Historical sources of information which are written after the event, and where the writer did not witness the event themselves.
Secondary sources
Fact of the Day
In France around the year 1000, a pale complexion, squeamishness and vegetarianism were all signs of heresy.
Quote of the Day
"What recreation tooke I? How lawfull was it? ... Was it not affected with too much delight?
"
~ Questions from the seventeenth-century puritan guidebook for women, 'A Fountaine of Tears'
On This Day
1483 The proposed date of the coronation of the 12-year-old son of Edward IV, Edward V. The coronation never happened because his uncle, Richard, declared him illegitimate and became king himself.
1611 Navigator Henry Hudson was cast adrift after a mutiny in Hudson Bay. It was the last time he was seen alive.
1861 A huge blaze started on Tooley Street's Cotton Wharf, which was later compared to the Great Fire of London, caused £2 million worth of damage, and killed James Braidwood, superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment.
1941 The Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, with the largest invasion force in the history of warfare.
