A thirteenth century recipe for hair removal cream included cucumber leaves, almond milk, quicklime, mercury, arsenic, oil, wine, frankincense and cloves.
Fact of the Day
Quote of the Day
"A French bastard arriving with armed banditti and establishing himself the King of England against the consent of the natives is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original and certainly has no divinity in it.
"
~ Thomas Paine, 1776
On This Day
1536 Anne Boleyn was executed for adultery, incest and treason.
1649 A little over three months after the execution of Charles I, the Rump Parliament adopted the Act Declaring and Constituting the People of England to be a Commonwealth and Free-State, making 'England, and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging' a republic, 'without any King or House of Lords'.
1849 Irish labourer William Hamilton aimed some gunpowder (but no shot) at Queen Victoria. He was sentenced to 7 years transportation.
1898 William Gladstone, one of the defining politicians of the Victorian age and four-time prime minister, died aged 88.
1935 T.E. Lawrence - the famous Lawrence of Arabia - died of injuries he had sustained on his motorbike after he swerved to avoid two boys in the road.
1962 Marilyn Monroe famously sang 'Happy Birthday' to US President JFK - 10 days early.