Short Articles and Information from History

Richard Hakluyt and Elizabethan Exploration

Richard Hakluyt was a chronicler of exploration in Elizabethan times and wrote The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation.

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Paul Kruger

Paul Kruger (1825-1904) was a great leader of the Boers, who were the descendants of the Dutch settlers in South Africa. He had many strange ideas.

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Father Damien (1840-1889)

In 1863 Father Damien, a Belgian priest, went to teach Christianity to the sick people of the Pacific islands. He was named a saint in Rome in 2009.

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Indian Mutiny and Sepoy Rebellion 1857

The Indian mutiny and sepoy rebellion of 1857 was a revolt against British rule in India. It began in Meerut and included the massacre at Cawnpore.

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Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

Sir Philip Sidney was one of the most renowned and best loved men at the court of Elizabeth I. He was of noble blood and named after Philip II of Spain.

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Klondike and California Gold Rush

For many people the words Gold Rush mean the rush of people to the area round the Klondike River in the Yukon. However, there were many gold rushes.

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Sir Francis Drake

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon in about 1544 and became vice admiral of the English fleet when it overcame the Spanish Armada in 1588.

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Loss of World War Two Convoy PQ17

In 1942, Convoy PQ17 was a heavily defended allied convoy taking urgently needed war materials from British ports to the Soviet Union.

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Ardeatine Caves Massacre in 1944

The Ardeatine Caves massacre on 24 August 1944 was a mass killing by the German occupying forces in Rome as a reprisal for a Resistance attack.

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The Barbary Pirates

From the 16th century up to a time as late as 1830, no ships sailing through the Mediterranean could feel quite safe from the attacks of pirates.

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Jefferson Davis - U.S. Civil War

Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America only for the duration of the American Civil War. He was captured in 1865.

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Gunpowder Plot, 1605

In 1605 an ambitious plan was made to blow up parliament on 5 November when the king and his ministers were inside the Palace of Westminster.

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The Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is a list of English towns, settlements, people, land and animals started in 1085 by William the Conqueror.

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The Bastille in Paris

The storming of the Bastille in Paris was the beginning of the French Revolution. It was destroyed soon after its capture.

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The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of six Dorset labourers who helped bring about the foundation of trade unions as their working conditions were harsh.

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Mary Lindell and WW2 Resistance

During the second world war Mary Lindell started to help army evaders by transporting them to the unoccupied zone of southern France.

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Death of Robin Hood

Robin Hood was born in 1160 and was killed at Kirklees Priory by his cousin, the prioress. His grave lies in the grounds of the Kirklees estate.

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The Jameson Raid in 1895

When Jameson led 600 troopers from Mafeking into the Boer republic of the Transvaal he was invading a country with which Great Britain was at peace.

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Edward Gibbon, The Writer

Edward Gibbon was a man who devoted his life to writing a single great work of history, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

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Earl of Shaftesbury

About Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury and his work as a leading social reformer in the 19th-century.

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MV Wilhelm Gustloff, Sunk in 1945

The German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was carrying thousands of German nationals to safety when she was sunk in 1945 by a Russian submarine.

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The Battle of Jutland, 1916

The Battle of Jutland was the only great sea battle of World War I. It was fought between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.

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Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, was Queen of England from 1533 until her execution in 1536 at the Tower of London on unproven charges./p>

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The Apache Wars 1849-1886

The Apache wars in the south-west United States were a number of armed engagements between the native American Apache indians and the US army./p>

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