On a typically-British, grey September morning in 1978, Bulgarian Cold War defector Georgi Markov was poisoned in a mysterious attack which would eventually claim his life. On March 24th 2015 in the Faculty of Law of Charles University, Markov's presiding physician Dr. Bernard Riley explored the details behind the assassination of the well-known Bulgarian dissident writer.

This informative talk on the past decade of Lithuania’s membership in the European Union given by Mr. Mindaugas Stanys, the Second Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Czech Republic was an intimate affair with the people in attendance clearly very interested in the topic at hand.

I must admit, before attending this ceremonial meeting in the Karolinum on the 8th of December, I had never heard of the Templeton Prize. A rudimentary bit of research prior to attending had me blown away. The award has an incredibly rich history of remarkable recipients, among them the very first Templeton Prize winner, Mother Teresa in 1973, and 2013 winner Desmond Tutu.

The Novembers exhibition of CU (Karolinum, 17. 11. 2014 – 28. 2. 2015) explored the crucial date of the 17^th of November whilst simultaneously exploring the power and manipulation of history; as the introduction to the exhibition stated “this is a story of a myth, political kitsch and calculated propaganda.”

It can be in no doubt that Christmas concerts are a staple of Czech festive traditions, with music playing a centre role in Czech culture. On the 17th of December at 7 pm the Charles University Choir and the chamber orchestra Orchestra Camerata Carolina under the conductor Jakub Zícha performed a Christmas concert in the Karolinum building of Charles University.

On Friday, January 16th 2015, the Faculty of Arts of Charles University hosted the culmination of a series of commemorative events to honour the 46th anniversary of the self-immolation of protesting student Jan Palach.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting a temporary exhibition at the Wallenstein Riding School in Malá Strana, Open the Gates of Paradise, The Benedictines in the Heart of Europe 800-1300, prepared in collaboration with the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. This fascinating exhibit gave an amazing insight into the growth of Benedictine monasteries from the 9th century onward in Central Europe.

Fun for both adults and their children – this was the popular archaeology event that took place on 21 June at the archaeological park in Prague-Liboc organised by classical archaeologists from the CU Faculty of Arts to mark the two-thousandth anniversary of the death of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

The month of February has for many years in the USA been dedicated to the celebration of African American history. Known sometimes as ‘Black-history month’ it can trace its origins back to the 1920s, when it was felt that more should be done to draw attention to the then under-appreciated history of African Americans.

“Students of Prague University 1882-1945”, a new digitalisation project, is underway, aimed at digitalising old Charles University documents pertaining to staff and students. Some of this is for the creation of a new app run by the university, enabling users to search for old doctorates.