History

Anything to do with History

Mariano @Mariano - over 4 years ago

Fake News and the End of the World

On 10 August 1919 the Washington Herald ran the headline: ‘Planets Moving Into Huge Danger Zone; Earth Will Stagger From Mighty Shock’. In four months, warned Albert F. Porta, an Italian-born academic, seven planets would assemble on one side of the sun. Their collective ...continued

1 minute read

Marjory @Marjory - 4 days ago

Orkney’s Saga: the Islands between Kingdoms

In July 2023 the Orkney Islands, lying just off the northeast coast of Scotland, made headlines around the world after the local council voted to explore ‘alternative forms of governance’. One option under consideration, it was widely reported, was for Orkney to secede fr...continued

1 minute read

Oren @Oren - almost 4 years ago

A War of Words | History Today

The line ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes’ seems more apt than ever before in today’s world of mass media. ‘Fake news’ has become a term used to describe the creation and spread of false information to deceive, for t...continued

1 minute read

Manley @Manley - over 3 years ago

The Crown Lost at Sea

From Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle of England, early 14th century © Bridgeman Images. This year marks the 900th anniversary of the worst maritime disaster suffered by the English Crown and, arguably, by England. The tragedy of the White Ship, which sank on 25 November 1120...continued

1 minute read

Emmie @Emmie - over 3 years ago

The Goths Take Rome | History Today

Roman warrior holding the head of an enemy between his teeth, cast from Trajan’s Column, 1862 © Luisa Ricciarini/Bridgeman Images. During a welcome period of Mediterranean peace in AD 8, a swift judgment from Rome’s first emperor sent the Latin poet Ovid into exile: it ...continued

1 minute read

Devin @Devin - over 1 year ago

The Man Who Was Briefly King

Marie-Charles David de Mayréna, King Marie I of the Sedang, from Le Journal Illustré, 1889. Courtesy of the Kingsley Collection of Self-Proclaimed Monarchies.The high noon of colonialism in the late 19th century created opportunities for European-born adventurers to set t...continued

1 minute read

Marie @Marie - almost 2 years ago

The Clown that Went out of Fashion

Elizabethan clown Will Kemp dancing a jig from London to Norwich, 1600. World History Archive/TopFoto.In the spring of 1599 London’s most famous clown left his job at the Globe Theatre. Whether this was a result of animosity between him and William Shakespeare, the compan...continued

1 minute read

Adelia @Adelia - over 2 years ago

The French Connection | History Today

Charles I and Henrietta Maria, by Daniel Mytens, c.1630-32. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2021/Bridgeman Images.The foreign policy pursued by Charles I in the 1630s had one objective in mind: the recovery of the Rhineland Palatinate for his neph...continued

1 minute read

Elaina @Elaina - almost 2 years ago

The Great Tom Fuller | History Today

Thomas Fuller, 17th century. GRANGER/Alamy.Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that two writers above all others excited in him ‘the sense and emotion of the marvellous’. One was William Shakespeare and the other was a 17th-century historian called Thomas Fuller. ‘The Great...continued

1 minute read

Leda @Leda - over 2 years ago

How Poland Found Itself in the Mountains

Guide and Tourists in the Tatras (detail), by Walery Eljasz Radzikowski, 1878. National Museum of Kraków/Wikimedia/Creative Commons.The Tatras are the most striking part of the Carpathian mountains that arc through Central and Eastern Europe. With over 60 peaks higher tha...continued

1 minute read

Iva @Iva - over 2 years ago

How Poland Found itself in the Mountains

1 minute read

Clarissa @Clarissa - over 2 years ago

Zoroastrian Zeligs | History Today

Picture this: a firm handshake between a suited tycoon, one of India’s biggest, and a kurta-clad satrap, ruler of the Republic’s largest communist enclave, a blue company logo prominently displayed on the rostrum, the backdrop otherwise a sea of red flags. Ratan Tata, the...continued

7 minutes read

Marlon @Marlon - about 2 years ago

Jerusalem Burning | History Today

Frieze panel showing triumphant Romans carrying the seven-branched menorah from the Temple of Jerusalem from the Arch of Titus, Rome © Werner Forman Archive/Getty Images.The Roman general Titus was napping when the news came. His soldiers were inside the walls of the Temp...continued

1 minute read

Nestor @Nestor - almost 3 years ago

The Nazis Enter History | History Today

Adolf Hitler attends the Nazi harvest festival held at Bückeberg in central Germany, 1934 © Hulton Getty Images.Major historical events often change how we view others. It is sometimes said that Napoleon was the biggest tyrant Europe had known until Hitler came along. Som...continued

1 minute read

Maureen @Maureen - almost 5 years ago

The Free Frenchman | History Today

The 40th anniversary of Admiral Lord Mountbatten’s assassination by the Provisional IRA in County Sligo, Ireland falls on 7 August 2019. There was a cruel irony in militant Irish republicans labelling Mountbatten a ‘legitimate target’. As the Allies’ supreme commander in ...continued

1 minute read

Monserrat @Monserrat - almost 3 years ago

Urban Encounters | History Today

The Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (detail), by William Berczy, 19th century © Getty Images.In most artistic depictions of 18th-century American cities, busy harbours jostle with brick houses and grand civic buildings, while church steeples dominate the skyline. Representing p...continued

1 minute read

Nelson @Nelson - about 2 months ago

‘The World at War’ and the Holocaust at 50

Less than a minute into the 20th episode of The World at War the first interviewee appears. He is an old man, impeccably dressed in a black suit jacket with a white pocket square. After a few moments, a caption appears: ‘Karl Wolff’, it reads, ‘S.S. GENERAL’.Wolff describ...continued

6 minutes read

Wilmer @Wilmer - about 2 years ago

The Murder of Hintsa | History Today

Chief Hintsa of the Gcaleka Xhosa, c.1800s © Africa Media Online/Mary Evans Picture Library.There are many inconsistencies in the stories surrounding the murder of the Xhosa chief Hintsa, executed by British forces in the Cape Colony in 1835. What is incontrovertible is t...continued

1 minute read

Assunta @Assunta - over 3 years ago

The Invention of Chinese | History Today

A street in Guangzhou/Canton, 1870s © Bridgeman Images.The Chinese language is deceptively difficult to define. To speak ‘Chinese’ today usually means Mandarin, the national language of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. Called Putonghua, or the ‘common lang...continued

1 minute read

Alexandro @Alexandro - over 3 years ago

The Price of Life | History Today

Gum merchants, Senegal River Valley region, coloured engraving, 1796 © Archive Charmet/Bridgeman Images. Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, historians have been quick to note apparent parallels between this pandemic and other moments of widespread disease in humani...continued

1 minute read

Juliet @Juliet - over 1 year ago

Renaissance Wonder Women | History Today

Bronze parade mask perhaps worn by male soldiers representing the Amazons. Nola, Italy, second century. Photo © The British Museum/ Trustees of the British Museum.First conceived in the ancient world, the legend of the Amazons resurfaced in the age of Shakespeare to becom...continued

1 minute read

Josiah @Josiah - about 3 years ago

Popes: Power to the People

Delivery of Keys to St Peter, by Vincenzo Catena, c.1520 © akg-images.A group of princes gathered in Schmalkalden, a small town in central Germany, in February 1537. These men of the Schmalkaldic League were eminent followers of Martin Luther, the Augustinian friar who ha...continued

1 minute read

Kraig @Kraig - over 1 year ago

The Original Rock Star | History Today

Contemporary replica of the Rosetta Stone © The British Museum/Trustees of the British Museum.As the most viewed object at the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone is admired by far more people than were ever expected to see it in ancient times. An infinitesimally small numb...continued

1 minute read

Joe @Joe - almost 5 years ago

Life after Death? | History Today

In this bold new social history, Hallie Rubenhold explores the lives of five women who found fame only in the manner of their deaths. ‘The five’ of the title are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, who are remembered a...continued

7 minutes read

Delia @Delia - over 2 years ago

Lynching the British | History Today

‘An Englishman is Lynched to Save Expense’, detail from the Illustrated Police News, 11 July 1896 © British Library Board.The mob took no chances. Acting under cover of darkness, all of them masked and some wearing women’s dresses to further conceal their identities, they...continued

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