August, 2013 | The British Newspaper Archive Blog

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The World’s First Fatal Car Accident – 31 August 1869

Locomotive steam carriage for common roads 1860

On 31 August 1869, Mary Ward (nee King) became the first person to die in a car accident in Ireland and Great Britain. The terrible accident occurred in County Offaly in Ireland.  Mary Ward, along with Captain the Honourable Henry Ward, Honourable Randal and Clare Parsons, were travelling on a road locomotive steam-engine when it turned a sharp corner leading to Cumberland Street near Parsonstown.  The sharp turn caused Mrs Ward to fall forward to the ground and the vehicle drove

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‘The UK would never fight a war with Germany’ – says the President of the International Co-operative Congress on 28 August 1913

Roy Stockdill, a genealogist in London, contacted us today to tell us about a very interesting prediction that he saw in The Archive. Exactly 100 ago today, on 28 August 1913, the ‘Evening Telegraph’ in Dundee carried a story on its front page, reporting that the President of the International Co-operative Congress – held in Glasgow – had confidently declared that the UK would never fight with Germany. Exactly 11 months later on 28 July 1914, World War One broke

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More content, more quickly. An update on progress. PLUS! – some exciting news about 20th century content!

More content, more quickly. An update on progress. We now have almost 7 million pages and with our new processing system we are going to be able to add around another 4 million pages in the next 12 months. Compare that with the (although rather impressive if we do say so ourselves), 3 million pages processed in the past 20 months since launch! However, in order to support this great improvement in production throughput, we have been very busy modifying

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Evacuation of Children and Other ‘Priority Classes’ from UK Cities – 30 and 31 August 1939

As the outbreak of war between the UK and Germany seemed imminent, children and other ‘priority classes’ started to be evacuated to the countryside from the major cities in the UK. Included below is a leading story from the front page of the ‘Hull Daily Mail’ of 31 August 1939, which reports on the mass evacuation that took place in late August and early September 1939 – and we’ve also included a photo of some of the evacuees from Hull.

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The Sinking of HMS Royal George – Spithead, 29 August 1782

On 29 August 1782, HMS Royal George sank with the loss of more than 800 lives, while undergoing routine maintenance work at Spithead, by Portsmouth. HMS Royal George was the largest warship in the world at the time of her launch in 1756, and her sudden sinking remains one of the worst disasters ever to take place in UK waters. To mark the day, here are two newspaper articles from August 1782 that report on the tragedy – the second

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The Submarine Telegraph Between England and France – 28 August 1850

‘We live in an age of wonders…’ On 28 August 1850, the laying of the Channel Telegraph between Dover and Cap Gris Nez was finally completed. Included below is a newspaper story – published in early September 1850 – that reports on this historic event. We really enjoyed reading this particular report about the completion of the Channel Telegraph project, as it contains a terrific mix of technical detail with lyricism about the wonders of modern communication. Carlisle Journal –

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The Eruption of Krakatoa – 27 August 1883

At 10am on 27 August 1883, the volcano on Krakatoa erupted with four massive explosions, which virtually destroyed the entire island. It’s estimated that the explosions and tidal waves killed at least 36,000 people. The explosions at Krakatoa are considered to be the loudest in history, and it’s claimed that the explosions were heard up to a distance of 3,000 miles. Included below is an early newspaper report on the disaster, and also some illustrations of the island. Morning Post

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