Months Past: February Cavendish, Richard
History today,
02/2017, Letnik:
67, Številka:
2
Magazine Article
In this edition of "Months Past," a brief history of the events leading up to 14 February 842, when the Oaths of Strasbourg were sworn in an attempt by his sons to keep together the Holy Roman Empire ...that had fractured after the death of Charlemagne are explored. Additionally, Executive Order 9066 passed on 19 February 1942, which called for the interring of Japanese Americans as potentailly disloyal to the US, and the Battle fo Chacabuco, fought in Spain's South American colonies to gain the end of Spanish rule in Paraguay and Argentina, occurred on 12 February 1817.
Charles Macintosh who came from a prosperous business family is featured. Educated at grammar school in Glasgow, from his boyhood he was fascinated by chemistry and attended university lectures on ...the subject in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. By the age of 20 he had his own plant in his home city, manufacturing lead acetate and other chemicals and inventing improved processes for dying cloth.
Months Past: December Cavendish, Richard
History today,
12/2016, Letnik:
66, Številka:
12
Magazine Article
Richard Cavendish celebrates the month of December remebering the first Christie's auction, on 5 December 1766; by presenting a biography of Charles Mackintosh, born 29 December 1766, and who became ...the creator of the eponymously-named "Mackintosh" rubberized coat. Additionally, Cavendish relates the story of the murder of Grigori Rasputin on 17 December 1916, for his close association with the Russian royal family. OA
Born into a peasant family in Siberia in 1869, Grigori Efimovich Rasputin grew up as a drunken, illiterate narcissist, who seems to have eagerly cherished a delusion that he was the most important ...being in the universe. He joined an eccentric Russian Orthodox sect, the Khlysty, which believed that through flagellation they achieved a state of mind in which the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Cavendish recounts the death of Rasputin on Dec 17, 1916.
Born in Perth in 1730, James Christie traveled to London following a short spell as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, which he left in about 1750. He joined an auctioneering firm in the capital, run by ...a man called Annesley, before setting up on his own in Pall Mall. Christie sold "diverse property" from houses, whose owners had died or moved, and objects from tradesmen, including ceramics and vases. Cavendish recalls Christie's first auction on Dec 5, 1766.
A brief history of the Eleanor Cross is presented. When Eleanor of Castile died near Lincoln in 1290, Edward I needed a dramatic way to express his undying love. Her body was embalmed and her ...internal organs, except for her heart, were buried in Lincoln Cathedral before she was borne slowly to London, where her heart was interred at the Dominican church in Blackfriars. The corpse was given a magnificent tomb in Westminster Abbey, which can still be seen. Edward had a tower surmounted by a cross erected at each of the 12 places where Eleanor's coffin had rested overnight on the way south, which were unveiled in Nov 1291. The cross that gave its name to Charing Class in London, near Westminster Abbey, was reconstructed several times before it was knocked down on the orders of the Puritans in Parliament in 1647. It stood on the south side of Trafalgar Square, facing down Whitehall. The replacement of 1865 in front of Charing Cross railway station was designed by E.M. Barry and restored in the 2000s.
Herbert Austin, the creator of Austin cars, is featured. Austin was adventurous and in 1884, aged 18, he went to Australia to join an uncle in an engineering firm in Melbourne, while studying at art ...school in his spare time. Frederick Wolseley was impressed by Austin and made him chief engineer of his company in Sydney. Wolseley pulled out in 1894 and Austin became increasingly interested in motor cars. He designed his first one, a small three-wheeler, for the Wolseley company in 1895. In 1905 he founded his own Austin Motor Co Ltd with a factory at Longbridge in the Birmingham area. His great triumph was the Austin Seven, produced from 1922 to 1939 and dearly loved by thousands of families.
Months Past: November Cavendish, Richard
History today,
11/2016, Letnik:
66, Številka:
11
Magazine Article
In this edition of Months Past, Richard Cavendish remembers the 29 November 1936 fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace, once the centrepiece of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. He discusses ...the Nov 8, 1866 birth of Herbert Austin, creator of Austin cars, and ends with a discussion of Eleanor of Castile, whose death in 1290 prompted her beloved, King Edward I, to build a beautiful memorial tomb to her in Westminster Abbey, and erect a cross at each of the 12 places where Eleanor's coffin had rested overnight on its journey to London. The Eleanor Crosses where unveiled in November 1291, and the most famous one still extant lends its name to Charing Cross station in London. OA
