T S Eliot, heavy-smoking banker poet, died of emphysema
On this day in 1965 the poet Thomas Stearns Eliot died aged 76. A sickly child, born in St Louis, Missouri, he discovered poetry at... Read More
Cicero, Rome’s fearless statesman, marked for assassination
On this day in 106BC Roman Statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero was born. The surname Cicero means ‘chickpea’, probably his family were dry food merchants and... Read More
Hogmanay or the ‘Daft Days’
Today is known in the Northern regions of Britain as Hogmanay. The origins of the word and its surrounding customs are uncertain. In Scotland, Hogmanay... Read More
Rudyard Kipling, poet of the Empire
On this day in 1865 the English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling was born. The name Kipling is almost synonymous with the British Empire and... Read More
Thomas Becket’s martyrdom
On this day in 1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his cathedral by followers of King Henry II of England. It was... Read More
King Herod gets himself a bad name
On this day in AD 1 it is said that King Herod of Judea ordered the massacre of all children under the age of two... Read More
Pope John Paul II makes an unlikely friend
On this day in 1983 Pope John Paul II met Mehmet Ali Ağca, the man who had shot him two years previously in an attempt... Read More