Theme Intriguing People
George IV 1820 – 1830
George IV was the son of George III, his mother was Queen Charlotte. He was born on 12th August 1762 at St Jame’s Palace London. He acceded to the throne on 29th January 1820 and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 19th July 1821. George IV was made Prince Regent in 1811 when it became…
Read MoreGeorge III 1760 – 1820
George III was the son of Frederick the Prince of Wales, his mother being Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was born at Norfolk House in London on the 4th June 1738 and was therefore the first Hanoverian king to be born and bred an Englishman. He acceded to the throne on 25th October 1760 and was…
Read MoreKing of the Anglo Saxons c860 AD
The first ‘King of England’ emerges out of the Dark Ages
Read MoreRobert Walpole died 1745
Robert Walpole survived for three years after his resignation in 1742 but he had been very ill with kidney disease for a number of years. His last few months were spent in great pain and eventually under heavy sedation. He died on 18th March 1745.
Read MoreHandel’s Messiah
Handel’s first performance of the Messiah was not in London but in a music hall in Fishamble Street in Dublin. The performance took place on 13th April 1742 and although he struggled to find enough performers and to convince the clergy to allow him to perform a sacred piece of music in a secular building,…
Read MoreGeorge II reigned 1727 – 1760
George II reigned over 33 years of rapid change in the political and economic circumstances of Britain
Read More1824 Patent for Portland cement
The 1824 patent for portland cement, an immensely important patent that allowed us the docks, the sewers and tunnels under the Thames.The importance of Portland cement in the development of English towns and cities cannot be underestimated.
Read More1795 Sterilization process for preserving food introduced
‘An army travels on it’s stomach’, so Napoleon said and seeing so many of his troops suffering from diseases that had more to do with hunger and scurvy than with battle wounds, he determined to do something about it. The French government offered a prize of 12,000F to the person who could invent a method…
Read More1825 Invention of the electromagnet
The electromagnet invented 1825 by William Sturgeon who was a remarkable self taught shoemaker, philosopher and scientist.
Read More1833 Michael Faraday introduces laws of electrolysis
Michael Faraday quite possibly the most important and influential scientist of the C19th
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