Thales and the Battle of the Eclipse

Samuel Plimsoll was an advocate for better working conditions for sailors, and for a lot of other things. A lot of contemporary accounts refer to him as an agitator. Research: Bibby, Miriam. “Samuel Plimsoll and the Plimsoll Line.” Historic UK. June 14, 2024. https://www.historic ...  Show more

Heat waves don’t get as much attention as blizzards, floods, and hurricanes, but extreme heat is one of the deadliest weather events on average. Research: National Weather Service. “Weather Related Fatality and Injury Statistics.” https://www.weather.gov/hazstat Last, John. “This ...  Show more

To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Guy Garvey, lyricist and lead singer of the band Elbow, has selected the episode on eclipses, first broadcast in December 2020. Solar eclips ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what is often called one of the most significant battles in history. In 480BC in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, between the mainland and the island of Salamis, a fleet of Greek allies decisively defeated a larger Persian-led fleet. This halted the f ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. In the fifth century BC Thucydides wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, an account of a conflict in which he had himself taken part. This work is now seen as one of the first great masterpieces of ...  Show more

Thousands of years before the current day, ancient civilizations accurately predicted both lunar and solar eclipses. They often believed these events were spiritual omens. When an eclipse came at an inauspicious time, multiple priestly classes scrambled to find a substitute ki ...