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  1. Blackleaf

    The incredible buildings that survived the Great Fire of London

    Tomorrow is the 350th anniversary of the start of the Great Fire of London. The conflagration, which started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner - the baker of Charles II - in the early hours of Sunday 2nd September 1666, consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral and most of...
  2. Blackleaf

    Apple travesty is a reminder why Britain must leave the lawless EU

    Europe's Competition Directorate commands the shock troops of the EU power structure. Ensconced in its fortress at Place Madou, it can dispatch swat teams on corporate dawn raids across Europe without a search warrant. It operates outside the normal judicial control that we take for...
  3. Blackleaf

    Coffee, plague and the Great Fire

    With this Friday being the 350th anniversary of the start of the Great Fire, Nick Rennison looks at what life was like in Restoration London... Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of Restoration London What was life like for a 17th-century Londoner? Here, on the eve of...
  4. Blackleaf

    England post ODI cricket world record score

    England posted the highest ever One Day International total as they beat Pakistan by 169 runs at Trent Bridge to secure a series victory. Alex Hales struck a record 171 and Jos Buttler made England's fastest ever 50 from 22 balls as England hit 444-3. This surpassed the 443-9 posted by Sri...
  5. Blackleaf

    Who’s at the ‘back of the queue’ now, Obama?

    Wasn’t it one of the ‘Remain’ campaign’s big arguments that leaving the EU would deprive us of the ‘clout’ we enjoy in negotiating foreign trade agreements? I seem to remember someone even warning us that in the event of Brexit we would go ‘to the back of the queue’ for a trade agreement...
  6. Blackleaf

    Theresa May chairs cabinet Brexit brainstorm at Chequers

    Theresa May is chairing a meeting of her cabinet at Chequers to discuss the UK's approach to leaving the EU and its objectives in future negotiations. The prime minister and senior ministers are gathering to debate the way forward amid reports of tensions and diverging priorities among...
  7. Blackleaf

    Drinking schnapps with the Red Baron's relatives

    The families of the Red Baron and the first two British pilots he killed will meet to mark the centenary of the deaths and toast to the soldiers' memory. On 17 September 1916, Englishman Lionel Morris, 19, and Tom Rees, 21, of Wales, became the first victims of Manfred von Richthofen -...
  8. Blackleaf

    The proof that Scotland is better off in the UK

    This time two years ago, the United Kingdom stood on the brink of dissolution. The referendum on Scottish independence (on 18th September) hung in the balance and momentum was with the nationalists. The optimism and energy of Alex Salmond’s campaign stood in admirable contrast to the...
  9. Blackleaf

    Prestel: The British internet that never was?

    For an exciting moment in the 1980s, it seemed that Britain could become the world's first online society. So what happened to Prestel? Prestel: The British Internet That Never Was? By Tom Lean Posted 23rd August 2016 History Today Screen shot of Prestel in use Over the last 20 years there...
  10. Blackleaf

    10 intriguing spies from the Tudor Era

    They were from the Tudor Era (1485-1603), they were spies, they were intriguing, and there are ten of them.... 10 Intriguing Spies From The Tudor Era Debra Kelly August 13, 2016 Listverse Political intrigue and espionage are nothing new. But in the days before high-tech spy gear, the...
  11. Blackleaf

    The Italian prison island that reveals why the EU is doomed

    The seemingly insoluble problems the European Union has brought upon itself crowd in from all directions: the slow-motion catastrophe of the euro; the unending flood of refugees; the deadly plague of terrorism; the approaching energy crunch. And now, amid that growing resentment right...
  12. Blackleaf

    7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Queen Victoria

    Here are seven things you might not know about Britain's second-longest-reigning monarch... 7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Queen Victoria...
  13. Blackleaf

    Theresa May will trigger Brexit negotiations without Commons vote

    Theresa May will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before opening negotiations to formally trigger Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, The Telegraph has learned. Opponents of Brexit claim that because the EU referendum result is advisory it must be approved by a vote in the...
  14. Blackleaf

    Burnswark's bloody Roman history becomes clearer

    There's growing evidence that a landmark flat-topped hill in Dumfries and Galloway was the site of the first major battle of the Roman invasion of Scotland. Archaeologists have been trying for 300 years to assess the role of Burnswark in the Roman occupation. New excavations suggest the...
  15. Blackleaf

    Did the Etruscans follow a fertility cult?

    It was a powerful and sophisticated ancient Italian civilisation that had threatened to squash the fledgling Roman state just as it was starting to emerge. But little now remains of the Etruscan civilisation that had flourished across much of Italy between 800BC and 500BC before it was...
  16. Blackleaf

    Was Blackbeard a GOOD guy?

    Blackbeard - the world's most infamous pirate - wasn't a bloodthirsty villain after all but a good guy who never killed anyone, it has been claimed. Historian Colin Woodward says for three centuries Blackbeard has also been given the wrong name - he was called Edward Thatch, not Edward...
  17. Blackleaf

    Trump and Farage might not be hillbillies, but they speak their language

    The Left no longer looks or sounds like the folks they claim to represent, adopting policies that stand like a wall between themselves and the working-class. For Hillary Clinton’s Democrats it is the refusal to acknowledge that immigration affects wages and employment. For Labour it is the...
  18. Blackleaf

    Leicester City to play Porto, Club Brugge and FC Copenhagen in Champions League

    Leicester City are to play Porto, Club Brugge and FC Copenhagen in the Group Stage of this season's Champions League. It is the first time ever that Leicester City have apepared in Europe's premier club football competition and the side's first appearance in European tournament since they were...
  19. Blackleaf

    The 10 worst Britons in history

    The BBC’s nationwide poll in 2002 to discover who the public thought was the greatest Briton of all (winner: Winston Churchill) was a huge success. But who was the worst Briton? York  Membery asks 10 leading historians who they believe had the most malign influence on the country... The 10...
  20. Blackleaf

    Remains of 17th Century Scottish child soldiers will NOT be sent home

    The remains of Scottish prisoners of war who died after being captured by Oliver Cromwell's troops nearly 400 years ago will not be reburied north of the border. The skeletons of between 17 and 28 people - some as young as 13-years-old - were discovered in 2013 in a mass grave close to Durham...