December 22nd - 28th
On 22nd December…
1880 - George Eliot the English novelist died. George Eliot was the pseudonym (pen name) of Mary Ann Evans. She used it to disguise the fact she was a female writer because female writers were not taken seriously and were usually associated with romantic novels.
1943 - Beatrix Potter, author of children’s stories such as the ‘Tales of Peter Rabbit’ died.
On 23rd December…
1732 - Richard Arkwright was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. Richard was an industrialist and inventor whose pioneering use of factory production systems made his factories more productive and profitable than his competitors. He was well known throughout the textile industry at the time.
On 24th December…
King John was born
1167 - King John of England was born in Oxford. He was the youngest son of King Henry II and younger brother to King Richard I, the Lionheart.
John was the king who was forced to sign the Magna Carta which restricted the power of the monarchy by the English barons who had rebelled against him, he was also the king who lost the crown jewels.
1524 - Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer died. He is famed for his voyages to India travelling around the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern tip of Africa.
On 25th December…
The Conqueror was crowned King of England
1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey following his defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066.
1642 - Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England. He is the scientist who developed the theory of gravity, and the laws of motion which became the basis of physics. He also developed a new type of mathematics and invented the reflecting telescope which uses mirrors to reflect light and form an image. Most major telescopes used in astronomy today are reflecting telescopes.
On 26th December…
King Stephen grabbed the English crown before his cousin, the Empress Matilda, could get her chance
1135 - King Stephen was crowned in Westminster Abbey a little over three weeks after the death of his uncle, King Henry I. Stephen basically stole the crown from his cousin Matilda, the daughter of Henry, to whom he had pledged allegiance along with many other barons and noblemen. His reign was blighted by The Anarchy, a civil war with Matilda about who was the rightful monarch.
1791 - Charles Babbage, the inventor of a calculating machine was born in London. He is also famous for conceiving (getting the idea for) the first automatic digital computer, but he never actually built it.
2004 - The Boxing Day Tsunami hit Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and edges of the Indian Ocean killing over 230,000 people and damaging thousands of miles of coastland. The tsunami was created when a 9.1 magnitude earthquake occurred under the ocean floor.
On 27th December…
Darwin set off on a voyage of discovery from Portsmouth on the HMS Beagle
1831 - Charles Darwin set sail from Plymouth, England on the ship HMS Beagle to begin his voyage of discovery. The journey lasted five years, and his discoveries and experiences led him to his theory of evolution, and his book ‘The Origin of Species’.
1836 - An avalanche in Lewes, Sussex killed 8 people. It is the deadliest avalanche in British history and happened not in the mountains of Scotland or Wales where you would expect it to happen but in a town in southern England a few miles inland from the coast. On Christmas Eve of 1836 heavy snowfall and fierce winds combined to make blizzards and massive snow drifts which covered the land. By night time on Christmas Day a deep layer of snow had formed on the sheer edge of a nearby hill. Despite warnings given to the residents of nearby cottages of the danger they were in, they refused to leave their homes and on 27th December the snow fell from the hillside covering the houses below. Witnesses said the cottages were ‘physically swept into the road by a huge wave of snow leaving nothing to be seen except an enormous white heap.’ Of the 15 people in the cottages who were buried under the snow, only 7 were pulled out alive. Today a pub called the Snowdrop Inn stands on the site where the cottages once stood.
On 28th December…
Queen Mary II died of smallpox
1694 - Queen Mary II, daughter of the deposed King James II, died of smallpox. She had ruled as Queen of England alongside her husband William III for 5 years. Mary was the first, and so far only, Queen of England to have equal rule alongside the King; this was because she insisted that her husband have equal rule with her when she was invited to take the throne when her father was deposed.
1734 - Rob Roy, the Scottish folk hero and outlaw died. His real name was Robert MacGregor, but he often signed himself as Rob Roy in reference to his red hair. He was seen as a Scottish Robin Hood and is buried in Balquhidder in Perthshire, Scotland.