History
Anything to do with History
Rowan
@Rowan -
almost 5 years ago
A History of Haggis | History Today
In 2009, the world of haggis was rocked by controversy. While most of us might think of it as the quintessentially Scottish dish, Catherine Brown, a Glasgow-born food historian, claimed to have discovered a cookery book from 1615 ‘proving’ that the ‘great chieftain o the ...continued
11 minutes read
Minnie
@Minnie -
about 3 years ago
One Giant Leap for Tortoise-Kind
USSR stamp commemorating Zond 5, 12 April 1969. Wiki Commons.On 17 September 1968 two Russian tortoises found themselves hurtling through space, almost 325,000km from Earth. Bobbing about weightlessly in narrow cages, they were hungry, thirsty and probably more than a lit...continued
11 minutes read
Minnie
@Minnie -
over 2 years ago
Going, going…Goethe? | History Today
23 Großer Hirschgraben, birthplace of Goethe, after the Second World War. akg-images.On the night of 22 March 1944 Frankfurt was hit by one of the largest air raids of the Second World War. Dodging German anti-aircraft defences, 816 British planes dropped more than 3,000 ...continued
10 minutes read
Jaydon
@Jaydon -
about 4 years ago
The Jellyfish Problem | History Today
After turning 30, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) couldn’t look at a jellyfish without seeing his fiancée’s face. He had first become fascinated with medusae ten years before, while on a fishing trip in Heligoland. Hauling them into his boat, he had been captivated by their str...continued
10 minutes read
Marlon
@Marlon -
almost 4 years ago
Tutankhamun’s Ostriches | History Today
The ostrich feather fan (c.1370-52 BC) found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Alamy.It was not until several months after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 that Howard Carter spotted it. By then, the antechamber had been largely cleared, the burial chamber had been o...continued
10 minutes read
Nelson
@Nelson -
over 4 years ago
Isle of Dogs | History Today
Dogs can be surprisingly mysterious animals, especially in fiction. Browse the shelves of your local library and I guarantee that, within a minute or two, you’ll find a book bursting with canine conundrums. There are dozens, if not hundreds of them: from Arthur Conan Doyl...continued
11 minutes read
Immanuel
@Immanuel -
over 5 years ago
The History of the Picnic
It is hard to disagree with W. Somerset Maugham’s view that ‘there are few things so pleasant as a picnic lunch’. Even if ants and wasps occasionally join the fun, picnics are the very epitome of innocent pastoral delight. But they haven’t always been so carefree – nor so...continued
10 minutes read
Alexandro
@Alexandro -
almost 5 years ago
A History of the Wolf
Wandering around the National Gallery recently, I was surprised by a wolf. Not a real wolf, but a painting of one – Sassetta’s The Wolf of Gubbio (1437-44). Originally part of a much larger altarpiece, this charming little panel depicts a scene from the life of St Francis...continued
10 minutes read
Alexzander
@Alexzander -
almost 3 years ago
The ‘Monstrous Birth’ of Lobsters
Aristotle was rarely puzzled, but even he had to admit that lobsters were weird. After leaving the court of Hermias of Atarneus in around 340 BC, he had spent several years studying the creatures on the island of Lesbos. He had watched fishermen bringing in their catch, t...continued
10 minutes read
Angus
@Angus -
over 3 years ago
The Black Death: A New Culprit?
When it comes to the Black Death, rats are usually cast as the villains of the piece – and with good reason. After all, it was most likely thanks to them that the plague (Yersinia pestis) was reintroduced to Europe. Though there has been some debate about how and where th...continued
10 minutes read
Jarod
@Jarod -
about 3 years ago
A Philosophy of Falcons | History Today
A gyrfalcon. 18th-century coloured engraving, by François-Nicolas Martinet © Getty Images.In the winter of 1240 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) was encamped in the snowy fields around Faenza. After crossing the Alps to put down a rebellion of Italian city-...continued
10 minutes read
Eleanora
@Eleanora -
almost 4 years ago
Prehistoric Horses | History Today
On 8 September 1940, Marcel Ravidat was walking through the woods near his home in Montignac when his dog, Robot, suddenly disappeared. After a hasty search, Marcel found him at the bottom of a shallow pit. When Marcel jumped down to rescue the frightened dog, however, he...continued
10 minutes read
Sandrine
@Sandrine -
over 4 years ago
The Intelligence of Earthworms | History Today
Towards the end of his life, Charles Darwin was preoccupied with the question of whether worms think. Night after night, he would go out into the garden of Down House, armed with shovels, lamps and whistles, hoping to prove that these worms were cleverer than they looked....continued
10 minutes read
Abbie
@Abbie -
over 4 years ago
Sexual Eeling | History Today
In March 1876, the young Sigmund Freud arrived in Trieste, looking for the testicles of an eel. For centuries past, these troublesome organs had proved elusive. Despite the most intensive – not to say intimate – research, no one had managed to track them down. Recently, h...continued
10 minutes read
Jerrold
@Jerrold -
over 3 years ago
Benjamin Banneker’s Broods of Cicadas
In the spring of 1749 Benjamin Banneker – the 17-year-old son of a freed slave – thought the world was about to be eaten whole. While working on his family’s farm in Oella, Maryland, he saw ‘thousands of locusts’ suddenly rise up from the ground and ‘creep …up the trees a...continued
11 minutes read
Adelia
@Adelia -
3 months ago
Saving Southeast Asia’s Sunken Warships
Some 2,000 war and merchant ships were sunk in the waters of Southeast Asia during the Second World War, constituting around ten per cent of the estimated 20,000 vessels lost globally during the conflict. Many of these wrecks – American, Dutch, British, Australian and Jap...continued
9 minutes read
Anderson
@Anderson -
11 months ago
Medieval Icelandic Feasts | History Today
Blessed be the givers! A guest has come in,where is he going to sit?He’s in great haste, the one who by the log-stack is going to try his luck. Fire is needful for someone who’s come inand who’s chilled to the knee;food and clothing are necessary for the manwho’s journeye...continued
8 minutes read
Maureen
@Maureen -
about 4 years ago
Pigs Might Try | History Today
In December 1457 a sow and her six piglets were arrested in Savigny for the ‘murder’ of a five-year-old boy. Together with their owner, Jehan Bailly, they were dragged off to jail; and a month later, they were put on trial before the local judge. According to the court re...continued
10 minutes read
Marie
@Marie -
10 months ago
‘The Wild Men’, ‘The Men of 1924’ and ‘A Century of Labour’ review
Ahead of a possible Labour victory in Britain’s next general election, three new histories published on the centenary of the party’s first government provide a useful opportunity for reflection and perspective. Peter Clark’s brisk and personable The Men of 1924 devotes ro...continued
9 minutes read
Alexandro
@Alexandro -
over 2 years ago
Not All There | History Today
Titus Livius (59 BC-AD 17). Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae: Bust of Livy, engraving and etching after Nicolas Beatrizet, 1582. Alamy.What I love most about Livy’s Ab urbe condita is that it is not all there. In its day it was monumental, of course. Written in instalments...continued
10 minutes read
Madalyn
@Madalyn -
about 1 year ago
Solving the Riddle of Reproduction
Science claims to be objective, yet both its past and its present are riddled with myths. Stories that have repeatedly been proved wrong continue to be told – that Isaac Newton conceived the theory of gravity because of a falling apple, or that Charles Darwin found clinch...continued
9 minutes read
Alvah
@Alvah -
over 4 years ago
For Whom the Bull Tolls
‘It is always a mistake to know an author’, wrote Ernest Hemingway – and, in recent years, many of his readers have been inclined to agree. Although still admired for his rugged, vigorous prose, the man once hailed as the ‘greatest writer since Shakespeare’ has seen his r...continued
10 minutes read
Elliott
@Elliott -
about 5 years ago
A History of Salt Cod
Just below the church of São Francisco – not far from the Maria Pia bridge – Porto’s medieval walls descend from the hills and run along the banks of the River Douro. Known locally as the muro dos bacalhoeiros (wall of the cod-fishers), this short, salt flecked stretch is...continued
10 minutes read
Izaiah
@Izaiah -
over 1 year ago
Lost Movies | History Today
Fred Ott’s Sneeze, an early kinetoscopic film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, 1894. Alamy.On 3 November 1927, Hollywood stars were out in force for the premiere of the silent film The Devil Dancer. Directed by Fred Niblo – who had recently wowed audiences wi...continued
10 minutes read
Ismael
@Ismael -
over 3 years ago
Pigeon Racing: A Miner’s World?
In Ron Berry’s 1982 story ‘Time Spent’, Lewis Rimmer, a 57-year-old Welsh miner, decides to die among his pigeons. After ‘nigh on 30 years’ hewing coal in the Fawr pit, his lungs are full of dust and, since he can no longer work, the mine is forced to make him redundant. ...continued
10 minutes read