Number 36 – 2017-06-18

The number 36.

Today, 36 represents one of the most influential speeches in human history, delivered at a time when the world needed a leader to counter the growing threat emerging on the European continent. It was a speech that would help continue inspire a people shortly after one of the most courageous events by the military and civilians.

36 the number of minutes of the title of one of Winston Churchill’s most famous speeches, commonly known as “This was their finest hour”. On June 18th 1940, at 3:39PM, Winston Churchill delivered his speech to the British House of Commons. The peroration of the speech contained the words:

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.”

His aim was to rally the British People after the evacuation of Dunkirk, a few weeks earlier, and press for more involvement by the United States, who had been reluctant to be involved in a European conflict.