Toby's experience comes from website design as well as experience running large forums and communities. After he married Debbie he developed a keen interest in history and found himself discussing history quite a lot!
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
"Parliaments are of the Nature of cats: they ever grow curst with age.
"
~ Charles I
On This Day
1066Harold defeated Norwegian king Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, only to be defeated by William three weeks later.
1237The Treaty of York between England and Scotland was sealed. It established an agreed boundary between the two countries and affirmed that Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland were subject to English sovereignty.
1818The first successful human blood transfusion took place at St Guy's Hospital when James Blundell used the blood of the patient's husband to treat a postpartum haemorrhage.
1944The British withdrew the trapped remnants of the 1st Airborne Division from Arnhem, effectively ending Operation Market Garden, the Allied plan to end the Second World War in 1944.
1972In a two-day referendum, the people of Norway rejected membership of the European Union. They would do the same in 1994.
1983Thirty-eight republican prisoners escaped from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. It was the biggest ever British prison escape.
1996The last Magdalene Asylum for 'fallen women' closed in Ireland. Inmates could suffer horrendous abuse there.
