Category Archives: HISTORY
On this day – 17th May
1630 Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi saw the belts on Jupiter’s surface
Who was Alexander Selkirk?
Cast away on a desert island, surviving on what nature alone can provide, praying for rescue but fearing the sight of a boat on the horizon. These are the imaginative creations of Daniel Defoe in his famous novel Robinson Crusoe. Yet the story is believed to be based on the real-life experience of sailor Alexander Selkirk, marooned in 1704 on a small tropical island in the Pacific for more than four years, and now archaeological evidence has been found to support contemporary records of his existence on the island.
On this day – 16th May
1770 Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
Magna Carta
Magna Carta (Latin for “Great Charter”) is one of the most celebrated documents in English history. At the time it was the solution to a political crisis in Medieval England but its importance has endured as it has become recognised as a cornerstone of liberty influencing much of the civilized world.
On this day – 15th May
1718 London lawyer James Puckle patents the machine gun
1918 The world’s first regular air mail service begins between Washington and New York
1957 Britain’s first H-bomb is dropped on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean
1988 The USSR begins evacuating troops from Afghanistan