The death of Mary Leakey – 9 December 1996
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. No matter who we are and what we think, the beautiful truth is that we are all children of Africa. It was in no small part the painstaking work of Mary Leakey that revealed this. For more than 50 years under hot African skies, [...]
The death of Hernán Cortés – 2 December 1547
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. “He came dancing across the water with his galleons and guns, Looking for the new world in that palace in the sun”- from Cortez the Killer by Neil Young Hernán (Hernando) Cortés was a glory-seeking, ruthless murderer capable of barbaric cruelty, who more or [...]
The death of Dr Jane Elizabeth Hodgson – 23 October 2006
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. There are many reasons why a pregnancy may be unwanted. A woman may have no access to contraception or already have too many mouths to feed. It may endanger her health, even her life. She may have been raped. The foetus may not be [...]
The Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest – 14 October 1066
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. The British Isles has a long history of invaders: Angles, Danes, Saxons, Vikings. But on the 28 September 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, landed at Pevensey in Sussex an invasion force on this scale had not been since the Romans, a thousand years [...]
The death of Marie Stopes – 2 October 1958
This article also appears on Dorian Cope’s blog On This Deity. “I have some things to say about sex, which, so far as I am aware, have not yet been said … things which seem to me to be of profound importance to men and women who hope to make their marriage beautiful.” When my [...]
The death of Frida Kahlo – 13 July 1954
“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” …and Frida’s reality was a lifetime of extreme physical pain and tortuous suffering, punctuated with a tempestuous emotional turbulence. Artist Frida Kahlo was born in 1907, the daughter of Hungarian Jewish father and indigenous Mexican mother. She [...]
The death of Emmeline Pankhurst – 14 June 1928
Today, we remember one of the most important British women of the 20th century who died 83 years ago today, aged 69. Sisters! If you have ever voted in an election, thank Emmeline Pankhurst. And if you have ever decided not to vote in an election, you can thank Emmeline for having that choice. And Brothers! [...]
The burning of Joan of Arc – 30 May 1431
“Whatever thing men call great, look for it in Joan of Arc, and there you will find it.” – Mark Twain Five-hundred and eighty years ago today the English tied a 19-year-old French peasant girl to a pillar in the square in Rouen and burned her alive. Her executioners were so afraid of relic-hunters they [...]
The beheading of Anne Boleyn – 19 May 1536
Four-hundred and seventy-five years ago today, Anne Boleyn knelt upright on a scaffold in the Tower of London on the orders of her husband, King Henry VIII (1491 – 1547). Looming over her was expert swordsman Jean Rombaud who had been especially brought over from France for the occasion. A single stroke from Rombaud’s weapon [...]
International Women’s Day
Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day when women all over the world celebrate their many achievements. And I’m not just talking about women becoming prime ministers or astronauts. No, I mean the really big stuff like the 67-year-old-woman from Yorkshire who, after years of abuse, says ‘no’ to her husband. [...]
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