On 11 October 1776, a British fleet commanded by Sir Guy Carleton defeated American gunboats at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, in New York state. Carleton sailed southwards from St Johns, a settlement in the near north, across Lake Champlain. As he passed Valcour Island, he sighted... More
The battle was fought on the Marchfeld, a plain northeast of Vienna on the opposite bank of the river Danube between 188,000 French and allied troops under Napoleon and 155,000 Austrians under Archduke Charles. After a defeat at Aspern-Essling in May, Napoleon needed a victory to restore his military reputation... More
The Battle of White Plains in New York pitted 14,000 British and German troops against 14,500 Americans on 28 October 1776. The battle was ‘drawn’, with the Americans pulling back and the British failing to block their escape route. The British General, Sir William Howe, led his army to White... More
While outwardly professing neutrality, Governor Claiborne Jackson secretly invited Confederate forces to ‘liberate’ Missouri. On 9 August 1861, Union General Nathaniel Lyon came upon a Confederate Army under General McCulloch, backed by Missouri militia under Sterling Price. Outnumbered 2 to 1, he decided to withdraw, after first launching an attack... More
The main operational bases for German U-Boat sorties were strung along the French Biscay coast, with massive concrete fortifications rendering their harbouring sites immune to Allied bombing. The strategic aim of U-Boat attacks on Allied convoys was to destroy shipping tonnage at a rate beyond replacement capacity; in their Happy... More
In 1981, the first cases of what is now known as AIDs (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) emerged in California and New York. It manifested itself as a rare pneumonia (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia – PCP) in four previously healthy gay men in California, and Kaposi’s Sarcoma, an unusually aggressive cancer, amongst... More
The domestication of animals and crops for human consumption occurred independently in a number of regions around the world between roughly 13,000 BCE and 6000 BCE. Dogs were one of the first species to be domesticated, playing an important role in hunting wild animals and later herding livestock animals for... More
By an 1868 Treaty, the Sioux were permitted to hunt in the territories to the west of their reservation in Dakota. However, when gold was discovered there in 1874, the government unilaterally rescinded this entitlement. Becoming aware the Sioux were defying their eviction, a three-pronged offensive was organized in spring... More
The plague arrived in the British Isles, via a Gascon sailor, in Melcombe in Dorset in June 1348. The first city to witness its ‘grievous ornament’, the tell-tale black pustules or ‘buboes’, would be Bristol. London’s outbreak coincided with Candlemas (1 November); by the following July it had reached Durham.... More
The Black Death, which is believed to have originated near China or the Mongolian steppes, was a catastrophic outbreak of plague that resulted in an estimated 25 million deaths across Europe alone. Caused by bacteria transmitted by rat-borne fleas, the disease took hold in both urban and rural areas and... More
In the earliest days of the colonies, the first black Africans imported were indentured, achieving their freedom by fulfilling a term of service, or by converting to Christianity. At this stage, captured Indians were more likely to be enslaved. Charles Town in the Province of Carolina was founded in 1670... More
Julius Caesar noted the smelting of iron on the Weald by native Britons at the time of his invasion. The Romans continued the industry, but it was discontinued after the Saxon invasions and not revived until the Medieval period. The blast furnace was pioneered in Belgium, with its first recorded... More