In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto today. Clyde was apart of the research group who were looking for Percival Lowell’s “Planet X”, a planet beyond Neptune and took ten months to find a pattern in the night sky. Then the moving point of light was classed as a planet and named Pluto by Clyde. In…
17 February…
On the evening of the 24 June 1859, Henry Dunant, a Swiss businessman, arrived in Italy and witnessed the Second Italian War of Independence. Over 40,000 soldiers died or were left wounded on the field without any medical treatment or basic care. Shocked by what he could see, Henry arranged for a group of locals…
16 February…
Today in 1923, Howard Carter opened the innermost chamber of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. The Valley of the Kings was full of empty chambers, emptied by tomb robbers within days or years of the initial burial. However, this tomb was small in comparison to other royal chambers, so it is believed that King Tut, died before…
15 February…
At 9.20am today in 2013, a ball of fire streaked across the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia. Nicknamed the Chelyabinsk meteor, the asteroid was the size of a house and broke apart 14 miles above the ground. The asteroid, which hit the earth’s atmosphere at 40,000 mph, created a shock wave that smashed all windows over…
14 February…
Happy Valentine’s day! Where does this day come from? There is a few alternative stories that are shared around and most of these date back to the Roman era. In ancient Rome, a feast of Lupercalia is celebrated on the 15th February, this feast celebrated the beginning of Spring. When Christianity was introduced, the feast…
12 February…
The Rome Inquisition, Galileo Galilei is brought before the court to begin his trial today in 1633. His crime? For the treason of heresy for writing a book sharing his belief that the earth revolves around the sun. The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems; compared the current Ptolemaic system – where the earth…
12 February…
Today in 1994, Edvard Munch’s infamous painting The Scream is stolen from Norway’s National Art gallery. The painting was stolen by two Oslo men, who climbed through the gallery’s window using a ladder. It would take several months before detectives including Charles Hill, a British detective posing as an art dealer, to find and recover…
11 February…
The inventor of the lightbulb, phonograph, kinetographic cameras, alkaline batteries and an electro graphic vote recorder – was born today in 1847. The last child of Samuel Edison Jr. and Nancy Elliott Edison, Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. His early career started as a telegraph operator having received minor education as a…
10 February…
Today in 1996 a computer, named Deep Blue, was the first computer system to win a chess game against the world champion Garry Kasparov. The computer system was solely programmed to play chess and despite winning a game, Kasparov won 3 and drew the other 2 games. Deep Blue was then upgraded and face the…
9 February…
“United Procession Of Women, on Saturday, Feb. 9th, to assemble in Hyde Park, Band Stand, Hyde Park Corner, at 2pm”. It would be the largest women’s suffragette demonstration seen to date, with over 3,000 women joining the march in 1907. Later to be known as the Mud March, due to the heavy rain leaving the…
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