Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 142 i All About History

Growing up in London, I’m not sure I appreciated just how much history was on my doorstep. I enjoyed a museum as much as anyone, but when I was young I didn’t fully understand the degree to which every corner had a story to share. And no building in England’s capital is quite as storied as the Tower of London. A fortress, a vault, sometimes even a zoo of sorts; it’s had a lot of roles to play. However, it’s most famous for being a prison and the grounds for some of the most famous deaths and executions in British history. If these walls could speak, I’m not sure I would be able to sleep at night having listened to them. Thankfully, we don’t need to conjure any spectres to…

Originally built by the French between 1755 and 1758, Fort Ticonderoga became the site of several important battles during the Revolutionary Wars. Originally named Carillion, it remained under French control until it was captured by the British during a fierce battle in 1759. Following this it was renamed Fort Ticonderoga and became a British outpost, still in operation when the Revolutionary Wars began in 1775. It was undermanned and undervalued, with barely more than 50 British troops stationed there. However, to the Thirteen Colonies the fort was strategically important. Located on the Hudson River, it guarded the northern route towards Canada. On 10 May 1775 the Green Mountain Boys, a contingent of American troops under the command of Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold, launched a surprise attack on the…

For more than 900 years, the Tower of London has guarded the north bank of the River Thames. At various times a royal palace, menagerie, public record office, mint, arsenal, bank vault and prison, it has played a central role in England’s history. Indeed, it has come to symbolise large parts of it. More than three million people visit the Tower yearly, eager to explore a site that has famously held traitors, heretics, and even royalty. Not to mention the Crown Jewels. When he took London in late 1066, William the Conqueror commissioned the original building to adjoin the southeast corner of Alfred the Great’s rebuilt Roman walls “as a defence against the inconstancy of the numerous and hostile inhabitants,” wrote William of Poitiers. Within 12 years, the temporary structure…

Piracy in the Caribbean began on a small scale, with a small but growing number of attacks being recorded from 1714 on. One of these early pirates was Benjamin Hornigold, who quit Jamaica to base himself in the Bahamas. It was a struggling backwater of a colony, its settlers eking out a threadbare existence through farming and salvage. By the time Hornigold arrived in Nassau in 1714, there wasn’t any real authority in the islands, so he was able to establish himself in the small port. Then, when Henry Jennings and his treasure-laden followers arrived in Nassau in early 1716, the scale of the problem grew exponentially. In all, it was reckoned as many as 2,000 pirates were operating between 1714 and 1725. For the most part, pirates were largely…

The success of the 1944 Normandy Campaign had come at a heavy cost. Having sustained over 200,000 casualties, the battered and bruised Allies faced new logistical challenges as their advance took them further and further away from the beachhead secured months earlier. While Germany’s decisive defeat in the Falaise Gap had enabled sizable gains in France and across the Belgian border, the enemy had retained control of several channel ports, preventing the Allies from shipping supplies into these facilities. A crisis threatened if war materiel could not be brought to the continent and then transported to the liberating forces on a far larger scale. Located on the left flank closest to the French coastline, the First Canadian Army was allocated the unenviable task of besieging the channel ports. Unfortunately, the…

As one of the wealthiest landowners in North America at the time, George Washington had access to all manner of meals and delicacies on his Mount Vernon estate. However, due to his famous dentures and perhaps his frequent time spent campaigning on battlefields, he preferred simple and soft foods. Among them were cornmeal pancakes known as hoe cakes or Johnny cakes. The pancake originated with America's indigenous population and was then taken up by the settlers who made their home on the continent as well as enslaved people they brought with them. They were made from a simple cornmeal mush, like an unleavened version of cornbread, and typically served with honey. How they got their English name is less clear. One story has them being made on field hoes by…

6 May 1950 TOLLUND MAN DISCOVERED While cutting peat in the Bjældskovdal bog near Silkeborg in Denmark, two men discovered a body. It had been so well preserved that they initially believed that the body belonged to a recent murder victim and alerted the police. However, upon further examination it was established that the mummified body actually dated from the 5th century BCE. It is believed that the Tollund Man, as the body was later christened, was a victim of human sacrifice who was killed at approximately 40 years old. 4 April 1949 NATO IS BORN With concern growing following World War II about the intent and activities of the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom…

Nestled in the south of France is one of Europe’s smallest sovereign states. The Principality of Monaco has a reputation as a luxury tourist destination, with the tiny area being ranked as one of the wealthiest places on Earth. With just under 40,000 inhabitants today, the state is governed by a constitutional monarchy. Since 1297, when the Genoese Francesco Grimaldi captured the castle of Monaco, the royal rulers of the state have all been members of the House of Grimaldi and while the Grimaldis are known as one of the oldest royal houses of Europe, they have also become famous for the notorious curse that is said to haunt the family. The story of the curse goes something like this: in the 13th century, Rainier I (the cousin of Francesco Grimaldi…

Founded in 1824, the National Gallery houses some 2,300 paintings and contains one of the finest art collections in the world. Since first opening its doors, the gallery has become one of London’s top tourist attractions, receiving 3 million visitors in 2023 alone, while the groundbreaking research and conservation carried out under its roof has resulted in many important contributions to the arts. Yet, with 200 years of history, the gallery also has a number of bizarre stories and mysterious happenings connected to the many paintings contained within. To celebrate the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary, we recently took a trip into their archives to discover some of the secrets and mysteries of this national institution’s long history. THE FOUNDING OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION In April 1824, the art collection of John…

In 1945, with Nazi Germany defeated, Britain was already planning World War III. Well not exactly, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill had become disturbed by the Soviet Union’s occupation of much of Eastern Europe. On his orders a plan was drawn up to explore the potential of a military push to force the Soviet Union out of Eastern Europe, specifically East Germany and Poland. Of course, such a plan was never put into operation, but what if Britain had launched a military strike against the Soviet Union? Would it have been a swift, decisive victory? Or would it have ended in a third world war? What exactly was Churchill’s Operation Unthinkable? I don’t think there’s been a military operation more aptly named, because essentially Operation Unthinkable amounted to Churchill contemplating…

THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE A profound exploration of the battle between art and ego, focusing on the fraught production of Richard Burton’s Hamlet Cert: 15 Director: Sam Mendes Cast: Johnny Flynn, Mark Gatiss, Tuppence Middleton Released: Out now In 1963 and 1964, two new productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet combined theatre royalty with the hottest stars on the planet. In Britain, Peter O’Toole took the role of the titular prince in a production directed by the legendary Laurence Olivier. Broadway’s response to this was to cast Richard Burton, fresh from the landmark release of Cleopatra, and to give Sir John Gielgud the task of bringing it to the stage. The play would be plagued by an infamous rehearsal period, which saw clashes between star and director as both struggled to…

Described by the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as “one of the nation’s most treasured artefacts”, this tent used by George Washington during the Revolutionary War has come to symbolise the epic journey taken by Washington to lead America to independence. Currently on display at the Museum of the American Revolution, the original tent stands as one of the central pieces in their collection. It is one of the two tents purchased by Washington: one was a dining tent, while the second (this one) served as his office and accommodation. The significance of this second tent has been recognised for almost 250 years, with some referring to it as the “first Oval Office”. Made in 1778 to replace Washington’s first set of tents, the sleeping and office…

A huge number of priceless treasures have disappeared from the historical record throughout the ages. These artefacts often go missing due to theft or under mysterious circumstances during times of war or disaster, when they can’t be protected or when military forces decide to take those treasures as a trophy. Sometimes treasures are recovered, but many are still missing. Here are some lost treasures that have never been found. A few of these artefacts are now likely destroyed, but some may still exist and one day be recovered. STOLEN AZTEC TREASURE Last seen June 1520 In the face of an Aztec rebellion against their colonial occupation, Hernán Cortes and his forces tried to sneak away from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in the cover of night on 30 June 1520 with a…

Starting in 1938 after the November pogroms, known as Kristallnacht, and going right up to the invasion of Poland in September 1939, a concerted and organised effort was made to get children of persecuted families, mostly Jewish, out of Germany. Their rescue from Nazi-controlled areas likely saved them from even worse actions to come from Hitler's regime. But who were the men and women who helped to shepherd these children out of Germany, and who took them in? That's what Mike Levy explores in his book, Get the Children Out!: Unsung Heroes of the Kindertransport. We caught up with him to learn more about this story. How did the Kindertransport rescue effort to beginin 1938 and how involved was the British government in setting it up? First of all, the government didn’t fund…

From as early as the 1580s, the commodity of clocks began to make their way from the Western world into China. These objects of both beauty and functionality, made in Europe, were given the name zimingzhong meaning “self-sounding bells” or “bells that ring themselves” by China’s emperors. Used to tell the time, as well as mechanically moving and playing music, British merchants referred to these magnificent timepieces as “sing-songs”. Now in a new exhibition at the Science Museum in London, visitors can trace the journey of zimingzhong in the 18th century from the port of Guangzhou right into the heart of the Forbidden City. Of the 23 zimingzhong clocks on display at the Science Museum, all are on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing and have never been displayed…

WICKED LITTLE LETTERS Director: Thea Sharrock Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan Country: UK Year: 2023 Is the accuracy of this true story as poisonous as the letters penned in this riotous new comedy? 01 The film tells the story of the Littlehampton Letters, a true tale of a series of poison pen letters that scandalised the small coastal town of Littlehampton, West Sussex, England during the early 20th century. 02 In the film, Jessie Buckley’s character Rose Gooding is an Irish immigrant who moves to Littlehampton. While the film highlights the treatment of such immigrants, the real Rose was in fact born in Lewes, East Sussex. 03 Olivia Colman’s character, Edith Swan, is portrayed as an ageing woman with a failed engagement in her past. However, the real…