In January 1912, Queen Mary visited Malta during a wider imperial tour that reflected the island’s strategic, political, and cultural importance within the British Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. The visit formed part of the royal couple’s return journey from the Delhi Durbar in India, an event designed to reaffirm imperial authority at a time when global power structures were becoming increasingly uncertain. Malta occupied a central position in Britain’s Me

Aidan’s “Bella” is a jazz-leaning, retro-styled, multilingual ballad. It is not radical, but it is clearly positioned. It sits outside the dominant contemporary dance-pop lane that usually fills national finals.

On 22 January 1984 , Archbishop Mikiel Gonzi died at the age of 99, closing a chapter that had shaped Malta’s political, religious and social life for much of the twentieth century. Few individuals exercised comparable influence over the islands during a period marked by war, decolonisation, ideological conflict and rapid social change. His episcopate, which lasted from 1944 to 1976, coincided almost exactly with Malta’s transition from a British fortress colony into an indep

On 21 January 1956, Malta’s path toward political integration with the United Kingdom entered one of its most divisive moments. On that day, Archbishop Michael Gonzi and the Bishop of Gozo, Giuseppe Pace, issued a joint Pastoral Letter warning of the risks that integration posed to the Catholic Church’s position in Maltese society. At stake was not only Malta’s constitutional future, but the question of who would hold authority over the island’s social order. The integration

On 20 January 1421 , Malta ceased to function as a normal royal territory but ,Instead, the islands became collateral. Facing mounting military expenses and political instability across the central Mediterranean, King Alfonso V of Aragon needed quick liquidity. War campaigns, diplomatic alliances, and the defence of Sicily placed enormous strain on the royal treasury. Raising taxes was politically dangerous. Borrowing was faster. The solution was that Malta and Gozo were pawn

On 19 January 1732 , Malta witnessed a defining moment in its cultural history with the completion and first use of its very first purpose-built theatre. The event was recorded by Fra Gaetano Reboul in his private diary, preserved today at the National Library of Malta, where he noted that the building of a new theatre had been completed and that it was inaugurated, or rather used for the first time, with a theatrical performance staged in the presence of the Grand Master. Th

On 18 January 2022, Maltese politician Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament. With her election, Metsola became the first Maltese national to lead one of the European Union’s main institutions. For Malta, a country with a population of just over half a million, the moment carried a symbolic wieght. For the first time, a Maltese politician stood at the head of the EU’s only directly elected body. Before her election as President, Roberta Metsola had

On 17 January 1799, Dun Mikiel Xerri was executed by French firing squad in Valletta’s Palace Square for his role in leading a Maltese plot against the French occupying forces. His death has been remembered in Maltese history as the ultimate sacrifice of a patriotic priest resisting foreign rule. French Occupation of Malta in 1798 In June 1798, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt, French forces took control of Malta. Napoleon’s army displaced the Knights of St. Jo

The statue of Marija Bambina on its way back to Senglea During the Second World War, Malta did not only protect military assets. It also protected meaning. One of the clearest examples is the decision to move il-Bambina, the devotional statue venerated in Senglea, out of the city and into Birkirkara for safekeeping. Senglea was a frontline city By 1940, Senglea had become one of the most heavily bombed locations on the island. Its proximity to the Dockyard made it a constant

By the second half of the sixteenth century, usury in Malta was embedded in daily life. This is the environment that produced the idea of the Monte di Pietà to end usury once and for all.