January 27th - February 2nd
On 27th January…
Soviet troops made a terrifying discovery as they rescued prisoners
1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. It was only then that the world realised the full extent of the horrors of the camps. The Soviet Army found 648 corpses, more than 7,000 starving prisoners, and storehouses filled with hundreds of thousands of items of clothing that the German army had not had time to burn. During its time, Auschwitz had been the site of over one million murders.
On 28th January…
King Henry VII was born in Wales
1457 - Henry Tudor was born in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field ending the Wars of the Roses to become King Henry VII. He was father to Henry VIII who died on this day 90 years later.
Death of King Henry VIII
1547- King Henry VIII died. He was king of England from 1509-1547 and is famous for having six wives and breaking England away from the Catholic Church of Rome. Henry is turned England into a Protestant nation just so that he could divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn. There is a simple phrase for remembering the fate of his six wives - divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Do you know the names of all of his wives and the order in which they were married to Henry VIII?
Man responsible for singeing the King of Spain’s beard died
1596 - Sir Francis Drake died of a fever and was buried at sea off the coast of Panama. Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; he was one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourites; and is famous for ‘Singeing the King of Spain’s Beard’ when he set light to the Spanish Armada which was heading to England to make war. , Around 20 -30 Spanish ships were sunk before they could leave the Port of Cadiz.
On 29th January…
Mad King George died
1820 - King George III of Great Britain died at Windsor Castle. He reigned from 1760-1820 and, at the time, was the longest serving English monarch. He had fifteen children with his wife Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and he suffered with serious bouts of mental illness which gained him the nickname Mad King George. He also got the nickname ‘Farmer George’ because of his agricultural interests. During his reign America gained independence from Britain following the American War of Independence.
Did you know that he collected over 65,000 books which he donated to start the British Library?
On 30th January…
King Charles I was executed
1649 - King Charles I of Great Britain and Ireland was executed in London during the English Civil War. He is the only English King to have been executed. On the day of his execution, he wore two shirts to stop himself from shivering from the cold winter’s day because he thought the people would think he was shaking with fear.
The monarchy was replaced by the Commonwealth of England led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell went on to became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland when the Parliament set up to replace the monarchy failed.
1948 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by a Hindu extremist in New Delhi, India. Gandhi was a political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence Movement who used non-violent resistance to campaign for India’s independence from Britain.
1965 - Winston Churchill’s funeral took place on live television; it was the first state funeral of a politician. Churchill served as Prime Minister for Britain from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. He kept Britain upbeat and positive during World War II with his rousing and patriotic speeches.
1972 - Bloody Sunday - In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, British paratroopers shot 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators who were marching in protest of the British imprisonment of suspected Irish Nationalists (people fighting for Irish independence and separation from Britain). The incident brought worldwide attention to the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.
On 31st January…
Guy Fawkes escaped execution by falling from the gallows and breaking his neck
1606 - Guy Fawkes died. He was meant to be executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament; but he fell or possibly jumped from the gallows ladder and died of a broken neck. Now dead, Guy thought he’d escaped the cruel punishment that had been in store for him but he thought wrong. King James wasn’t going to let Guy get off that easily. Despite already being dead (so none of what happened next actually hurt him) Guy Fawkes’ body was still quartered (cut into four pieces) and distributed around the country to be put on public display as a warning to anybody else considering treason. What a gruesome thing to happen?
Death of a bonnie prince
1788 - Prince Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, died of a stroke in Rome, Italy. He was 67 years old. He had been leader of the Jacobite Rebellions (1745); an army of Scotsmen who fought unsuccessfully against the English in an attempt to reclaim the throne for his father, James, who was the son of the deposed King James II of England.
On 1st February…
Coronation of a teenage king
1327 - King Edward III was crowned King of England at the age of 14 years. His father King Edward II had been deposed and then murdered by his mother and her boyfriend, Roger Mortimer. This made the young Edward, King but because he was so young his mother and Mortimer ruled the country in Edward’s name. He did not always agree with their decisions and when he was old enough to rule himself, he captured Mortimer and had him executed and for a while confined his own mother to a comfortable life in a castle before allowing her some freedom once more.
Did you know that during his reign the Black Death killed nearly a third of the English population?
On 2nd February…
Funeral fit for a Queen
1901 - The funeral of Queen Victoria began on the Isle of Wight where she had died eleven days earlier on the 22nd January. Despite having spent the previous 39 years in mourning and wearing only black clothes, she insisted that she was buried in a white dress and with her wedding veil. Her coffin was carried on board the royal yacht from the Isle of Wight to Gosport in Hampshire where it was then placed on a train and taken to Victoria Station in London. The funeral procession began on the route from Victoria Station to Paddington Station where it was placed on another train and taken to Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria’s coffin was finally laid to rest in Frogmore Mausoleum which she had built for her husband Prince Albert upon his death.