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On 30 January 1889, the bodies of Archduke Rudolf and his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, were discovered in the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling.The official verdict is that the star-crossed lovers died in a suicide pact after Rudolf’s father, Franz Joseph I of Austria, demanded that he end the relationship. However, there are theories that Rudolf was murdered (Mary’s body was smuggled out of Mayerling in the middle of the night and Rudolf was described as being ‘mentally unbalanced’) because of…

18th Century newspaper reports about Mozart’s visit to London in 1765Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756.So to celebrate Mozart’s birthday, here are some wonderful descriptions (taken from a fascinating 2-page account, published in a newspaper in 1771) of Mozart’s famous visit to London in 1765.When not astonishing his audience with his virtuosity and composing skills, it seems the genius galloped about the room pretending he was riding a horse. Well, he was only eight!Oxford Journal – Saturday 23…

We very much liked the professional medical advice offered in this advert from 1930 – we’re sure that many over-worked businessmen will be thrilled by this free medical advice.Next time we’re at the doctor’s, we’ll be asking the doc to write out a prescription for this magical, cure-all stuff.Nottingham Evening Post – Wednesday 29 October 1930Image © Northcliffe Media Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000321/19301029/011/0004…

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the country lawyer who became a revolutionary, died at his estate at Gorki settlement on 21 January 1924.  We trawled through The British Newspaper Archives new stories that reported on Lenin’s death, and the reports are far from complimentary – which is, of course, revealing in itself.Reflecting on Lenin’s death, Churchill wrote: ‘Their worst misfortune was his birth, their next worst – his death’.  There are hundreds of interesting stories about Lenin’s death in The Archive. We have pulled out…

Newspaper story from February 1813 reporting on the retreat in Russia by Napoleon’s Grand ArmyBrr! And brr, again! The weather has gone all ‘retreat from Moscow’-ish!And yet things could certainly be a lot worse…Just to prove the point, here is a newspaper story from February 1813, reporting on the epic retreat of Napoleon’s Grand Army in the Russian winter of 1812-13.624 x 1488Chester Chronicle – Friday 05 February 1813Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000341/18130205/002/0002…

We love hearing stories about what you’re up to in the Archive. Truly, we feel extremely privileged to hear your tales.  So when professional genealogist, Matt Ball, tweeted us about his research on his music hall ancestors we were keen to hear his story.Through his research in The Era and other papers in the Archive, Matt has discovered some terrific stories about his theatrical ancestors. Matt very kindly agreed to be a guest blogger for us, and we’ve published…

Tragically, the beautiful and talented Hollywood actress Carole Lombard died in an airplane crash in Nevada on 16 January 1942.In addition to starring in some terrific screwball comedies, she was also the great love of Clark Gable, who was utterly devastated by her tragic death.Quem di diligunt, adolescens moritur.Subscribe today and discover history as it happened…

Historical newspaper reports describing the big freeze in London in the winter of 1814With the predicted snow and ice all set to turn much of the UK into a ‘retreat from Moscow’ landscape, we thought we’d post some old newspaper stories about the freezing of the River Thames, back in January 1814.There are certainly some striking and surreal images described in these stories – not least of which is the poor pig, stuck on an ice floe and drifting down the…

Newspaper stories from January 1872 reporting the death of Greyfriars BobbyToday, we salute a dog good and true: Greyfriars Bobby, who passed away on 14 January 1872, after a 14-year vigil at the grave of his master, Auld Jock (aka John Gray).If you’ve ever visited Edinburgh, you’ll likely have seen the statue of Bobby (paid for by Baroness Burdett-Coutts), at the corner of Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge.Bobby now bides in the great kennel in the sky, and goes…

‘Don’t expect new dresses all the time’: Old-fashioned newspaper advice on how to be a good wife…We’ve been working with some modern newspapers on a story about the advice that old newspapers used to publish about how wives might strive to keep their husbands happy.Amazing as it may seem to us now, such advice columns were a regular feature in UK newspapers during the 1800s and early 1900s.The ‘Mail Online’ has published our story, and we thought…