14th May 1264 – Henry III of England was captured in France making Simon de Montfort the de facto ruler of England. 1607 – Jamestown, Virginia was settled as an English colony. 1796 – Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination. 1889 – The children's charity the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty […]

30th April 1774 – British settlers massacred family members of Chief Logan, head of the Native American Mingo tribe, at Yellow Creek, Ohio. It sparked off the conflict known as Lord Dunmore's War. 1900 – Casey Jones died in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express. […]

17th April 1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer recited the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. (And it's been torturing British schoolchildren ever since.) 1521 – Martin Luther spoke to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings. 1961 – A group of CIA financed and trained […]

23rd March 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I of England died. 1895 - The first official match played by women took place at Crouch End in London. (Nettie Honeyball had placed an advert in the press and persuaded about 30 young women to join the British Ladies Football Club. It wasn't a resounding success, but during […]

According to a report from the Department of Transport, the slowest road in England is the A306 Northbound at Richmond, which has a rush hour speed of just 3.5 mph. (We are slowing down: In the year ending to December 2015, average speeds on local ‘A’ roads in England during the weekday morning peak were […]

... lean against the doors. Why oh why was I so tempted to lean against the doors? Maybe this is a bit of insight into human nature.  Maybe, when it comes to dos and don'ts, we need fewer do nots, and a few more more dos.