Named after his parents, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born on April 9 in Portsmouth. His English mother was Sophia Kingdom and his French Father, esteemed Engineer and Inventor Sir Marc Isambard Brunel. With many of his constructions remaining in full use to this day,...
April Fool’s Day, or All Fool’s Day, is a tradition known all over the world. But why? What is the history behind pranking of people on the 1st April? Origins Very little is known about the exact origins of April Fool’s Day but there are a number of different...
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and it’s often said that the greetings card company Hallmark invented the celebration in a ploy to sell cards. But is this really true? And if not, why do we celebrate romance on the 14th of February and who was Saint Valentine?...
‘Truth is stranger than fiction. It has to be! Fiction has to be possible, and truth doesn’t!’, declared Mark Twain. While it’s hard to imagine that reality could be wilder than works of fiction, we might find ourselves surprised if we dive into the...
Freethinkers Day has just passed, being celebrated on 29 January each year, and also known as Thomas Paine Day, in memory of the courageous freethinker born on January 29, 1737 in Norfolk. But what exactly is Freethinking? In a world where we are exposed to a myriad...
Joan of Arc is believed to have been born on the 6th January 1412. To mark her birthday, here we take a brief look at who she was and why she has become a household name. Background Joan of Arc was born in Domrémy, northern France, during the Hundred Years’ War. The...
