5 Minute History Interesting things from history in about 5 minutes

It is probably worth noting that the idea of the cinema was not created by a single person but rather evolved from one thing to another. This started with the Kinetoscope, the first prototype for which was demonstrated by the Edison Company in 1891. The machine showed a series of still images in rapid succession giving the illusion of motion. ...

Enzo Ferrari was the youngest child of Alfredo Ferrari who was a metal fabricator. He was born in Modena near Bologna, Italy in February 1898 and although growing up with little in the way of formal education, by the age of ten he knew he wanted to be a race car driver after he witnessed Felice Nazzaro win the 1908 ...

It may surprise you to know that although the idea of wearing a layer of clothing beneath our outerwear now seems ubiquitous in most cultures, it hasn’t been with us forever. The earliest form of underwear is probably the loincloth, examples of which have been found in Japanese and Hawaiian culture dating back around 7000 years. Numerous loincloths were also ...

There are a couple of problems with coming up with a short history of science fiction. The first is that the subject is quite diverse in terms of media. Should we look at science fiction books, science fiction television shows, or science fiction movies? How about science fiction radio series, or even podcasts? The second problem is that we need ...

[POWERPRESS] Submarines are one of the more recent military advancements, coming to prominence during the first World War and maintaining a presence in the majority of developed naval fleets ever since. In essence, a submarine, as the name may suggest is a watercraft that allows the crew to submerge and sail under the water. During the era before radar detection, ...

Although it has been a much-loved delicacy that seems to have been around forever, most of the world, and especially Europe has been slow to catch on to the wonder that is chocolate. The fermentation of cacao beans into an alcoholic beverage has been going on since at least 1400 BC, with scientific analysis of substances coating the inside of ...

The Knights Templar was one of the most renowned military organisations of early-modern times, credited with inventing a modern system of banking and gaining a near immeasurable level of wealth as a result. The organisation has also been romanticised in popular culture, with novels such as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code making reference to them, whereas video games such as ...

Today, when people think of Nintendo the first things that come to mind are consoles such as the Wii and the Switch. Maybe popular video games come to mind also such as  Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and of course Pokemon. However, the Nintendo company came into being way before the electronic age that spawned such pleasurable pastimes. In ...

The World Water Speed Record is currently governed by the Union International Motonautique and is considered by many to be one of the most dangerous competitions in motorsport. In fact, since 1940 attempts to gain the record have claimed the lives of 85% of those who tried. The record currently stands at 317mph, which was set in 1978 by Australian ...

Football (or soccer to those of you reading this who are not from Europe) can date its origins back to 1863 England when a split occurred between association Football and rugby football and the Football Association was formed. It didn’t take long before the idea of an international game came about and the first of these was held between Scotland ...

Queen Victoria spent the Christmas period in 1900 at one of her favourite retreats, Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight as had been her custom since the death of her beloved Albert. She must have known that her long life and her record-breaking reign were coming to an end as she told her doctor that she would like to ...

‘Calico Jack’ Rackham, Anne Bonny and Mary Read are Captured. On the night of 20 October 1720, Captain Jack Rackham, known as Calico Jack was probably feeling pretty pleased with himself. For a few weeks, he had been pirating around the coast of Jamaica and was meeting little resistance. No-one it seemed was safe from Calico Jack and his crew, ...

It was party time in England’s capital in the days leading up to 1 October 1553. A huge crowd of people, many of whom were likely to be feeling the effects of those previous few days, gathered to try and catch a glimpse of their new queen. 37-year-old Mary was the first woman to ascend to the throne of England ...

Disaffected aristocrats conspire to have the Roman emperor assassinated The Roman emperor Domitian had been ruling the empire for over 15 years by September 96, the longest reign of a Roman emperor since Tiberius. His skills as an administrator had earned him a good reputation as although he concentrated power in his own hands he managed to maintain popularity through ...

The Stono Rebellion is the biggest revolt of its kind in British North America Twenty miles south-west of Charleston in South Carolina, near the Stono River, in the early hours of 9 September 1739, over twenty men gathered in a field. All of the men were slaves. Their leader was known as Jemmy, and was known among his contemporaries as ...

The body of a homeless prostitute, brutally murdered and mutilated, is discovered in a Whitechapel backstreet It was raining as the bells of London were ringing out the last day of August in the year 1888. The air smelled like thunder was coming, which wasn’t unusual, as the Summer of 1888 had been one of the wettest in memory. A ...