Back in November 2012, Angela Buckley, a researcher and writer from Manchester, tweeted to tell us about an exciting book project she’s working on. The book is entitled, The Real Sherlock Holmes: the Hidden Story of Jerome Caminada, and Angela wrote a fascinating article in November 2012 about her work-in-progress which, as well as telling [...]

On 13 May 1880, ‘the Wizard of Menlo Park’ (aka Thomas Edison) gave a demonstration of his electric railway to a few lucky passengers at Menlo Park. To mark the day, here is a newspaper report on the demo, which also contains some thoughts about what the future might hold for electric railways. Tamworth Herald [...]

After over a year of blocking the roads and railway lines into Berlin, the Soviet Union lifted its blockade of the city on 12 May 1949. To get food and supplies into the cut-off city, the Western Allies manned 200 flights a day in an effort to defeat the blockade. The Russians had closed the [...]

On 11 May 1857, the mutiny by Indian Sepoy soldiers at Meerut started. The mutiny at Meerut was the start of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, as it acted as a catalyst for other mutinies as well as uprising by citizens to take place. Included below is a letter written by an officer stationed in [...]

Much like Scheherazade’s husband, the BNA Team is lucky enough to hear a wonderful story almost every day from visitors to the website. So when Sarah Hayes, a freelance curator from the West Midlands with a passion for social and family history, tweeted to tell us about her research in the BNA, we were all [...]

‘That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also’ – Heinrich Heine (1797 to 1856) In most university towns of Nazi Germany on the night of 10 May 1933, Nazi-supporting students burned over 25,000 books that were deemed to be ‘un-German’. This bonfire of books followed on from the [...]

‘All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust’ – JM Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, the son of a weaver who wrote ‘Peter Pan’, was born in ‘Thrums’ (aka Kirriemuir) on 9 May 1860. There are some wonderful stories about J.M. Barrie in the Archive. To celebrate the day of his [...]

John Stuart Mill, one of the giants of philosophy during the nineteenth century, died in Avignon on 8 May 1873, aged 66. Stuart Mill is probably most famous for his writings on liberty and the freedom of the individual against control by the state. He was also an advocate of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed [...]

Historical newspaper reports on the sinking of the Lusitania On 7 May 1915, the Lusitania was hit by torpedoes fired by the German U-boat U-20, and sank in 20 minutes with the loss of 1,198 lives. To mark the day, here are some newspaper reports about the tragedy. Surrey Mirror – Tuesday 11 May 1915 [...]

Newspaper review of ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’, August 1913 On 6 May 1856, Sigismund Schlomo ‘Sigmund’ Freud was born in the town of Pribor, which was then located in the Austrian Empire. To mark the day, here is a newspaper review from 1913 of Freud’s classic work, ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. Evening Telegraph – Tuesday [...]