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Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash faced a lifetime of hardships and tribulations and it all started in the small town of Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26, 1932. Born John R. Cash to a family of sharecroppers that included his parents, Ray and Carrie Cash, and his 6 brothers and sisters. Life on the farm was not easy nor was sharecropping was not a lucrative business, and as a result the family was poor, forcing the children to help their parents farm their crops. The hard work was a blessing in disguise as this is where John would find his love of music. Carrie would sing in the fields, often folk songs and hymns…
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Margaret Pole
On May 28th 1541 Lady Margaret Pole Countess of Salisbury was taken from the Tower, where she had been held without trial and executed on the orders of Henry VIII. Her beheading was a botch job, carried out by a novice headsman and taking eleven blows, not helped by the fact that Margaret allegedly didn’t go quietly, refusing to put her head meekly on the block! Her crime? She had the wrong blood flowing through her veins, her Uncles were Richard III and Edward IV, and her father George Duke of Clarence, so her mere existence fed Henry VIII’s paranoia regarding his father’s tenuous claim to the throne. She followed…
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Amelia Dyer
We are all familiar with Dr Harold Shipman and his reputation of being one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, with an estimated 250 murders to his name. He was not however the UK’s most prolific. Unheard of by most people, is the name Amelia Dyer – Baby farmer. It is estimated that over a 30 year period she killed at least 300 babies, and possibly as many as 400, that had been entrusted into her care. ‘Baby farming’ became a solution to the problem of unwanted pregnancy during the latter part of the 19th century. The lack of effective contraception, and the stigma of having a…
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Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian
No one in their right mind would have predicted that Titus Flavius Vespasian would ever be anything more than an eccentric senator. They were an obscure family from the small village of Reate. His father had been a banker and his mother from a family of modest means. However, according to Sutonius’ Life of the Caesars, the auguries when she was brought to bed with Vespasian were favorable. Sabinus, the boy’s father, is said to have been greatly impressed by an inspection of a victim’s entrails. He is said to have congratulated his mother on having a grandson who would become Emperor. She roared with laughter and said: ‘Fancy, you…
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Bite Size- Dr Horace Emmet
In 1889, one Dr Horace Emmet lectured on the secret of eternal youth at Magdalene College, Cambridge - he claimed that, by administering himself the ground testicles of red squirrels by way of injections, he was physically some 30 years younger and could 'visit' his wife daily. However, just eight weeks after his announcement, his wife left him for a younger man and Emmet himself was dead shortly after, from a cerebral haemorrhage.JJ [...]
