history Archives - Page 3 of 3

Happy Birthday PrincipiaCumpleaños Feliz a Principia Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Principia

July 5, 2012

Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, (Latin for “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”) was published 325 years ago today, on 5 July 1687. This is the book that laid out Newtonian Physics. It’s an astonishing book. In the section on the orbit of the planets and their moons, Newton showed that gravity depends on the square of the distance between massive bodies, and that the gravity acts as though it’s…

Francis Drake on La Palma

Francis Drake tried to enter Santa Cruz harbour on November 3rd, 1585. This was after Drake was knighted and before the defeat of the Spanish armada. Drake left Plymouth with 23 ships and over 2,000 men, heading for the Caribbean. The prevailing winds meant that the logical route was via the Canary islands, so he headed for the biggest port in the Canaries at the time – Santa Cruz de…

November 4, 2011

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Happy Birthday, Teneguia!

The eruption of Teneguía, Fuencaliente, 1971

October 28, 2011

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The oldest rocks on La Palma are 2,000,000 years old, which is very young for geology. But the youngest rocks are just 40 years old, and it’s their birthday this month. The Teneguía volcano erupted during October and November of 1971. My husband was a teenager at the time, and he remembers going to see it from the San Antonio volcano, and he remembers hearing the deep rumbles at…

The Tazacorte Martyrs

Father Acevedo gives the relics to Don Melchor. In 1570, a party of Jesuit missionaries were on their way from Portugal to Brazil. They broke their journey in Puerto de Tazacorte. It was an unplanned stop: they’d been heading for Santa Cruz de la Palma, but the winds were against them. On arrival in Tazacorte, Fr. Acevedo was amazed to find that the owner of the estate was an old…

March 26, 2010

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Cancajos Salt Pans

The wind pumps that lifted seawater into the salt pans You can visit a working salt factory on the southern tip of La Palma, but if you’re staying in Cancajos, in Breña Baja, it’s worth taking a peak at the ruined salt factory. The sea front promenade runs south from the main beach along the top of a low cliff, and it’s a very pleasant walk. It’s smooth and flat…

December 2, 2009

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Lynch Mobs

Nick Griffin, the head of the near-Nazi BNP, plans to complain to the BBC that he faced a “lynch mob” on the programme “Question Time.” Certainly the audience were hostile. One told him, “You want me to leave this country. Where do you expect me to go? I was born here and I love this country. I bet if we had a whip round, we’d have no trouble getting your…

October 25, 2009

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