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The “Piltdown Man” is a famous hoax consisting of fragments of a skull and jawbone collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, a village near Uckfield, East Sussex in England. The fragments were thought by many experts of the day to be the fossilized remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human.

The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan combined with the skull of a fully developed, modern man. The Piltdown hoax is perhaps the most famous archaeological hoax in history. It has been prominent for two reasons: the attention paid to the issue of human evolution, and the length of time (more than 40 years) that elapsed from its discovery to its full exposure as a forgery.

The Piltdown Man hoax succeeded so well because at the time of its discovery, the scientific establishment had believed that the large modern brain had preceded the modern omnivorous diet, and the forgery had provided exactly that evidence. It has also been thought that nationalism and cultural prejudice also played a role in the less-than-critical acceptance of the fossil as genuine by some British scientists.

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The Brinks Mat Robbery occurred when six robbers broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport, England. The robbers thought they were going to steal three million pounds in cash, however, when they arrived, they found three tons of gold bullion worth 26 million pounds. Scotland Yard quickly discovered a family connection between a bank security guard and the robber.

Tried at the Old Bailey, Brian Robinson, who conceived the raid, and gang leader Michael McAvoy were each sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for armed robbery. Prior to his conviction, McAvoy had entrusted part of his share to an associate, Brian Perry, who recruited Kenneth Noyce to dispose of the gold. Noyce melted down the bullion and recast it for sale.

However, the sudden movements of large amounts of money through a Bristol bank came to the notice of the Treasury who informed the police. Noyce was placed under police surveillance and in January 1985, killed a police officer he discovered in his garden. Although, a jury found him not guilty on the grounds of self-defense, he was subsequently found guilty of conspiracy to handle the Brinks Mat gold. Three tons of stolen gold has never been recovered. According to the BBC, some have claimed that anyone wearing gold jewelry bought in the United Kingdom after 1983 is probably wearing Brinks Mat.

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The Battle of Solway Moss took place near the River Esk in the Scottish borders between forces from England and Scotland. When Henry VIII of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church, he asked James V of Scotland, his nephew, to do the same. James ignored the request and further insulted his uncle by refusing to meet with Henry at York.

Furious, Henry VIII sent troops against Scotland. In retaliation for the massive English raid into Scotland, James responded by assigning Robert, Lord Maxwell, the Scottish Warden of West March, the task of raising an army. An army of 15,000 to 18,000 Scots advanced south. Maxwell was never officially designated commander of the force but declared that he would lead the attack in person. However, he fell sick and never reached the scene of battle.

The Scots advance was met at Solway Moss by Sir Thomas Wharton and his 3,000 men. Sir Oliver Sinclair de Pitcairns declared himself to be the Scots’ chose commander. Unfortunately, the other commanders refused to accept his command and the command structure totally disintegrated. The battle was uncoordinated and resulted in few deaths, but the English captured 1,200 prisoners including Sinclair. James withdrew to Falkland Palace, humiliated and ill with fever. He died there two weeks later.

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The 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was one of the major battles of World War I, in which British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC units engaged the Imperial German Army. The battle was fought for control of the village of Passchendaele near the town of Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.

The basic plan of the offensive was to capture the high ground to the south and east of Ypres. Despite spells of good weather during the battle lasting long enough to dry out the land, Passchendaele has become known for the misery of fighting in thick mud. Preparatory bombardment and rainy periods produced an impassable terrain of deep liquid mud, into which an unknown number of soldiers drowned.

The Germans were well-entrenched, with mutually-supporting pillboxes and after five months of fierce fighting, the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele on November 6, 1917, ending the battle. In the course of the conflict, the Allied Powers had sustained almost half a million casualties and the Germans just over a quarter of a million dead and seriously wounded. In March 1918 – four months later – the Allies abandoned to the Germans every inch of territory gained in order to free several divisions to cover more strategically valuable terrain.

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The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain when approximately 1,000 to 1,500 Chartist sympathizers, including many coal-miners, most with home-made arms, led by John Frost, marched on the town of Newport, Monmouthshire, intent on liberating fellow Chartists who were to have been taken prisoner.

A rising of some sort had been in preparation over the preceding few months and the march had been gathering momentum over the course of the whole weekend as Frost and his associates led the protestors down from the industrialized valley towns above Newport. Some of the miners who joined the march had armed themselves with home-made pikes, bludgeons, and firearms. Rumors of a possible Chartist rising and previous violence elsewhere meant that the authorities had suspected there might be a riot.

The Chartists arrived at the small square in front of a hotel and the crowd demanded the release of the prisoners. A brief, violent and bloody battle ensued. Shots were fired by both sides, but the soldiers holding the building had vastly superior fire-power, training and discipline and soon broke the crowd. After a fiercely fought battle lasting approximately half an hour, 10 to 24 Chartists were killed by troops, and upwards of 50 wounded. In the aftermath, 200 or more Chartists were arrested for their involvement.

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The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of October 15 to 16, 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France. It was the worst storm to hit England since the Great Storm of 1703 and was responsible fro the deaths of 23 people.

According to the Beaufort scale of wind intensities, this storm had winds of hurricane force. The storm had an air pressure equal to that of a Category 3 hurricane and wind speeds equal to a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The storm originated from a cold front in the Bay of Biscay that met with a warm front headed north from Africa. The storm made landfall in Cornwall before tracking northeast towards Devon and then over the Midlands, going out to sea via The Wash.

The strongest gusts, of up to 100 knots, were recorded along the southeastern edge of the storm, hitting mainly Essex and Kent. The storm caused substantial damages over much of England, downing some 14 million trees, blocking roads and railways and leaving widespread structural damage to buildings. Several hundred thousand people were left without power. The storm cost the insurance industry two billion pounds and this makes it the second most expensive UK weather event.

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The Battle of Queenston Heights was a British victory during the War of 1812 which took place on October 13, 1812, near Queenston, Ontario. It was fought between United States regulars and New York militia forces led by Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer, and British forces led by Major General Sir Isaac Brock and Major General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe.

The battle was the largest in the year to that point and was fought as a result of an American attempt to establish a foothold on the Canadian side of the Niagara River before the onset of winter. This decisive battle was the result of a poorly managed American campaign and is most historically significant for the fact that in it, the British lost their commander, General Brock, who was killed by an unknown shooter. The Americans, who were stationed in Lewiston, New York, were unable to get the bulk of their forces across the Niagara River due to the work of British artillery and reluctance on the part of the untrained and inexperienced American militia.

Of General Van Rensselaer’s 6,000 troops, 300 were killed or wounded and another 958 taken prisoner, including 67 other officers. General Van Rensselaer, his attack a dismal failure, resigned immediately after the battle. The question of who to blame for the defeat was one that was never resolved.

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The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of London from Sunday, September 2 to Wednesday, September 6. The fire gutted the medieval city of London inside the old Roman City Walls. It threatened, but did not reach, the aristocratic district of Westminster, Charles II’s Palace of Whitehall, and most of the suburban slums.

The fire consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the city authorities. It is estimated that the fire also destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the city’s 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll from the fire is unknown and is traditionally thought to have been small, as only a few verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged on the grounds that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded anywhere, and that the heat of the fire may have cremated many victims, leaving no recognizable remains.

The fire started in the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane and spread rapidly around London. The use of the major firefighting technique of the time, the creation of firebreaks by means of demolition, was critically delayed due to the indecisiveness of the Lord Mayor of London. The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming.

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The Hungerford Massacre occurred in Hungerford, Berkshire, England on August 19, 1987. Michael Robert Ryan, a 27-year-old unemployed local laborer, was armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a hand gun. He shot and killed 16 people, including his mother, and wounded 15 others, then fatally shot himself. It remains, along with the Dunblane massacre, one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history.

Ryan was an only child and reportedly bullied at school. Press biographies stated his fondness for, and possibly even an obsession, with guns. They also claimed his possessed magazines about survival skills and firearms, like Soldier of Fortune, and was a fan of First Blood, the first Rambo film (this was later revealed to be untrue). The first shooting occurred seven miles to the west of Hungerford in Savermake Forest in Wiltshire in the afternoon of August 19. Fifteen minutes later, he returned home and shot and killed his mother. He set fire to the house with gasoline that he bought earlier in the day.

On foot, Ryan injured and killed several people before taking refuge at the John O’Gaunt Community Technology College, which was closed and empty for summer holidays. Police surrounded the building and negotiators made contact with him. At 7 p.m., Ryan shot himself in the school. The massacre led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic center-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than two rounds.

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The Battle of Britain is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name derives from a speech made in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, “The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”

The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces. It was the largest and most sustained bombing campaign attempted up until that date. The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy Britain’s air defense or to break the country’s morale is considered its first major defeat. Adolf Hitler believed it possible to carry out a successful amphibious assault on Britain until the RAF had been neutralized.

Secondary objectives were to destroy aircraft production and ground infrastructure, to attack areas of political significance, and to terrorize the British people into seeking an armistice or surrender. The main attack upon the RAF’s defenses was code-named “Eagle Attack” and was delayed because of weather until August 13, 1940. The raids appeared to show British radars were difficult to knock out for any length of time. The failure to mount follow-up attacks allowed the RAF to get the stations back on the air, and Luftwaffe neglected strikes on the supporting infrastructure could have rendered the radars useless.

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