Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

The story is a simple one. A Roman and a Persian arrive by boat at the same time in a foreign port. Both are taken off to see the king (suggesting that the visitors were actually dignitaries) and the king decides to provoke them ‘Which of your kings is the greater and the more powerful?’ Of course, […]

HMS Vanguard goes on its last voyage towards the scrapyard, 1960. It took two years to break her up.

Caroline Rance set up her website, The Quack Doctor, in 2009 as a way of cataloguing historical medical advertisements and stories of health fraud. Since then, her book The Quack Doctor: Historical Remedies for All Your Ills has been published by The History Press and she also recently compiled a pocket trivia compendium, What the […]

It is remembered as ‘the King and Country Debate’, the most famous student debate in history. 9 February 1933 Oxford Union (the students of Oxford University in contentious mode) undertook to discuss the proposal ‘that this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country’. The expectations were that the proposal would be brushed […]

German soldiers being stripped as they begin prison life in France

Unknown medieval manuscript: Watership Down goes horribly wrong as an executioner rabbit takes out a knight in slow motion

First of all, thanks to all those who wrote wishing the baby and mother happy times. Mrs Beachcombing’s main concern was that ‘she’s a scorpioo’ whereas now that seems to have subsided in the general love in. Thanks to all those who sent in multiple links: Amanda, Chris, Chris S, Joan, Ricardo, Wade and others. […]