History

Anything to do with History

Nelson @Nelson - almost 5 years ago

Britain’s Gardening Revolution | History Today

On his 30th birthday, 29 May 1660, Charles II returned to London from his exile abroad. He had much to do. He had to re-establish the monarchy, appoint his ministers, call a new parliament and cement relationships with the Anglican Church, which was still suspicious of hi...continued

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Leda @Leda - over 5 years ago

Thatcher Breaks Consensus | History Today

When asked who has been the most controversial and radical postwar British prime minister, many historians and academics incline towards Margaret Thatcher. Taking office 40 years ago, and in power between 1979 and 1990 as the UK’s first female prime minister, the circumst...continued

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Cameron @Cameron - almost 5 years ago

A Portrait of Empire | History Today

The evening of 10 December 1776 was exceptionally cold. It had been a trying winter for Londoners in more ways than one. News from across the Atlantic was getting worse every day and no one seemed to agree on the best path ahead. Some thought the American colonists were j...continued

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Josiah @Josiah - over 2 years ago

The First Live-Streaming | History Today

A théâtrophone, c. 1982. Wiki Commons.As a child in the first years of the 20th century the great American film director Preston Sturges lived in a stylish apartment in Paris with his mother. An earphone hung beside the fireplace. He tried it; it seemed dead. Then one eve...continued

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Eleanora @Eleanora - over 1 year ago

Birth of a Pastry Chef

Designs by Antonin Carême, engraving, 19th century. Bridgeman Images.‘The fine arts are five in number: painting, music, poetry, sculpture, and architecture – whereof the principal branch is confectionery.’ A bold statement, even for a patissier. But Antonin Carême, chef ...continued

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Sandrine @Sandrine - over 4 years ago

Child Voters | History Today

The Belfast Telegraph of 7 February 1906 ran a story under the headline ‘The Youngest Voter in the Kingdom’. It concerned Alexander Atkinson, a mill worker from County Antrim, who had recently cast his ballot in that year’s General Election: as a ‘thoroughgoing loyalist’,...continued

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Alexzander @Alexzander - over 4 years ago

The Inquisition’s Secret Weapon | History Today

In August 1556 a 24-year-old student from the Kingdom of Naples was boiled alive in a pot of oil, pitch and turpentine in Rome’s Piazza Navona. The student’s name was Pomponio Algieri. His crime was an error of belief. Algieri had publicly and persistently claimed that th...continued

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Myles @Myles - about 5 years ago

A Spiritual Wilderness | History Today

The image of the idyllic country church, filled morning and evening, Sunday by Sunday, by every stratum of a village’s society, is a familiar one. It has provided stock characters for Anthony Trollope, evidence for decline seized on by secularists and a sense of a lost Ch...continued

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Gregoria @Gregoria - almost 2 years ago

Battle of Nsamankow | History Today

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles M’Carthy, 1812 © National Army Museum/Bridgeman Images.The Anglo-Ashanti wars began with a debacle for the British. On 8 January 1824, word reached Cape Coast that the Ashanti were advancing. Sir Charles M’Carthy, newly appointed governor, divid...continued

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Jessika @Jessika - over 5 years ago

Slaves to War | History Today

‘I see that those on my side have been routed. I fear they will abandon me. I do not expect them to return. I have decided to dismount and fight by myself, until God decrees what He wants. Whoever of you wishes to depart, let him depart. By God, I would rather that you su...continued

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Jany @Jany - about 5 years ago

Berlin’s Other Anniversary | History Today

It can be difficult to imagine the mixture of fear, excitement and uncertainty felt by Berliners on 9 November 1989, as the border between East and West was opened for the first time in 28 years. Since that evening, historians, writers, filmmakers and artists have grapple...continued

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Mariano @Mariano - almost 2 years ago

Death of Thomas Tallis | History Today

Thomas Tallis in a stained glass window at St Alfege Church, Greenwich. Wiki Commons/AndyScott.Thomas Tallis, one of the first and greatest composers of English Protestant church music, began his career in monastic service. He is initially seen as an organist for the smal...continued

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Rose @Rose - over 5 years ago

Keeping India Cool | History Today

The everyday lives of British planters, administrators and members of their households in British India depended upon an army of servants, most of whom remain absent from the pages of history. Among them were the punkahwallahs: the fan operators who manually worked large ...continued

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Marlon @Marlon - about 5 years ago

The Great Dictators | History Today

Throughout the 20th century, hundreds of millions of people cheered their dictators, even as they were herded down the road to serfdom. Across the planet, the faces of Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Stalin and others appeared on hoardings and buildings, with portraits in every s...continued

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Minnie @Minnie - almost 5 years ago

1933: Death of a Democracy

German newspapers offered gloomy predictions for Adolf Hitler’s political prospects. The Social Democratic newspaper Vorwärts ran an article on 1 January 1933 with the headline: ‘Hitler’s Rise and Fall’, suggesting Nazi electoral popularity had peaked at the July 1932 nat...continued

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Cameron @Cameron - over 4 years ago

Leading Ladies | History Today

As Charles II sailed to Britain in May 1660 to reclaim his throne, his mind began to linger on the future of his court and rulership. Although his banishment had humiliated and impoverished the Stuart monarchy, Charles had feasted upon European culture throughout his ten-...continued

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Rahsaan @Rahsaan - over 5 years ago

A Liberal History | History Today

Long considered the dominant ideology of the West, liberalism is in crisis. Its principles are in retreat around the world. Populism, authoritarianism and nationalism are on the rise. The Economist recently sounded the alarm: ‘Liberalism made the modern world, but the mod...continued

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Muriel @Muriel - about 4 years ago

Frankenstein: Between Two Worlds | History Today

Few texts are better known and more widely read than Frankenstein: I have a dozen modern editions on my shelves. But every one of their editors has failed to grasp what Mary Shelley was up to when she wrote it. Mary Godwin, as she was, aged 18, her lover Percy Shelley an...continued

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Marie @Marie - over 4 years ago

This Blessed Plot | History Today

Charles I forced his way into the House of Commons on 5 January 1642 with an armed escort and attempted to arrest five MPs and a peer for making treasonable charges against the queen, Henrietta Maria. The raid did not come as a complete surprise and Charles’ targets had t...continued

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Abbie @Abbie - almost 5 years ago

The Studious Resistance of Marc Bloch

In 1943 a prim figure could be seen most days walking a meandering route across Lyon in occupied France. Starting from a quiet suburban lane, the small man with greying hair might enter an alley to exchange a few words with apparent strangers. Next, to a print shop where ...continued

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Joe @Joe - about 5 years ago

Holy Women and the Rise of Royal Power in France

As flames roared through the roof of Notre-Dame on 15 April 2019, onlookers struggled to express why the spectacle seemed so shocking. The sense of loss was rooted in history, but what history exactly? Commentators on French television spoke of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral...continued

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Kristina @Kristina - about 5 years ago

The Poet Who Saw Edith Cavell Die

Anyone familiar with biographers’ accounts of Edith Cavell’s trial and execution in October 1915 will probably be acquainted with the name Gottfried Benn. He was present at both as the 29-year-old senior doctor to the German military government in Brussels. Yet none of th...continued

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Devin @Devin - almost 5 years ago

Sin and Siege: The End of the Crusades

When the churchman Jacques de Vitry stepped ashore at the city of Acre in November 1216, he was appalled. Vitry had come to Palestine to take up his position as the city’s bishop with a mission to rejuvenate the spiritual fervour of its people in advance of a new crusade,...continued

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Maida @Maida - over 4 years ago

The Foundations of Liberia | History Today

The year 2020 is unlikely to be marked with particular fanfare in Liberia, but it was 200 years ago, on 31 January 1820, that 88 African American men, women and children boarded a ship in New York Harbor with the intention of creating a colony in Africa where they would b...continued

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Pablo @Pablo - over 4 years ago

Death of a Philosopher Queen

Ahilyabai Holkar, queen of the Malwa kingdom in north-west central India, part of the Maratha empire, died on 13 August 1795, having reigned for nearly 30 years. She came to power in 1767, after the death of her father-in-law, Malhar Rao Holkar, and her young, sickly son....continued

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