Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Where did the United Nations have its first meeting?
February 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Everyone knows that the United Nations is headquartered in New York City where meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council are held. But very few people realise that the first meeting of the General Assembly took place in my home city of London in the Methodist Central Hall opposite Westminster Abbey. I met […]
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When did Mississippi ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery?
February 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
If you’re American, you probably know the answer to this question. But, if you live anywhere else in the world, the answer may well surprise you.
Posted in American current affairs, History | Comments (0)
Word of the day: meteorism
February 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Hitler suffered acutely from meteorism: perhaps he did not suffer so acutely as those around him, since meteorism is uncontrolled farting, a condition exacerbated by Hitler’s strictly vegetarian diet.” This is a quote from a book I’m currently reading: “Hitler: A Short Biography” by A N Wilson.
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How the Japanese bombed Darwin in Australia
February 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In a couple of weeks time, Vee and I will be visiting Australia (and New Zealand) with stops in Bangkok and San Francisco that will literally take us round the world. To put us even more in the mood, this weekend, we rented the Baz Luhrmann film “Australia” [my review here]. The movie features the […]
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The assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich
February 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The killing of the SS leader Reinhard Heidrich by Czechoslovak parachutists in 1942 was the most high profile assassination of the Second World War. Who took the decision to mount the operation and why? How was the killing carried out and what were the consequences? These questions are answered by historian Callum MacDonald in an […]
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The discovery of King Richard III
February 5th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In our household, we’re quite excited by the public confirmation today that the body located in the Leicester car park is indeed Richard III. Vee loves television programmes on history and archaeology and has been following the news on this discovery for some months. I’ve always liked the name Richard so much that I gave […]
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The Munich Agreement and my short story
January 23rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am currently reading *The Killing of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich” by the late historian Callum MacDonald which was published in 1989. Reading about the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement of September 1938 reminded me of a short story I wrote several years ago set on the eve of that agreement. You can […]
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When is a novel not a novel?
January 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Apparently when it’s an “infranovel” which is what French writer Laurent Binet calls his work “HHhH”, the story of the 1942 assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. You can read my review of this unusual book here.
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What a diarist chooses to record on a particular day
January 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is the time of year when people start a new diary and one finds references to diaries in the media. Since I have kept a diary for 51 years and never missed a day, I’m always interested in the subject of diary-keeping and I was really amused by this letter in the “Guardian” newspaper: […]
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Ever heard of Reinhard Heydrich?
January 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
More perhaps than any other single Nazi other than Adolf Hitler himself , Reinhard Heydrich was responsible for the Holocaust since in January 1942 he chaired the infamous Wannsee Conference that planned the so-called Final Solution. On 27 May 1942, Heinrich was the subject of an assassination attempt in Prague and, on 4 June 1942, […]
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