The Battle of Aspern-Essling (21 May 1809) punctured Napoleon’s aura of invincibility. Although no rout, it represented his first defeat in a major engagement, and demonstrated the growing shortcomings of the formidable Grande Armée. Swelled by raw recruits and non-French contingents, it was no longer the perfect instrument of Napoleon’s... More
Unlike the Zeppelin raids, which took place at night, the Gothas’ first attacks were in daylight. These powerful aircraft flew in formation, like a flock of birds. On 7 July, the German Kagohl 3 unit flew 22 Gothas over the east coast and across Dartford on a raid over London,... More
The Kagohl 3 unit were used on 25 May 1917 and 13 June 1917 to fly Gotha daylight raids. The Gothas were ‘monsters’ with a 70-ft wingspan, powerful Mercedes engines and precision bombing capability. They each carried 13 bombs and flew in formation. The Germans thought that the Gotha would... More
In 1397, the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (including most of Finland) became allied under a single monarch by the Kalmar Union (so called after the town in southeast Sweden), and in 1460 the Germanic province of Holstein was also incorporated. The Union was formed to counter the... More
By 1800, fluency in English was seen as essential for social advancement in Ireland. It was the language of the courts and of commerce. The opening of Maynooth Seminary near Dublin (1795) by a British government grant cemented English as the language of the Catholic clergy and thus, of education,... More
In 1841, Irish speakers numbered some 4 million. Fifty years later, after the depredations of the Great Famine and endemic mass emigration, that number had dwindled to under 700,000. English had become not just the language of socio-economic advancement but survival. Concern at the decline sparked an attempted revival, exemplified... More
Following the fall of Constantinople in 1204 much of the Byzantine Empire was partitioned amongst newly created Crusader states. Latin rule in the east was never secure, and some of that instability derived from the concessions made to the increasingly dominant Venetians in order to secure their assistance in the... More
In 1814 Napoleon’s forces, depleted and weary after two years of successive defeats in Russia and central Europe, were now threatened by a coalition invasion of France itself. Outnumbered by the combined might of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and several German states, Napoleon conscripted further... More
Pharaoh Senusret III (1878–1839 BCE) was venerated as a god in the Semna region on the Nubian borders, out of awe for the scale of his building projects. He erected massive twin fortresses at Semna and Kumma on opposite banks of the Nile. To reinforce Egypt’s defences against Nubian or... More
Assassination was the favoured route to succession among the Delhi sultans, and perhaps the most original was perpetrated by Muhammad Tughluq (1325–51) who had his father crushed under a collapsing gazebo by stampeding elephants. His ways did not mend. Ibn Battuta, the Arab explorer, a (often terrified) visitor records ‘the... More
A heritage locomotive now plying the Denver and Rio Grande commemorates its builders ‘who went everywhere the hard way’. Its spectacular route attracts tourist wishing to view, Royal Gorge, the ‘Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River’, its dizzying grades in the Rockies and the 6.2-mile (9.9-km) Moffat Tunnel (1928). Founded... More
In 1778 William Butler, a Loyalist militia captain, and Joseph Brant, a mission-educated Mohawk chief, joined forces in raiding American settlements in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Most of their forces were Indian, and enraged by previous destruction of their own villages by rebels. ‘Butler’s Rangers’ were notorious for their... More