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King John Affixes His Seal to the Magna Carta, an Inspiration for the US Constitution and Bill of Rights
"The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural address On June 15, 1215, in a field at Runnymede, King John affixed his seal to Magna Carta. Confronted by 40 rebellious barons, he consented ...
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The Chilling True Story Behind the Pied Piper of Hamelin
If you watch enough horror movies, sooner or later you’ll hear a character utter a variation on the phrase, “Every legend has a basis in fact.” Whether or not that statement is true, it is a fact that many of our most outlandish fables and fictions are rooted, at least ...
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Europe’s Black Death: Scientists say Fleas and Body Lice Spread by Humans, not Rats, were Responsible for Killing 50 million people
Every child learns at school that the Black Death was spread by rats which carried infected fleas. But the textbooks may need to be changed, as a new study suggests rodents have been unfairly blamed for the plague which killed millions of people across medieval Europe. The Black Death, it ...
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John Wycliffe, the First to Translate the Entire Bible into English, Dies
Wycliffe had been born in the hinterlands, on a sheep farm 200 miles from London. He left for Oxford University in 1346, but because of periodic eruptions of the Black Death, he was not able to earn his doctorate until 1372. Nonetheless, by then he was already considered Oxford's leading ...
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Joan of Arc Burnt at the Stake in Rouen’s Market Square in France
A young peasant girl who could neither read nor write, she followed the voices and visions from God and completely reversed the course of the 100 Year War (with England occupying most cities) and kept France from becoming a colony of England. Greatly celebrated by her own people she was ...
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Europe’s First Mass-produced Book – the Gutenberg Bible – was Printed with Movable Type in Mainz, Germany
Though it is not certain, many scholars agree that the Gutenberg Bible was published in Mainz, Germany on this day. The printing of the Gutenberg Latin language Bible was one of the most significant events that took place in human history. Prior to 1455, books were mainly in possessions of ...
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