Len Johnson was a black British boxer and communist who competed from 1920 to 1933. He was born in Clayton, Manchester in October 1902. His father was from Sierra Leone, while his mother was born in Manchester. His ideas against racism caused him to take a public stand against discrimination & bigotry. Contemporarily, we often […]
Modern detective novels and television dramas have captured public imagination for over a century. Forensic fingerprinting features in nearly every single one. Whilst the practise is one many are familiar with, few know of its modern history of development in colonial India, and the story of how it reached Victorian Britain to further develop into […]
Oscar Wilde was an author, playwright, and poet born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. After graduating from Oxford University with first class marks, he lectured as a poet, art critic and became known for his flamboyant style and genius wit. Wilde is remembered not only for his work but also for his infamous […]
On the 10th September 2009, the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, issued an apology to Alan Turing, culminating with the words “we’re sorry, you deserved so much better”. This apology came over 60 years after Turing’s ingenious cracking of the German Enigma code, which explicitly led to many British victories in WW2, such as the […]
The disregard which the American government has always had to Native American reservation and tribes is continually shocking, especially since they represent some of the most important remains of traditional culture left in the USA. They have already lost 99% of their land which they had originally. There is a remaining importance to make sure […]
The 13th Amendment needs little, if any, introduction. Abraham Lincoln, often voted the most popular or inspirational President, has been preserved as the freer of slaves. Most recently immortalised in Stephen Spielberg’s film. However, popular accounts tend to smooth the nuances of Lincoln’s achievements. They continually ignore his overt racism and the limitations of his […]
Both Spain and Mexico are considered to be very colourful and vibrant countries, yet they also have dark pasts. The brutal dictatorships of Porfirio Díaz in Mexico and Miguel Primo de Rivera in Spain marred the uniquely spirited countries during the 19th and 20th Centuries. The regimes’ mirrored each other in many ways because the […]
Winstanley Hall, built in the 1560s, is one of only three Tudor buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It was originally built for the Winstanley family, who had been the Lords of the Manor since c.1252; however, only three decades later in 1596, the estate was sold in its entirety to James Bankes, a […]
Popular images of the first transatlantic migrants depict fierce conquistadors in the South and pious pilgrims in the North, motivated by greed in the former case and obscure Puritanism in the latter. However, what really caused people to make such a radical journey in the centuries following the encounter with the Americas? What factors could […]
Popular images of the first transatlantic migrants depict fierce conquistadors in the South and pious pilgrims in the North, motivated by greed in the former case and obscure Puritanism in the latter. However, what really caused people to make such a radical journey in the centuries following the encounter with the Americas? What factors could […]
Francois Hollande recently became embroiled in scandal after an alleged affair with a French actress uncovered by the French press. Tom Oliver investigates the cases in history when sex and politics have become enmeshed.
Last month the last Japanese soldier to surrender years after the end of the Second World War, Hiroo Onoda, died at the age of ninety-one. Ninety-one is an incredibly impressive age to live to, especially as he’d previously spent 20 years fighting a war that didn’t exist and living off of coconuts in the dense […]
Forty years ago, on May 18th, 1981, writing for the gay newspaper New York Native, Laurence Mass addressed rumours of a new gay disease in an article titled “Disease Rumours Largely Unfounded”. Rumours had appeared in New York that a potentially dangerous form of pneumonia was emerging. This form of pneumonia, Pneumocystis jirovecii (or P. […]
Winstanley Hall, built in the 1560s, is one of only three Tudor buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It was originally built for the Winstanley family, who had been the Lords of the Manor since c.1252; however, only three decades later in 1596, the estate was sold in its entirety to James Bankes, a […]
