25th September 2019
Reading Time: 3 minutes
A story emerged in 2012 of an amazing feat of extreme auto engineering by Frenchman Emile Leray that allowed him to escape being stranded in a Moroccan desert in 1993.
Leray had been driving from the city of Tan-Tan in his battered Citroën CV when he was stopped at a military outpost and told he could go no further because of the conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara, in the area beyond Tilemsem. Read more ›››
18th September 2019
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Lena Celestia Kellogg was the sister of John Harvey and William Kellogg of Cornflake fame and one of the ‘discoverers’ of The Urantia Book of divine revelations.
Lena was born in 1875 in Michigan and after a brief spell as a teacher, she turned her attention to nursing. It was then that she met and married William S Sadler and the two pursued their medical careers together, graduating with equal honours at the American Medical Missionary College. Read more ›››
11th September 2019
Reading Time: 3 minutes
In the latter years of the 19th century, the English whaling ship ‘Star of the East’ was operating around the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic when a whale was spotted.
The boats were launched and the whale harpooned, but its thrashing in the water capsized one of the boats and two men were lost, one of them a sailor called James Bartley. Read more ›››
5th September 2019
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Filial affection can be a dangerous thing, especially if that affection isn’t reciprocated – it can lead to all sorts of trouble.
Such was the case with William Henry Ireland. Born in 1777, his father regarded him as a waste of space, and even his mother denied that he was hers, claiming that she was just the housekeeper. Read more ›››
28th August 2019
Reading Time: 3 minutes
The peace symbol is one of the most instantly recognisable in the world, but less so is its creator, Gerald Herbert Holtom.
Holtom was a professional artist and designer who studied at the Royal College of Art. He was born in 1914 and had been a conscientious objector during World War Two. Read more ›››
21st August 2019
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Francis Galton was a flawed Victorian genius responsible for the introduction of forensic fingerprinting, the weather map, the originator of the nurture versus nature debate and of both sane and silly inventions.
He was born in 1822 and was a cousin of Charles Darwin. The two families were very close with the Darwins being the scientists while the Galtons were Quaker bankers. Both had produced members of the Royal Society and helped found the influential Lunar Society. Read more ›››
14th August 2019
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Where would Las Vegas be without the fruit machine, the invention of car mechanic Charles Fey?
Charles was born Augustus Fey in Vöhringen, Bavaria, in 1862, the youngest of sixteen children. He moved to the US when he was 23, first to New Jersey and then to San Fransisco where he worked for the Electric Works Company. Read more ›››
What you say
Perhaps I should have added, RIP Bill, a character with…
Doc on A Pint of CookingGlory be!!! It appears I've nothing to add........ other than…
Doc on A Pint of Cooking1234567890
michael smillainch on IncrediboxDoes head mites cause you to lose your hair in…
Doris on M is for Mighty Mite[…] Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandukhai, https://shootingparrots.co.uk/2017/05/03/queen-mandukhai-the-wise/, http://en.mwf.mn/5v, https://brewminate.com/queen-manduhai-the-wise/, […]
The Wise Warrior Queen Who United a Warring Empire – Hark Around the Greats on Queen Mandukhai the WiseClara Livingston was the one that taught my father Ricardo…
Marina M. Grayson on L is for Clara LivingstonI admire the kindness shown to Jimmy, the soldiers contributing…
Ahmed Adeel on D is for Jimmy Durham