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Council House, the former location of the Brownhills District Council

Brownhills is a town and former administrative centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, England. Before 1974, it was in the county of Staffordshire. The town lies on the route of the ancient Watling Street. Although there is no record of its existence before the 17th century, Ogley Hay – a district of the town today – is recorded as a settlement in the Domesday Book. Brownhills quickly grew around the coal-mining industry, especially in the mid-19th century after the town was linked to the railway and canal networks. By the end of the century, Brownhills had grown from a hamlet of only 300 inhabitants to a town of more than 13,000, of whom the vast majority were employed in the coal industry. Mining remained the town's principal industry until the 1950s; the subsequent closure of the pits led to a severe economic decline that has continued until the present. The local authority instituted a regeneration programme in 2007, but there has been little subsequent development. (Full article...)

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In the news

Sumatran earthquake damage

An earthquake (damage pictured) in West Sumatra, Indonesia, leaves fourteen people dead.
Russia launches an invasion of Ukraine.
The Winter Olympics conclude in Beijing, China.
At least 231 people are killed due to mudslides and floods in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On this day

March 3: Liberation Day in Bulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan

Poster for the premiere of Carmen

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas and the Continental Marines successfully landed on New Providence in the Bahamas and began a raid of Nassau, capturing the port the next day.
1875 – French composer Georges Bizet's opera Carmen (poster pictured), based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
1945 – Second World War: The Royal Air Force mistakenly bombed the neighbourhood of Bezuidenhout in The Hague, killing 511 evacuees.
1972 – The British rock band Jethro Tull released Thick as a Brick, a parody concept album allegedly adapted from an eight-year-old boy's epic poem.
2012 – Two passenger trains collided near Szczekociny, Poland, resulting in 16 deaths and 58 injuries.

Michael Kantakouzenos Şeytanoğlu (d. 1578)
Ghulam Kadir (d. 1789)
Tolu Ogunlesi (b. 1982)

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Today's featured picture

The scarlet dragonfly (Crocothemis erythraea) is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae, commonly found in southern Europe and throughout Africa. Individuals can reach a length of 33 to 44 millimetres (1.3 to 1.7 inches), and have a flattened and rather broad abdomen. Adult males have a bright scarlet-red, widened abdomen, with small amber patches at the bases of the hindwings, while females and immature dragonflies are yellow-brown with a conspicuous pale stripe along the top of the thorax. This female scarlet dragonfly was photographed in Bulgaria.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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