‘The Beano’ and ‘The Dandy’
Dundee publishers D.C. Thomson & Co. produced both ‘The Dandy‘ and ‘The Beano‘ from 1937 and 1938…
DNA fingerprinting
In 1984, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys (1950-) realised that each DNA ‘bar-code’ he was studying was unique…
First-past-the-post voting
For UK General Elections and local councils in England and Wales we have always used the first-past-the-post…
Graduation ceremonies
After studying hard for a degree, a university student will have mixed feelings on graduation day. It…
George and Robert Stephenson
This father-and-son partnership were the pioneers of the railways. George Stephenson (1781-1848) never went to school but…
Coroners’ Courts
The role of coroner was first established in England in 1194. The equivalent in Scotland is a…
Cheddar Man
Richard Cox Gough (1826-1902) discovered the cave, now named Gough’s Cave, which yielded many human remains, including…
Irony
Irony is seen as a particular feature of British observations on life, appealing to our sense of…
Rastafari
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was a political activist who gave Afro-Jamaicans a prediction in 1920 ~ that a…
Language of the court
The language of the court is that which is spoken by the aristocracy. It is deemed to…
Squash
Prisoners taking exercise in a London jail’s walled courtyard are credited with devising the first form of…
Feudalism
The feudal system prevailed in Britain between 800 and 1500, when a government with centralised control became…