Interesting Facts

20th August 1858 – Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory. 1882 – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow. 1940 – Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramon Mercader in Mexico. 1978 - A 29 year old airline stewardess, Irit Gidron, died during an attack on a bus carrying Israelis in central London. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) later said it had carried out the attack. 1986 – U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill gunned down 14 of his co-workers and then commited suicide in In Edmond, Oklahoma. 1988 – A cease-fire was agreed between Iran and Iraq, after almost eight years of war. 1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sank on the River Thames, in London, following a collision. 51 people were killed. 1991 – Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union.

The Karaoke World Championships are starting in Moscow. The competition lasts for three days and the winner will walk away with the unusual prize of one million Russian dumplings!

According to a report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia's capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks. (80% had been verbally abused. The rise of the far right in Russia has supposedly been fuelled by high unemployment and low wages, but as someone who has suffered under both I can assure you, they're just excuses for the cowardly.)