Revolutionising screen technology
How much of your childhood was shaped by a Nintendo DS? Or your maths by calculators? In fact, are you reading this on a computer screen right now? Well none of that would have been possible without the scientific breakthrough behind liquid crystal displays (LCD to you and me) at the University of Hull in 1973.
Sparking a civil war
Way back in 1642, parliament and the monarchy weren’t getting on all too well. As war hung on the horizon, King Charles I travelled to Hull to collect a rather large arsenal of weapons that the good people of the city had been looking after for him. Except on his arrival, Hull didn't let the king in. Leaving empty handed and red in the face, Charles branded the city’s governor, John Hotham, a traitor and promised revenge. Parliament, however, saw things a little differently and just three months later the English Civil War kicked off. Things were never the same again.
Lillian Bilocca and the headscarf revolutionaries
In early 1968 three Hull trawlers were sunk by fearsome storms off the Northern coast, tragically taking the life of the 58 trawlermen who were aboard. When it was ruled that poor safety conditions contributed to the disaster, the women of Hull’s fishing community, led by Lillian Bilocca, demanded better protection for their men and took their cause all the way to Westminster. Such was the power and passion of the group, later dubbed the headscarf revolutionaries for their traditional headwear, that a new Shipping Act was soon passed, better protecting seafarers for generations to come.
The New York connection
Hundreds of books, films and songs have been written about Eastern European immigrants arriving in America. Lesser known is that after leaving their homelands, Hull was in fact their port of call, quite literally. In the late 19th Century, Hull’s ports were bustling with immigrants from across Europe, taking a well needed break and switching boats before the long journey on to New York. Many immigrants took a liking to Hull and ended up hanging around, making it a cosmopolitan city long before the rest of England.
Ending the slave trade
Perhaps Hull’s most famous son was William Wilberforce. A sitting member of parliament for his home city, and later the county of Yorkshire, Wilberforce was a key figure in the abolition of the slave trade in the UK – taking the cause to heart and persistently campaigning against government for over 20 years. When parliament finally voted to abolish the slave trade in 1807, it was said the famous Hullensian’s face was streaming with tears. What a guy. And the dedication to this admirable cause didn’t die with Wilberforce - modern day slavery continues to be a major focus for the University through the work of the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation.
Written by Daniel Humphry – award-winning writer and founder of OFF LIFE, the UK’s only street press comic.