28 May: William Joyce/Lord Haw Haw

William Joyce, aka Lord Haw Haw, famous traitor of the second world war, was captured on this date in 1945. 10 facts about him.

1. He was born in America, in New York City on April 26th, 1906, but only lived there until he was three. His parents were of Irish origin and the family moved to Galway, where Joyce grew up.

2. He was almost assassinated by the IRA as a schoolboy. In 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, he was recruited by the British Army as a courier and an attempt was made on his life on his way home from school. This is how he ended up in England – the British army sent him to Worcestershire for his safety.

3. He became fascinated by fascism as a student, but the die was cast when he attended a political meeting and was attacked there by communists. The attack left a permanent scar from his earlobe to the corner of his mouth. This cemented his dedication to the right wing.

4. He joined Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in 1932 and did well there at first due to his skills at public speaking. Things went sour, though, and Mosley fired him. Furious, he split off from the BUF to found his own political party, the National Socialist League. Again, things went sour as he wanted to model the party on the German Nazi party which was too much even for the NSL. So Joyce disbanded the party and went to Germany in 1939. He’d obtained a British passport in 1938 by falsely claiming he was a British subject when he was actually an American citizen.

5. He was recruited by Joseph Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda and given his own radio show, “Germany Calling.” Joyce was actually one of several English announcers on that show who were dubbed “Lord Haw Haw”.

6. At first, people in Britain found his broadcasts dissing the government quite entertaining in contrast to the rather dour programmes on the BBC. By 1940, it was estimated that “Germany Calling” had six million regular listeners and 18 million occasional listeners in the United Kingdom. A regular feature of his show was a segment called “Schmidt and Smith” in which he and a German colleague would engage in discussions about Britain, degrading and attacking the British government, people, and way of life. 

7. Joyce was doing so well that he was given a pay raise and promoted to Chief Commentator of the English Language Service. However, when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark, Norway, and France in April and May of 1940, Joyce’s propaganda was notched up a gear. Now he was bigging up Germany, threatening Britain with invasion, and urged the country to surrender. He’d crossed a line, now, and the British public no longer saw his show as harmless satire but as an actual threat. Joyce’s constant contempt for and sarcasm about Britain no longer went down well and his efforts to undermine British morale were largely ineffective.

8. On 28 May 1945, Joyce was captured by British forces at Flensburg, the last capital of the Third Reich. Soldiers out gathering firewood spotted him, a dishevelled figure by now, and tried to start a conversation. They didn’t know who he was, at first, and attempted to communicate in French as well as English. When he spoke back, of course, they recognised his voice and asked if he was William Joyce. Joyce reached into his pocket for his fake British passport, which the soldiers interpreted as him reaching for a gun. One of them, Geoffrey Perry, reacted fast, and shot Joyce in the bum. Two intelligence officers then drove Joyce to a border post to hand him over to British military police.

9. He was found guilty of high treason at the Old Bailey and was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3 January 1946, aged 39. He was the penultimate person to be hanged in the UK for a crime other than murder. The last was Theodore Schurch, executed for treachery the following day at Pentonville.

10. Joyce was married twice. His first wife was called Hazel with whom he had a daughter, Heather. When that marriage ended, she re-married and her new husband was Oswald Mosley's bodyguard, Eric Piercey. His second wife was Margaret Cairns White. He married her in 1936 and she went with him to Germany. Joyce’s daughter, Heather, would as an adult speak about him and campaigned to get his body moved from an unmarked grave in Wandsworth to Galway. She condemned the work he did for Nazi Germany, but said that he was nevertheless a loving father to her.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

27 May: Imagine

On this date in 1971, John Lennon began recording Imagine.

1. It didn’t take him long to write. The song was mostly completed in one sitting at Lennon’s home at Tittenhurst Park, one morning in early 1971.

2. The song was inspired by two books. One was a book of poetry called Grapefruit, written in 1964 by his wife, Yoko Ono. One of the poems, Cloud Piece, contained the line "Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in." The other book was a Christian prayer book he’d been given as a gift.

3. Lennon admitted he’d largely got the idea from Yoko, but didn’t acknowledge that at the time because he was “was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho” and took all the credit himself. On June 14, 2017, the National Music Publishers' Association announced that Yoko Ono would be added as a songwriter for Imagine.

4. Two Pianos were used for the composition. Both were Steinways: a brown Model Z upright in Lennon's studio and a white baby grand in one of the rooms of his estate. Film footage shows Lennon first writing the song on the upright, then working it out on the grand. The upright piano was sold to George Michael in 2000. Michael donated it to The Beatles Museum in Liverpool. It has since been "on tour" around the world to promoting peace. Lennon had the grand shipped to New York, where it is presumably still in the possession of Yoko Ono.

5. When he first wrote the song, Lennon didn’t see it as a huge hit. Rather, he saw it as the B side of another song called Gimme Some Truth. In fact, he made a rough demo recording in just that arrangement. When he started playing the songs to other people, however, they had to convince Lennon that Imagine was the hit.

6. It has been suggested that there are backwards messages in the song. If the line "imagine all the people" is played backwards, some claimed, it came out as "people war beside me".

7. Ben & Jerry's produced an Ice cream flavour based on Imagine between 2007 and 2013. It was called "Imagine Whirled Peace" and was a Caramel ice cream mixed with Toffee cookie pieces and Chocolate peace signs.

8. It has been covered many times by artists such as Elton John, Queen, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Joan Baez, Diana Ross, Madonna and Lady Gaga. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lennon's son Julian covered it, calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the song's sentiment of hope and peace to stand up for refugees. Oasis used the piano intro on their 1996 song Don't Look Back In Anger. Imagine is often played at Olympic opening ceremonies, including the 1996 Atlanta Games, London in 2012, Tokyo in 2021, and Paris in 2024.

9. In the film Forrest Gump, Forrest appears on a talk show with Lennon, talking about a place where there are "no possessions" and "no religion." It's implied that Gump gave Lennon the idea for the song.

10. In New York’s Central Park, there is a sidewalk mosaic which spells out the word "Imagine". It’s in a section of the park which is dedicated to John Lennon. The area is called Strawberry Fields, across from Lennon's apartment where he was shot.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 May: 146

Today is day 146 of the year. 10 fun facts about this number.

1. 146 Lucina is a main-belt Asteroid discovered by Alphonse Borrelly in 1875, and named after Lucina, the Roman goddess of childbirth.

2. London Bus 146 runs between Bromley North Station and Downe Church.

3. Room 146 is a 2021 short film directed by Ricardo Garcia and starring Victorian Keaton, Taylor Paral and Richard Rivera. It’s about an FBI agent looking for a domestic terrorist.

4. Firefox 146 was released on December 9, 2025.

5. The Alfa Romeo 146 is a small family car produced by Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo between 1994 and 2000.

6. The A146 is a road in England that connects Norwich in Norfolk and Lowestoft in Suffolk.

7. The year 146 was a common year starting on a Friday. It was known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Clarus and Severus. In this year, Faustina the Younger became Roman Empress.

8. Psalm 146 begins “Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” (New International Version).

9. 146 is an octahedral number, that is, the number of spheres that can be packed into in a regular octahedron with six spheres along each edge.

10. 146 resonates with the idea of relationships — companionship and coexistence. People under its influence are great team workers, but are self sufficient enough to go it alone when necessary.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

25 May: Yoda

There are three reasons to present ten facts about Yoda today. Firstly, it’s the birthday of Frank Oz, the puppeteer who played him. Secondly, it’s the anniversary of the day Star Wars was first shown in 1977, and thirdly, the anniversary of the day The Return of the Jedi, opened in the US in 1983.

1. That said, Yoda wasn’t in the first Star Wars film, but made his first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Which was initially going to be his only appearance. George Lucas envisaged him training Luke and then vanishing back into obscurity on his swamp planet. However, in pre-production of Return of the Jedi a child psychologist advised that kids under 12 wouldn't accept the twist that Darth Vader is Luke’s father unless it was made a lot clearer. Yoda was the character chosen to confirm Luke’s parentage.

2. Yoda could have been very different from the little Green creature we’re all familiar with, based on some of Lucas’s early ideas. He could have ended up as a massively tall, bearded Blue creature called Buffy, wearing a silly hat. Or he could have been portrayed on screen by a Monkey in a Yoda mask.

3. Having been talked out of calling the character Buffy, Lucas suggested "Minch Yoda", but in the end decided he should have just the one name as that would add to the mystery. Yoda was chosen because it sounded Eastern and mystical. He may or may not have known that Yoda is Sanskrit for warrior. Another character in the Star Wars universe ended up with the name Minch.

4. Likewise, Lucas made the conscious decision not to reveal what species Yoda is or where he originally came from, and says that he doesn’t even know himself.

5. There are at least two other members of Yoda’s species that have appeared in the Star Wars Universe, though. There’s a female Yoda who sits on a Jedi council although she isn’t shown speaking. She has longer hair and is called Yaddle. Baby Yoda is not actually Yoda but another member of the same species whose real name is Grogu.

6. Actors who have voiced Yoda are Tom Kane, John Lithgow, Peter McConnell, Piotr Michael, Tony Pope, and of course, Frank Oz. Frank Oz wasn’t Lucas’s first choice to voice the character; perhaps, given that Oz was the voice of various Muppets including Miss Piggy, he feared Yoda might sound too much like a Muppet! He came around in the end, though, and even tried to get Oz nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. However, the Academy deemed that a puppeteer wasn’t an actor and therefore could not be nominated in that capacity.

7. Yoda’s speech pattern is more than an affectation to make him sound alien. Some researchers believe that all human languages evolved from such a pattern, and is commonly a stage in human children’s language development.

8. Yoda was born in 896 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and died in 4 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). That made him 900 years old when he died. He is is 66cm tall and weighs 17kg and was trained by Jedi Master N’Kata Del Gormo.

9. "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song about Yoda in 1980. Called simply Yoda, it was a parody of the song Lola by the Kinks.

10. In 2012, scientists discovered a new species of worm that lives one and a half miles under the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. This creature has large lips on either side of its head, which reminded the scientists of Yoda’s ears. So they named the creature Yoda purpurata.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

24 May: Whit Sunday

Whit Sunday falls on this date in 2026. 10 things you might not know about Whit Sunday.

1. The name is thought to be derived from "White Sunday", which may have to do with the purity of Christ, or could be a reference to the white robes worn by people being baptised on this day. An alternative possibility is that it comes from “wit” in the sense of wisdom granted by the Holy Spirit.

2. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and is the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus' disciples (as described in Acts 2).

3. Another name it’s sometimes given is Pentecost. Pentecost is a Jewish holiday. That name derives from the Greek for “fiftieth” and marks fifty days after Passover. It was a time of thanksgiving and praise to God for the first wheat harvest of the season, and a time when people would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem in order to celebrate. Christ’s disciples were together for this holiday when the Holy Spirit came to them.

4. The disciples experienced three distinct things at this Pentecost gathering: a “sound like a mighty rushing wind” that “filled the entire house”; tongues of fire resting upon each of them; and the ability to speak other languages “as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

5. The week following Whit Sunday was known as Whitsuntide, and was a holiday for working folk in medieval times. It marked a pause in the agricultural year, and time off from working their lord’s land.

6. The day after Whit Sunday, Whit Monday, was a bank holiday in Britain until 1971. Thereafter it was replaced by the Spring Bank Holiday which is always the last Monday in May, rather than a moveable feast which could be in late May or June.

7. One tradition of Whit Sunday was that everyone got new clothes, no matter how poor they were. The new outfits would be worn for the first time at church on Whit Sunday. Other traditions include Whit Walks (parades through town with music and singing) Morris dancing and fairs. Many of these traditions now take place during the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

8. In Ireland, it was once believed that Whit Sunday was the most unlucky time of the year, because true evil was about at Whitsuntide. Therefore, it was inadvisable to do anything even remotely risky like play sports because accidents were way more likely. Anything involving water was to be avoided as it was said that the spirits of people who’d drowned were about and likely to drag the living to a watery death. So no Swimming, sailing or even walking at water’s edge. Even taking a bath on this day was said to mean you’d get sick and never recover. Babies born on this day were said to be destined to grow up to harm or kill people, and if you happened to be ill on Whit Sunday you would be ill for the whole year and possibly even die. And forget going camping. Sleeping outdoors on Whit Sunday meant you’d go insane.

9. There’s a whole long list on Wikipedia of authors who’ve woven Whitsuntide into their stories. I’ll just mention two – Agatha Christie's short story Ingots of Gold includes clues to whodunnit which revolve around Whitsuntide, and the inciting incident in Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, the murder of Hale, takes place at Whitsun.

10. There is a group of 74 islands off Queensland, Australia, known as the Whitsunday Islands which were discovered by Captain James Cook on Sunday 3 June 1770, which happened to be, you guessed it, Whit Sunday.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 May: Carl Linnaeus

Born on this date in 1707 was Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who established conventions for the naming of living organisms that became universally accepted in the scientific world.

1. He was born in Sweden. His father was a curate, who taught his son Latin at a young age. Carl would sometimes use the Latin form of his name, Carolus Linnæus.

2. Carl’s mother wanted him to be a priest and even had him enrolled in priest training school, but he didn’t do well there and ended up having to leave.

3. He loved plants from a young age. He wasn’t very interested in the subjects his teachers expected him to be good at: Greek, Hebrew, mathematics and theology. He much preferred studying plants. One teacher did encourage his interest in botany by letting him work in his garden. His interest in science led his teachers to suggest a career in medicine, so he was given lessons in anatomy and physiology.

4. He studied medicine in Sweden but was expected to finish his degree elsewhere, so he finished his studies at the University of Harderwijk in the Netherlands, where he studied the causes of malaria and studied some more at the University of Leiden.

5. When he returned to Sweden he met Sara Elisabeth Moraeus and wanted to marry her. Her father said no until he’d finished his studies and got a job, proving that he’d be able to support her. He didn’t practice as a doctor for very long. He took a position as professor of medicine at Uppsala and later returned to his first love and became the head of the botanical garden.

6. He’s famous for his work on classifying living things and giving them the two part Latin names we use today. He has been called the "father of modern taxonomy" (the science of classifying living things), Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists) and "The Pliny of the North". He was also the first scientist to treat the human species as an animal to be classified like any other. It was he who coined the name Homo Sapiens.

7. He held grudges and on at least two occasions named things after people he didn’t like. Siegesbeckia, a weed that produces an evil smelling fluid, was named after Johann Siegesbeck, a German scientist who was critical of his work. Aphanus rolandri, a type of beetle, was named after one of his students, Daniel Rolander, who’d refused to show Linnaeus his plant collection.

8. One might expect there are some Amphibians named after his enemies too, since Linnaeus was really not a fan of that particular class of animal. He wrote terribly insulting things about amphibians, describing them as “most terrible and vile animals… ghastly colour, cartilaginous skeleton, foul skin, fierce face, a meditative gaze, a foul odour, a harsh call, a squalid habitat, and terrible venom… an unsightly, hideous naked mob.” He did admit, however, that some Frogs sang beautifully.

9. The Swedish king, Adolf Fredrik, made Linnaeus a noble in 1757, after which he changed his name to Carl Linné.

10. He has some plants named after him. Linnaea and Linnaeosicyos, two kinds of flowering plant.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

22 May: Wigs

Today is National Wig-Out Day: 10 facts about wigs

1. They’ve been around since ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian fashion was for people to shave their heads or have short, cropped Hair. They wore wigs to protect their bald heads from the Sun.

2. The word wig is short for periwig, which came from the French word ‘perruque’. In the 18th and 19th centuries, wigmakers were called perruquiers.

3. In the 16^th century, wigs were more hygienic than real hair. Head lice were extremely common, and it was easier to de-louse a wig than real hair – you could take a wig off and boil it to get rid of the nits.

4. Another nasty thing common around that time was syphilis. While today that disease is quickly got rid of with antibiotics, in those days people were forced to suffer the ultimate effects which as well as madness and nasty sores, included hair loss. Being bald became a source of shame so those affected took to wearing wigs. Samuel Pepys wrote when his brother contracted syphilis that if he survived, “he will not be able to show his head—which will be a very great shame to me.”

5. Pepys wore wigs himself, but was rather ambiguous about it. He wrote about the day he had his head shaved and tried on his new periwig for the first time, mentioning concerns that his headwear might have been made from the hair of someone who’d died of the plague.

6. Wigs were very fashionable with royalty. Queen Elizabeth I owned 150 individual hair pieces. Louis XIV started to go bald at 17 and hired 48 wig makers to save his image. Charles II of England, his cousin, had a similar problem and wore elaborate long wigs. Their courtiers copied them and hence wigs became everyday wear at court. Needless to say, these fashion accessories became very expensive. Even the most basic wig would cost a week’s salary for an ordinary man in the street. This is where the word “bigwig” comes from, a bigwig being a person who could afford a larger, more elaborate wig.

7. It takes six heads of hair to make a full human hair wig.

8. The most expensive wig ever sold at an auction was one that had belonged to Andy Warhol. It sold for $10,800.

9. Wigs, of course, are often used by actors as part of their costumes. Film studios are among a modern wig maker’s best customers. The second Lord of the Rings film, The Two Towers holds the record for the highest number of wigs used in one film.

10. Ironically, today, especially at Halloween, people with hair wear "rubber wigs" to make them look bald!