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The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘It's thrilling': almost three centuries of the Belfast News Letter go online
There was a packed news agenda on 3 October 1738. The father of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin had been arrested after being found with a stolen horse. Cannon fire rang out in St Petersburg to mark a Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire. In America, four families had been killed in Virginia in clashes with Native Americans. Meanwhile, a horse fell in the Thames at Westminster, nearly causing a drowning. Welcome to the pages of the Belfast News Letter, where updates on the French Revolution run alongside adverts for brandy and the American Declaration of Independence was reported as a contemporary event. The 3 October copy has a special place in newspaper history – it stakes a claim as the oldest surviving edition of the world's longest continuously published English language daily newspaper. In fact, the paper is so old that it predates the UK's switch to the Gregorian calendar. The edition would have been published on 14 October according to modern dating. For the first time, the News Letter's coverage of the most momentous events of the past three centuries can now be accessed free by anyone with a library pass or an online subscription, after the completion of a project to digitise its surviving editions. Everything from the Crimean war to the Troubles in Northern Ireland are covered, thanks to the joint project between the Northern Ireland Office, the British Library and online platform, Findmypast. While the earliest editions are austere in appearance, Ben Lowry, the Belfast News Letter's current editor, said they had many of the ingredients of the modern-day newspaper. 'They look so severe that they're like a reminder of an almost ancient age of poverty and hangings,' he said. 'But actually, you see the genesis of newspapers in them. They're full of fun. They have gossip. They have salacious stories.' The first edition was probably published in 1737, some 60 years before the Act of Union and 175 years before the sinking of the Titanic, a major news event for a paper published in the city where the doomed liner was built. The American Declaration of Independence, reproduced in its 27 August 1776 edition, featured alongside adverts for books, an appeal for a lost watch and a reward for finding a stolen horse – one guinea for finding it, or three for delivering the horse and thief. Adverts were the only items featuring illustrations at the time. Theft was denoted by woodcut prints of the devil. It was once thought that its publication of the declaration was a Europe-wide scoop. The editor sneaked a peek at the document as it travelled to London via Northern Ireland – or so the story goes. Like other journalistic stories of triumph, it appears the tale may have grown in the telling. In truth, two London papers, the St James Chronicle and the General Evening Post, had already printed the historic text a week earlier. While the paper was dominated by world events, even the oldest editions have examples of unusual yarns too good to leave out. The 20 April 1739 edition carried a lengthy piece about a marriage near Dunluce, County Antrim, at which the bride was so drunk she demanded to go to bed the moment the ceremony had been completed, only to fall and break her nose. She was later spotted in bed with a man who was not the groom. The oldest surviving edition recounts the dramatic tale of an Italian woman who stabbed and killed a man who had been harassing her for 18 months. The earliest copies ran across just two pages and were largely made up of letters from around the world, or material relayed from other sources. 'There was a lot more censorship during this early period,' said Beth Gaskell, lead curator of news and moving image at the British Library. 'There's a bigger focus on international news and a lot of verbatim reporting of events. There's less opinion because it was dangerous. But that doesn't mean that you don't get these kinds of really interesting stories.' From 1789, the paper was dominated by the French Revolution, but the news could be a little on the slow side. In the days that followed the storming of the Bastille, an edition stated: 'The French mails, which arrived this morning, brought little of consequence.' However, accounts of the tumultuous events in Paris appeared later that month, including how 'armed burghers paraded the city, attended by drums, beating to arms', before giving accounts of the storming itself. It described the Bastille's governor 'holding out a white flag and opening one of the gates' before a party entered and were fired upon. It states the governor was later beheaded. On Thursday 11 April 1912, the paper ran an enthusiastic if lowkey piece on the Titanic's maiden voyage. 'The departure yesterday from Southampton of the newest ocean giant, the Titanic, of the White Star Line, was an event that marks the last note of progress in modern shipbuilding,' it stated. 'A large concourse of people had gathered to speed the vessel on her maiden voyage and she made an impressive picture as she quietly glided in brilliant sunshine.' Just five days later, it ran what looked like a modern-day headline, albeit on page seven. 'The Titanic sunk. Collision with iceberg,' it declared. '1,500 lives lost.' In a sign of the printing timeframes, the front page of the same edition ran an advert for White Star Line and its 'triple screw' steamers, including the Titanic. The Belfast News Letter was founded by Francis Joy, a lawyer and notary. His death was recorded in the paper in 1790, but he had the misfortune to die just as the paper carried a lengthy obituary of Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers. Joy's passing was given a single sentence. Lowry said he had not 'given up hope' that more of the oldest editions would be located, but said the new digital archive would open up the existing back catalogue to anyone wanting a glimpse into the past over their morning coffee. 'It is thrilling,' he said. 'It's very important history, but above all, it's very readable and enjoyable history.'
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The brutality of Russia's last Tsar is revealed in message in a bottle found hidden at a monastery 120 years on
A 120-year-old letter in a bottle offering a snapshot into the hardships of life under the rule of Russia 's last Tsar has been found hidden in Poland. Penned in May 1905 by a local blacksmith named Karol Szulc, the 'time capsule' letter was discovered during conservation work at the 16th century Benardine monastery in the village of Kazimierz Biskupi. Builders stumbled across the letter detailing the hardships under Tsar Nicholas II while dismantling a cross on the monastery's gate tower overlooking the village. Beginning 'Dear Sirs' the short letter written on a single sheet piece of paper in flowing cursive text says: 'I intended to describe to you the present times that are now. 'And so it is during the reign of the Russian Emperor Nicholas the Second, life is terrible for us Poles who groan with the sweat of the Russian rule, the sweat of the Russian whip.' The letter dated May 9 was written just months after the 1905 Russian Revolution broke out at the start of that year. At that time Poland officially ceased to exist, having been partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria. But responding to the Tsar's political, social and economic repressions, Poles had risen up in mass protests, strikes, and demonstrations demanding political freedom, workers' rights, and national autonomy. The Tsarist regime responded with brutal repression with Russian troops and police opening on crowds which resulted in hundreds of deaths. Martial law was imposed and thousands were arrested or deported to Siberia. Following the collapse of the revolution the regime intensified Russification, censoring the press, closing Polish schools, and cracking down on Polish cultural and political organisations. In his letter, Szulc also made reference to the-then ongoing war between the Russian empire and Japan, which lasted from February 1904 to September 1905. He wrote: 'These are indeed times of war, which Russia is waging with Japan (?), and the war is so terrible that since the beginning of the world there has never been one like it, for in this war already nearly one million people have died, and it is not over yet.' The conflict - over rival imperial ambitions - ended with a humiliating defeat for Russia, despite its superior strength on paper. Szulc ended his letter by praising the village's local priest for building a new church. He wrote: 'Yet even in such difficult times, the Lord God inspired with the Holy Spirit our esteemed priest, Father I. Małachowski, who took it upon himself to build a church, and thanks to voluntary contributions, it was completed, rebuilt by the carpenter Michał Nowakowski.' Posting the discovery on social media, the mayor of Kazimierz Biskupi, Grzegorz Maciejewski, wrote: 'A great surprise for all of us. 'The letter written 120 years ago by our resident Mr. Karol Szulc contains information about the lives of the residents of our town under the Russian partition. 'This is a truly remarkable historical document.' The Tsar survived the 1905 uprisings by ceding some of his power and democratising his government. A constitution issued in 1906 established a parliament - the State Duma - and gave citizens more rights. But the settlement was short-lived. The Tsar could not withstand the Russian Revolution of 1917, which took place amidst the country's involvement in the First World War. He was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Ekaterinburg the with his wife and children. The entire family were savagely murdered by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks in July 1918.
CBS News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Putin won't take peace with Ukraine without restoring empire, former Defense Secretary Gates says
Robert Gates says he isn't sure you can judge Putin's intentions in face-to-face meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it's his destiny to recreate the Russian empire and won't back down in Ukraine, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Gates said Putin's aims can be unclear, even in one-on-one meetings. "I'm not sure even in a face to face that you can judge Putin's intention," said Gates, who served as defense secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "My own view, having dealt with him and having spent most of my life working on Russia and the Soviet Union, is Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire. And as my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire." While campaigning for a return to the White House, President Trump promised a swift end to the war that began three years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine. Now more than 100 days into Mr. Trump's second term, talks to end the conflict have been inconsistent, with little sign an end to fighting is in sight. "I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is 'tapping' him along and … Putin hasn't given up on any of his original goals in Ukraine," Gates said, referring to an April 26 social media post. In the post, Mr. Trump wrote of Putin, "maybe he doesn't want to stop the war." Gates said Putin hasn't shown a willingness to make any major concessions. "He's going to insist on occupying all four of the eastern provinces of the Donbas, perpetual recognition of Russian ownership of Crimea, a pro-Russian government in Kyiv and a Ukrainian military that looks a lot like an enhanced police force. And no membership in NATO and probably no membership in the EU," Gates said. President Trump said Friday he's moving to set up direct talks with Putin as soon as he can. Talks with lower-level Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in Istanbul Friday, but there was little concrete progress beyond an agreement to a major prisoner exchange in the coming days. The conflict in Ukraine dates back to 2014, when Russian forces seized Crimea after protests in Ukraine led to the ousting of the country's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Gates believes Putin wants the Ukraine that existed before that uprising. "He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia, and I don't see what it would take to get him to walk away from any of those goals in the foreseeable future," Gates said. "I mean, when you look at 900,000 or so Russian soldiers that have been killed or wounded, he's paid a huge price – the Russian economy and so on." "It hasn't deterred him in the slightest," Gates said.
