December 19th - 25th
“Happy Christmas to all who celebrate. Did you know that William the Conqueror was crowned King of England on Christmas Day?”
On 19th December…
Henry II is crowned King of England and begins the Plantagenet reign
1154 - King Henry II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey alongside his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry had been king since the October when his uncle, King Stephen, had died. His uncle had nabbed the English crown from his mother the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I. The barons and Stephen had originally pledged to honour Henry I’s wishes that Matilda inherit the throne upon his death, but they had gone back on their word and crowned Stephen as king. After years of civil war called ‘The Anarchy’ between Stephen and Matilda, a treaty was signed stating that Matilda’s son Henry would become king upon Stephen’s death. With Henry II now on the throne the, crown was back where it belonged.
1783 - At the age of 24 years, William Pitt the Younger became the youngest ever British Prime Minister.
1843 - Charles Dickens’ story ‘A Christmas Carol’, was published for the first time. It is a story of how Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve to encourage him to change his mean and miserly ways. The book was so popular that it sold out in just a few days.
1851 - The famous, English, landscape artist J.M.W. Turner died of cholera. He is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
On 20th December…
860 - King Aethelbald, an Anglo-Saxon king of the English kingdom of Wessex died. He was an older brother of King Alfred the Great.
On 21st December…
1988 - A jumbo jet travelling to New York from London was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb. It had been flying for 38 minutes and was at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9449 metres) when a bomb onboard exploded sending the plane plummeting to the ground. It fell onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all passengers and crew on board plus 11 people on the ground. It is the worst aviation incident to take place in the U.K.
On 22nd December…
1880 - George Eliot the English novelist died. George Eliot was the pseudonym (pen name) that she used to disguise the fact she was a female writer because female writers were not taken seriously and were usually associated with romantic novels. Her real name was Mary Ann Evans.
1943 - Beatrix Potter, author of children’s stories such as the ‘Tales of Peter Rabbit’ died.
On 23rd December…
1732 - Richard Arkwright was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. He was an industrialist and inventor whose pioneering use of factory production systems made his factories more productive and profitable than his competitors. He was well known throughout the textile industry at the time.
On 24th December…
King John is born in Oxford
1167 - King John of England was born in Oxford. He was the youngest son of King Henry II and younger brother to King Richard I, the Lionheart. He was the king who was forced to sign the Magna Carta which restricted the power of the monarchy by the English barons who had rebelled against him.
1524 - Vasco da Gama the Portuguese explorer died. He is famed for his voyages to India around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.
On 25th December…
The Conqueror becomes King of England
1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey following his defeat of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings on October 14th, 1066.
1642 - Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England. He is the scientist who developed the theory of gravity, and the laws of motion which became the basis of physics. He also developed a new type of mathematics and invented the reflecting telescope which uses mirrors to reflect light and form an image. Most major telescopes used in astronomy today are reflecting telescopes.