December 9th - 15th
On 9th December…
1165 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland died at the age of 24 years. He had been king since he was 11 years old after his grandfather King David I died. Malcolm IV died before he married or had any children and was given the nickname of the Maiden. On his death Malcolm’s younger brother William became King William I of Scotland also known as William the Lion.
On 10th December…
1394 - King James I of Scotland was born in Dunfermline Palace.
1768 - The first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Scotland. It was the go-to book to find out anything about everything. Nowadays most people use the internet to find out information rather than looking in a book, but the Encyclopaedia, although no longer in print, is still available online as Brittanica.com. It is a useful tool for studying and much more accurate than Wikipedia.
King of England gave up the throne for love
1936 - King Edward VIII abdicated the English throne so that he could marry the woman he loved. Edward was in love with an American woman called Wallis Simpson who had already been divorced once and was, at the time, married to a second husband. The Royal family, the Church of England, and the English government all disapproved of his desire to marry Wallis and for her to become his queen, so he gave up the throne and his right and the right of any of his children to become King or Queen of England. The throne went to his younger brother who became King George VI. He was the father of Queen Elizabeth II and grandfather to King Charles III.
On 11th December…
1282 - The last native Prince of Wales, Llywelyn Ap Gruffudd died near Powys, Wales. He was the only Welsh ruler to be officially recognised by an English king (Henry III) as the Prince of Wales.
On 12th December…
First transatlantic radio signal sent
1901 - Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. This scientific breakthrough paved the way for wireless communications, cables would no longer be needed to transmit telegraph signals between countries.
On 13th December…
Francis Drake set sail around the world
1578 - Francis Drake, backed by Queen Elizabeth I, set off on his circumnavigation of the globe from Portsmouth, on the south-west coast of England. He set sail in his ship called the Pelican, with four other ships but only the Pelican successfully completed the round the world trip. During the voyage he changed the name of the Pelican to ‘The Golden Hind’. The official backing of Queen Elizabeth I gave Francis Drake permission to piracy against Spanish ships without getting into trouble. He returned from his voyage nearly two years later, his ship was laden with treasures and spices. He was knighted on the deck of his ship by Queen Elizabeth I when it sailed up the River Thames and became ‘Sir’ Francis Drake.
On 14th December…
Baby girl becomes Queen of Scotland
1542 - A baby girl became Mary, Queen of Scots when her father King James V of Scotland died. He too had become king when he was only a baby after his father died fighting the English at the Battle of Flodden. When he was just a teenager, King James V was held captive for three years whilst his captors, led by his stepfather Archibald Douglas, the Earl of Angus, ruled Scotland in his name. James managed to escape and the first thing he did was to exile his stepfather and confiscate his lands. King James V died of ill health, possibly cholera, shortly after the Battle of Solway Moss where he fought against his uncle, King Henry VIII. His 6-day-old daughter was made Queen of Scotland.
1799 - George Washington the first president of the U.S.A. died.
Queen Victoria devastated as Prince Albert dies
1861 - Prince Albert. the husband and consort of Queen Victoria, died at Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria mourned her husband’s death for the rest of her life; refusing to wear anything but the colour black from that day onwards.
1878 - Seventeen years to the day that her father died, Princess Alice, the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria died of an infection called diphtheria, she was 35 years old. Today there are not many cases of diphtheria because babies are routinely vaccinated against it when they are very young.
King George VI was born
1895 - King George VI was born in Norfolk, England. He was the second son of King George V and did not expect to become King of England because he had an older brother. His older brother, King Edward VIII, chose to abdicate the throne (give up the throne) so this meant that the next in line to become king was George. George’s real name was Albert, he had been named after his great grandfather Prince Albert because he was born on the anniversary of Albert’s death. He chose to be called King George VI to emulate his father and try and make the country have faith in the royal family again after the scandal of the abdication of Edward VIII.
1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway was opened. It is a circular subway system that has 15 stations. It is the 3rd oldest underground railway system in the world.
On 15th December…
37CE - Emperor Nero, the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire was born in Italy.
1832 - Gustav Eiffel, the architect and designer of France’s most famous building, the Eiffel Tower, was born in Dijon, France. Did you know that he also designed the framework for the Statue of Liberty in New York?
1906 - The Piccadilly Line on the London Underground opened. At the time it was the longest underground line in the world running from Finsbury to Hammersmith at 14.5 km long; today it is 71 km long and has 53 stations along its line. It runs from Cockfosters in North London to either Heathrow or Uxbridge in West London. Do you know what colour represents the Piccadilly Line on the London Underground map?
2015 - Major Tim Peake, became the first British astronaut to serve a mission on the International Space Station. He remained in space for 186 days before returning to Earth.