Search the blog

Author A.A. Milne was born on this day in 1882. Take a look at the Aberdeen Journal’s glowing review of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ when it was published in 1926:View the whole newspaper pageAberdeen Journal – Thursday 09 December 1926Image © D.C.Thomson & Co. Ltd. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.…

The Huddersfield Chronicle reported that John Hetherington wore the first top hat on this day in 1797. The article stated that he was arrested for breach of the peace after ‘several women fainted at the unusual sight’:View the whole newspaper pageHuddersfield Chronicle – Tuesday 24 January 1899Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.…

Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, died on 8th January 1941.The Evening Telegraph reported that his last words to the Boy Scouts were “sleeves up and with tails up, go to it to win the war.”Read the full newspaper snippet below or view the whole newspaper page.Evening Telegraph – 8 January 1941Image © D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARDView the full newspaper page…

‘He was the first man to ride into a cage of nine lions and direct their performance from the back of a Somalian stallion…’Oh, we think this will likely be our favourite newspaper headline for January.Let’s hope this poetess was an ailurophile, and that the lion tamer was a poetry lover!And we can’t help feeling that this is the sort of news story that sub-editors on newspapers dream about writing headlines for – the lucky sub-editor probably had…

‘Tell all France that I am innocent’ – Alfred DreyfusIn Paris on 5 January 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on ‘Devil’s Island’.Here is a newspaper story published on 7 January 1895 entitled, ‘The Degradation of Dreyfus’, that reports on the utterly humiliating ceremony at the Ecole Militaire to strip Dreyfus of his rank and dignity.The words that Dreyfus shouts immediately after the degradation ceremony are very poignant, moving and truthful.We’ve also…

The Siege of Sidney Street (aka the ‘Battle of Stepney’) took place in London on 3 January 1911.The siege resulted in the deaths of two supposed anarchists, Fritz Svaars and William Sokolow, as well as three policemen and a fireman.This newspaper report and accompanying photographs, published on 4 January 1911, provide a fascinating description of the siege, and the report also mentions Winston Churchill’s controversial attendance at the scene – he was Home Secretary at the time.Dundee Courier – Wednesday 04 January 1911Image © D.C.Thomson &…

Introduction and backgroundWe love hearing about your discoveries in The British Newspaper Archive.John Bland of the Lincolnshire Family History Society dropped us a line to tell us about his family history research in The British Newspaper Archive. John has been researching the millers and blacksmiths in his family (research that involves learning about major legislation such as the Enclosures and the Corn Laws) and, thanks to The British Newspaper Archive, has just learned that one of his ancestors…

‘A black vicious ugly customer as ever I saw, whale-like in size, and with as terrible a row of incisor teeth as ever closed on a French frigate’ – Charles DickensHMS Warrior, the Royal Navy’s first ocean-going ironclad warship, was launched in London on 29 December 1860. Included below is a report of the launch that was published in the Liverpool Daily Post of 31 December 1860 and an illustration of the vessel as she appeared just after completion.…

‘The awful catastrophe which occurred at the Tay Bridge on the last Sunday of the year is still the all-absorbing theme of conversation in the community…’A section of the Tay Bridge, which connects Dundee and Wormit in Fife, collapsed during a terrible storm on the night of 28 December 1879.  Tragically, a Dundee-bound train plunged into the freezing waters of the river, with the loss of 60 lives (although some estimate the loss to have been 75 lives).Graphic illustrated the scenes of…

‘All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.’J.M. Barrie’s classic play, Peter Pan (aka The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up), received its world premiere at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London on 27 December 1904.Included below is a newspaper review of the play, that was published on Wednesday 28 December 1904, and also some wonderful illustrations of the main characters in the classic tale.The Evening Post – Wednesday 28 December 1904Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.…