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Modern people, distraught if deprived of ‘all mod con’, must be baffled how men survived year after year of living much of the time in the trenches of the Western Front. For month after month everything was ankle deep in mud. These were their living quarters, complete with primitive toilet arrangements, permanent damp, rats and...

During the World Cup in July we were serenaded with 26 assorted National Anthems – songs intended to infuse players and fans with patriotic fervour. Most of them were predictable. Even if you didn’t know the language, you could guess the message: ‘our country’s better than your country’. A few sounded downright aggressive, but without...

The youngest person to swim the English Channel was a British boy, Tom Gregory, who was 11 years and 336 days old when he did it 30 years ago this month, on 6th September 1988. Tom was trained for the event by the legendary John Bullet, who ran the local pool in Eltham, south-east London....

Google, the internet search company, was founded 20 years ago this month, on 4th September 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both students at Stanford University in California.  The company was initially based in a friend’s garage. The friend – Susan Wojcicki – is now CEO of YouTube. The company developed from an idea for...

Eighty years ago this month, on 30th September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England in triumph after signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler, declaring there would be “peace for our time”. This is often misquoted as “peace in our time” (as in the Book of Common Prayer) and in that form was...

When did you last see a bobby on the beat?  A recent national survey found that nearly half of us have not seen a uniformed police officer in our area in the past year. The finding comes as police chiefs say they are struggling with cuts in funding. The inspectorate has previously raised concerns over...

Girl Guides are to learn how to look after money, after the introduction of a new ‘saver’ badge.  Girlguiding UK has created the badge with the aim of improving financial literacy among teenagers. The girls, aged 10 to 14, must prove that they can manage cash efficiently, budget effectively and put aside money for the...

All in the month of August Carnage in Omagh Sir Terry Wogan – a national treasure The spawning of al-Qaeda – from militant Sunni Islamists Diary of a Momentous Year August 1918 – the Battle of Amiens</strong THE WAY I SEE IT – Rating the ‘experience’ Beware foreign plants Millennials see a bleak future August wars...

It was: 100 years ago, from 8th August to 11th November that the Hundred Days Offensive in France and Belgium, took place. Allied Victory leading to the end of the 1st World War and the collapse of the German empire. 90 years ago, on 6th August 1928 that Andy Warhol, iconic American Pop artist, photographer...

It was a busy Saturday afternoon in August, in the market town of Omagh, Northern Ireland.  A maroon Vauxhall Cavalier with false number plates was parked outside the outfitters’ shop, S.D. Kells.  Just after a quarter past two it blew up, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured 220 others.  It...

Sir Terry Wogan, the Irish radio and TV presenter, was born 80 years ago, on 3rd August 1938. He was the epitome of a much-loved broadcaster – unthreatening, amiable and with a tendency to laugh at himself. Born in Limerick, Ireland’s third largest town, Terry showed no initial signs of immortality. His father was a grocer,...

The terrorist organisation al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden 30 years ago, on 11th August 1988, though there is still dispute about the precise nature and purpose – and indeed spelling – of it. Translatable into English as “The Base”, al-Qaeda was formed initially to fight the influx of the Soviet Union into Afghanistan, but...