Cartoon Gallery

Art critic

Pandora's Inbox

Make a wish

Get a job

The Fall of the Onomatopoeian Empire

Robert De Nero

Rome 1582

Barbarians

Night of the long knives

The Pedants' Revolt

King Tut

History repeats

Boston 1876

Alternative gladiator

Aethelred the Oven Ready

Siren

Fact of the Day

Pope John XII was rumoured to have turned an entire wing of the Lateran into a brothel, and was in the habit of drunkenly toasting Satan.

Quote of the Day

"It is better for aged diplomats to be bored than for young men to die."

~ Warren Robinson Austin, US ambassador to the UN

On This Day

1837 Euston station, the London end of the UK's first intercity railway line, first opened.

1944 The July Bomb Plot, and the subsequent military coup known as Operation Valkyrie, failed. 7000 people were arrested as a result.

1969 Apollo 11 with her crew Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Polls suggest that 25% of people question the story.

1973 The influential martial artist and film star Bruce Lee died, aged 32. The official reason for his death was 'misadventure', and an autopsy found that his brain had swollen considerably thanks because of an allergic reaction to an ingredient in a pain killer, but theories still abound that it was the result either of murder or of a curse.

1976 American probe Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars.