Wednesday 17th June 2026
The San Francisco Earthquake 1906
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a major earthquake which struck the coast of Northern California at 05:12 am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. With an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), it created high-intensity shaking from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Extensive fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the list of worst American disasters, natural or man-made.
Wednesday 3rd June 2026;
The Sumerians were the people of southern Mesopotamia (modern-day southern Iraq) whose civilization flourished between circa 4000 and 1750 BCE. Their name comes from the region, which is frequently – and incorrectly – referred to as a "country." However, Sumer was never a cohesive political entity, but a region of city-states, each with its own king.
Wednesday 20th May 2026
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685)[c] was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth with a republican government eventually led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis after Cromwell's death in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim.
Wednesday 6th May 2026
Witchcraft 16th @ 17th Century
Witch trials and witch related accusations were at a high during the early modern period in Britain, a time that spanned from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century.
Prior to the 16th century, Witchcraft – i.e. any magical or supernatural practices made by mankind – was often seen as a healing art, performed by people referred to as the cunning folk. It was later believed to be Satanic in origin[1] and thus sparked a series of laws being passed and trials being conducted, with it becoming a capital offense in 1542.[2]
The Witchcraft Act 1735 (9 Geo. 2. c. 5) reversed the law, repealing the laws against witchcraft, while making it illegal to claim that there were people with magical powers or to accuse someone of being a witch in Great Britain,[3] (though these crimes were no longer punishable by death).
Wednesday 15th April
Cleopatra 2 @ The Ptolemy Dynasty
Wednesday 1st April 2026
The Weimar Republic 1918 -1932
Wednesday 18th March 2026
Europe and the Decline of Spain
Wednesday 4th March 2026
Women's Universal Suffrage
Wednesday 18th February 2026
THE GREAT GAME (Russo /British Rivalry)
The Great Game refers to the 19th-century rivalry between the British and Russian empires over control and influence in Central Asia, particularly in Afghanistan and surrounding regions.
Overview of the Great Game
Wednesday 4th February 2026
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état (Spanish: Golpe de Estado en Chile de 1973) was a military overthrow of the socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity coalition government.[10][11] Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in a Latin American liberal democracy,[12][13] faced significant social unrest, political tension with the opposition-controlled National Congress of Chile. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General Augusto Pinochet, seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.
Wednesday 21st January 2026
The Jacobite Rebellion, particularly the rising of 1745, was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to restore the Stuart monarchy in Britain, culminating in the significant Battle of Culloden.
Historical Context
Wednesday 17th December 2025
The Stock Market Crash 1929/Great Depression; stock market crash of 1929, a sharp decline in U.S. stock market values in 1929 that contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Great Depression lasted approximately 10 years and affected both industrialized and nonindustrialized countries in many parts of the world.
Wednesday 3rd December 2025
Catherine II[a] (born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica, Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Романова; 2 May 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796),[b] commonly known as Catherine the Great,[c] was the reigning Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d'etat against her husband, Peter III. Her long reign helped Russia thrive under a golden age under the Enlightenment. This renaissance led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.
Wednesday 19th November 2025
Nefertiti (/ˌnɛfərˈtiːti/[3]) (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted an exclusivist and possibly even monotheistic religion, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history.[4]
After her husband's death, some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female pharaoh known by the throne name Neferneferuaten, and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate.[5][6] If Nefertiti did rule as pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.[7]
In the 20th century, Nefertiti was made famous by the discovery and display of her ancient bust, now in Berlin's Neues Museum. The bust is one of the most copied works of the art of ancient Egypt. It is attributed to the Egyptian sculptor Thutmose, and was excavated from his buried studio complex in the early 20th century.[
Wednesday 5TH November 2025
Anne of Austria (French: Anne d'Autriche; Spanish: Ana de Austria; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII. She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown in 1620. After her husband's death, Anne was regent to her son Louis XIV during his minority until 1651.
Jules Mazarin[a] (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino[b] or Mazarini;[5] 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death. He was made a cardinal in 1641.
Wednesday 15th October 2025
Greeks in Sicily;
The first Greek colonies were founded in eastern Sicily in the 8th century BC when the Chalcidian Greeks founded Zancle, Naxos, Leontinoi and Katane; in the south-east corner the Corinthians founded Syracuse and the Megareans Megara Hyblaea, while on the western coast the Cretans and Rhodians founded Gela in 689 BC, with which the first Greek colonisation of Sicily ended.
The Greek cities of Sicily were apoikìai (newly founded cities detached from their cities of origin and led by an oikistes).
Wednesday 1st October 2025
The Thirty Years' War was fought from 1618 to 1648. It was fought primarily in Germany, but several other countries became involved in the conflict, including France, Spain, and Sweden. In fact, almost all of the powerful countries in Europe were involved in the war, which began as a fight about religion between Protestants and Catholics. As the war continued, the Catholic Habsburg dynasty and other countries used the war to try to get more power. For example, Catholic France fought for the Protestants, which made the French-Habsburg rivalry even worse.
Wednesday 17th September 2025
The Fronde; The Fronde (French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃d] ⓘ)[2] was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the noble regional court assemblies (parlements), as well as much of the French population, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king's actions, and sought to check his powers.[
Wednesday 18th June;
The Unification of Italy The unification of Italy (Italian: Unità d'Italia [uniˈta ddiˈtaːlja]), also known as the Risorgimento (Italian: [risordʒiˈmento]; lit. 'Resurgence'), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of Sardinia, resulting in the creation of the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the Revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1870 after the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.[1][
Wednesday June 4th ;
The Crimean War[d] was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont from October 1853 to February 1856.[9] Geopolitical causes of the war included the "Eastern question" (the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the "sick man of Europe"), expansion of Imperial Russia in the preceding Russo-Turkish wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe.
Wednesday 21st May History of the Bank of England;
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one of the bankers for the government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's second oldest central bank.[3]
The bank was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946 by the Attlee ministry.[4] In 1998 it became an independent public organisation, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government,[5] with a mandate to support the economic policies of the government of the day,[6] but independence in maintaining price stability.[7] In the 21st century the bank took on increased responsibility for maintaining and monitoring financial stability in the UK, and it increasingly functions as a statutory regulator.[8]
Wednesday 7th May THE HISTORY OF VENICE;
The Origins of Venice
Venice developed a creation myth that it was founded by people fleeing Troy, but it was probably formed in the sixth century C.E., when Italian refugees fleeing Lombard invaders camped on the islands in the Venice lagoon. There is evidence for a settlement in 600 C.E., and this grew, having its own bishopric by the end of the 7th century. The settlement soon had an outside ruler, an official appointed by the Byzantine Empire, which clung onto a part of Italy from a base in Ravenna. In 751, when the Lombards conquered Ravenna, the Byzantine dux became a Venetian Doge, appointed by the merchant families who had emerged in the town
Wednesday 16th April The Great Hunger; 1845/1849
The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine,[1][2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole.[3] The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—hence the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol,[4] which literally translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times"
Wednesday 2nd April; The Rise and Fall of the Medici Family;
At its height, Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth, power, and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence's slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.
Wednesday 19th March; German Unification.
The unification of Germany (German: Deutsche Einigung, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈʔaɪnɪɡʊŋ] ⓘ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). It commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of the North German Confederation Treaty establishing the North German Confederation, initially a military alliance de facto dominated by Prussia which was subsequently deepened through adoption of the North German Constitution.
Wednesday 5th March; The Spanish Civil War;
The Spanish Civil War (18 July 1936 – 1 April 1939) was a civil war between Republicans and Nationalists. The war ended on 1 April 1939, when the last Republican troops surrendered. Francisco Franco became dictator of Spain until he died in 1975.
Wednesday 19th February 2025; The Partition of India;
partition of India, division of British India into the independent countries of India and Pakistan according to the Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament on July 18, 1947. Set to take effect on August 15, the rapid partition led to a population transfer of unprecedented magnitude, accompanied by devastating communal violence, as some 15,000,000 Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims rushed to cross the hastily demarcated borders before the partition would be complete. Estimates of the number of people who died during the partition range from 200,000 to 2,000,000. The partition left an indelible mark on the national consciousness of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and its legacy continues to influence the countries’ citizens to this day.
Wednesday 5th February; History of TIAWAN/White Terror;
Republic of China (1945–present)
Main articles: Republic of China (1912–1949) and History of Taiwan (1945–present)
See also: History of the Republic of China and Chinese Civil War
While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was founded on mainland China on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.[180] Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT).[181] During World War II, the 1943 Cairo Declaration specified that Formosa and the Pescadores be returned by Japan to the ROC;[182][183] the terms were later repeated in the 1945 Potsdam Declaration[184] that Japan agreed to carry out in its instrument of surrender.[185][186] On 25 October 1945, Japan surrendered Taiwan to the ROC, and in the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan formally renounced their claims to the islands, though without specifying to whom they were surrendered.[187][188][189][190][p] In the same year, Japan and the ROC signed a peace treaty.[191]
The White Terror (Chinese: 白色恐怖; pinyin: Báisè Kǒngbù; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pe̍h-sek Khióng-pò͘) was the political repression of Taiwanese civilians and political dissenters under the government ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT).[2] The period of White Terror is generally considered to have begun when martial law was declared in Taiwan on 19 May 1949, which was enabled by the 1948 Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion, and ended on 21 September 1992 with the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code, allowing for the prosecution of "anti-state" activities. The Temporary Provisions were repealed a year earlier on 22 April 1991. Martial law had been lifted on 15 July 1987.[3][4]
The period of White Terror generally does not include the February 28 incident of 1947, in which the KMT killed at least 18,000 Taiwanese civilians in response to a popular uprising, and also summarily executed many local political and intellectual elites. The two are frequently discussed in tandem as it was the catalyst that motivated the KMT to begin the White Terror.[5][6] Martial law was declared and lifted twice during the February 28 incident.
Wednesday 5th January 2025; The first day of the Somme
The first day on the Somme (1 July 1916) was the beginning of the Battle of Albert (1–13 July) the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the Battle of the Somme (1 July–18 November) in the First World War. Nine corps of the French Sixth Army and the British Fourth and Third armies attacked the German 2nd Army (General Fritz von Below). The attack was from Foucaucourt south of the Somme, northwards across the Somme and the Ancre to Serre and Gommecourt, 2 mi (3.2 km) beyond, in the Third Army area. The objective of the attack was to capture the German first and second defensive positions from Serre south to the Albert–Bapaume road and the first position from the road south to Foucaucourt
18th December 2024 THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
The East India Company (EIC) was an British joint-stock company with headquarters in London. It was started for trading with the East Indies, but most trade was with India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. It was given a charter, permission to exist, in 1600 and traded many things in India.
In the mid-18th century, the company built up its own presidency armies and won the Battle of Plassey, which brought it from only trading with India to actually ruling India.
4th December 2024 The Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League[a] was a medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the League expanded between the 13th and 15th centuries and ultimately encompassed nearly 200 settlements across eight modern-day countries, ranging from Estonia in the north and east, to the Netherlands in the west, and extended inland as far as Cologne, the Prussian regions and Kraków, Poland.
20th November 20th Century Press Barons
Newspapers grew in scale and influence into the 20th Century and so did the people who owned them.
The press barons - larger than life characters determined to have their say in politics - were born.
In the early 20th century, the British press was dominated by a few wealthy press barons. Many papers published more popular stories, including sports and other features, in an attempt to boost circulation. In 1969 Rupert Murdoch bought and relaunched The Sun as a tabloid and soon added pictures of topless models on Page 3. Within a few years the Sun was the UK's most popular newspaper.
In the 1980s national newspapers began to move out of Fleet Street, the traditional home of the British national press since the 18th century. By the early 21st century newspaper circulation began to decline.[2]
In the early 2010s many British newspapers were implicated in a major phone hacking scandal which led to the closure of the News of the World after 168 years of publication and the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.[1]
6th November THE SPACE RACE;
The politics of outer space includes space treaties, law in space, international cooperation and conflict in space exploration, international economics, and the hypothetical political impact of any contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Astropolitics has its foundations in geopolitics and is a theory that is used for space in its broadest sense.
16th October. BREAK UP OF THE SOVIET UNION
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration № 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.[1] It also brought an end to the Soviet Union's federal government and General Secretary (also President) Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide
2nd October. The American Civil War.
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union[e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union. The central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.[16][17]
Decades of controversy over slavery were brought to a head when Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by President Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the U.S. population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued.
18th September 2024. Athenian Democracy;
developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Although Athens is the most famous ancient Greek democratic city-state, it was not the only one, nor was it the first; multiple other city-states adopted similar democratic constitutions before Athens.[1][2] By the late 4th century BC, as many as half of the over one thousand existing Greek cities might have been democracies.[3] Athens practiced a political system of legislation and executive bills. Participation was open to adult, free male citizens (i.e., not a metic, women or slaves.) Adult male citizens probably constituted no more than 30 percent of the total adult population.[4]
Solon (in 594 BC), Cleisthenes (in 508–07 BC), and Ephialtes (in 462 BC) contributed to the development of Athenian democracy. Cleisthenes broke up the unlimited power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived, rather than on their wealth.[5] The longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles. After his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolutions in 411 and 404 BC, towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides; the most detailed accounts of the system are of this fourth-century modification, rather than the Periclean system. Democracy was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were later revived, but how close they were to a real democracy is debatable.
5th June 2024; The Chinese Civil War 1945 to 1951; Exploring this period of the conflict
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), with armed conflict continuing intermittently from 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949, resulting in a CCP victory and control of mainland China in the Chinese Communist Revolution.
15th May 2024 The General election of 1945;
The 1945 United Kingdom general election was a national election held on Thursday 5 July 1945, but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days, and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 July to provide time for overseas votes to be brought to Britain. The governing Conservative Party sought to maintain its position in Parliament but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the United Kingdom in the post-war period. Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to call for a general election in Parliament, which passed with a majority vote less than two months after the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe.[1]
1st May 2024 The 4th Crusade and it's consequences for Christianity.
24th April 2024 The Abdication crisis of 1936
Key points about the abdication crisis
- Edward VIII abdicated the throne in December 1936
- He had been on the throne for less than a year
- He fell in love with American divorcee Wallis Simpson and was determined to marry her
- The British government, much of the press and many of the people felt it would be inappropriate for Edward to marry Mrs Simpson
- Edward was not well-respected as a king and caused a number of problems
3rd April 2024; The History of Alexandria;
Alexandria (/ˌælɪɡˈzændriə, -ˈzɑːn-/ AL-ig-ZA(H)N-dree-ə;[5] Arabic: الإسكندرية;[a] Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια[b], Coptic: Ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ - Rakoti or ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ) is the second largest city in Egypt and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile River delta. Founded in c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great,[9] Alexandria grew rapidly and became a major centre of Hellenic civilization, eventually replacing Memphis, in present-day Greater Cairo, as Egypt's capital. Called the "Bride of the Mediterranean" internationally,[10] Alexandria is a popular tourist destination and an important industrial centre due to its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
20th March 2024; History of Palestine (past @ present).. We have a guest speaker on the topic and we will also use the session as a Q @ A opportunity.
6th March 2024; Shakespeare and his contemporaries, including the First Folio.
Shakespearean tragedy is the designation given to most tragedies written by playwright William Shakespeare. Many of his history plays share the qualifiers of a Shakespearean tragedy, but because they are based on real figures throughout the history of England, they were classified as "histories" in the First Folio. The Roman tragedies—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—are also based on historical figures, but because their sources were foreign and ancient, they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories. Shakespeare's romances (tragicomic plays) were written late in his career and published originally as either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of tragedy, insofar as they feature a high-status central character, but they end happily like Shakespearean comedies. Almost three centuries after Shakespeare's death, the scholar F. S. Boas also coined a fifth category, the "problem play," for plays that do not fit neatly into a single classification because of their subject matter, setting, or ending.[1][2] Scholars continue to disagree on how to categorize some Shakespearean plays.
21st February 2024; ' A Year In History 1560 AD'
7th February 2024:
Sweden from the Era of the Vikings to the 30 Year War.
Sweden has a rich and varied history that spans many centuries. The Viking Age, which lasted from the late 8th century to the mid-11th century, was a time of great exploration and expansion for the Swedes, as well as the Norwegians and Danes. During this period, the Swedish Vikings journeyed far and wide, spreading their influence across many lands, including England, France, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, the Balkans, Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan 1.
After the Viking Age, Sweden continued to play an important role in European history. During the 17th century, Sweden emerged as a great power after winning wars against Denmark-Norway, Russia, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sweden’s role in the Thirty Years’ War determined the political and religious balance of power in Europe 2. The Swedish Empire, which lasted from 1611 to 1721, was a period of great expansion and prosperity for Sweden. During this time, Sweden acquired territories seized from Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as its involvement in the Thirty Years’ War, which transformed Sweden into the leader of Protestantism 3
17th January 2024;
The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Island
20th December 2023;
The Topic for this session is;
The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment,[note 2] also known as the Age of Reason, was an intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe, especially Western Europe, in the 17th and 18th centuries, with global influences and effects.[2][3] The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centred on the value of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge obtained by means of reason and the evidence of the senses, and ideals such as natural law, liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.[4][5]
The focus on this occasion will it's impact during this period within the UK. Particularly, Philosophy, Science, Politics, Sociology, Economics ,Law, @ Theories of Government. Group members may decide to focus on a particular period of interest .
6th December 2023:
The Topic for this session is;
6th December Topic The English Restoration;
Restoration, Restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660. It marked the return of Charles II as king (1660–85) following the period of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth. The bishops were restored to Parliament, which established a strict Anglican orthodoxy. The period, which also included the reign of James II (1685–88), was marked by an expansion in colonial trade, the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and a revival of drama and literature.
15th November Topic JFK PRESIDENT OF THE USA
JFK PRESIDENT; Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy became one of the youngest U.S. presidents, as well as the first Roman Catholic to hold the office. Born into one of America’s wealthiest families, he parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a military hero into a successful run for Congress in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952.
As president, Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. He also led a renewed drive for public service and eventually provided federal support for the growing civil rights movement. His assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day, historians continue to rank him among the best-loved presidents in American history
18th October; Topic
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence.
Wednesday October 4th Topic
The War of the Triple Alliance (The Paraguayan War).
The topic, discussion and ideas from the meeting from the 20th September may help to tie these issues together.
Following the SUMMER BREAK we begin the Autumn meeting's on Wednesday September 20th 2023 10-12 noon. The Topic is The Long March in Brazil;
The 1920s in Brazil saw the First Republic (founded in 1889) come to an end and with it the fall from power of the rural oligarchies that had been dominant for the last three decades. This, broadly speaking, was a result of urban development and rapid industrialization, which caused both the middle classes and labour movements to become restive. Many low-ranking officers in the military came from the small, but influent, middle classes and were becoming deeply dissatisfied with the political establishment. A period of multiple rebellions ensued that is referred to as 'Tenentismo', from the word 'tenentes' (Portuguese for 'Lieutenants').
The Prestes Column (named after Luiz Carlos Prestes, one of the most combative among the 'tenentes') was formed in the wake of one such rebellion. Between 1924 and 1927, a fluctuating number of rebels, averaging perhaps 1,000-1,500 people ('tenentes' and subordinates, but also people from various professions, including women), kept up a long march through the hinterland of Brazil, chased by governmental forces, fought hundreds of skirmishes across eleven states of Brazil, and, all in all, covered around 25,000 km (15,534 mi) of difficult, sometimes untouched terrain, over around 780 days. For comparison, the Column travelled almost three times as many miles as Mao's Long March over about twice as many days.
Wednesday 21st June 10 am 2023 Topic;
CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED!’ CRIED A ROMAN STATESMAN. SO THAT’S JUST WHAT ROME DID
Wednesday 7th June Topic
The Great Walls of China; The history of the Great Wall of China began when fortifications built by various states during the Spring and Autumn (771–476 BC)[1] and Warring States periods (475–221 BC) were connected by the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, to protect his newly founded Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) against incursions by nomads from Inner Asia. The walls were built of rammed earth, constructed using forced labour, and by 212 BC ran from Gansu to the coast of southern Manchuria.
Later dynasties adopted different policies towards northern frontier defense. The Han (202 BC – 220 AD), the Northern Qi (550–574), the Jurchen-ruled Jin (1115–1234), and particularly the Ming (1369–1644) were among those that rebuilt, re-manned, and expanded the Walls, although they rarely followed Qin's routes. The Han extended the fortifications furthest to the west, the Qi built about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) of new walls, while the Sui mobilised over a million men in their wall-building efforts. Conversely, the Tang (618–907), the Song (960–1279), the Yuan (1271–1368), and the Qing (1636–1912) mostly did not build frontier walls, instead opting for other solutions to the Inner Asian threat like military campaigning and diplomacy.
Although a useful deterrent against raids, at several points throughout its history the Great Wall failed to stop enemies, including in 1644 when the Qing troops marched through the gates of the Shanhai Pass and replaced the most ardent of the wall-building dynasties, the Ming, as rulers of China proper.
Wednesday 17th May Topic; Constitutional Monarchy The Principal
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions.[1] Constitutional monarchies differ from absolute monarchies (in which a monarch is the only decision-maker) in that they are bound to exercise powers and authorities within limits prescribed by an established legal framework
Topic for Wed 3rd May 2023 History of Poland from the 12th Century
The history of Poland spans over a thousand years, from medieval tribes, Christianization and monarchy; through Poland's Golden Age, expansionism and becoming one of the largest European powers; to its collapse and partitions, two world wars, communism, and the restoration of democracy.
19th April Topic; The Manhattan Project (The Atomic Girls)
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946
Wednesday 5th April topic. Part 1 & 2
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. The Revolution marked the effective commanding return of Mao –who was still the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)– to the centre of power, after a period of self-abstention and ceding to less radical leadership in the aftermath of the Mao-led Great Leap Forward debacle and the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961). The Revolution failed to achieve its main goals.
Wednesday 15th March topic.
The Highland Clearances (Scottish Gaelic: Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal [ˈfuət̪ɪçən nəŋ ˈɡɛː.əl̪ˠ], the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.
The first phase resulted from agricultural improvement, driven by the need for landlords to increase their income – many had substantial debts, with actual or potential bankruptcy being a large part of the story of the clearances. This involved the enclosure of the open fields managed on the run rig system and shared grazing. These were usually replaced with large-scale pastoral farms on which much higher rents were paid. The displaced tenants were expected to be employed in industries such as fishing, quarrying or the kelp industry. Their reduction in status from farmer to crofter was one of the causes of resentment.[1]: 212
Wednesday 1st March Topic
Burgundy (/ˈbɜːrɡəndi/; French: Bourgogne [buʁɡɔɲ] (listen)) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The capital of Dijon was one of the great European centres of art and science, a place of tremendous wealth and power, and Western Monasticism.[1] In early Modern Europe, Burgundy was a focal point of courtly culture that set the fashion for European royal houses and their court.[2] The Duchy of Burgundy was a key in the transformation of the Middle Ages toward early modern Europe
Wednesday 15th February 20 Topic:
The city of Petra was established as a trading post by the Nabateans, an Arab Bedouin tribe indigenous to the region in what is now southwestern Jordan.
The Nabateans living and trading in Petra soon accumulated a significant amount of wealth, and an envious Greek Empire attacked the city in 312 B.C. This event marks the first reference to Petra in recorded history
Wednesday 1st February 2023. Topic; The Topic for our next meeting has a double edged focus. Primarily on the demise of the Ottoman empire (during and following the First WW)
1) The Armenian Holocaust and 2) The Turkey Greece war which resulted in the mass exchange of populations and it's consequences for their respective population's
Wednesday 18th January 2023 Topic The Spanish Flu. The 1918 Spanish flu was the first of three flu pandemics caused by H1N1 influenza
Wednesday 4th January 2023 Topic The Peasants Revolts in England and Europe in the 13/14th Centuries
Wednesday 16th November Topic;
A wave of revolutions swept across Europe in 1848. Beginning in Sicily and followed by the February revolution in France, many countries were rocked by popular uprisings. Britain though remained largely impervious to revolutionary change
Wednesday 2nd November. Topic; The Rise & Fall of Babylon;
Babylon was the capital city of the ancient Babylonian Empire, which itself is a term referring to either of two separate empires in the Mesopotamian area in antiquity. These two empires achieved regional dominance between the 19th and 15th centuries BC, and again between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. The city, built along both banks of the Euphrates river, had steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. The earliest known mention of Babylon as a small town appears on a clay tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC) of the Akkadian Empire. The site of the ancient city lies just south of present-day Baghdad. The last known record of habitation of the town dates from the 10th century AD, when it was referred to as the "small village of Babel".
Wed October 19th Topic. Caesar Augustus[a] (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was officially the first Roman emperor who reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.[b] He is known for being the founder of the Roman Principate, which is the first phase of the Roman Empire, and Augustus is considered one of the greatest leaders in human history.[3] The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult as well as an era associated with imperial peace, the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession.ednesday October 19th Topic.
Wednesday 5th October Topic
a) 1830: The establishment of Bourbon Restoration following the fall of Napoleon.
b) The June 1832 Rebellion (also known as the Paris Rising), when republicans in Paris attempted to reverse the establishment of the 1830 establishment of the monarchy – quashed & remembered mainly for its inclusion in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel – Les Misérables.
c) The February 1848 Revolution, when Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate & the short-lived Second Republic was established.
d) The unsuccessful later attempts to re-establish the Kingdom in the 1870s, during the Third Republic.
It might be easiest to make a strong focus on the reasons for the uprisings.
Wednesday September 21st, Topic: Napoleon, also Napoleon Bonaparte[a] (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), and later known by his regnal name Napoleon I,[b] was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the de facto leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, and as Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured to this day, and he stands as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in world history.[
The History Group will meet again for the Autumn on Wednesday 7th September 2022.10am to 12 noon. The venue remains St Anne's Centre. The first topic will focus on the 'The French Revolution'.
This is our final meeting before the summer recess. We begin again in September 2022. Wednesday 15th June History of; Hatshepsut (/hætˈʃɛpsʊt/;[4] also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: ḥꜣt-špswt "Foremost of Noble Ladies";[5] c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, after Sobekneferu.[6] (Various other women may have also ruled as pharaohs or at least regents before Hatshepsut, as early as Neithhotep around 1,600 years prior.)
Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC.[7] As the principal wife of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut initially ruled as regent to Thutmose III, a son of Thutmose II by another wife and the first male heir. While Thutmose III had inherited the throne at about two years old, Hatshepsut continued to rule by asserting her lineage as the daughter and only child of Thutmose I and his primary wife, Ahmose.[8][9]
Her husband Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a secondary wife named Mutnofret, who carried the title 'King's daughter' and was probably a child of Ahmose I. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter named Neferure. Thutmose II with Iset, a secondary wife, would father Thutmose III, who would succeed Hatshepsut as pharaoh.[
Wednesday 1st June. History of Ireland between 1880 to early 1920's Hoem Rule, Easter Rising and Partition
Wednesday 18th May Topic; Skara Brae The Ness of Brodgar.
Around 1850 , a violent storm, together with an exceptionally high tide, undermined part of the dunes at “Skerrabrae” to reveal an artefact-filled “kitchen midden”. Investigation by William Watt, resident of the nearby Skaill House, suggested “the existence of extensive buildings” . Watt wasted no time before digging into these and, by February 185...
Wednesday 4th May Topic; The Great Stink was an event in Central London in July and August 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames. The problem had been mounting for some years, with an ageing
Wednesday 20th April 2022. Topic; The Industrial Revolution and the White Peak
The south east corner of the White Peak provided the perfect place for Sir Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt to build the `cradle of the Industrial Revolution’ complete with water-powered cotton mills, purpose-built housing for the workforce, as well as schools and a fine churches.
The next meeting is on Wednesday April 6th 10am. The Topic centres on 'The Agrarian Revolution circa 1714-1830. The period in general covers the Hanoverian period and probably most of the significant changes to agriculture and the social fabric of the then society.
Wednesday 16th March 2022 Topic; Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II.
Wednesday March 2nd. 2022.Topic; Alexander the Great his campaigning and the aftermath
Wednesday 16th February 2022 topic. Philip II and the Rise of Macedon Tom: Macedon’s meteoric rise from a small kingdom on the periphery of the Hellenic world to an ancient world superpower occurred in just 25 years, presided over by the administrative and military genius of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great
Wednesday 2nd February 2022 topic. Achilles Trojan War Discussion of Achilles in preparation for discussing Alexander later on, that rather than Achilles per se, we'd try to discuss Achilles with an eye on how Alexander viewed him.
Wednesday 19th January 2022 Topic: The Huguenots – England’s First Refugees The Huguenots were French Protestants from the sixteenth and seventeenth century who fled from the French Catholic government fearing persecution and violence. As they fled, a diaspora of Huguenots travelled across the globe, settling and forming new communities in America, Africa and Euro
Wednesday 5th January: 2022 Topic The USA The Origins of first 13 Colonies 1675-1765 leading to change and Revolution and Independence.
Wednesday 15th December Topic. THERMOPYLAE is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece which was the site of several battles in antiquity, the most famous being that between Persians and Greeks in August 480 BCE. Despite being greatly inferior in numbers, the Greeks held the narrow pass for three days with Spartan king Leonidas fighting a last-ditch defence with a small force of Spartans and other Greek hoplites. Ultimately the Persians took control of the pass, but the heroic defeat of Leonidas would assume legendary proportions for later generations of Greeks, and within a year the Persian invasion would be repulsed at the battles of Salamis and Plataea.
Wednesday 1st December 2021. Topic History of Cuba; The history of Cuba is characterized by dependence on outside powers—Spain, the US, and the USSR. The island of Cuba was inhabited by various Amerindian cultures prior to the arrival of the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492. After his arrival on a Spanish expedition, Spain conquered ... and more to the 21st century.
Wednesday 17th November; Burma/Myanmar in the 20 & 21st Centuries. This is quite a challenging topic and we will focus only on this period.
3rd November 2021 The Korean War; The Korean war began on June 25, 1950, when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against International Communism.
20th October 2021 The topic is Cambodia from the early 60's. Background During the early-to-mid-1960s, Prince Norodom Sihanouk's policies had protected his nation from the turmoil that engulfed Laos and South Vietnam. Neither the People's Republic of China (PRC) nor North Vietnam disputed Sihanouk's claim to represent "progressive" political policies and the leadership of the … Revolt in Battambang The prince then found himself in a political dilemma. To maintain the balance against the rising tide of the conservatives, he named the leaders of the very group he had been oppressing as members of a "counter-government" that was meant to monitor and criticize Lon Nol's administration. One of Lon Nol'…
Wednesday 6th October 2021 The topic is; Anghor Wat History & Culture.....
*********The Topic's noted below have been copied for reference and relater to topic's discussed by the group during the recent Pandemic The previous topic's (2020) have been deleted from this page, however, they have been copied During the course of this pandemic (2021) we will continue with the Zoom project. Below are the topic's currently discussed alongside the new topic's as raised by the group for discussion.
Wednesday 6th Jan 2021 2 SESSIONS 10AM+10-45AM. Next Zoom meeting topic 'THE HISTORY OF VACCINATIONS'.
Wednesday 20th January 2021 Zoom session from 10am to 12 noon. Two session's. Topic 'Eyam’s response to the plague'
Wed 3rd Feb 2021; The Democratic and Republican Parties Interesting topic given the event's of the recent American election.
Wed February 17th, the topic will be the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the subsequent carve up of Africa among European empires.
Wed March 3rd 10am Two session's Orthodox Christianity becomes established in the tenth century. Kievan Rus is invaded by the Mongols from 1237 and the Khan of the Golden Horde controls Russia until 1480 when Ivan III frees Russia and establishes rule from Moscow. In other words, Oleg of Novgorod (862) to Ivan The Great. (died 1515). We will return to this topic at a future date.
A list of topics several weeks ago which we’ll stick to for a couple more sessions. On Wednesday the 16th March at 10am (Zoom) the topic is the Caste system in India and, after that, we’re going to delve into the origins of the Holy Roman Empire.
Our next topic will be centred on;
Wed 7th-April; The Holy Roman Empire. We are going to cover Charlemagne to Frederick III, the first Hapsburg emperor. So 800-1452.
Wed 21st April The Holy Roman Empire after Frederick 111.
Wed 5th MAY; We plan to follow the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs in the next session from the unification of Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella up to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1715. We’ll leave the Austro-Hungarian branch of the Hapsburgs for another time. After the next session about Spain we will abandon the HRE for a while and look at some notable women in history. Mary Wollstonecraft will be the first. Her life and the time she lived in.
Wed. 19th May; 10am. We have changed the topic to 'Beth of Hardwick for today's session.
Wednesday. 2nd June 10am. The topic will focus on Mrs Gaskell, Alternatively if Tony is available we will return to The topic of Mary Wollstonecraft and her times. NB, it is MW the elder, not her daughter who became Mary Shelley.
Wednesday. 16-06-21 10am. We will address the topic Mary Wollstonecraft.
Wed 7th July Elizabeth Gaskell in particular her novel 'Mary Barton' This is an interesting period of social history and the novel in many ways reflects the changing dynamic between agriculture and the developing Industrialisation.
Wed 21st The Mitford Sisters. This will be the last session prior to a Summer break. All changes will be updated for the Autumn period. The group begins again on the 6th October and the topic is Angkor Wat.