In 1814 a giant vat burst at a London brewery and more than a million pints of beer poured into the slums around it. Eight people died, and no one was held to blame.
In the heatwave of 1858 the Thames reeked so badly that MPs fled their own committee rooms. Within weeks, the smell had achieved what years of cholera deaths had not.
In September 1752, people across Britain went to bed on Wednesday the 2nd and woke up on Thursday the 14th. Eleven days simply never happened, and it was perfectly legal.
