History

Anything to do with History

Roger @Roger - about 1 year ago

Save Your Ass | History Today

Protests against US involvement in Angola, 22 January 1976 © CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Bridgeman Images.Richard Bissell, the CIA’s former Deputy Director for Plans (DDP) was called to testify in front of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations w...continued

1 minute read

Izaiah @Izaiah - over 2 years ago

Salamis: the Battle that Made History

The Battle of Salamis, 19th-century engraving © akg-images.The atmosphere was febrile. For years the enemy had been constructing roads, stockpiling food, carrying out reconnaissance, cementing alliances with key territories in northern Greece and trumpeting their preparat...continued

1 minute read

Anderson @Anderson - almost 5 years ago

The Book That Can’t Be Read

The past is full of unsolved mysteries. Gaps in the historical record leave countless details unknown and tantalising puzzles to be solved. Some puzzles, however, seem to fall more readily into the preserve of enthusiasts – or ‘scholar adventurers’, as Richard D. Altick t...continued

1 minute read

Leda @Leda - almost 3 years ago

Asia’s Great Survivors | History Today

Prince Bhumibol and King Ananta Mahidol, 1945 © Ullstein Bild/Getty Images. The 20th century was a difficult one for Asia’s monarchies. Colonial rule, nationalist movements and Communist revolution resulted in the abolition of many figureheads, while most of those that su...continued

1 minute read

Allene @Allene - over 2 years ago

Fake Views | History Today

Plates from an album of spirit photographs, attributed to Frederick Hudson, 1872 © Topfoto.The fact that photographs can be manipulated is familiar and everyday to us now, but, when photography was in its infancy, this revolutionary new technology appeared almost magical ...continued

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Meggie @Meggie - 11 months ago

What Happens Back Home | History Today

Jamaican men, many of them former RAF servicemen, disembark Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks, 22 June 1948. Alamy Stock Photo.In September 1947, Caribbean politicians and British colonial officials met at a conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Those gathered at the Confere...continued

1 minute read

Alexie @Alexie - over 4 years ago

The First Shots in the Irish War of Independence

On a quiet road in Tipperary, more than 100 years ago, the 20th century’s first truly national revolt against the British Empire began. It was started by a small band of armed men from the vicinity of Tipperary Town – Donohill, Soloheadbeg and Hollyford. The Soloheadbeg a...continued

1 minute read

Giovanni @Giovanni - 10 months ago

The Year of the Four, Five, Six Emperors

Vitellius led through the streets of Rome by the people, by Georges Rochegrosse, 1883. CPA Media Pte Ltd/ Alamy Stock PhotoDuring the Roman Empire, outbreaks of civil war (and the assassinations which often preceded them) were generally intended to change the emperor, not...continued

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Ismael @Ismael - 9 months ago

Queens of the Crusades | History Today

Battle between Amazons, led by Queen Penthesilea, and Greeks, led by Achilles, from Li livre des ansienes estoires, c.1285. Bridgeman ImagesThe Crusades may seem to be an undertaking for men. Medieval European Christians called them ‘pilgrimages’ (a penitential journey to...continued

1 minute read

Kristina @Kristina - over 2 years ago

By the Grace of God and No One Else

Oliver Cromwell has been the subject of historical attention for centuries, from Hanoverian hostility, through Victorian veneration to revisionist re-examination. As Ronald Hutton acknowledges, this raises the question of whether we need another study of the Lord Protecto...continued

7 minutes read

Alexie @Alexie - over 2 years ago

Devadatta in Hell | History Today

Mara, the spirit of evil, tells the Buddha it is time to die and Ananda asks the Buddha three times to remain on earth, from The Life of the Buddha, Burmese, c.1800-20 © British Library Board/Bridgeman Images.In the stories of the Buddha’s life there are two villains. The...continued

1 minute read

Moises @Moises - about 3 years ago

On the Money | History Today

James and Audrey Callaghan shopping in an experimental decimal coinage supermarket, 12 May 1967 © Albert McCabe/Hulton Getty Images.The UK abandoned its ancient coinage of pounds, shillings and pence (£sd) 50 years ago. A new decimal currency was introduced on 15 February...continued

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Cameron @Cameron - over 2 years ago

Turning Point: the End of the French Empire

Roosevelt and Churchill seated on the quarter deck of HMS Prince of Wales, 10 August 1941. Imperial War Museum, London.On 9 August 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met aboard the HMS Prince of Wales in Little Placentia Sound just o...continued

1 minute read

Ryleigh @Ryleigh - about 3 years ago

Now We Can See | History Today

In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus defied the Gods and brought fire to mankind. He saved man from darkness, but paid for it cruelly: fastened to a rock, every day an eagle would consume his liver, which would regrow overnight. Millennia later, he would become, in th...continued

7 minutes read

Ryleigh @Ryleigh - about 2 years ago

In Pursuit of Pith | History Today

Ducks and Flowering Water Plants by a Pond, pith paper painting by Sunqua, c.1820. Alamy.Robert Fortune, the Scottish plant collector who ‘stole’ the secrets of tea from China at the behest of the East India Company, spent a day in Formosa – present day Taiwan – during hi...continued

1 minute read

Wilmer @Wilmer - almost 3 years ago

How Great was Alfred? | History Today

Alfred the Great’s statue in Wantage, by Count Gleichen, 1877. Peter Sykes/Alamy.The best way to get people excited about a nation’s founding father is, of course, to make him the subject of a musical. In August 1740 Frederick, Prince of Wales, son and heir apparent of Ge...continued

1 minute read

Hank @Hank - almost 2 years ago

Prince Darab’s Lost Treasure | History Today

Ahmad Shah Durrani, father of Prince Darab, Mughal School, 1757. CPA Media Co. Ltd/TopFoto.At sunset on 14 November 1812, off the coast of what is now Pakistan, four boats, led by the British East India Company cruiser Zephyr, made their way to the small port of Karachi....continued

1 minute read

Rahsaan @Rahsaan - almost 2 years ago

The Falklands under Fire | History Today

A bomb explodes on board the HMS Antelope, killing an engineer trying to defuse it, 24 May 1982. PA Images/Alamy.On 2 April 1982 Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands. It was a surprise move, the latest twist in a centuries-old dispute over sovereignty. A day la...continued

1 minute read

Meggie @Meggie - over 1 year ago

Tutankhamun in the Flesh | History Today

The ‘mannequin’ of Tutankhamun. akg-images.The summer of 1923 gave newspaper readers a break from the press circus surrounding the tomb of Tutankhamun, the discovery of which just a few months earlier had grabbed the world’s attention. But an anonymous editorial in the Ha...continued

1 minute read

Abbie @Abbie - over 3 years ago

The Rock of the English Kingdom

Margaret of Anjou in a dungeon with a demon. French, 15th century. By permission of the Governors of Stonyhurst College © Bridgeman Images. The coastal fortress of Bamburgh in the far north-east of England was suddenly overrun by soldiers on 25 October 1462. English, Fr...continued

1 minute read

Jeffrey @Jeffrey - about 2 years ago

When the World Came to Shanghai

Buck Clayton, c.1930. Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy.I reached the international city of Shanghai in July [1933], with the sun beating down on the Bund, the harbor full of Chinese junks, foreign liners and warships from all over the world. It was hot as blazes. I di...continued

1 minute read

Devin @Devin - about 3 years ago

Napoleon: Two Centuries of Life after Death

Napoleon on his Deathbed on St Helena, by Denzil O. Ibbetson, 1821.The French press announced the following on 7 July 1821:We received the English papers of the 4th of this month by special dispatch … This is how the Courrier gives the news: ‘Buonaparte is no more: he die...continued

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Emmie @Emmie - about 3 years ago

The Poet as Daemon | History Today

Joseph Mede, one of John Milton’s tutors at Christ’s College, Cambridge, thought that Calvinists who believed in the doctrine of absolute reprobation were themselves fixed in strong opinions and so ‘according to their own Tempers made a judgement of God and his Decrees’. ...continued

7 minutes read

Monserrat @Monserrat - almost 2 years ago

The Long Shadow of the First Crusade

Charles V of France and Emperor Charles IV feast while the Siege of Jerusalem is re-enacted, from the Grandes Chroniques de France, c.1380. Alain Le Toquin/akg-images.Called by Pope Urban II in Clermont in 1095 with the aim of taking Jerusalem and other Holy sites from ...continued

1 minute read

Elvie @Elvie - almost 2 years ago

The Normans in Byzantium | History Today

Mosaic of Constantine IX Monomachos, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. Agefotostock/Alamy.In 1074 the population of Constantinople looked on aghast as the town of Chrysopolis (modern Üsküdar), just across the Bosporus, was put to the torch. The Byzantine Empire had been through a g...continued

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