History Today

A biographical portrait by Lord David Cecil of William Lamb, the early 19th century parliamentarian better known as Lord Melbourne.

On March 16, 1921 the first Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was signed; Sir Robert Hodgson headed Britain’s Commercial Mission to Moscow.

Shakespeare’s enormous influence in shaping subsequent concepts of 15th-century England is nowhere better illustrated than in the case of the character of Richard III. 

Roger Hudson looks at an episode that inspired one of the greatest films ever made.

Richard Weight reassesses Quentin Bell’s 1951 article on the morality of fashion, which anticipated the enormous social and stylistic changes of the 1960s.

The French chanteur was born on May 18th, 1913.

The great Confederate commander was fatally wounded at Chancellorsville on May 2nd, 1863.

The ruthless archbishop died on 15 May 913.

The indiscriminate use of ‘Nazi’ to describe anything to do with German institutions and policies during Hitler’s dictatorship creates a false historical understanding, says Richard Overy.

Bayreuth has much for which to thank Richard Wagner, but the determination of a Prussian princess to create something out of her dull and provincial 18th-century marriage helped make the city the place it is today, says Adrian Mourby.