June 17


Amber pages


John Wesley, English clergyman and founder of Methodism, born today in 1703


Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, Russian-born composer, born today in 1882


The Battle of Bunker Hill (which was actually Breed's Hill), the opening battle of the American Revolution, today in 1775 - and won, somewhat pyrrhically, by the English.


A waterproof fabric for raincoats patented, today in 
1823, by one Charles Mackintosh - I have added his name alongside Amelia Bloomer and Joseph Hansom and several others, on May 26


Last death by guillotine, in public, in France, today in 1939. The "victim" was one Eugène Weidmann - a German by birth, despite the French firstname - though the real victims were his numerous kidnappees and murderees, including the dancer Jean de Koven, an American socialite... the list goes on for twenty years, starting in Germany, and ends here





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