It is reckoned that 5,000 Britons died each year in shipwrecks between 1793 and 1815.
Fact of the Day
Quote of the Day
"In this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others.
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~ Voltaire on Admiral Byng's execution
On This Day
1461 Edward of York won a decisive victory over the Lancastrian forces of Henry VI at the Battle of Towton, leaving the way open for his coronation as King Edward IV.
1912 Captain Scott made his final diary entry from the Antarctic.
1936 Adolf Hitler received 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal military reoccupation of the Rhineland.
1974 NASA's Mariner 10 became the first spacecraft to fly by the planet Mercury.
1979 The US Committee on Assassinations Report concluded that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.
1981 Around 7,000 people ran the first ever London Marathon.