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. On this day, Mat 23rd 1707, Carl Linnaeus was born in Rashult, Sweden.
Linnaeus became a botanist and explorer, who develoed the principles for defining species and types of organisms in the plant and animal kingdoms, leading to a uniform system for the naming of plants and animals. He was born in a poor area of Sweden, and was unable to afford attending all the lectures at university, though he was eventually able to by teaching botany. As a young man he devloped his ideas and principles, that he was to set out in a number of works, whilst carrying out studies in Lapland amongst the Sami people, of Northern Scandinavia. He also gained his medical qualifications whilst in the Netherlands, where he began to gain the sponsors he needed in order to publish his ideas. Back in Sweden he practised medicine, but sought to return to the study of botany, and was able to build up a network of exploring botanists, who travelled the world at the time of European exploration, bringing to him more specimens to be placed in the growing tree of life his naming system was steadily mapping. On this day, May 19th 1909, Nicholas Winton was born.
Nicholas Winton was a British humanitarian known for rescuing 669 Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia just before the outbreak of World War Two. He created an organisation to find homes for the children and the safe passage of the children by train across Europe to Britain. He wrote to other countries, but only Sweden also took in the freed Jewish children. This way the children escaped the Nazis and the Holocaust, in which many of their parents perished. He refused to talk about his actions in Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia, for decades until his wife found his scrapbook with details of the children he had helped in the loft. Then in 1988 a BBC programme reunited him with many children, now adults, who he had saved. Nicholas was always modest about his role, saying that others had done the more dangerous work of collecting the children and putting them on the trains to safety. He also regretted the children he couldn't save, only a few on the last train out of Prague station survived the war. He also believed had other countries responded to his letters calling for homes for the children he could hae saved more. In 2003 he was knighted by the Queen for his services to humanity in saving Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. In 2014 he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic. On this day, May 15th 1859, Pierre Curie was born in Paris, France.
Pierre Curie is a scientist known for his studies into magnetism, and with his wife Marie Curie into radioactivity, being the first the use the term. They discovered the elements radium and polonium. With his student Pierre also discovered nuclear energy. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics along with his wife Marie, and Henri Becquerel. On this day, May 11th 330 AD/CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine made Byzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire - that city also known as Constantinople, is now Istanbul - Turkey's most populous city, and the only city in the world to straddle two continents!
Istanbul sits on both sides of the Bospurous Strait, so one half is in Europe and the other in Asia. At times it has been the most populous city in the world, and the Hagia Sophia, seen in our picture, has been a cathedral and a mosque, now a museum, was once the largest building in the world. Constantine's desion to make Byzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire, moved the centre of the Empire eastwards. Constantine viewed it as a 'New Rome', though the name didn't take off, whilst Constantinople basically means the 'City of Constantine', whilst the city's current name Istanbul, is an alteration over time of the Greek 'In to the city'. Constantine was the first Christian Roman Emperor, who did numerous acts linked to Christianity during his rein, for example using the Chi-Ro symbol for Christ on the shields of his soldiers, only converted on his death bed. He was also acclaimed Roman Emperor when he was fighting as a general in Britain, the Roman soldiers declaring him Emperor at the city of Eboracum, now York in Northern England. Whilst, football fans may recall Istanbul as the city where in 2005 one of the most dramatic Champions League Finals occurred, with Liverpool 3v0 down by half-time and in disarray, they pulled the three goals back and won the European Cup on penalties. Some may say that Steven Gerrard, Liverpool's inspirational captain, was the Emperor that night! On this day, 8th May 1945, Victory in Europe was celebrated!
Nazi generals had been to offer the German surrender to the US leader of Allied forces in Europe, General Eisenhower, at Reims in France the day before. The Soviet Red Army had fought from the East to Berlin, and their Western Allies were progressing from the West towards Berlin following D-Day in 1944. On 8th May, official documents were signed in Berlin, by Hitler's successor, that all German forces would cease aggression at midnight on 8th May. Celebrations were held across the Western World, especially in the UK and the USA. Street parties occurred across the UK, with a mass gathering in London's Trafalgar Square down to Buckingham Palace. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth addressed the crowds, in the city they refused to leave, along with the wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, begged to join the crowds, and did so secretly, Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, had joined the war effort as an ambulance driver. In the USA the celbrations focused upon New York's Times Square, with President Truman, dedicating the victory on his 61st Birthday to the former wartime President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR. Both Churchill and Truman recognised that the victory was only half won, as the Allies were still at war with Imperial Japan in the Pacific. The Russians celebrate VE Day on the 9th May, due to the time difference. On this day, May 5th 1818, Karl Marx was born in Germany, he became a key Political Philosopher, whist also influencing other subjects such as History, Sociology and Economics.
His key works include Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto. Working with Friedrich Engels, who supported Marx and provided evidence of capitalism from his families factories in England. Marx put forward a radical version of Socialism, based upon the belief that all human history was that of a struggle between social classes, that eventually leads to a revolution before society advances to a new level of development. He claimed that capitalism was the last but one stage in Human History, where the divide between the Bourgeoisie (the few wealthy factory owners) and the Proletariat (the many poor workers) would grow so great that the workers would realise their position and hold a revolution, to overthrow capitalism, and replace it with a new system, Socialism, that would then develop into Communism, where all would be equal, without differences of social class. His ideas inspired Socialist / Communist revolutions around the world during the 20th Century, most famously Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, leading to the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). On the 2nd May 1519 Leonardo Da Vinci passed away. Da Vinci is seen as the foremost Renaissance painter with his works including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, being amongst, if not, the most well known paintings of all time. He is also known for his anatomical drawings and designs for inventions such as flying machines.
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