Category: Articles of the key ‘dark’ historical events across the world

By Tim Lambert A pirate is a person who robs ships. The idea is not new! There have been pirates since ancient times. After 800 BC a people called the Phoenicians from what is now Lebanon had many merchant ships carrying valuable cargoes across the Mediterranean. As they sailed near the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Sea… Continue reading A History of Pirates

By Tim Lambert Banishment Since Ancient Times forcing an offender to leave his home and go abroad or to another region either permanently or for a fixed period of time has been used as a punishment. Bastinado Bastinado was beating a person on the soles of their feet with a stick. Because the soles of… Continue reading A History of Punishments

By Tim Lambert The Background to the Holocaust The holocaust was a genocide carried out by the Nazis in the years 1941-45. Most of the victims were Jews, although the Nazis also murdered a huge number of Roma and Sinti people. The Nazis also murdered a vast number of disabled people. Anti-Semitism, the dislike of… Continue reading A History of the Holocaust

By Tim Lambert The Titanic is probably the most famous shipwreck of all time. The Titanic is remembered both because it sank on its maiden voyage and because of the terrible loss of life but also, perhaps because so many lives could easily have been saved (The Titanic did not have enough lifeboats for everybody).… Continue reading A History of The Titanic

By Tim Lambert The Background to the Witch Trials From the late 15th century to the late 18th century a wave of persecution washed across parts of Europe. Tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft. So what happened? Belief in magic was almost universal in the past. Almost all cultures believed that you… Continue reading A History of the Witch Trials in Europe

By Tim Lambert Pol Pot was one of the worst tyrants of the 20th century. Pol Pot was born in Cambodia in 1925. His family was not poor. Instead, his father was a well-off farmer. However, Pol Pot became a Marxist. Marxism was the creation of Karl Marx (1818-1883). According to him, society went through… Continue reading A short biography of Pol Pot

By Tim Lambert 1307 A mechanical beheading device is recorded in Dublin 1608 The first execution takes place in the North American colonies 1685 Alice Lisle becomes the last woman beheaded in Britain 1747 Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat becomes the last person beheaded on Tower Hill by the Tower of London 1790 In Britain, death… Continue reading A Timeline of Capital Punishment

By Tim Lambert Auschwitz was a concentration camp where more than a million innocent people were murdered. During the First World War, a camp for immigrant workers was built near the Polish town of Oswiecim, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the warOswiecim became part of the new state of Poland. The… Continue reading Auschwitz

By Tim Lambert Catherine Hayes was burned for murdering her husband in 1726. She was born Catherine Hall near Birmingham in 1690. She moved around the country working as a domestic servant. Eventually, she was employed by a farmer named Hayes in Warwickshire. In 1713 she married the farmer’s son John, who was a carpenter… Continue reading Catherine Hayes

By Tim Lambert Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia was the victim of an unsolved murder that took place in 1947. She was just 22. Her body was found on the morning of Wednesday 15 January 1947 on a vacant building plot in the Leimert Park district of Los Angeles in California. Her naked… Continue reading Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia