The AnswerBank Articles

Is it really Guy Fawkes's gunpowder

A. The evidence is compelling. Curators at the British Library in London believe they may have found some of the gunpowder with which the legendary conspirator Guy Fawkes tried to blow up00:00 Mon 01st Apr 2002

When was the Albert memorial built

A. The main structure was completed in 1868, seven years after the death of Queen Victoria's beloved husband Albert. The edifice, in Kensington Gardens opposite the Royal Albert Hall, was opened to00:00 Mon 25th Mar 2002

Isn't there some myth about Peter Pan's statue appearing overnight

J M BarrieA. It's no myth - it happened. In 1912, Sir James (JM) Barrie - author of the Peter Pan books - hired sculptor Sir George Frampton to make a statue of the boy who never grew up. Barrie00:00 Mon 25th Mar 2002

Did Henry VIII really destroy Hampton Court

A. No - you're getting your facts rather muddled here. It would be true to say that he bungled part of its design, though. Beautiful Hampton Court, on the banks of the Thames in Surrey, has been00:00 Mon 18th Mar 2002

We can now see the Sutton Hoo treasures

A. Yes - and that's great news. The priceless Anglo-Saxon treasures discovered in 1939 went on display for the first time last week. Q. So where we they found A. At Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in a00:00 Mon 18th Mar 2002

What's the Sussex gold

A. The British warship, HMS Sussex, carrying a cargo of gold and silver, was lost in the Atlantic off Gibraltar in a sudden storm in 1694. The wreckage is thought to contain 10 tons of bullion,00:00 Mon 18th Mar 2002

Who was Pat Garrett

A. The lawman who got Billy the Kid. More than a quarter of a century later, Garrett was also shot dead. Q. Background A. Pat Garrett was born in Chambers County, Alabama, on 5 June, 1850. He00:00 Mon 25th Mar 2002

What's this about Watt

A. A scandal is brewing. It would appear that the great Scottish inventor, whose name is on every lightbulb, might have been a counterfeiter, passing off cheap musical instruments as the work of a00:00 Mon 11th Mar 2002

What's this about FDR's failure at Yalta

A. Hmm. This is a tricky one. It would appear that Franklin D Roosevelt, one of the greatest American presidents, gave too much away to Russia at the Yalta conference in February, 1945. Q. Why00:00 Mon 11th Mar 2002

Crossing the Rubicon ... It's got something to do with Caesar

A. Yes. It's an expression meaning passing the point of no return, or committing oneself to a course of action. It's taken from Caesar's action in crossing the river Rubicon, the boundary between00:00 Mon 11th Mar 2002

Who were the Spencean Philanthropists

A. The radical followers of Thomas Spence, who got themselves in serious trouble with the law. Q. And Thomas Spence was ... A. A schoolteacher from Newcastle-upon-Tyne who went to London in00:00 Mon 25th Feb 2002

What's this about the sacred meteorite

A. You must be talking about the Willamette meteorite, a 15.5-ton boulder that fell to Earth more than 10 millenniums ago. It is the largest meteorite found in the United States. Experts believe it00:00 Mon 25th Feb 2002

Why 'peelers' for police

A. Peelers - the old name for the good old British bobby - were named after Sir Robert Peel, the home secretary who founded the first police force in 1829. Q. The good old British bobby Why00:00 Mon 25th Feb 2002

Who was Benedict Arnold

A. He was both a hero and traitor in the American War of Independence. He started as a patriot, but will be remembered by most Americans as the man who tried to hand over a fort to the British00:00 Mon 18th Feb 2002

Is it true that Offa didn't build his famous dyke

A. Possibly not. Evidence has just emerged that the history of Offa's Dyke - the largest man-made structure in Britain - is not what we previously thought. Q. Conventional view A. The00:00 Mon 18th Feb 2002

Who was Hereward the Wake

A. A Saxon leader who fought the Normans on the Isle of Ely shortly after the conquest. His story fired popular imagination and is mixed with much myth and folklore. Q. Such as A. Hereward was00:00 Mon 18th Feb 2002

What is Maundy money

A. Specially minted silver coins distributed by the Queen to pensioners at a special service on Maundy Thursday - the day before Good Friday. The tradition dates back at least 1,400 years. Q. 00:00 Mon 11th Feb 2002

Tell me more about John Brown

A. Which one Queen Victoria's confidant or the abolitionist Q. The anti-slave campaigner. A. Ah. That John Brown. He was born in Torrington, Connecticut on 9 May, 1800, son of a wandering New00:00 Mon 11th Feb 2002

Henry Campbell-Bannerman - the forgotten PM

A. Indeed. The new statue of Lady Thatcher has prompted a Commons problem. It has highlighted that there are plenty of images of some Prime Ministers - but others have been forgotten. MP Tony00:00 Mon 11th Feb 2002

What was the Cabanatuan raid

A. A daring Second World War in the Philippines in January, 1945. It is being made into a new Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise. It is based on a book called Ghost Soldiers by Hampton00:00 Mon 04th Feb 2002