History

Anything to do with History

Bart @Bart - about 5 years ago

The Torrid Zone | History Today

In 1777 the naval surgeon Robert Robertson published the ‘physical journal’ that he had kept during three voyages to Africa and the West Indies a few years before. As part of his discussion of illnesses on the island of Antigua, Robertson related the story of Charles Dupl...continued

2 minutes read

Devin @Devin - over 4 years ago

Perfume, History, Dreams | History Today

How do we write about the history of perfume? There is a choice of interpretative pathways. We may focus on nature, plants and substances – perhaps start with a story of spikenard, of frankincense, ambergris and myrrh. We can think about the fragrance of flowers and the a...continued

1 minute read

Hannah @Hannah - over 4 years ago

Captain Cook’s Contested Claim | History Today

Two hundred and fifty years ago, on 22 August 1770, Captain James Cook claimed possession of much of the Australian continent in the name of George III. It is commonly believed that this act changed the course of the territory’s history. Yet Cook’s actions in Australia ar...continued

2 minutes read

Alexander @Alexander - about 2 years ago

The Conquest of Lisbon | History Today

Scene from the Siege of Lisbon, by Pereira Cão, Palácio da Rosa, Lisbon, 19th century. Wiki Commons.In early 1147 the Devon port of Dartmouth was the gathering point for the Second Crusade, drawing would-be holy warriors from across northern Europe. There were at least 16...continued

2 minutes read

Cameron @Cameron - almost 3 years ago

Birthday of the Dead | History Today

Happy Dance and Wild Party of All the Skeletons, engraving by José Guadalupe Posada © Bridgeman Images.The artist José Guadalupe Posada was born on 2 February 1852 in the city of Aguascalientes in central Mexico. He produced over 20,000 engravings during his career, but, ...continued

2 minutes read

Kristina @Kristina - about 2 years ago

The Face of Beatrice Cenci

‘Portrait of Beatrice Cenci’ (detail), attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, 17th century. J.T. Vintage/Bridgeman Images.Charles Dickens, visiting Rome early in 1845, found himself haunted by a painting. It was, he said, ‘almost impossible to be forgotten’. It was of a young w...continued

2 minutes read

Hannah @Hannah - about 5 years ago

A Perfect Landing | History Today

Pete Conrad was confused. One minute he was commenting cheerfully on a ‘lovely lift-off’ and the next the master alarm was blaring through his headset. He was the only one on board who had seen the flash outside but, as the three crew members scrambled to work out what wa...continued

2 minutes read

Rahsaan @Rahsaan - over 5 years ago

Himmler's Witch Hunt | History Today

In the summer of 1936, most observers of Germany were focused on the Berlin Olympics. Beyond establishing Aryan superiority in the field of competition, Chancellor Hitler and his deputies intended to showcase German prosperity under National Socialist rule and refute repo...continued

2 minutes read

Maureen @Maureen - over 4 years ago

Hard Work | History Today

Universal credit, introduced by the UK government in 2013, was intended to represent a significant development in social security policy. It aims to simplify provision for both workless and poor in-work households, as well as providing incentives for people to seek paid e...continued

2 minutes read

Erik @Erik - over 1 year ago

Sancta Sophia Collapses | History Today

View of the Hagia Sophia by Jan Luyken, engraving, 1681. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.Barely 20 years old and there were already cracks in the dome of Justinian’s church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople. Two great earthquakes, in October and Decembe...continued

2 minutes read

Assunta @Assunta - over 5 years ago

'The Last Front' of the Freikorps

In the summer of 1919, as the victorious Allied powers were hammering out the terms of the peace settlement after the First World War, the Allied press began to pay closer attention to an area of Europe that had hitherto played little part in the deliberations of the peac...continued

2 minutes read

Felicita @Felicita - over 4 years ago

The Roots of Disorder | History Today

The Resolution first caught sight of the Pacific island of Tahiti on the evening of 15 August 1773. Among those onboard were the German naturalists Johann Reinhold Forster and his 19-year-old son, Georg, whose main task was to produce illustrations of the plants and anima...continued

2 minutes read

Delia @Delia - over 2 years ago

The Great Wine Blight | History Today

Vineyards at Auvers, Vincent van Gogh, June 1890. Saint Louis Museum of Art.There can have been few more surprising consequences of the Columbian Exchange than the near total destruction of European wine production in the 19th century.The cause was phylloxera, a microscop...continued

2 minutes read

Mariano @Mariano - over 4 years ago

Nero Versus the Christians | History Today

Mary Stocks, scholar, political activist, writer and journalist, published a play in 1933, provocatively titled Hail Nero! A Reinterpretation of History in Three Acts. It presents the notorious emperor (who reigned AD 54 to 68) as a figure driven by his concern for social...continued

2 minutes read

Joe @Joe - over 4 years ago

Soviet Super Sniper: A Woman at War

In 1942, Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet frontline sniper, was sent on a mission to convince US and British allies to open up a Second Front against Hitler’s forces. The ‘Guerrilla Queen’ was feted at sites of bomb damage, munitions factories and shipyards, ente...continued

2 minutes read

Muriel @Muriel - over 1 year ago

Martyrdom of an Old Believer

The Burning of Archpriest Avvakum, by Grigoriy Myasoyedov, 1897. Alamy.Archpriest Avvakum Petrov spent the last 14 years of his life in a pit in Pustozersk, high above the Arctic Circle. Born around 1620, he had become a leader of the Old Believers in the schism that spli...continued

2 minutes read

Arvid @Arvid - over 4 years ago

The Wrongful Death of Toussaint Louverture

On the morning of 7 April 1803, Toussaint Louverture, leader of the slave insurrection in French Saint-Domingue that led to the Haitian Revolution, was found dead by a guard in the prison in France where he had been held captive for nearly eight months. The guard, Citizen...continued

2 minutes read

Hulda @Hulda - over 4 years ago

One Election Too Many | History Today

Well into the 20th century, graduates could vote twice in UK General Elections: once in their local constituencies and again through their universities, which at one point held 14 seats between them. The idea that universities should have parliamentary representation bega...continued

2 minutes read

Adelia @Adelia - over 4 years ago

Diana and Actaeon | History Today

Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, written in the first century, tells the tale of the hunter Actaeon, Prince of Thebes, who surprises Artemis while she bathes naked at a spring. Known to the Romans as Diana, the goddess of the hunt is accompanied by nymphs, who try to cover her...continued

2 minutes read

Leda @Leda - over 1 year ago

The First Map of the Moon

Cosmic: Thomas Harriot’s moon observation, 1609. Max Alexander/Lord Egremont/Science Photo LibraryTo have one patron imprisoned in the Tower may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness. Perhaps Thomas Harriot, Renaissance polymath and client of bo...continued

2 minutes read

Raoul @Raoul - over 2 years ago

Defenestration in Prague | History Today

Jan Hus burnt at the stake, from the Spiezer Chronik, Bern, 1480s. Wiki Commons.The defenestration of three Catholics from the castle in Prague in May 1618 helped precipitate the Thirty Years War. But it wasn’t the first time Czechs had resorted to this distinctive method...continued

2 minutes read

Wilmer @Wilmer - over 4 years ago

The Rights of France | History Today

On 8 May 1898, 54-year-old Édouard Drumont won the seat of Algiers with a crushing majority of 11,557 votes against 2,328. One of four victorious right-wing candidates in the city who had all campaigned on an antisemitic platform, he was carried shoulder-high by an emotio...continued

2 minutes read

Geovany @Geovany - almost 2 years ago

Premiere of a Christmas Classic

US poster for It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946 © BFA/ RKO Radio Pictures via Alamy Stock Photo.The idea came to him while shaving. But it would be five years before the Civil War historian Philip van Doren Stern finished The Greatest Gift, his sweet, slight story about a man c...continued

2 minutes read

Rex @Rex - over 4 years ago

A Few Bad Apples | History Today

At 10.30pm on 20 March 1906, Mrs Victoria Norris changed omnibus outside the Peter Robinson department store at Oxford Circus in the West End of London. She was heading home to her husband, a naval architect, in south London. It was raining hard and she was carrying a lar...continued

2 minutes read

Hannah @Hannah - almost 2 years ago

A Dynasty is Founded | History Today

Zhu Youjian killing his daughter Princess Zhaoren, 20th century © Classic Image/Alamy Stock Photo.Zhu Youjian, the Chongzhen Emperor, was the last of the Ming dynasty to rule China. He came to the imperial throne in 1627 aged 16, but his reign was plagued with threats: fa...continued

2 minutes read