Horrible Histories is a children's sketch-comedy adaptation of Terry
Deary's long-running book series, produced by Lion Television with
Citrus Television, that ran for five 13-episode series on Britain's CBBC
from 2009 to 2013. Like the books, it was intended to foster children's
interest in British and other Western world history through factual
anecdotes retold with a focus on "gross-out"-style humour and comic
violence – "history with the nasty bits left in". The producers of
the TV series recruited writers and performers with roots in the adult
British comedy community. These in turn took a deliberately non-
condescending approach, relying instead on such influences as Blackadder
and the Monty Python films. A focus on historical accuracy was combined
with a comedy style relying heavily on parodies of current UK pop-
culture to make those facts more accessible, leading to takeoffs of
Masterchef, The Apprentice and Wife Swap among others. The result won
numerous domestic and international awards, including two British Comedy
Awards and four consecutive Children's BAFTAs (cast at 2011 ceremony
pictured), and eventually garnered respect as a classic from viewers of
all ages.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horrible_Histories_(2009_TV_series)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1847:
New Zealand Wars: A minor Māori chief was accidentally shot by
a junior British Army officer in the Petre settlement of New Zealand's
North Island, triggering the Wanganui Campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanganui_Campaign>
1862:
Slavery in Washington, D.C., ended when the District of
Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act became law.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Compensated_Emancipation_Act>
1917:
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, and
joined the Bolshevik movement in Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin>
1941:
World War II: After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia ten days
earlier, Ante Pavelić declared a new government in Croatia to be led by
the fascist Ustaše.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e>
1963:
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail
in response to an open letter written by white clergymen four days
earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
heir apparent:
(usually monarchy) Someone who will definitely inherit, assuming he
survives the one from whom he is inheriting.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heir_apparent>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even
how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do
know and what you don't.
--Anatole France
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anatole_France>