By Tim Lambert
Black
In the 13th century, Dominican friars arrived in England. They were called Blackfriars.
The Black Death of 1348-49 killed about one-third of the population of England.
Writer Anna Sewell was born in 1820. She is famous for her book Black Beauty.
The famous film Creature from the Black Lagoon was released on 5 March 1954
The most popular colour for knickers is black.
17 August is Black Cat Appreciation Day.
Brown
Our word bear is derived from an old word meaning ‘the brown one’.
From the 16th century to the early 20th century, Egyptian mummies were ground up and used to make a pigment for paint. It was called mummy brown.
Peanuts, the famous cartoon with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, was first published on 2 October 1950.
2 February is National Brown Dog Day.
Blue
On 19 December 1955, Carl Perkins recorded his song ‘Blue Suede Shoes’; Elvis Presley made his version in 1956.
The TV show Blue Peter was first broadcast on 16 October 1958.
Green
On 11 April 1855, the first post boxes in England were installed in London. Originally, they were painted green.
Grey
The first Franciscan friars arrived in England on 10 September 1224. They were called Grey Friars because of the colour of their costumes.
Orange
Orange was once the name of a fruit. The colour was called yellow-red, but people eventually began to call it after the fruit.
Early carrots were not orange. They were purple, yellow or red! Orange carrots were grown by the 16th century and they first became popular in England during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign.
Pink
The word pink was originally the name of a flower, Dianthus. It came to mean the colour of the flower.
It’s a myth that pink was originally a boy’s colour and blue was a girl’s colour. Before the 20th century, pink could be a boy’s colour or a girl’s colour. But pink was once a sign of wealth because pink was expensive. With the Industrial Revolution, people invented synthetic dyes, and pink dye became cheaper. In the early 20th century, pink became definitely a girls’ colour, but nobody really knows why.
Pink Floyd released their first song – Arnold Layne – in 1965.
23 June is National Pink Day.
Purple
Some Roman women ran businesses. In the New Testament, there is a woman named Lydia who sold purple cloth.
William Henry Perkin was born in 1838. He invented the first artificial dye (purple).
Red
The most common name for pubs in Britain is the Red Lion.
A group of ladybirds is called a loveliness of ladybirds. It’s thought they were named after ‘our lady’ the virgin Mary, perhaps because she was often painted wearing a red cloak. The word ‘bird’ once meant any flying animal.
English king William Rufus was crowned on 26 September 1087. It’s a myth that he was called Rufus because he had red hair. He actually had blonde hair but he had a reddish complexion.
The short story, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe was published in 1842.
In 1863 Jean Henri Dunant founded the Red Cross. The British Red Cross was founded in 1870. The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton in 1881.
On 21 April 1918 Baron von Richthofen, AKA The Red Baron, was shot and killed. It’s not certain who shot him but it probably wasn’t Snoopy.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 by Robert L. May.
5 November is National Love Your Red Hair Day.
28 November is Red Planet Day.
1 December is National Eat A Red Apple Day.
White
On 10 February 1840, Queen Victoria married her cousin Albert. Victoria wanted to help the British lace industry, which was having a hard time. So she wanted to wear a dress with lots of lace on it. She was advised that a white dress would be the best to show off the lace. Because the queen wore a white wedding dress, it became the fashion for brides to wear white. Wearing a white dress had nothing to do with virginity.
Lily-livered means cowardly. People once believed that your passions came from your liver. If you were lily-livered, your liver was white (because it did not contain blood). So you were a coward.
The cornerstone of the White House was laid on 13 October 1792.
4 August is National White Wine Day.
Yellow
In 1269, King Louis IX of France decreed that all Jews must wear a yellow badge in public. In 1941, the Nazis ordered Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing.
Yellow lines first appeared on British roads on 16 June 1958.
The song Yellow Submarine by the Beatles was released in 1966. The cartoon was released in 1968.
Colour TV
In 1951, CBS made the first-ever colour TV broadcast on the East Coast of the USA
In 1967, colour television began in Britain. The Wimbledon Tennis Championships were broadcast in colour on BBC2. BBC 1 and ITV began broadcasting in colour in 1969.
In 1975, colour TV broadcasting began in Australia.
Colour Related Facts
Scientist John Dalton was born in September 1766. He investigated colour blindness. For a time, it was called Daltonism after him.
A blacksmith made things of iron, a whitesmith made things of tin or pewter, and a brownsmith made things of brass or bronze.
