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More content, more quickly! The BNA tech upgrade – an updateWe hope that you have all been enjoying the lovely Summer weather lately?You may have noticed that there has been a slow-down in the number of pages added to the site recently. There is a fantastic reason for this . . . [drumroll please] . . . We are delighted to announce that we have been busy working on upgrading our newspaper ingest and post-processing system. Once we’re up and running with the new system,…

On 16 and 17 July 1917, Lenin went into hiding and then fled Russia for Finland, after Kerensky’s provisional government outlawed the Bolshevik Party and started to arrest members of the party.Included below are three newspaper stories – published in July 1917 – that report on the chaos in Russia at this time and Lenin’s escape to Finland.Read more BNA blog posts about Lenin.Manchester Evening News – Thursday 26 July 1917Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000272/19170726/032/0003Liverpool Echo – Saturday 28…

‘I killed one man to save 100,000’ – Charlotte CordayIn Paris on 13 July 1793, Charlotte Corday gained admission to the flat of Jean-Paul Marat and, after a 15-minute conversation with Marat while he was in the bath, stabbed him to death.Corday was a supporter of the Girondins and witnesses claim that she clearly hated Marat and the MontagnardsThe assassination of Marat was a major factor in creating the paranoid atmosphere that led to the ‘Reign of Terror’.Included below are…

Edmund Burke, the Irish politician, writer and philosopher, died at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on 9 July 1797, aged 68.To mark the day, here are some newspaper stories – published in July 1797 – that report on the passing of this great statesman.Western Daily Press – Friday 11 January 1929Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000264/19290111/090/0008Reading Mercury – Monday 17 July 1797Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000367/17970717/012/0003Northampton Mercury – Saturday 15 July 1797Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000317/17970715/002/0001…

We’ve been reading stories about the history of Wimbledon in The Archive, and have found some terrific newspaper reports.Here’s an article about the arrival of the electronic scoreboard on Centre Court in 1929, published in the Derby Daily Telegraph.Derby Daily Telegraph | 21 June 19291929 Ladies’ Wimbledon Final | Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News | 13 July 1929Read some of the other historical newspaper stories about Wimbledon that we’ve been posting on the blog.Derby Daily Telegraph – Friday 21 June 1929Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created…

On 6 July 1892, Dadabhai Naoroji (‘the Grand Old Man of India’) won the seat of Finsbury Central, thus becoming the first non-white Member of Parliament.To mark the day, here are two, contemporary newspaper stories from 1892 that report on his victory for the Liberal Party in Finsbury.Pall Mall Gazette – Thursday 07 July 1892Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18920707/005/0001Derby Daily Telegraph – Thursday 07 July 1892Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000327/18920707/001/0002…

Fred Perry was of course one of the greatest players in tennis history, having won three consecutive Wimbledons from 1934 to 1936. He was the last British winner of Wimbledon until Andy Murray’s victory in 2013.Fred Perry ‘delivering a characteristic vigorous smash’ during the 1936 Wimbledon | The Sphere | 27 June 1936However, despite his third (and final) Wimbledon victory in 1936, he was the victim of an unfortunate accident whilst playing an exhibition match a couple months before in Hungary.According to the Western Daily Press,…

The fact that the green, purple and white colours of the Suffragette Movement are the same colours used by Wimbledon, has sometimes been commented upon.With this in mind, we thought we’d try and find some newspaper stories that bring together Wimbledon and the suffragettes.Oh, and we found some stories! We found two reports about an incident in 1913 when a suffragette attempted to burn down Wimbledon. One from the time, in the Derby Daily Telegraph, and another from fifteen…

P. T. Barnum, the famous American showman, was born in Bethel, Connecticut, on 5 July 1810.Barnum’s travelling fair was promoted as the ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, and was a sensation during the Victoria era.To give you a taste of how Barnum’s shows were celebrated at the time, here are two newspaper reports from 1884 and 1898 about his circus coming to town, which include illustrations of some of the performers.…

One of the many fascinating features of the Archive is the articles it contains on the family history of famous people.Indeed, at times, browsing through the Archive can be similar to watching episodes of the BBC programme, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’As today is the 4th of July, we thought we’d mark Independence Day by posting this excellent, wee article about the English ancestry of George Washington.And just for good measure, we’ve also included a fascinating…