Sweden

  • ABBA and World War II

    There will be only a few people who may not have heard of ABBA. The Swedish band shot to world fame in 1974 after winning the Eurovision Song Contest on 9 April 1974 with their song ‘Waterloo.” However, not all of them were born in Sweden. Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad was born on 15 November 1945…

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  • Adolf Hitler often displayed toddler-like behaviour. If he didn’t get his way or if someone did something he didn’t like, he would throw a tantrum. In 1935, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Carl von Ossietzky(pictured above). He was a German pacifist. He was awarded the prize for something which happened before Hitler came…

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  • “Dagen H,” or “H Day,” stands for “Högertrafikomläggningen” in Swedish, meaning “The right-hand traffic diversion.” This term refers to one of the most significant and carefully planned transportation changes in Sweden’s history: the switch from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. On September 3, 1967, Sweden made this monumental change.…

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  • The Linköping Bloodbath was a significant event in Swedish history that took place on March 20, 1600, during the early stages of the power struggle between Duke Charles (later King Charles IX) and the supporters of King Sigismund III of Poland. The execution of five noblemen in Linköping was not merely an act of retribution…

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  • Europe used to be a continent with a great number of currencies. Most European countries now have the Euro as the their currency. But where did it all begin? Stockholms Banco (also known as the Palmstruch’s Bank, Swedish: Palmstruchska banken) was the first European bank to print banknotes. It was founded in 1657 by Johan…

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  • The name Ola Brunkert will mean very little to most, in fact I only found out about him today. I get these history notification on my phone, today I got a notification telling me it was Ola’s birthday today. I hear you asking” Who is this Ola Brunkert?” As I stated most of you will…

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  • I finished reading the Librarian of Auschwitz yesterday. I will not do a book review, although it is a very good and well written book, but I will go into some aspects of the book which brought the Holocaust quite near to me in a way I did not expect. However before I do that…

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  • Regardless if you are a fan of the man or not, anyone who watched that match last night must have had an awful shock. Shortly before half time during the UEFA Euro 2020, group stage match between Denmark and Finland, the Danish midfielder and star player, Christian Eriksen collapsed. He was taken of the pitch…

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  • I remember during music lessons at school we would discuss the 2 super groups that emerged from the 1970’s. The first one was Queen and the other one was ABBA. Both band of course did not start out with those names. Queen was called Smile first and ABBA’s origin was in the pop, folk and…

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  • How did become the first day of the 4th month, aka April 1, the day of trying to fool people or to play pranks on them. Since I come from a long line of pranksters and it appears it has transferred into the newest generations of the family, I always have a slight sense of…

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