Some things are important every year; others only seem to hit our radar when it’s a significant anniversary – think Bonfire Night versus The Battle of Waterloo. That is why we refresh and update our anniversaries calendar every year. For what is left of 2023 we have the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Genocide on 9 December, as well as the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party on 16 December 1773, which is widely regarded as the beginning of the American Revolution.

For 2024 we can reach back as far as 1174 and the 850th anniversary of William I of Scotland being captured by Henry II's forces at Alnwick on 13 July. However, it is far more likely that many will focus on the 110th anniversary of the start of the First World War, or the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings and the Battle of Normandy.

Tragically it is also the 30th anniversary of the 100 days of killings that signified the Rwandan Genocide (7 April–15 July 1994).

For those interested in history and literature there are key anniversaries of the first folio of Shakespeare’s works appearing 400 years ago. It will also have been 20 years since Andrea Levy’s groundbreaking novel Small Island was published in 2024.

To mark some of these events we will be having a special webinar series on marking the UN Genocide Convention, running from 22 November to 6 December 2023, and the short course starting in January 2024 will be on the impact and legacy of the First World War.