Eyam, Derbyshire

 Most people in England have heard of the village of Eyam in Derbyshire. When the plague struck the village the people heroically quarantined themselves to stop it from spreading and most of them died. Sadly it's probably a myth. The village WAS quarantined but the evidence suggests the authorities imposed the quarantine (a common practice at that time). It also seems the wealthy villagers fled before the quarantine was imposed, leaving the poor to their fate (also a common practice). Over the years it became a romantic legend. But, as with so many such charming stories it probably never happened. This article examines the evidence: https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/04/16/eyam-revisited-lessons-from-a-plague-village

Ukraine

 I read about a woman named Roxelana (Hurrem Sultan). She was born in Ukraine in about 1502 but she was kidnapped and made a slave. She was forced to be a concubine but later became the wife of the Ottoman Emperor Suleyman the Magnificent. She was a highly influential woman.  

Ukraine has a tragic history. It became independent of Russia once before, in 1918 but in 1921 the Communist Russians invaded and forced the Ukrainians to become part of the Soviet Union. In the early 1930s there was a terrible famine in Ukraine. It’s not clear if Stalin deliberately caused the famine but he certainly carried on taking grain by force even when it was clear millions of people were starving. This man-made famine is called The Holodomor. https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor

18th century women

 In the 1700s girls from well-off families went to boarding schools. Poor girls sometimes went to dame schools where they were taught to read and write. Also, in some towns, there were charity schools called blue coat schools because of the color of uniforms. In Britain, women were not allowed to attend university and the professions were closed to them. 

 Famous woman physicist Laura Bassi was born in Bologna, Italy, on 31 October 1711. She studied at Bologna and gained a doctorate degree in 1732. She became a lecturer at the university and also made important contributions to science. https://www.europeana.eu/en/stories/laura-bassi-one-of-the-first-women-in-science

Anne Askew

 On 16 July 1546, a Protestant woman named Anne Askew was burned to death for heresy. She was the only woman ever to be tortured in the Tower of London. She was tortured on the rack but she refused to change her beliefs. https://localhistories.org/a-brief-biography-of-anne-askew/

Milada Horáková

 A brave woman was executed by the Communists in Czechoslovakia on 27 June 1950 https://www.private-prague-guide.com/article/milada-horakova/

Guy Fawkes

 Guy Fawkes was executed on 31 January 1606. They were going to hang, draw, and quarter him (hang him till he was unconscious then cut him down, and when he came around disembowel then dismember him) but when the hangman put the noose around his neck Fawkes jumped off the scaffold and broke his neck.

World Toilet Day

 19 November is World Toilet Day. So let's hear it for the men who invented the modern toilet. In 1596 Sir John Harrington invented a flushing lavatory with a cistern. However, the idea failed to catch on. However, in 1775 Alexander Cumming was granted a patent for a flushing lavatory. Joseph Bramah made a better design in 1778. In 1883 a Mr. Ashwell invented the vacant/engaged bolt for public toilets.

There were public lavatories in London in the Middle Ages but the first modern public lavatory in the city opened on 2 February 1852. It was for men. One for women opened on 11 February.

 In Britain, a cesspit was once called a bog. The toilet was the bog room. When people stopped using cesspits and had flushing toilets they kept calling the toilet room the bog room. Soon it shortened to bog. Apparently the Australian word dunny comes from an old English word meaning a store of dung.