30th November

An era came to an end today in 1936 when Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace burnt down. Built in 1851 for the Great Exhibition, the astonishing building, of glass and wrought iron, was moved to Sydenham Park where it continued to be an attraction. The flames could be seen as far away as Brighton and even to the last, the Palace drew crowds - special trains were laid on to watch it burn.

They had a chance to rebuild the Palace in 2000 for the Millennium but did they? Oh, no. They built the O2 instead ....

In other news ...

Oscar Wilde died today in 1900 in Paris. Dazzling wit, playwright, raconteur, he fell foul of the bigotry of Britain (especially the rabid anti-homosexuality Act of Henry Labouchere MP) and died in poverty. He is buried in the great cemetery of Pere Lachaise. Pay your respects next time you're there.

29th November

Today was the day, in 1831, when the Duke of Wellington famously described his soldiers as 'the scum of the earth, enlisted for drink'. He went on to say (and this is hardly ever added to the quotation) 'but we have made men of them.'

Good old Nosey!

In other news ...

The first English newspaper went on sale today in 1641. It offered a dream fortified manor house; you could send for a CD of Thomas Tallis's Greatest Hits and the Sports Pages were full of the latest Real Tennis scandals in which the game's audience shouted racist insults at the players.

The start of a great tradition.

P.S. Sir Peregrine Leveson agreed and said he saw a great future for the Press and what a fine job King Charles was doing running the country.

28th November

The German physicist Max [no relation] Planck said it all today in 1934 when he wrote, 'A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light but rather because its opponents eventually die out and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.'

So, in reality, every word of the Bible is true; the earth is about 6,000 years old (and flat); Phlogiston occurs in every chemical experiment; Frank Sinatra had a good singing voice and babies are delivered by storks.

I knew it!

In other news ...
Horse racing was banned today in 1967 because of an epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease. Whenever such disasters occur, the government of the day leaps in with ludicrous, over-the-top measures. Foot and Mouth? Destroy all cattle. Salmonella in eggs? Destroy all chickens. Oil tanker spillages? Destroy all tankers. Global warming? Stop spraying your armpits.

Actually nature has been coping with all these issues for centuries, without the help of the British government or its biased, obsessive scientific think tanks.

And on a personal level, it would be not humanly possible to be in a room with up to twenty teenage boys without the addition of many gallons of Lynx. You may mock that most sledgehammer of deodorants, but without it ... I don't want you to even have to imagine it!

27th November

Women Policemen appeared on Britain's streets today in 1914 (I have been obliged to insert this piece on account of my good lady wife - Inspector Carpenter-Maxwell - having me in a half Nelson). The uniform was awful and it had three little buttons at the side of the mid-calf length skirt so that they could unbutton them to chase baddies. What could they do once they caught them? Nothing. This was only an experiment and they weren't given powers of arrest until 1922. Presumably they had to ask Chummy to stay put while they went in search of a real policeperson. Ouch - the Mem's half Nelson has now turned into a Full Nelson and I've lost the use of one arm and am blind in one eye.

In other news ...
A Bible printed in the 15th century was sold at Christie's auction house today in 1991. The Good Book? It had better be - it cost £1.1 million!

26th November

New York had its first streetcar (horsedrawn of course) today in 1832. It ran between 14th and Spring Street and was called Desire.

Of course.

In other news ...

One of the most spectacular finds in archaeology took place today in 1922 when Howard Carter and his backer, the Earl of Caernarvon, broke through to the uninvaded tomb chambers of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings.

Just think - without that we would never have had the Indiana Jones series ...

25th November

Yesterday I mentioned Charles Darwin. He was never quite able to include Man in his natural selection argument, but others did, especially Thomas Huxley who wiped the floor spectacularly with Bishop 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce of the Church of England in Oxford in 1860. The question of the authority of the Bible was much talked about and today in 1864, the Conservative Party's 'hatchet man', Benjamin Disraeli, famously said, 'Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the angels.'

Except that William Gladstone, the Liberal Party and an awful lot of Conservatives, disagreed with that.

In other news ...
The KKK got back together again today in 1915 in Georgia. The original Klan targeted the newly-freed slaves after the Civil War but this one targeted:-

• Blacks
• Jews
• Catholics
• Immigrants
• Communists
• Pacifists
• Darwinians.

The Klan is in decline today because there is almost nobody who is considered fit to join.

24th November

The deeply unpleasant misogynist, John Knox, died today in 1572. Scottish Protestants think he was the best thing since sliced bread but then there were those who thought Adolf Hitler was a pretty good egg too.

In other news ...
Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species today in 1859. Two things to note about this -

1. Of three famous books published in the same year (Darwin's, Samuel Smiles's Self Help and Mrs Beeton's Household Management) only Mrs Beeton went on to make any money.
2. Some people today still regard Darwin's natural selection as a theory only. Didn't they watch Inherit the Wind?