Interesting Facts

Only two British monarchs have reigned more than once: Henry VI and Edward IV. Henry VI reigned from 1422 to 1461 and from 1470 to 1471 and Edward IV reigned from 1461 to 1470 and from 1471 to 1483.

King Henry VIII weighed 21 stones (133 kg, 294 pounds)

King Edward the Confessor was the first English monarch to be declared a saint. He was England's patron saint until 1348.

The last British monarch to lead troops into battle was King George II at the Battle of Dettingen against the French in 1743.

William Caxton, an English merchant and author, introduced the printing press to England

His book, "History of Troy", a history of the ancient Greek city, was the first book to be printed in English, in 1474.

British monarchs wear an "imperial" style of crown. This style was introduced by King Henry IV in 1399. 

The equals sign (=) in mathematics was invented in 1577 by Robert Recorde, a London doctor who studied at both Cambridge and Oxford.

England's youngest ever monarch was King Henry VI who came to the Throne in 1422 aged just 6 months.

England's shortest-reigning monarch was Queen Jane (Lady Jane Grey), the cousin and wife of King Edward VI, who reigned for just 9 days in 1554.

Elizabeth I Throne

Princess Elizabeth was born on September 7, 1533. Her father was Henrry VIII, the King of England. Her mother was Queen Anne; one of the six wives of Henrry VIII.

When Elizabeth was thirteen years old her father died. Her father left the throne to his son Edward, but he did leave Elizabeth a lot of money for living. While Edward was king she enjoyed living the life of a wealthy lady.

King Edward became sick and died when he was thirteen. Elizabeth's half sister Mary became Queen. Mary was Catholic and made all England Catholics. Those that didn't convert were sent to prison or even killed. Mary married a Spanish prince named Philip.

England people didn't like Queen Mary. Queen Mary was worried because she thought that Elizabeth wanted to take over her throne. She sent Elizabeth to prison for being a Protestant. Elizabeth spent 2 months in a jail cell at a Tower in London.

Elizabeth was arrest when Mary died. In just a few moments, she went from prisoner to Queen of England. She was crowned on January 15, 1559 when she was twenty-five.

Elizabeth worked hard; she wanted to be a good queen. She tried to keep her people safe. She had a council of advisors called the Privy Council to help her to deal with other countries, the army, and taking care of other issues.

Many people tried to assassinate her and to take over her throne. Her cousin, Queen Mary of Scots, was one of the people who wanted dead. She tried to have her killed a lot of times. Finally, Elizabeth captured Mary and killed her.

Elizabeth didn’t like wars. She was not interested on conquering other countries. She only wanted England to be safe. However, when she killed Mary queen of scots, the King of Spain couldn’t stand it. He sent a really powerful Spanish Armada to conquer England.

The English somehow won the war, just half of the Spanish ships could return to Spain.

Queen Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603. She was succeeded by James VI of Scotland.

The Panama Canal

what is the Panama Canal?

The Panama Canal is a navigation route between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. This canal was made to make the road from one ocean to the othe ocean shorter and much more effective. This canal traverses the Isthmus of Panama at its narrowest point.

How does it works?

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/general/howitworks/recorrido.html

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/general/howitworks/operation.html

Some history about this canal 

·     In 1534 Carlos v the King from Spain wanted to connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

·      French people were the first ones making the first structures of the Panama Canal in 1880 with Ferdinand of Lesseps as the King. The diseases and the finances problems made the French abandon the construction. 

·      United States started working on the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904

·      More than 50000 people worked on this canal and 375 million dollars were invested during 10 years.

·      The Panama Canal was inaugurated on august 15 1914, with the pass of the “vapor ancon” Since this first transit through this canal more than 1000000 of boats have passed this important shortcut.

·      This canal was managed by United States from 1914 to 1999

·      On 31 December 1999, the canal passed into the hands of Panamanians because of the work they did with the Torrijos-Carter jobs.

·      Today the canal belongs to all Panamanians through the efforts and sacrifices of many people as the martyrs of the January 9, 1964

What happened this day?

Panamanians students disagreed with the idea of having United States people in their country ruling them. Panamanians agreed and decided to go to Balboa High School to raise their flag. Americans did not want this flag to be hoisted. A big fight started because of this. These fight ended with the deaths of 22 people and more than 500 injured, including the death of a 6 months baby. In Panama this day is called the day of the martyrs.

"blue sky mine"

A song based on real history events

"blue sky mine"

There are a lot of songs that are bases on real history events, but there is this cool song wrote by midnight oils in 1990 named "blue sky mine". This song talks about the wittenoom asbestos mine in western Australia where blue asbestos was minded between 1947 and 1966. The once-triving town is now a ghost town witch no one visits. Shops are boarded up, the only tow schools are closed, and the local cinema is abandoned. it is estimated that 5000 persons from the 20000 men who mined asbestos there will die from related diseases. The word “blue" refers to the blue asbestos, and the phrase "sugar refining company" refers to colonial sugar refining company (CSR), the owner of the mines. CSR never did something to improve the working conditions of the mines. Miners had to crawl around on their knees scratching for blue asbestos. 20 years later the CRS built vents so that miners could breath fresh air. This was described as the "greatest industrial disaster in Australia" by the asbestos diseases society of Australia. The main theme throughout blue sky mine is also workers right, no one should have to work in the conditions that the CSR gave to the miners, unfortunately for most of the people, it was there only choice, they had nowhere else to go. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Midnight oil is an Australian rock band recognized because of their particular hard-rock sound, live intense presentation and the open political activism.

Fans know this band like "the oils". They started like a progressive rock band called "farm" in the 70's. Later they transformed into the known hard-rock group of midnight oil. They were associated withe the surfer communities near Sydney. One of the firsts bases of their fans were on the north beaches

Lyrics
There'll be food on the table tonight
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
My life that is lived is no more than a token
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?

If I yell out at night there's a reply of blue silence
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence
They blew the lights at heaven's gate and I don't know why

But if I work all day on the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)

The candy store paupers lie to the shareholders
They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky

So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night

And if you blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me

Who's gonna save me?

But if I work all day on the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
And if I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)
And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothing's as precious
As a hole in the ground

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear

In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean the streets of a blue sky mine