Ciaran Conliffe 274 posts 6 comments

Mary Mallon, a woman whose name became synonymous with death and disease, was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in 1869. An ironic birthplace, given that it was as a cook that she would become infamous. She emigrated to America in 1884…

It’s a common misnomer to refer to William Burke and William Hare as "body snatchers". A body snatcher is one who steals a dead body to sell for profit, but they never stole a body - one they "inherited", and the rest they made themselves.…

The woman who would become infamous as Minnie Dean was born on the 2nd October 1844 in Renfrewshire, Scotland . Her full name was Williamina McCulloch, but her unwieldy first name was soon shortened to Minnie. She was the fourth of…

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and died in 1838. He lived through probably the most significant period in French history, and was involved in it throughout. In this he is practically unique, as nobody else managed…

There’s a strange golden age of Parisian life before World War I shattered the cosy comfort of their lives, and it’s an odd irony that one of its most infamous denizens was almost German rather than French. Marguerite Japy, known…

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver…

It’s hard to pick out the truth, in the wake of a large public scandal. So much has been speculated on that it hides the actual facts. But it doesn’t help when one of the principals in the case is a mysterious figure, and one with no…

The first life of Dmitry Ivanovich, future Tsar of all Russia, began on the 19th October 1582 and ended on the 15th May 1591. He was the son of Ivan the Terrible, the greatest of all Russia’s Tsars and the first to take onto himself…

In 1862, a woman named Anna Leonowens ran a small school for the children of British officers in Singapore. She was, or so she said, the widow of a British major. She had been born as Anna Crawford in Wales in 1834, the daughter of Captain…

It’s always interesting when a historical figure has to be re-evaluated in the light of new evidence. For over a century James Hammond was a controversial figure, and allegations about his personal life were often seen as merely…