THE ULTIMATE
On this day, January 4th, mathematician scientist Isaac Newton was born, the discoverer of a range of scientific laws and principles such as gravity, planetary motion orbitting around the sun, tidal motion and that light can be split into its component colours of the rainbow.
He was born at Woolsthorpe Manor House, Lincolnshire, England - at that time the calendar siad it was 25th December, but with later changes to the calendar he was born on what we know as January 4th. His theories created a new view of science that dominated scientific thought until the development of the Theory of Relativity by Einstein in the 20th Century. "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." This quote of Isaac Newton's gives credit to the other mathematician scientists who came before him, that enabled him to make his discoevries and theories.
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On January 3rd 1883, British Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee was born.
Attlee became the first majority Labour Party Prime Minister in 1945, and during his period in office created the Welfare State - of which the NHS is a crucial part still to this day, enabling people to get free healthcare at the point of use, paid for by those in work through taxation. The Welfare State that Attlee's government created, brought into being the report made by Liberal politician Beveridge during the Second World War, that called for the tackling of 'Five Giants' - Squalor (poor housing); Idleness (unemployment); Disease; Ignorance (lack of education) and Want (Poverty). Attlee's government also pursued an economic policy of state involvement in the economy, known as Keynesianism. Around a fifth of the British economy was nationalised, brought under government control - including coal, railways, gas, electricity, steel and the Bank of England. Having served with Winston Chuchill in the wartime Coalition government, Attlee campaigned for the creation of a Welfare State, and a 'Land Fit For Heroes' in the 1945 General Election to reward the British People for their sacrifices during the war. Attlee defeated the Conservative war winning Prime Minister, Churchill, in the election as the population moved on from war to what they felt was needed in peacetime. Archaeologists have unveiled a Roman fast food store they have unearthed amongst the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii.
The archaeologists began uncovering the fast food store in 2019, and though a number are known of in the ruins of Pompeii, this is the first complete one, called a thermopolium, they have uncovered. The store would have sold hot food and drinks to the residents of the city of Pompeii, and the counters have been preserved so that the original bright paintings, or frescoes, can still be seen on them - showing animals such as ducks, chickens, and a dog tied to a wall, as well as images from Greek and Roman literature. Some of these may show what was on sale, whilst others may suggest the store was gaurded and the possibly early branding. Pompeii is famous for being the Roman city that was covered in lava and ash from an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. It is south of Naples, in Southern Italy. The site will be open to tourists later in the year. Find out more on the BBC at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55454717 The design below is based on the murals of the thermopolium at Pompeii. June 20th this year marks the Summer Solstice the longest day of the year for those in the Northern Hemisphere, it is Midsummer.
This is when the Earth is tilted on its axis on its orbit around the sun, so that the North Pole is at its closest to the Sun, For Arctic regions this means they have continuous sunlight for 24 hours! Whilst the Northern Hemisphere, marks Midsummer, in the Southern Hemisphere - for example, for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, it's Midwinter and they are having the their Midwinter, their Winter Solstice. The Summer Solstice in Northern Hemisphere has long been a time of festival and ritual, most famously, at England's Stonehenge, in Wiltshire of Salisbury Plain. There are plenty of other stone mounment aligned with the Solstices across the British Isles, including in Ireland, as well as in Europe, such as in France. Stonehenge, sees hundreds of people attend each year to see the sun rise between one of the stone 'arches' that make the ring of Stonehenge, and over the more distant 'heel' stone outside of the henge. Those that attend may be modern pagan and New Age belief followers, who believe in spirituality associated with nature, many of whom will see themselves as a continuation of an ancient Celtic to Stone Age set of beliefs in Britain that were present before Christianity - they may call themselves Druids. Stonehenge has many numerous theories for why it was built, and how it was built - was it a temple to the sun? was it a place of healing? or was it a place for remembering the dead? Or was it all of these and more? Was it built by magic as suggested by Merlin in Arthurian legend? Or how did the inner smaller 'Bluestones' get from coastal West Wales, in the Preseli Mountains, to Salisbury plain? across the land around 250 miles, or floated on boats around South Wales and South West England, then Northwards across the land to Salisbury Plain? And why at Salisbury Plain - what was special about this area to early Britons? Due to Coronavirus, this year people are not able to visit Stonehenge, but you van witness the sunrise on 21st June (the Summer Solstice sunrise depends on how the days are counted, and there is little difference to the spectacle a day either side) as English Heritage are airing the sunrise live on their Social Media accounts. you can find out more about Stonehenge, and the Solstices at the English Heritage website below - oh, and fingers crossed for a clear sky tomorrow morning! https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/ Black History in Britain goes back to before the Anglo-Saxons invaded and settled Britain creating the English. Black people lived in Britain as Roman Citizens during the Roman Empire's control of Britain. As the Roman Empire stretched across Europe and into North Africa, Africans could migrate as citizens, or as soldiers in the Roman Army. There has long been pictorial evidence from Roman Times, but as the BBC article featuring Lavinya Stennett shows archaeological evidence and scientific analysis in 2010 of a Roman woman's skeleton found in 1901, shows that she was born in Britain around 350 AD, and likely of North African descent.
Another fascinating example in the article is the case of John Blanke, Henry VIII's, and Henry VII's trumpeter, shown on a roll at a tournament to celebrate the birth of Henry VIII's scroll, on horseback in a troop of royal trumpeters. Incredibly, further evidence has survived in a petition by John Blanke to the king for a pay rise. The article includes the triumphs of the 1960s Bristol bus boycott, as well as the sadness of the Race Riots that followed the First World War when Black soldiers returned from the front to scapegoated (blamed unfairly) for the economic crises - as well as how slavery was a driving force in the UK's industrial development. Find out more on the BBC with Kameron Virk's article at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-52939694 On this day, May31st 1911, the Titanic was launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
It would still take time for the Titanic to be fitted out and completed, but the vessel, without its funnels, was afloat in seawater. The Titanic was operated by the White Star Line shipping company, and it was the largest ship afloat. It was also believed to be unsinkable. Carrying wealthy passengers and people emigrating from Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia to the United States, it sailed on its maiden voyage in April 1912 - where it struck an iceberg that ruptured its watertight compartments and sank in the North Atlantic. On this day, May 30th 1381, Peasant's in the village of Brentwood, Essex, refused to pay taxes and chased the King's tax collector out of the village back to London, starting the Peasants' Revolt.
Inspired by a radical preacher John Ball, and led by Wat Tyler, the peasants from Essex and Kent marched upon London, to take their demands to the 14 year-old King Richard II. Find out more on our Year 7 page. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, JFK, was born on May 29th 1917 at Brookline, Massachusetts.
JFK became the 35th President of the USA, narrowly beating Richard Nixon in the 1960 election. He had served in the US Navy during World War II in the Pacific. As president he served from 1916 to his assassination in November 1963. Seen as a youthful President, bringing a new generation to the command of the US political system, his tenure at the White House, has often been known as 'Camelot' - after the castle of the legendary King Arthur. Whilst First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy sought to make the White House reflect modern fashion trends. In power at the hight of the Cold War, Kennedy is noted for his stances against the Soviet Union and its allies - in particular the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by the CIA, his support for Berlin, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 that led to the brink of nuclear war between the US and USSR Superpowers and their allies. He established the Peace Corps in the USA, and was supportive of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA having a role in the organistion of the March on Washington where Martin Luther kIng Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. He also committed the USA to putting a man on the moon before the decade was out, leading to the success of NASA's Apollo space programme, where the US overtook the USSR in the Space Race. The United States is set to see its first crewed launch of a spacecraft since the Space Shuttle programme was ended in 2011.
NASA is to utilise the Space X company's rockets to send two astronauts to the International Space Station, in what is also a first, as it will be the first time a company rather than a nation-state has launched people into space. Space X is the company founded by Elon Musk, having created Pay Pal and Tesla. The launch will be at 16:33 locat time, 20:33 GMT, 21:33BST. The Crew Dragon capsule, pictured below, will be launched by a Falcon 9 rocket, from the same launchpad that launched Apollo 11 to the moon. On this day, May 25th 240 BCE, Halley's Comet was first recorded in China, in the Records of the Grand Historian, or Shiji.
It may have been commented upon in Greece and China prior to this. A later recording in 87 BCE appears on Babylonian tablets that can be seen at the British Museum. Halley's comet is famously depicted in the Bayeux Tapeestry, having been seen by the Anglo-Saxons in 1066, and they saw it as a bringer of doom. It is called Halley's Comet, after Edmund Halley who in 1705, used Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and motion to calculate that three comet appearances, were actually the same comet returning around every 76 years. He went on to predict it would return in 1758. Unfortunatley, Halley died in 1742. Late in 1758 the comet returned first being seen by a German farmer and amateur astronomer. A French astronomer named it Halley's Comet after Edmund Halley. The return of Halley's Comet proved Isaac Newton's principles, and was the first object kown to orbit the Sun other than the planets. Though, the Babylonian and Jewish authorities in ancient times may have recognised that it returned, was 'periodic', as a passage notes a star returning once every 70 years. The last sighting of Halley's Comet was in 1986, where a European space probe named Giotto closed in on it flying through the comet's tail. It was called Giotto, after the artist who painted a Christian Nativity scene, using Halley's Comet, as the Star of Bethlehem. Next sighting 2061! |
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