The First Christmas Celebration
On 25 December 336 Rome’s believers celebrated Christmas Day – the earliest recorded use of that date as it spread across Christendom.
History Today
Understanding the Northern Lights
When the aurora borealis appeared in the skies of 18th-century Europe, Enlightenment scientists first turned to history to understand it.
How Has Public History Changed Since 1951?
75 years is a long time in public history: the bridge between academia and the general reader appears to have widened since History Today was launched, but in what ways?
The Wreck of the San José
Since 1708 there has been vicious competition over the Spanish treasure galleon San José, its cargo, and, now, its sunken remains.
Jacquard Patents His First Loom
On 23 December 1800 Joseph Marie Jacquard set out to revolutionise weaving – and took his first step towards greatness.
The Maharajah’s English Tutor
The Raj’s control of India’s princely states was never absolute, as the British-appointed tutor to the last maharajah of Travancore discovered.
William Golding’s Island of Savagery
The Second World War disrupted narratives of mankind’s ‘progress’, but – as William Golding captured so vividly in Lord of the Flies – human history has always been a balancing act between enlightenment and calamity.
Oswald of Northumbria: An English Saint in the Alps
The English saint Oswald of Northumbria proved incredibly popular in the medieval German-speaking world. How did he get there?
‘The French Revolution: A Political History’ by John Hardman review
It may not have been the first, argues John Hardiman in The French Revolution: A Political History, but it was the first of its kind.
Tito: Britain’s Man in Belgrade
During the Cold War successive British governments did all they could to maintain a friendship with Tito’s Yugoslavia. Why was the communist strongman so important to Westminster?