Volume 47 Issue 1 January 1997

A legislative highlight of the great reforming post-war Labour Government took effect on 1 January 1947.

One of England’s best-known kings died on 28 January 1547. 

A key stage in the Italian campaigns began on 14 January 1797.

Penny Johnston introduces the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland.

Michael Leech celebrates the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Christopher Dyer argues for an upgrading of the town’s importance in the Middle Ages.

James Walvin on how tea, sugar and tobacco hooked Britons into a fondness for the fruits of imperial expansion.

Fools' gold, Dr Faustus - traditional images of a Renaissance black art. But was there more to it than that? Zbigniew Szydlo and Richard Brzezinski offer an intriguing rehabilitation.

Peter Cotgreave explains how modern scientists can use their predecessors' data.