Tag Archives: History
Fidel Castro was born on Friday 13th August 1926
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro was born in the Oriente province of eastern Cuba. He is still alive but it can only be a matter of time before his control is finally broken and Cuba again becomes a member of the international community. When that happens there are going to be massive business opportunities so it’s [...]
Full Story12th August 1981: The birth of the IBM PC
The Personal Computer Era finally arrived. Machines called “personal computers” were available as early as the mid-1970s. Of these the IBM (International Business Machines) Model 5100 Portable Computer was an early entry appearing in 1975. It weighed in at about 25 kilos with a tiny amount of storage but was limited in use with no [...]
Full StoryOn 1st August 1800 the Act of Union 1800 passed into law and so United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed
The phrase Act of Union 1800 actually refers to two acts: the Union with Ireland Act 1800 (an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain) and the Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (an Act of the Parliament of Ireland). These two Acts merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the unified Kingdom of Great Britain, (being [...]
Full StoryThe First Penguin Paperbacks were published on 30th July 1935
In 1935, if you wanted to read a good book, you needed either a lot of money or a library card. Cheap paperbacks were available, but their production (and content) were at best poor. The story goes that Allen Lane, then a director of the publishing house The Bodley Head, was waiting for a train [...]
Full StoryJames VI, Protestant son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned King of Scots on 24th July 1567
However as he was aged only one at the time it was not until 1581 that he gained full control of his government. He was well aware of his heritage and of the sad circumstances of his mother’s life and death. Of her internecine war with her cousin Elizabeth I of England. To many people [...]
Full StoryOn 23rd July 1962 the “Telstar” communications satellite sent the first live transatlantic TV broadcast
Today we take instant communication for granted but back in 1962 international on- demand telephone calls were unheard of. To make a long distance call you had to book it through the operator who would call you back. We did have American TV programs (the “Lone Ranger” was a favourite of mine) but none of [...]
Full StoryThis Was Their Finest Hour
The “This was their finest hour” speech was delivered by Sir Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 18 July 1940. It was given shortly after he took over as Prime Minister on 10 May, in the first year of World War II. It was the third [...]
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