On 28th February…

On 1st March…

589 - Happy Saint David’s Day! Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! - if you have no idea how to pronounce the Welsh it goes a little like this - deethe goil Dewi hapeece.

David is the patron Saint of Wales and was said to have died on 1st March 589 which is why we celebrate St David’s day today. He is buried at Saint David’s cathedral on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales.

He was the grandson of King Ceredig ap Cunedda, the King of Ceredigion and was born to his mother St Non, on a cliff top during a fierce storm. There is a chapel marking the spot where he was said to have been born and the waters of a nearby well are reputed to have healing powers.

David became a famous preacher and founded many monasteries and churches. A stone in St David’s Cathedral is said to have been brought back with him from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

David followed a strict diet of leeks and water - nothing else and refused to use cattle or oxen to help plough the fields preferring to use his own hands to work the earth in order to sow the seeds for his own food.

Did you know that a miracle was said to have happened whilst he was preaching to a large group of followers? The group was so large that people at the back began to complain that they couldn’t hear him as he became aware of this fact the earth beneath him rose up to form a hill and a white dove flew down and settled on his shoulder as a message from God.

To mark this day people across Wales will wear a badge of a daffodil (the National flower) or a leek in memory of his pure diet.

1244 - Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, the son of the Welsh leader Llywelyn the Great, died whilst trying to escape from the Tower of London. He had made a makeshift rope out of sheets and blankets and was attempting to climb from his window but the rope broke and Gruffydd fell to his death.

On 2nd March…

1316 - King Robert II of Scotland was born. He was the son of Walter the Steward and became the hereditary Steward of Scotland at the age of 10 years. He was heir to the Scottish throne through his mother who was the daughter of King Robert the Bruce. Robert II became king when he was nearly 55 years old, he was the first of the Stewart (or Stuart) kings who eventually went on to rule England as well as Scotland.

On 3rd March…

1847 - Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

On 4th March…

1824 - The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) was founded by Sir William Hillary in a London Tavern. At the time there were around 1,800 shipwrecks around the coast of Britain every year and Sir Hillary refused to sit by and watch more and more people die from drowning. Living on the Isle of Man he had witnessed many shipwrecks first-hand and had helped to save many lives. He decided it was high time that something was done and gathered the support of prominent businessmen to set up the Institution. Did you know that it was originally called the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck?

1890 - The Forth Bridge was opened in Scotland. At the height of its construction there were about 4,600 workers employed in the building of the bridge. Building it was not the safest of jobs, over 50 people died and in one logbook alone there were 26,000 reports of accidents and sickness.

On 5th March…

1790 - Flora MacDonald the Jacobite heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape dressed as a maid died. She was imprisoned in the Tower of London for aiding his escape but was later pardoned and released.

On 6th March…

1340 - John of Gaunt was born. He was the third surviving son of King Edward III and although John never became king, his son, Henry Bolingbroke, became King Henry IV.

1475 - The Italian Renaissance artist, Michelangelo was born. His famous works of art include the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and the statue of David.