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‘Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?’On 6 April 1895, Oscar Wilde was arrested at the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.How we wish he’d fled the country, instead of waiting to be arrested! But, no; instead, he took the Socratic route and that ultimately led to his ‘hard labour’ imprisonment (‘Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?’) and early death – but that was a very brave act.John Betjeman was so moved…

At Brussels Railway Station on 4 April 1900, the 16-year-old Belgian anarchist, Jean-Baptiste Sipido, attemped to shoot Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of Queen Victoria and heir to the UK throne.Sipido fired two shots at Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra, while the royal couple were sitting in a train, with one of the bullets grazing Prince Edward’s head.Sipido said he tried to kill Prince Edward because he held him responsible for the many deaths suffered in the Boer War.…

Jesse James, outlaw, bank robber, train robber and murderer, was gunned down at his home in St Joseph, Missouri, on 3 April 1882.Aged only 34, James was shot in the back of the head by Bob Ford, who was a fellow member of the James’ Gang – Ford was looking to claim the $5,000 reward that had been set on James (interestingly, there was a massive reward on Ford, too)The story of the trial, conviction, sentence and full pardon of Bob Ford is…

The Boat Race takes place in London today and, once again, Oxford University and Cambridge University have both battled their way through the qualifying rounds to make it to the cup final.But, well, unless you’re a keen follower of it, it’s really the quirky stories about the race that capture the interest of the mildly interested fan (a ‘mildly interested fan’ being defined as: well, I’ve seen both versions of ‘Ben Hur’ a few times, so I know a…

Blog 10 William Randolph HearstIn four previous visits to the USA, we had never travelled down the coast of southern California, south of San Francisco. We were determined to remedy the matter on this trip. So, we hired the car and set off from San Francisco accompanied by February winter sunlight with cold mornings and chilly, watery sunsets. We stopped overnight at Monterey, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, finally ending at Venice Beach, before motoring inland to Desert Hot Springs.  We…

To celebrate Good Friday, or God’s Friday, here are three newspaper stories – and an advert – that report on the history, culture and traditions of the day…remember to get those seed potatoes planted today!Exeter and Plymouth Gazette – Friday 19 April 1895Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000510/18950419/039/0010Tamworth Herald – Saturday 24 March 1934Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000484/19340324/123/0008Edinburgh Evening News – Friday 19 April 1878Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000452/18780419/066/0004Gloucestershire…

‘The Eighth Wonder of the World!’ and ‘Paradise Lost’During the Easter period in 1933, ‘King King’ received its premiere in London, before being released to the other cinemas outside London. Judging by the reviews, it received a ‘wow!’ reaction from the audiences in the UK.It’s also interesting to note the reaction to the way the film was marketed. We can well imagine that the massive film poster of ‘Kong’ that adorned cinemas would have looked very dramatic in the…

Oi! No spitting, no smoking, no swearing, no sitting next to sensitive souls on the last bus home and embarrassing them with coarse, stentorian conversation and awkward, impertinent questions – oh, these famous ‘strong advice’ signs on buses are sweet music to our ears.We’re BIG fans of etiquette at The British Newspaper Archive. Indeed, we’ve posted several stories about etiquette on the blog over the past few months – just enter ‘etiquette’ into the search engine for the blog to find…

Newspaper reports on the radio broadcasts made by P.G. Wodehouse during World War TwoPoor P.G. Wodehouse – he really was an innocent abroad (in time and place, one feels) during World War Two.We watched BBC4’s excellent drama – ‘Wodehouse In Exile’ – last night, which was a dramatisation about the internment of P.G. Wodehouse and the writer’s controversial radio broadcasts during the Second World War.We were very moved by the drama and the shabby treatment of the brilliant writer, so…

On 25 March 1894, the army of 100 unemployed workers led by the businessman, Jacob Coxey, set off for Washington D.C. from Massillon, Ohio.The march took place during the worst economic depression that the United States had experienced to that time, and the aim of the march was to persuade the goverment to ease the mass unemployment by creating public work projects.The march started in Ohio with 100 workers, but other branches soon started in other US states. As with the Jarrow…