Scott Allsop's Blog, page 215

3rd August 1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Spain

At 8am on the 3rd August 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera on the voyage that would take him to the Americas. While Columbus captained the Santa María, Palos natives commonly referred to as the Pinzón brothers captained the Pinta and the Santa Clara which is better known by its nickname the Niña. A third Pinzón brother, was the master of the Pinta. None of the ships belonged to Columbus himself and, despite the voyage officially being supported...

2nd August 1934: Hitler becomes Führer after Hindenburg dies

On the 2nd August 1934, the 86 year old German Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg died of lung cancer and Adolf Hitler became both the Führer and Reich Chancellor of the German People. It effectively merged the offices of both the President and Chancellor into one role, and therefore completed what the Nazis referred to as Gleichschaltung (or "Co-ordination") by establishing Hitler as both Germany's head of state and head of government. Interfering with the post of President was illegal unde...

1st August 1834: Slavery Abolition Act comes in to force

On the 1st August 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act came into force in the United Kingdom, although it had received royal assent a year earlier. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire, although there were some exceptions such as in areas controlled by the East India Company. Although Parliament had outlawed the slave trade itself in the Slave Trade Act of 1807, that Act only served to stop the creation of new slaves. It did not address the issue of existing slaves working in the...

Announcement of a HistoryPod summer hiatus

Unfortunately family illness has been making it difficult to keep up with the release schedule for HistoryPod. I have therefore taken the difficult decision to not release any new episodes throughout August and instead issue reruns of episodes from previous years that you may have missed. I hope that this will give me time to catch up on podcast production prior to a return to publishing new content in September. The only exception will be a special episode on 4th August which will be brand n...

31st July 1703: English writer Daniel Defoe put in the pillory for seditious libel

The English writer Daniel Defoe was put in the pillory for seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet. Defoe had authored a number of political pamphlets by the time he published The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, which satirised the increasing hostility towards religious Dissenters after Queen Anne succeeded to the throne. Also known as nonconformists, the term applied to a range of Protestant denominations that had broken away from the Anglican High church over the...

30th July 762: Construction begins on the city of Baghdad under Caliph Al-Mansur

The city of Baghdad was founded by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur. The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate in 750, and quickly consolidated their power by removing potential opponents. By 762 the new caliph had secured his position, and set about building a new administrative capital on the banks of the Tigris at a site previously occupied by an ancient village. Situated at a junction with the Sarat Canal that connected to the Euphrates, the new city benefited not only from plentiful acces...

29th July 1588: Decisive Battle of Gravelines during the Spanish Armada

The Battle of Gravelines, the decisive battle of the Spanish Armada, took place off the coast of Flanders. In May 1588, King Philip II of Spain sent a fleet of 130 ships under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to support the invasion of England by 30,000 troops based in the Spanish Netherlands. Their objective, which had the support of Pope Sixtus V, was to overthrow Elizabeth I and reinstate Catholicism. Elizabeth was expecting an invasion attempt, so had sent Sir Francis Drake to th...

28th July 1858: First use of fingerprints as a means of identification

On the 28th July 1858 William Herschel, a British Magistrate in West Bengal in India, made the first modern use of fingerprints for identification. Although records of finger and palm prints being used as early as the year 300 were subsequently found in China, Herschel was the first westerner to routinely take advantage of the unique nature of a person’s prints to sign contracts. It was only later that their use in criminal investigations began. Herschel had been interested in fingerprinting...

27th July 1940: Bugs Bunny makes his cartoon debut in A Wild Hare

Bugs Bunny made his first appearance in the Merrie Melodies cartoon A Wild Hare. A wisecracking rabbit voiced by Mel Blanc had first appeared in 1938’s Porky’s Hare Hunt. However, it wasn’t until two years later that director Tex Avery asked the animator Bob Givens to redesign the character as the bold tormentor of the hunter, Elmer Fudd. In the cartoon A Wild Hare Fudd tries numerous times to shoot Bugs Bunny with his double-barrelled shotgun. In one sequence where Elmer tries to dig out the...

26th July 1936: Germany and Italy agree to support Franco

On the 26th July 1936, Adolf Hitler informed General Francisco Franco that Germany would support his Nationalist rebellion in Spain. Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy, also agreed to intervene in the war on the Nationalist side after being encouraged to do so by Hitler. Although both countries later signed the Non-Intervention Agreement, they continued to send troops and equipment to support Franco’s forces. The Spanish Civil War broke out on the 17th July, when an army uprising against t...