Scott Allsop's Blog, page 74

24th May 1956: First Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Lugano, Switzerland

The first Eurovision Song Contest featured only seven countries, and was broadcast across Europe using a terrestrial microwave relay network that linked the countries of Europe together like an invisible spider’s ...

23rd May 1618: Officials thrown from a window in the Second Defenestration of Prague

Two Catholic imperial officials and their secretary were thrown out of the window of the Bohemian Chancellery in the Second Defenestration of ...

22nd May 1455: Wars of the Roses begin at the First Battle of St Albans between Richard, Duke of York, and King Henry VI

The Wars of the Roses were fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York, both of whom had claims to the ...

21st May 1972: Laszlo Toth attacks and seriously damages Michelangelo’s Pietà statue

Hungarian-born geologist Laszlo Toth attacked and seriously damaged Michelangelo’s Pietà statue with a ...

20th May 1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis secure the patent for riveted blue jeans

Davis came up with the idea of reinforcing the stress points of garments with rivets after the wife of a woodcutter asked if he could make a pair of durable trousers for her husband, and approached Strauss with a business proposal whereby Strauss would finance the paperwork and the two men would share the ...

19th May 1919: Mustafa Kemal arrives in Samsun and begins the Turkish War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence began when General Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the Inspector of the Ottoman 9th Army and later known as Atatürk, arrived at the town of Samsun on the Black Sea ...

18th May 1830: The world’s first lawnmower licensed for manufacture by Edwin Budding

British inventor Edwin Budding went into partnership with foundry owner John Ferrabee to manufacture the world’s first lawn ...

17th May 1902: The Antikythera mechanism, an ancient analogue computer, was first identified by Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais

What is known as the world’s oldest computer had  been in plain view for two years before anyone realised what it ...

16th May 1916: The Sykes-Picot Agreement ratified by Britain and France

The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, formally known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was ...

15th May 1928: Mickey and Minnie Mouse appear in their first cartoon to be shown to a cinema audience

Mickey Mouse's first animated appearance was in a silent short called Plane Crazy, but the cartoon failed to secure a distributor until a soundtrack was added a year ...