In This Week in … 1889, the Eiffel Tower opens in a ceremony that saw an enormous French tricolor raised and fireworks set off from the second platform (31 March 1889); 1918, the Royal Air Force is formed by amalgamating the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service (1 April 1918); 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon discovers Florida and claims the territory for the […]
Monthly Archives: March 2014
If you are powerful, celebrated or heroic you may be remembered by having things named after you. Schools, airports, roads, squares and public buildings are all dedicated to politicians, royalty, celebrities and heroic figures from a nation’s past. One way to be immortalised is to have a popular food, drink or dish named after you. The only danger is that the product becomes so ubiquitous that […]
The people behind the menu – 1
Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 26 March 2014 Magenta gets its name from a bloody battlefield in Italy In the mid-nineteenth century, chemists were having financial success by creating chemical compounds for new shades of colour. French chemist Francois-Emmanuel Verguin invented a reddish-purple dye and called it “fuchsine” as it evoked the color of a fuchsia in bloom. A similar colour was created by British chemists Chambers […]
California is one of the most iconic of America’s 50 states. Its film industry has shaped world culture and ensured that one of the most enduring images of America is the golden sands and rolling waves of its Pacific coastline. But what if America had been thwarted in its westward expansion? Could California, Oregon and Washington have become the 11th Canadian province of New Albion? . […]
The State of California or the Province of New Albion?
In This Week in … 1603, Queen Elizabeth dies at the age of 69 after reigning over England for 44 years. The Tudor dynasty dies with her (24 March 1603); 1957, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Rome establishing the EEC (25 March 1957); 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel (This Side of Paradise) is published (26 March 1920); 1905, […]
At the end of the nineteenth century, it looked likely that the age of imperialism would reach its apogee with the carve up of China. The world’s most populous and once most powerful state faced colonial rule, as Western powers considered ‘carving the Chinese melon’ following their ‘scramble for Africa’. In the end, China retained her sovereignty, but this was not the most obvious outcome. I’m […]
China’s colonial escape
Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 18 March 2014 The site of the former US Embassy in Tehran is now a museum to the ‘Great Satan’ The New York Times provides this article on the fate of the former US Embassy: “The old American Embassy building in the heart of this capital city was recently opened to tours for Westerners. It is now a museum run by the […]
In the nineteenth century, Rome was troubled by its river. The Tiber had produced the Great Stink of 1855 and had flooded the Eternal City in 1870. What should the dynamic leaders of a newly unified Italy do with the fetid river that ran through its capital? Giuseppe Garibaldi had a radical solution. He wanted to remove the Tiber from the city completely. . Tiber rolls […]
Garibaldi’s plan to divert the River Tiber and change Rome forever
In This Week in … 461 CE., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland (17 March 461); 1834, the 6 Tolpuddle Martyrs are sentenced to Australia’s New South Wales penal colony for their trade union activities (18 March 1834); 1931, Nevada legalises gambling in an attempt to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Population of Las Vegas? c. 5,000 (19 […]
Each of the states of the United States of America has its own flag. Many are nothing more than drab depictions of the state seal against a navy blue background. Some are a little more adventurous, such as Maryland’s heraldry-inspired riot of colour and shapes. But one sticks out more than any of the others; Hawaii is the only flag to depict the Union Flag of […]
Why does Hawaii’s flag include the Union Flag?
Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 11 March 2014 Quick march – cocaine used in the First World War and criminalised soon after In 1914 the British Army issued ‘Forced March’ tablets containing cocaine to troops. In 1920, cocaine was banned in the UK under the Dangerous Drugs Act. Much of the pressure for the ban came from stories of ‘crazed soldiers’ who had been exposed to the […]
On 23 May 1915, Italy declared war on its former ally, Austria-Hungary. The Triple Alliance was reduced to an alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary and Europe no longer seemed quite as finely balanced into two opposing camps as it had at the outbreak of war. But why did Italy abandon the Central Powers? Italy had always been the shakiest member of the European alliance system. By […]
Why did Italy join the Allies in 1915?
In This Week in … 241 BCE, the Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet in the Battle of the Aegates Islands and bring the First Punic War to an end (10 March 241 BCE). 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary and leader of the Soviet Union (11 March 1985). 1933, 8 days after inauguration, FDR gives his first “fireside chat” radio broadcast to the nation from […]
What connect David Cameron, the 12th Duke of Grafton and Diana, Princess of Wales? They are all descendants of royal bastards, the illegitimate children of kings from across the centuries. Their illegitimacy barred them from succession to the Crown, but family ties ensured they would be granted titles, lands, wealth and power. And some started dynasties that thrive to this day. Over nearly a thousand years […]
Royal Bastards
Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 4 March 2014 The final exam before war Professor Margaret Snowdon’s definitive account of the history leading up to the outbreak of the First World War (The War that Ended Peace: How Europe abandoned peace for the First World War) includes a snippet showing how clearly the French anticipated invasion. The final exam at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr (one of […]
After the defeat of the Confederacy, thousands of Americans decided to emigrate to Brazil. They dreamed of building a new slave-owning society in a country almost as large as continental America with plenty of undeveloped land. Ironically, their presence would highlight slavery as an issue and lead to its eventual abolition in Brazil. The Economist’s 2013 Christmas Special tells the story of the murder of Joaquim […]
Deporting Dixie to Brazil
In This Week in … 1284, the Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England (3 March 1284). 1933, Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States of America (4 March 1933). 1946, Churchill delivers his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri (5 March 1946) 1857, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in the Dred Scott case […]