Scott Allsop's Blog, page 99

18th August 1612: The trials of nine Lancashire women and two men known as the Pendle Witches begin

The trials of the Pendle Witches are not only some of the most famous but also some of the best recorded witch trials in British history, and represent two per cent of all British witches to face trial over three ...

17th August 1836: Parliament passes the 1836 Marriage Act, allowing non-Anglican ceremonies

Parliament passed the Marriage Act that legalised civil marriages and introduced their formal ...

16th August 1819: An estimated 15 protestors are killed in the Peterloo Massacre at St Peter’s Field in Manchester

The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, when a group of over 60,000 protesters were charged by ...

15th August 1941: Last execution at the Tower of London takes place when German spy Josef Jakobs is killed by firing squad

Josef Jakobs was found guilty of espionage by General Court Martial and taken to the miniature firing range at the Tower of London where he was strapped to a wooden Windsor chair and killed by firing squad at ...

14th August 1980: Lech Walesa leads a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk and triggers the formation of the Solidarity trade union

Within two years up to 80% of the entire Polish workforce had joined Solidarity or one of its sub-organisations, and they regularly used strikes to achieve political ...

13th August 1876: The premiere of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle takes place in Germany

The first complete performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle took place in the Bavarian town of ...

12th August 1969: The Battle of the Bogside begins in Derry, Northern Ireland

The Battle of the Bogside began in Derry, Northern Ireland, marking one of the first major conflicts of The ...

11th August 1919: The Weimar Republic officially established when Friedrich Ebert signs the new constitution into law

It took the best of part of seven months for the delegates of the new German National Assembly to agree on the terms of the new Weimar constitution, which Ebert signed into law whilst on holiday in ...

10th August 1793: The Louvre museum in Paris opens to the public for the first time

The Louvre museum in Paris opened to the public in the former palace of the French royal ...

9th August 1974: Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States of America while facing impeachment due to the Watergate Scandal

Nixon announced his resignation in a televised speech on 8 August and it took effect from noon the next ...