First German steam-hauled railway opened, 1835
The development of public railways in Britain attracted interest from the rest of Europe. King Ludwig of Bavaria sent the engineer Joseph von Baader to England to evaluate the new…
Greeks vote to abolish monarch, 1974
On 21st April 1967, a group of right-wing army officers seized power in Greece, fearing increased influence of left-wing politicians following the upcoming elections. King Constantine II initially supported the…
Publication of The Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson, 1854
On 9th December 1854, the weekly magazine The Examiner included a poem written by the poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson called “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. The narrative poem…
The 300 Million Yen Robbery, 1968
On the morning of 10th December 1968, four bank workers from the Kokubunji branch of the Nihon Shintaku Ginko were transporting 294,307,500 yen (then over $800,000) in a company car.…
First trans-oceanic yacht race, 1866
At 1pm on 11th December 1866, three schooners sailed from Sandy Hook, Connecticut, their destination was the Needles, near Cowes in the Isle of Wight. The three yachts taking part…
John Sinclair released from prison, 1971
Born in Flint, Michigan, in 1941, John Sinclair became a major figure in the late 1960s counter-culture movement. He wrote for the underground press, organised free festivals and managed the…
First expedition to reach the South Pole, 1911
On 14th December, a team of arctic explorers led by Roald Amundsen arrived at the South Pole. They had beaten a rival expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott, by 34…
Fats Waller died, 1943
Thomas Wright Waller was born in New York City on 21st May 1904. His mother, Adeline, taught him to play the reed organ with which he later accompanied his father,…
Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji, 1707
On 16th December 1707, Mount Fuji in Japan erupted. While this Hōei Eruption (as it became known) did not produce a lava flow, during its two week duration the eruption…
First successful powered airplane flight, 1903
At the dawn of the twentieth-century, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright left their cycle manufacturing business in Dayton, Ohio and travelled to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to undertake experiments…