AncientPages.com – On January 6, 1852, died Louis Braille, creator of the Braille Alphabet For Blind People. Braille was a French teacher who devoted his life to developing and teaching the Braille system of reading and writing that could help blind
Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com – People have always believed in vampires. This very old belief was deeply held in the Celtic culture and very widespread in ancient Europe. People believed in the existence of the “undead” who harm after the
AncientPages.com – On 5 January 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported a discovery of a new type of radiation known today as X-rays. Wilhelm Roentgen, a German professor of physics, was the first to discover electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range. Left:
AncientPages.com – Archaeologists in Denmark have made a very rare discovery. In Ågård, an important settlement during the Viking Age, researchers found a buckle depicting Norse God Loki. The finding is very intriguing, but the unusual artifact raises some questions and
AncientPages.com – On January 4, 871 AD, the Danes surprised the people of Wessex by arriving on horseback in a lightning raid that swiftly took the town of Reading. Left: Statue of Alfred the Great in Wantage, Oxfordshire; Credit: Steve Daniels –
AncientPages.com – On January 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Using the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, Pope Leo X cast Luther out of the Catholic Church. Luther at Erfurt, which depicts Martin Luther discovering the doctrine
AncientPages.com – On January 2, 1920, Isaac Asimov, a science fiction creator, was born. He grew up in New York, but during his two decades in Boston, he achieved great success as a master of science fiction and a writer of
AncientPages.com – On January 1, 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1846), a Catholic priest at the Academy of Palermo, Sicily, discovered a faint, distant object, correctly believing it to lie in the orbital region between Mars and Jupiter. Left: Portrait of the astronomer
AncientPages.com – The Battle of Englefield occurred around 31 December 870, marking a significant conflict where the West Saxons successfully defeated a Danish Viking army near Reading in Berkshire. A page from the C manuscript of the en:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It
AncientPages.com – On December 30, 1924, American astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that there are other galaxies in the cosmos. Our home galaxy Milky Way is not alone; it has companions. It was one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the
AncientPages.com – On 28 Dec 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière brothers presented their first film in Paris. The Lumière brothers, Auguste (1862 -1954) and Louis Jean (1864 – 1948), were among the first filmmakers in history. The Lumiére brothers –
AncientPages.com – On December 27, 1571, Johannes Kepler, ‘Father of Modern Astronomy,’ was born. His three fundamental statements about planetary motion represent his work, which he based on detailed observations of the planets made by Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). They are:
AncientPages.com – Archaeologists excavating in British Columbia, Canada have discovered evidence that as early as 1,800 BC, ancestors of the Katzie First Nation in B.C.’s Lower Mainland were engineering the wetland environment to increase the yield of a valuable, semi-aquatic plant
AncientPages.com – On December 27, 1571, Johannes Kepler, ‘Father of Modern Astronomy’ was born. His three fundamental statements about planetary motion represent his work, which he based on detailed observations of the planets made by Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). Portrait of Johannes
AncientPages.com – On December 26, 1606, William Shakespeare performed his play ‘King Lear’ before the court of King James I at Whitehall Palace. Shakespeare’s friend and noted fellow actor, Richard Burbage, was the original Lear. King Lear, George Frederick Bensell. Image
AncientPages.com – On Christmas Day, December 25, 1950, four young Scots retrieved the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. Used as the Coronation Stone of the Scottish kings from the 10th century and supposedly a relic from biblical times, the
