Quatrains of Omar Khayyám in English Prose

Independent on Saturday

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On This Day April 10

Apr 10, 2021

1652 Jan van Riebeeck starts building the clay-and-timber Fort de Goede Hoop, on the then coastline in what becomes Cape Town. 1710 Britain’s Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force. 1816 Samuel Taylor Coleridge reci

Saturday Star

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On This Day April 10

Apr 10, 2021

1652 Jan van Riebeeck starts building the clay-and-timber Fort de Goede Hoop, on the then coastline in what becomes Cape Town. 1710 Britain’s Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force. 1816 Samuel Taylor Coleridge reci

Saturday Star

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On November This Day 14

Nov 14, 2020

1532 King Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife, Anne Boleyn. 1666 Samuel Pepys reports on first blood transfusion (which took place between dogs) 1770 Scottish explorer James Bruce finds the source of the Blue Nile at Ethiopia.

Saturday Star

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On October This Day 31

Oct 31, 2020

683 During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and burns down. 1517 Defiant monk Martin Luther challenges the money-making pope by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg – an act that was to have monumental cons

Heritage Railway

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Grave Of Mallard’s Record-breaking Driver Joe Duddington Is Restored

Oct 26, 2021

JOE Duddington, who drove A4 Pacific No. 4468 Mallard on its record-breaking run in 1938, has finally been honoured 68 years after he was buried in an unmarked grave. The Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery in Doncaster had raised more than £5000 to place

BBC History Magazine

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Did You Know...?

Mar 17, 2022

The pantomime character Widow Twankey (shown in an 1896 image) derives her name from a type of cheap China tea. In 1861, the Victorian journalist and dramatist Henry James Byron wrote a play called Aladdin or The Wonderful Scamp which introduced the

The Oldie

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The Old Un’s Notes

Jun 30, 2021

* Have Oldie-readers who wear glasses ever thought where specs come from? The answer lies in a new book, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, by Travis Elborough. Elborough, himself bespectacled, traces the history of spec

The Railway Magazine

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Peter Nicholson 1948-2023

Dec 4, 2023

IT IS with great sadness that we report the death of railway author, journalist, photographer and preservationist Peter Nicholson, who passed away on October 30 aged 75. Peter had been an occasional contributor of photographs and articles to The Rail

Shooting Gazette

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Who Invented The Percussion Cap?

Oct 22, 2020

This is a bit like asking who invented the bicycle. The answer to this simple question is that we do not know. The humble percussion cap came into rapid universal use in the early 1820s, with a whole host of well-known gunmakers and sportsmen claimin

Saturday Star

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On This Day May 8

May 8, 2021

1828 International Red Cross founder and Nobel Prize winner Henri Dunant is born in Geneva. He was also a founder of the YMCA. 1879 George Selden files the first patent for a petrol-driven car. 1886 Invented by Atlanta doctor and pharmacist John

Saturday Star

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On November This Day 21

Nov 21, 2020

164BC Judas Maccabeus restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. 1620 The Pilgrim Fathers reach America, at what is today Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts. 1783 Jean-François Pilâtre de R

Independent on Saturday

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On This Day November 21

Nov 21, 2020

164BC Judas Maccabeus restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. 1620 The Pilgrim Fathers reach America, at what is today Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts. 1783 Jean-François Pilâtre de R

Independent on Saturday

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On This Day May 8

May 8, 2021

1828 International Red Cross founder and Nobel Prize winner Henri Dunant is born in Geneva. He was also a founder of the YMCA. 1879 George Selden files the first patent for a petrol-driven car. 1886 Invented by Atlanta doctor and pharmacist John

BBC World Histories Magazine

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Sir Francis Edward Younghusband: Soldier, Spy, Explorer And Mystic

Sep 10, 2020

Francis Younghusband (1863–1942) was born in Murree, British India, son of a general in the Indian army. Taken to England at a very young age, he was schooled at Clifton College, Bristol. By nature inclined towards cavalry patrol work – ahead of the

Heritage Railway

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One Of Oldest Steam Nameplates To Go Under Auction Hammer

Aug 30, 2022

ONE of the oldest steam locomotive nameplates ever to appear at auction will be going under the hammer at a Great Northern Railwayana sale on October 1. It is from LNWR Newton class 2-4-0 No. 1488 Murdock, which was built at Crewe in May 1866 (works