This is a significant date for fans of horror, the Gothic, and the macabre. Both Vlad Dracula (AKA Vlad the Dragon and Vlad the Impaler), the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster, were born on 30 August. Vlad Dracula was born 30 August 1400 and… Read more Happy Birthday Dracula and Frankenstein!
The is an episode of Star Trek (Original Series) called “The Enemy Within” that’s stuck with me since I was a kid. The premise is simple – “A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot… Read more Star Trek, Edward I, and the Execution of William Wallace
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, more widely known as author H. P. Lovecraft, was born on 20 August 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. Like Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft was a master of horror who would die in poverty, obscure and unloved except by a few die-hard fans, but after his death his works became famous. Now, like… Read more Cthulhu Called
One of the best things about the Georgian Era was the 1807 Act suppressing the slave trade. King George III, die-hard conservative Tory and intermittently insane though he may have been, agreed with the majority of the Tories and Whigs that the slave trade was a disgusting affront to God and Humanity and Decency and… Read more Huzzah for the HMS Pickle!
Hey, remember the time in the middle of WWI when England and France agreed to divvy up the Middle East between them and screw over every Arab alive just as soon as they defeated the Ottoman Empire? No? Well, don’t worry about it; we don’t talk about it much in Western history classes so you… Read more The Sykes–Picot Agreement
The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day, the feast day of one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in Christian hagiography, a celebration of the saint who famously slew a dragon and rescued a princess in his youth. St George the Dragon-slayer has been one of the most venerated and renowned saints of Europe, especially adored in… Read more Saint George, the Oak, the Green Man, and Monotheism
Easter is (as most people reading this know) the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion. It is the holiest day of the Christian liturgical calendar, and a day when most Christians, even those who normally eschew church-going, attend service. A lot of Americans are what we jokingly… Read more Have A Blessed Easter
Many people are aware that Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Henry VII via his eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor, who was the sister of King Henry VIII and the Queen of Scotland upon marrying King James IV of Scotland. Not as many people, however, are aware of the convoluted history that lies behind that genetic legacy.… Read more Gene of Thrones, and a Merlin’s Prophesy
On 10 April 1815 the Indonesian volcano Tambora (literally) blew its top in the only confirmed VEI-7 eruption since the Lake Taupo’s eruption circa AD 180. The volcano’s initial blast could be heard as far away as Sumatra, which was more than 1200 miles distant from ground zero. Approximately 11,000 people were killed by the… Read more Mt. Tambora Makes an Earth-Shattering Kaboom
St Catherine of Siena was born on 25 March 1347, along with a twin sister named Giovanna, and was the 23rd or 24th of her 40 year old mother’s 25 offspring. With all due respect to Saint Catherine of Siena, the super-fertility of her mother, Lapa Piagenti, is as amazing to me as any of… Read more Medieval Fertility Rates