english
The Battle of Cascina. July 28, 1364.
On 28 July 1364, the Florentine army under the command of Galeotto Malatesta advanced to Cascina, a few miles from Pisa. The road was open, but the temperature was unbearable. The armor of the warriors were burning hot in the blazing sun; many removed their armor to take a bath in the Arno River. The elderly Malatesta, convalescing from fever, fell asleep, leaving the camp unguarded and the defense disorganized. Pisan spies reported the situation to their commander, John Hawkwood (Giovanni l’Acuto). Hawkwood‘s forces were outnumbered three to one, so he decided his best chance of victory was to launch a surprise attack while the enemy was unprepared. However, Manno Donati and his friend Bonifacio Lupi, Marquis of Soragna had organized the Florentine defences by the time the Pis...
A Christmas Carol. December 25.
By mid-1843 Dickens began to suffer from financial problems. Sales of Martin Chuzzlewit were falling off, and his wife, Catherine, was pregnant with their fifth child. Matters worsened when Chapman & Hall, his publishers, threatened to reduce his monthly income by £50 if sales dropped further. He began A Christmas Carol in October 1843. Michael Slater, Dickens’s biographer, describes the book as being “written at white heat”; it was completed in six weeks, the final pages being written in early December. He built much of the work in his head while taking night-time walks of 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km) around London. Dickens’s sister-in-law wrote how he “wept, and laughed, and wept again, and excited himself in a most extraordinary manner, in composition&#...
The regicides of Charles I. October 17, 1660.
After the trial of Charles I in January 1649, 59 judges signed his death warrant, who, along with other court officials and several associates were subject to punishment after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 with the coronation of Charles II. With him, the Parliament signed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, granting amnesty to those guilty of crimes committed during the Civil War that followed Charles´ I death. Of the people involved in the king´s trial and execution, many had already died, including Cromwell, and were given a posthumous execution, being their corpses exhumed, hanged, beheaded, bodies burnt and heads exhibited on spikes. Several others were hanged, drawn and quartered while others were imprisoned for life. From a total of 104, only 21 managed to escape and settled in...
The Battle of Poitiers. September 19, 1356.
The Battle of Poitiers was one of the most important victories of the English against the French during the Hundred Years´ War. It took place on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers in Aquitaine (southern France). An army of English, Welsh, Breton and Gascon troops, led by Edward, the Black Prince defeated a larger French army led by King Jean II of France, The Good. In result of the defeat, the king, his son, and much of the French nobility were captured. For France, this defeat was catastrophic, leaving the country in hands of Dauphin Charles, that had to face populist revolts all across the country.