In 1623, one kilogram of tobacco was roughly five times more expensive than Shakespeare’s First Folio.
Fact of the Day
Quote of the Day
"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
"
~ Abraham Lincoln
On This Day
1268 Peter of Savoy, adviser to Henry III and owner of the Savoy Palace (the site of the present-day Savoy Hotel), died aged 65 (ish).
1536 Trial of Anne Boleyn for adultery, incest & treason. It was a forgone conclusion - her accused lovers had already been found guilty.
1718 The first ever machine gun, invented by Englishman James Puckle, was patented.
1800 James Hadfield, a soldier who'd sustained severe head injuries, tried to assassinate George III at Drury Lane Theatre, in an attempt to bring about the Second Coming. He was sent to Bethlem Hospital, where he made straw baskets and kept pet cats.
1936 British female aviator, Amy Johnson, completed her last record-breaking flight between London and Cape Town.
1943 Joseph Stalin dissolved the Communist International, or Comintern, which advocated worldwide communism.
1957 Britain allegedly tested its first hydrogen bomb at Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean. However, some nuclear physicists argued that it was simply an exercise in propaganda, to make Britain seem more powerful than it really was.