1947
I am re-reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen at the moment, so I want to start this post with a quote from chapter 14:
"Yes, I am fond of history."
"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention. The speeches that are put into the heroes' mouths, their thoughts and designs - the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books."
So in honour of Catherine Morland, I shall endeavour to avoid wearying or vexing you with the quarrels of popes and kings, or war and pestilences, or good for nothing men! (That will be one way to keep this really brief!)
Princess Elizabeth announced her engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. They were married on November 20 later that year, and Philip was granted the style His Royal Highness and the title of the Duke of Edinburgh by the King, George VI. In order to marry her, he abandoned his titles (Prince of Greece and Denmark), converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject. (Elizabeth II made him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957.) (See this page about Prince Philip.)
Pakistan separated from India, becoming independant of the British Empire. A month later the Prime Minister of India suggested an exchange of four million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.
Women's suffrage is granted in Argentina.
Several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls discovered in a cave around the Wadi Qumran, later becoming known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The last remaining gap in the periodic table was filled with the discovery of promethium in the products of nuclear fission. (Does anyone know what place it has? Or why they were sure there must be something to fill it?)
And in fiction: according to the song, Sergeant Pepper started teaching the band to play!
And I think this time I will skip over the famous deaths and the Nobel prizes, as I suspect Miss Morland would find them wearying. So if you really want to know, check out my source. I admit to being surprised about how many wars and rebellions and battles and violent deaths there were, considering that World War II had severely decimated the male population of so many countries, and had only ended two years earlier.
I wonder what Miss Morland would say to that?
"Yes, I am fond of history."
"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention. The speeches that are put into the heroes' mouths, their thoughts and designs - the chief of all this must be invention, and invention is what delights me in other books."
So in honour of Catherine Morland, I shall endeavour to avoid wearying or vexing you with the quarrels of popes and kings, or war and pestilences, or good for nothing men! (That will be one way to keep this really brief!)
Princess Elizabeth announced her engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. They were married on November 20 later that year, and Philip was granted the style His Royal Highness and the title of the Duke of Edinburgh by the King, George VI. In order to marry her, he abandoned his titles (Prince of Greece and Denmark), converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and became a naturalised British subject. (Elizabeth II made him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957.) (See this page about Prince Philip.)
Pakistan separated from India, becoming independant of the British Empire. A month later the Prime Minister of India suggested an exchange of four million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.
Women's suffrage is granted in Argentina.
Several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls discovered in a cave around the Wadi Qumran, later becoming known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The last remaining gap in the periodic table was filled with the discovery of promethium in the products of nuclear fission. (Does anyone know what place it has? Or why they were sure there must be something to fill it?)
And in fiction: according to the song, Sergeant Pepper started teaching the band to play!
And I think this time I will skip over the famous deaths and the Nobel prizes, as I suspect Miss Morland would find them wearying. So if you really want to know, check out my source. I admit to being surprised about how many wars and rebellions and battles and violent deaths there were, considering that World War II had severely decimated the male population of so many countries, and had only ended two years earlier.
I wonder what Miss Morland would say to that?
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