Little and Large was a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little (born Cyril Mead in 1942) and comic Eddie Large (born Edward McGinnis in Glasgow in 1941, died 2020). They formed their partnership in 1962, originally appearing as singers in local pubs around north-west England. According to an interview with Eddie Large in Metro newspaper (11 January 2019), they went professional in October 1963. After deciding to concentrate on comedy, Little and Large's big break came in 1971 when they appeared on ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks. They went on to win the programme's vote (though Opportunity Knocks viewer votes were subsequently alleged to have been largely disregarded in favour of rigged results), which turned them into household names virtually overnight. Within five years, the duo had their own primetime show on ITV called The Little and Large Tellyshow. It began with a pilot episode in 1976, which earned the pair a commission for a series in 1977. However, the duo later transferred themselves to BBC1 with a new show called The Little and Large Show from 1978, and remained on the channel for several series until cancelled in 1991. At its peak, the series was watched by an estimated nearly 15 million people each week. Eddie Large was generally the funny man while Syd Little was the more serious 'straight guy'. Eddie Large performed a number of impressions, particularly cartoon characters like Deputy Dawg and Woody Woodpecker, while Syd Little simply stood next to him, looking perplexed and distressed. They continued to appear in theatres and pantomimes, including "Babes in the Woods" written by Ian Billings. The two were at the peak of their popularity, along with Cannon and Ball, in the 1980s. However, as mainstream comedy moved away from their pantomime style towards alternative comedy, their popularity dwindled. Eddie Large was told that he might have a heart attack at any moment. The partnership split up when Eddie Large had to have a heart transplant. Syd Little performs on cruise ships, notably on the QE2 during September 2007, and used to run The "Little" Restaurant at The Strawberry Gardens pub and now runs a restaurant in the oldest pub in his hometown of Fleetwood called The Steamer. Eddie Large remained in showbusiness. Large said in an interview in 2010 that he had not spoken to Syd Little for several years., except of course during their famous reunion on Pointless Celebrities in 2019. Little is a member of the showbiz association "Christians in Entertainment" run by Pastor Chris Gidney. In 2018, both Little and Large appeared on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway featuring in their sketch serial "Saturday Knight Takeaway". In February 2019 Little and Large appeared together as a pair on Pointless Celebrities. They reached the head-to-head round (in effect, the semi-final). On 2 April 2020, Eddie Large died following contraction of COVID-19.

The 1927 Five Nations Championship was the thirteenth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship following the inclusion of France into the Home Nations Championship. Including the previous Home Nations Championships, this was the fortieth series of the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Ten matches were played between 1 January and 2 April. It was contested by England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have been transmitted to Germany on 27 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was confirmed and contained near Munich, Bavaria. The majority of the COVID-19 cases in January and early February originated from the headquarters of a car parts manufacturer there. Later, new clusters were introduced by travellers from Italy, China and Iran, from where passenger flights were stopped on 18 March. On 25 and 26 February, following the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, multiple cases related to the Italian outbreak were detected in Baden-Württemberg. Other cases, which were not related to the Italian clusters, occurred in multiple regions including Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. A specific cluster formed in Heinsberg was linked to the Carnival in Gangelt. The first deaths, an 89-year-old woman in Essen and a 78-year-old man in Heinsberg, were reported on 9 March 2020. German disease and epidemic control is advised by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) according to a national pandemic plan. The outbreaks were first managed in a containment stage (with the first measures of the protection stage), which attempted to minimise the expansion of clusters. The German government and several health officials stated that the country was well prepared and at first saw no need in taking special measures to stock up or to limit public freedom. Since 13 March, the pandemic has been managed in the protection stage with German states mandating school and kindergarten closures, postponing academic semesters and prohibiting visits to nursing homes to protect the elderly. Two days later, borders to neighbouring countries were closed. On 22 March, the government announced a national curfew, almost identical to those in to Austria and Bavaria, where it had been implemented seven days and three days before, respectively. Individuals are only allowed to leave their living quarters for certain activities e.g. commuting to work, doing sports or for groceries, and not in groups of more than two people if they do not share the same household. As of 1 April 2020, 79,465 cases have been reported with 959 deaths and approximately 18,700 recoveries. The relatively low death rate in comparison to other European countries, such as Italy or Spain, led to a on the numbers of recorded and unrecorded cases, including their age distributions, and international differences in the number of intensive care beds with respiratory support. The head of the Robert Koch Institute warned that the German death rate would increase and become similar to other countries.

1927 Five Nations Championship

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Irish: Éirí Amach 1798) was an uprising against British rule in Ireland. The United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions, were the main organising force behind the rebellion, led by Presbyterians angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment and joined by Catholics, who made up the majority of the population. A French army which landed in County Mayo consisted of cian and his troops in support of the rebels was overwhelmed by British and loyalist forces. The uprising was suppressed by British Crown forces with a death toll of between 10,000 and 30,000.

The Tanganyika groundnut scheme, or East Africa groundnut scheme, was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African colony Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) with peanuts. Launched in the aftermath of World War II by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee, the goal was to produce urgently needed food. If successful, it would reduce shortages of cooking oil in Britain, providing jobs in East Africa, and reduce the flow of migrants from Africa's rural areas into the shanty towns of Dar es Salaam. The project was finally abandoned as unworkable in 1951 at considerable cost. The fact that the region's terrain and rainfall were totally inappropriate for growing groundnuts, as well as the project's ultimate cost and failure, led to the scheme being popularly seen as a symbol of government failure in late colonial Africa.
The Tanganyika groundnut scheme, or East Africa groundnut scheme, was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African colony Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) with peanuts. Launched in the aftermath of World War II by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee, the goal was to produce urgently needed food. If successful, it would reduce shortages of cooking oil in Britain, providing jobs in East Africa, and reduce the flow of migrants from Africa's rural areas into the shanty towns of Dar es Salaam. The project was finally abandoned as unworkable in 1951 at considerable cost.