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Jill Dando, a popular TV presenter, newsreader, journalist and Crimewatch reporter, was shot dead on the doorstep of her house in Fulham 20 years ago this month, on 26th April 1999. It is still a mystery who killed her. Jill had been brought up as a Baptist, and her funeral took place at Clarence Park...

Manchester City Football Club, top of the pile in the Premier League last season and now in the running for more honours, was founded 125 years ago, on 16th April 1894 – as a reorganised church team. The original church team was established in 1880, initially by two churchwardens at St Mark’s (West Gorton), as...

It was 300 years ago, on 25th April 1719, that Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe was first published. The book is believed to be second only to the Bible in the number of translations made. The author was born Daniel Foe in London in 1860 and added the De to his name when he was...

 The Easter bunny is a gentle figure of folklore, who seems to have first come from the German Lutherans.  They depicted him as a rabbit who brought coloured Easter eggs to children.  The idea of an egg-giving hare went over to the US in the 18th century, when Protestant German immigrants in the Pennsylvania Dutch...

What was the largest ever Easter egg hunt? The most-ever entrants for an egg hunt competition was 12,773.  It was The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, as part of World Record London, in London, UK in April 2012. What was the largest-ever decorated Easter egg? This was built in March 2008, by Freeport in Alcochete, Portugal. ...

As a new tax year gets underway, did you know that the men who collect our taxes are working in one of the oldest professions known?  Archaeological evidence dating from 1900 BC includes a clay tablet recording a tax for public works and a papyrus scroll which reveals that even 4,000 years ago, tax-payers had...

All in the month of MARCH The man who built London’s sewers The World Wide Web – 30 years on We are getting smaller Help a toad to cross the road  Give your garden birds a feast! World Water Day 22nd March Let’s celebrate English Tourism Week – and raise the profile of our church!...

It was: 400 years ago, on 12th March 1619 that Richard Burbage, English actor, died.  A major shareholder in the Globe Theatre, and a friend and business partner of William Shakespeare. 200 years ago, on 28th March 1819 that Sir Joseph Bazalgette, British civil engineer, was born.  He created London’s sewer network as well as...

The creator of London’s sewer network – as well as several notable bridges, embankments and streets – was born 200 years ago, on 28 March 1819. He was the civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, a man whose name deserves to be far better known than it is, because of the huge benefits he brought to the...

The World Wide Web was invented 30 years ago this month, on 12th March 1989, by Tim Berners-Lee while he was working at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory. His innovation – a global hypertext document system originally described by his superior as “vague but exciting” – was intended to help scientists share data across a then...

Well, at least our families are! In 1961 there were 16.6 million households in the UK with an average of 3.0 persons. In 1981 there were 20.6 million families with 2.7 persons each. By 2001 we were 24.5 million households, with 2.4 people in each. By 2021 we’ll have 28.3 million households, though still with...

This month common toads all over the country will be on the move, heading back to the breeding ponds where they themselves were spawned. Sadly, many will never make it, because of busy roads. If you like toads, you can help them by joining the Toads on Roads project. It keeps a sharp eye out...