On the night of the 19th January 1915, two German Zeppelins appeared out of the dark on the Norfolk coast and conducted the first airship attack on British soil. They had set out for Humberside, but strong winds had seen them divert to the areas around Great Yarmouth, Sheringham and King’s Lynn. It would be the first of over 50 Zeppelin attacks on the UK. Strategically, they proved largely ineffective, with night raids and bad weather conditions making it difficult …
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser
Last year, we donated 100 subscriptions to Wikipedia’s volunteer editors to help expand public information about historical topics. Brian Chapman has worked with Wikipedia for over five years and made around 42,000 edits to the online encyclopedia. He got in touch to tell us about one of the pages he’s improved with the help of our newspapers. ************** When I heard about the collaboration between The British Newspaper Archive and Wikipedia, I jumped at the chance to take …
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Every year on 5th November, people in Britain celebrate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 with bonfires, effigies of Guy Fawkes and fireworks. You’ll find thousands of descriptions and images of Bonfire Night celebrations from the past in our collection of historical newspapers. We’ve selected some of our favourite examples for you to enjoy. 1861: Burning the Guy on the fifth of November Penny Illustrated Paper – Saturday 09 November 1861 Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS …
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The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, like other British newspapers, reported that Britain joined the First World War on 4 August 1914. The Courier makes for especially fascinating reading because it reported the news in a very different way. Manchester Courier: ‘Keep your country out of a wicked and stupid war’ Many newspapers included an advert encouraging unmarried men between 18 and 30 years old to join the Army on 5 August 1914. This example is taken from another …
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World War One officially started on 28 July 1914 when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. There are currently 25 newspapers from 28 July 1914 available to view online at The British Newspaper Archive. You’ll find clippings from some of these newspapers below, showing how the start of the war was reported. Explore newspapers from 1914 Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war starts WW1 The Serbian Prime Minister received a telegram at 12.30pm on 28 July 1914. It stated that ‘Austria-Hungary… …
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Mary Richardson, a Suffragette, slashed the Rokeby Venus painting at the National Gallery 100 years ago today. Read the stirring speech she gave at her trial, explaining her actions: View the whole newspaper page Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser – Friday 13 March 1914 Image © Local World Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
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On 17 September 1908 at Fort Myer, Virginia, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first person to die in a powered airplane crash – he was 26. Read newspaper reports about the accident Selfridge was a passenger on a plane (‘the Wright Flyer’) that was piloted by Orville Wright – reports say that the cause of the crash was a broken propeller. To mark this sad day, here is a newspaper story – published on 19 September 1908 – …