Author Info

Debbie Kilroy

Having read history at the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate, where I won the Kenrick Prize, I worked as a trouble-shooter in the public sector until I took a career break in 2009. Thereafter, I was able to pursue my love of history and turn it into a career, founding Get History in 2014 with the aim of bringing accessible yet high quality history-telling and debate to a wide audience. Since then, I have completed a Masters in Historical Studies at the University of Oxford, from which I received a distinction and the Kellogg College Community Engagement and Impact Award. As well as continuing to write for and expand Get History, I am now a freelance writer and historian. I have worked with Histories of the Unexpected and Inside History, and my article for Parliaments, Estates and Representation won the ICHRPI Emile Lousse essay prize (2019).

Fact of the Day

The first people to use umbrellas in eighteenth-century Britain were laughed at and called 'mincing Frenchmen'.

Quote of the Day

"A Conservative government is an organised hypocrisy. "
~ Benjamin Disraeli

On This Day

1284 The future Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle, Wales. He was the only son from Edward I's first marriage to Eleanor of Castile to outlive his father.
1719 The much-loved Daniel Defoe story Robinson Crusoe was published.
1792 French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by the guillotine.
1915 Ninety thousand Australian, New Zealand, British and French forces began landing on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula. They hoped to secure the northern bank of the Dardanelles, but were forced to withdraw after eight months of intense fighting.
1916 British authorities declared martial law in Dublin for a month, in response to the Easter Rising.
1984 David A. Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy (of the political Kennedy family), died of a drug overdose in Palm Beach, aged 28.
1990 The US shuttle Discovery released the Hubble Telescope into orbit. It remains one of the largest, most versatile and best known space telescopes.