On the morning of 9 January 1905 (22 January on the New Style calendar Soviet Russia later adopted), a crowd of striking workers marched peacefully through Saint Petersburg towards the Winter Palace,

On Thursday 11 October 1984, Conservative politician Norman Tebbit had good reason to feel satisfied. As trade and industry secretary, he had just delivered a rousing speech to the Conservative party

One day in 1936, the barrister Clifford Mortimer banged his head on the door frame of a London taxi and was immediately struck blind. He would never be able to see again. Then in his early 50s, he nev

Quiz of the week 1) Which Shakespeare play ...

I was a teenager during the Second World War, although the term teenager was not in use in those days. You were just a lad. What’s more, one often left school and became a worker at age 14, as I did i

The grisly fate of more than 16,000 soldiers and civilians during the First Anglo-Afghan War serves as a timeless lesson in hubris and bad leadership