On this day in 1969, June 28th, Police raided the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City USA. One year later on June 27th 1970 were the first gay rights parades were held in Chicago and San Francisco, and a day later, on the anniversary of the Stonewall raid in …
Category: History
There is a lot more good news than you think
Why is there so much bad news? The reason is that bad news happens fast. Good things tend to be slow. Why is there no smallpox in the news? Because it has been eradicated, the last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in 1977, even then the WHO did not declare it extinct until 1980. Apart …
Continue reading There is a lot more good news than you think
Remembrance – Blessed are the peacemakers
... for they will be called children of God Why we need to remember them Remembrance is upon us again. This year I will not be going to the war memorial in Greenhead Park, as I have in years when I was not working, nor did I join in with a public act of remembrance …
Did a pandemic cause the Reformation?
We are not living in unprecedented times. Back in March this year Pope Francis gave this advice to Catholics. “If you cannot find a priest to confess to, speak directly with God, your father, and tell him the truth. Say, ‘Lord, I did this, this, this. Forgive me,’ and ask for pardon with all your …
The history of communication
The history of communication Writing We, humans, are social creatures. In order to be social, we have developed languages, speech has been with us about 500,000 years but sometimes that is not enough. Cave paintings show the necessity of lasting communication: media was born about 30,000 years ago. It took another 20,000 years after the …
Stained Class #HT200
Stained class The windows of Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield is in its bicentennial year, having opened in 1819. I thought that now was a good time to publish a blog about one of the most striking features of the church, our wonderful stained glass. Most striking is the East Window, being …
Richard Oastler and the Luddites
In 2012 I blogged about the Luddites on the 200th anniversary of their rebellion and how to keep rebellion down 10% of the population of Huddersfield was the garrison stationed there, and that when the country was involved in two wars. One to stop Napoleon Bonaparte invading and one trying to contain rebellious settlers in …
Two reformers
John Wesley and Henry Venn History of Huddersfield John Wesley I rode over the mountains to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England. The men, women and children filled the streets and seemed just ready to devour us. John Wesley's diary from June 1757 does not speak well of my hometown, thought the …
Eating your way around the world
History of Huddersfield Immigration. To eat your way around the world you do not have to spend thousands of pounds going on a world cruise. Most of your eating will be the ship food, as good as it is that will not have the variety of eating in the countries you visit. Instead you can …
Two families and three civil wars
History of Huddersfield Two families and three civil wars After the Norman invasion of England in 1066 things get easier as far as histories of the country are concerned, but much of this is concerned with the people who owned the land. There is not much written about the common people, and as my interest …
Making an ass of myself 