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We found dozens of stories (and adverts) in the Archive about Charles Bishop, the gg-grandfather of Liverpool comedian, John Bishop.From reading these old newspaper stories, it’s clear that the Bishop family possesses a special DNA gene for entertaining the masses with their music and stories.Concert at the Assembly Rooms in ChichesterHampshire Telegraph – Saturday 29 October 1853Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000069/18531029/007/0004The Rifle Volunteers’ ConcertHampshire Telegraph – Saturday 08 December 1860Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL…

Upon recently visiting the Roman amphitheatre at Arles, I marvelled at the scale of the building, and Roman engineering skills.Picture taken of Arles amphitheatre – Image © Edmund MB KingDuring the visit, we came across a notice board: ‘Principaux amphitheatres du monde romain’, which shows a list of dimensions for each one. Arles is number twelve on the list, out of twenty-one. I was intrigued that Pouzzoles ( Pozzuoli/ Puteoli)  was even larger than the colosseum in Rome.As the wiki…

The Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, died in Brussels on 29 November 1924.When news of Puccini’s death reached Rome, a performance of ‘La boheme’ was stopped, as the orchestra abruptly shifted key to play Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ to a shocked audience.So to commemorate his sublime music and his life, we’ve posted two stories that report on the life and music of Puccini.Hull Daily Mail – Monday 01 December 1924Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19241201/009/0003Hull…

‘A Wonderful Telephonic Invention – Preserving Speeches’On 29 November 1877, Thomas Edison gave the world a demo of his phonograph invention – thereby paving the way for generations of teenagers to lock themselves away in their bedrooms and madden their parents by playing their records way too loud.To celebrate this wonderful achievement by ‘the Wizard of Menlo Park’, we’ve posted a newspaper story that reports on Edison’s wonderful new invention – and how it will magically preserve the speeches by politicians like Mr…

On 23 November 1910, the physician and salesman Dr Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.The first criminal to be arrested via wireless communication (Crippen was apprehended on the SS Montrose as it arrived in the St Lawrence River), Crippen was found guilty of murdering his wife, Cora – although doubts as to his guilt have recently been aired.Back in October, we posted two stories on the blog about the trial of Crippen and his alleged accomplice, Ethel ‘Le Neve’…

‘There are millions of people on the earth and many suffer. Why, then, are you all around me?’ – Leo Tolstoy to his doctorsOn 20 November 1910, Leo Tolstoy died of pneumonia at Astapovo Railway Station.We thought we’d mark the day by posting two articles from the Archive about Tolstoy. The first story is a report on Tolstoy’s death, while the second article is a summary of his life which suddenly segues into an advert for ‘Willow Blend, the Master Tea’.…

To mark the hundred years since the signing of the Armistice on Monday 11 November 1918, which ended the First World War, we take a look at the poignant images published that historic day across our various publications.A significant theme running throughout, of course, is that of peace, and freedom, at last, as featured in the Nottingham Evening Post and the Liverpool Echo.Nottingham Evening Post | 11 November 1918Liverpool Echo | 11 November 1918Other newspapers, such as the Evening Despatch and the Sheffield Independent…

It happens to the best of us…We do love the gossipy stories in the Archive that report on the passing moments of people’s lives – especially if it involves somebody famous.A wonderful example of such a brief encounter, is this story about Albert Einstein arguing with a Berlin tramcar conductor regarding the change given to him. We think this conductor sounds a rather formidable character. And we also love thinking about how this story managed to find its way…

To celebrate the birthday of Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker, born on 8 November 1847 in Dublin, we’ve posted some newspaper reviews of his classic novel, ‘Dracula’.The novel was published in May 1897, so the reviews below were the first reactions to Stoker’s brilliant gothic horror.The Archive contains 100s of interesting stories about Bram Stoker and the ‘Dracula’ novel – just type the author’s name or the book title into the seaech box to find these stories.The Archive also contains 100s of historical…

The ‘Evening Standard’ published a news story from the British Newspaper Archive this week about a tragedy that took place in London in October 1814, when 8 people were drowned by a wave of beer in the Tottenham Court Road.We thought that people might like to read this story, so we’ve posted it below.**************************A huge wave of beer swept through London’s streets almost 200 years ago, killing 8 people including a 3 year old child, records at the British Newspaper Archives have revealed.…