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  1. Blackleaf

    Putting Rooney to shame: The Manchester United star who died at the Somme

    With Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney recently stalling on signing a new contract for his team until he was made the world's highest paid footballer at £250,000 a week (£12 million a year), it is hard to believe that once upon a time footballers truly WERE proper role models. The story...
  2. Blackleaf

    Prince William lays wreath at Camp Bastion on Remembrance Sunday

    Prince William made a surprise visit to Our Boys and Girls in Afghanistan today to lay a Remembrance Sunday wreath and take part in a service of remembrance at the British base of Camp Bastion. His wreath read: 'For Jo, Lex and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.'...
  3. Blackleaf

    Coronation Street: 12 million tune in to see *Spoiler Removed*

    12 million people - almost a fifth of the entire UK population - watched Coronation Street on Monday night to watch one of the soap's best-loved characters pass away. In one of the most emotional scenes ever seen on the long-running soap, Jack Duckworth passed away in the same armchair in...
  4. Blackleaf

    Battle of Britain heroes are given 5 minute standing ovation at awards ceremony

    The RAF veterans of the Battle of Britain were thanked by the nation on Monday, just days before Remembrance Sunday. Just 70 years ago, the RAF defeated the Luftwaffe in the skies over Britain despite being heavily outnumbered. It was the first major defeat for Hitler's hordes in World War II...
  5. Blackleaf

    Hundreds of vintage cars take part in annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

    More than 500 vintage vehicles took part in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on Monday. The vehicles set off from London's Hyde Park to travel the 60 miles to the Channel coast town of Brighton in East Sussex. It was the 77th rally, which is organised by the Royal Automobile...
  6. Blackleaf

    Opium Wars: PM rejects Chinese request to remove 'offensive' poppies during visit

    British Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected requests by the Chinese for him to remove his "offensive" poppy - as it reminds the Chinese of the Opium Wars, as poppies are used to make the drug. Britain and China fought two wars against each other - the first from 1839 to 1842 and the...
  7. Blackleaf

    Winning design chosen for national Spitfire memorial

    A winning design has been chosen for the memorial to honour Britain's most iconic aircraft and the most beautiful fighter plane to have ever flown our planet's skies - the Spitfire. The design, by London-based Australian architect Nick Hancock, was chosen from hundreds of entries and is of a...
  8. Blackleaf

    The moment a palace guardsman saw red with some cheeky Germans

    Some German tourists got more than they bargained for when they tried to have their photo taken with an armed St James's Palace guardsman. Two young German boys went to stand next to the bayonet-carrying Scots guard so that their parents could take a photo. But this enraged the British...
  9. Blackleaf

    An early bath for Premiership players as sprinklers in the turf come on during match

    The players of Birmingham City and West Ham United had a very early bath during a Premiership game yesterday - as the sprinklers in the turf came on during the match. Just three minutes into the game two sprinklers erupted into life, drenching the players under fountains of water and causing...
  10. Blackleaf

    The Queen joins Facebook

    Queen Elizabeth II may be 84 years old but she is not averse to embracing modern technology. Earlier this year the Monarchy opened an account on the photo-sharing website Flickr, which to date hosts more than 1,400 royal pictures. Last year a Royal Twitter account known as @BritishMonarchy...
  11. Blackleaf

    Was Henry Vlll's first wife anorexic? Catherine of Aragon's secret problem

    Did anorexia indirectly lead to England's break with Rome in 1534 and the creation of the Church of England? The reason why King Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so he could marry Anne Boleyn was because Catherine failed to produce him a male heir. This divorce led to...
  12. Blackleaf

    Rampaging Romans, the Black Death, and a Civil War - all in one village

    Thanks to England's long and eventful history, it's amazing just what stories, stretching back centuries, can be unearthed even in the smallest of villages and hamlets. And one of the most successful BBC documentaries of the year - a good example of how the corporation makes some of the best...
  13. Blackleaf

    Hero Gurkha fights off 12 Taliban on his own

    The British Army's Gurkhas are, without doubt, the bravest and most fearsome soldiers on the planet. This has been proved again with one Gurkha fighting off a dozen Taliban in Afghanistan with a Rambo-style hail of fire. Sergeant Dipprasad Pun hoisted a giant machine gun - weighing 30lb -...
  14. Blackleaf

    Queens of Coronation Street are given their MBEs at Palace by the real Queen

    The two queens of Coronation Street were given their MBEs yesterday at Buckingham Palace - by the real Queen. Barbara Knox, 77, who plays kindly shop owner Rita Sullivan, and Eileen Derbyshire, 79, who plays Emily Bishop, put on their best hats, clothes and pearls to meet the Queen who gave...
  15. Blackleaf

    Nature's beauty from dusk til dawn

    Britain probably has a greater variety of landscapes than any other country of comparable size. From the mountains of Scotland, northern Wales and northern England, the wet flatlands of East Anglia and the lonely moors of Yorkshire, Exmoor and Dartmoor, Britain has a lot of geographical and...
  16. Blackleaf

    Woman, linked to ink bomb plotter, jailed for life for attempted murder of Labour MP

    A Muslim woman has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years for the attempted murder of Labour MP Stephen Timms. Roshonara Choudry, 21, stabbed Mr Timms - the Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury - on 14th May this year at his constituency surgery in East Ham, east London over his...
  17. Blackleaf

    Battle of Britain heroes to be honoured at Pride of Britain Awards

    Battle of Britain veterans are to be thanked by the nation on national television at the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards. To mark the 70th anniversary of the World War II battle between Britain and Germany, surviving members of The Few, who went through extreme danger in the air to...
  18. Blackleaf

    TV in 1912? Eagle-eyed viewers spot historical errors in period drama Downton Abbey

    One of the areas of television that Britain excels in is the period drama - for example, we gave the world greats such as Pride and Prejudice. Beautiful costumes, pretty settings, stately homes and the brilliant acting draw in millions of viewers around the world. They are the most...