In around 2,700 BC a new culture arrived in Britain, often referred to as the Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase (2,700 BC - 2,000 BC) along with flat axes and burial practices of inhumation. The megalithic phases of Stonehenge date to this period.
Britain had large reserves of tin in the areas of Cornwall and Devon in what is now southwest England, and thus tin mining began. By around 1,600 BC the southwest of Britain had a trade boom as British tin was exported across Europe.
The Beaker people were also skilled at making ornaments from gold, and examples of these have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of southern Britain.
In around 750 BC iron working techniques reached Britain from southern Europe. Iron was stronger and more plentiful than bronze, and its introduction marks the beginning of the Iron Age. Iron working revolutionised many aspects of life, most importantly agriculture. Iron tipped ploughs could churn up land far more quickly and deeply than older wooden or bronze ones, and iron axes could clear forest land far more efficiently for agriculture.
About 900 BC, British society changed again. The Celtic culture had by 500 BC covered most of the British Isles. The Celts were highly skilled craftsmen and produced nicely patterned gold jewellery and weapons in bronze and iron.
Iron Age Britons lived in organised tribal groups, ruled by a chieftain.
As people became more numerous, fights broke out between opposing tribes. This led to the building of hill forts. The first had been built about 1,500 BC. Britain exported hunting dogs, animal skins and slaves.
The last centuries before the Roman invasion saw refugees from Gaul (modern day France and Belgium) known as the Belgae, who were displaced as the Roman Empire expanded.
From around 175 BC they settled in the areas of Kent, Hertfordshire and Essex and brought with them pottery making skills far more advanced than anything produced previously. The Belgae were partially Romanised and were responsible for creating the first settlements large enough to be called towns.
About 100 BC, iron bars began to be used as currency, coinage was developed, based on continental types.
As the Roman Empire expanded northwards, Rome began to take interest in Britain. See Roman Britain for the history of this period.
Domesday Book
The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of much of England, and parts of Wales, completed in 1086, done for William I of England, or William the Conqueror.
The Domesday Book (also known as "Domesday", or "Book of Winchester") was a record of all taxable land in England, together with such information as would indicate its worth.
As the scribes went round England, they were protected by William's armed men. Each group was led by a Royal Commissioner, who took a list of standard questions. A 'jury' of local nobility and citizens answered the questions. All answers were written down in Latin.
Information was collected from the start of 1086, and working up into the complete volume started later that year. William died in 1087 before the writing-up work was completed.
William the Conqueror wished to know the details of the land he had conquered, England. He let his knights and barons have big areas of land, and wanted rent money from them. The Domesday Book was a record of every farm, village and house so that he knew how much rent he should get. Only some small villages in the countryside are not in the book. Major cities like London and Winchester are also not in the Domesday Book, perhaps because of their size, or because (not owning land), the people could not be taxed.
The Domesday book gave the names of King William's friends and even listed the number of pigs on a piece of land. But it was not like a modern census. It did not give the names of all the people. It listed the heads of each household, but left out Londoners, monks, nuns, and anyone living in castles. In effect, it listed only people he could get rent from, and who might supply men to fight in his army.
The Domesday Book is two volumes. One of the books was called "Great Domesday", and the other was called "Little Domesday". The draft of the second volume, Little Domesday, was never worked up, but no doubt was used for tax collection just the same.
The Domesday book got its name because its lists were so complete that it reminded people of the Last Judgment (which people also call Doomsday, or Domesday) in Christianity, when lists of what people have done go before God for people to be judged.
LD50
The name LD is an abbreviation for "Lethal Dose, 50%" or median lethal dose. It is the amount of the substance required (usually per body weight) to kill 50% of the test population.
The test was created by J.W. Trevan in 1927 but has been phased out. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun to approve non-animal alternatives to LD50, in response to research cruelty concerns and the lack of validity/sensitivity of animal tests as they relate to humans.
Dahlerau train disaster
The Dahlerau train disaster was a railway disaster that happened on 27 May 1971. It happened in Dahlerau, which is a part of Radevormwald in Germany.
A passenger train carrying pupils was travelling on the railway line from Wuppertal to Radevormwald on the evening of 27 May 1971.
The pupils belonged to the final year of a school in Radevormwald and were returning from a trip to Bremen. Around 21:00, the train had just left the railway station in "Wuppertal-Beyenburg" and was a few minutes away from the railway station in "Dahlerau". Farther south, a freight train was traveling from Radevormwald to Wuppertal, and had just arrived outside the Dahlerau station. The freight train would have to wait in the station to allow the passenger train to pass. This was necessary because the passenger train was 30 minutes late and there was only one track on the railway line outside the station.
The dispatcher in the station would have to go outside and show a red lantern to the freight train, because there were no signals in the station. Nobody knows for sure what happened, but the freight train went right through the station and onto the track where the passenger train was running. The driver of the freight train later told that the dispatcher in the station had shown him a green light. This was the signal not to stop.
The dispatcher had seen what happened and tried to hold the train back with emergency signals, but he failed and the train disappeared behind a curve. He went into his office to call the station in Wuppertal-Beyenburg, but the passenger train had already left Beyenburg. The dispatcher knew what would happen, and called the police. Meanwhile, about 800 metres north of the station, the two trains crashed. The passenger train was crushed to 1/3 of its length, because it consisted of light railbuses and the freight train locomotive was five times as heavy.
Police, firefighters and ambulances arrived quickly, but had problems rescuing people. This was because the crash happened on a hillside. The parents of the pupils had also heard of the accident and had come to search for their children. In all, 25 people were injured, many of them badly. 46 people died in the accident. Of these 46, 41 were pupils, two teachers, one was a mother who travelled with the children, and two were working for the railway. Only one person walked away from the accident without injuries.
So many people had died that they had to be put in a gymnasium.