers of germ theory, he was best known for the pasteurisation process, which is named in his honour. 100 years ago, on 8th December 1922 that Lucian Freud, German-born British figurative artist and...