History Today

The American Civil War was not a simple struggle between slaveholders and abolitionists, argues Tim Stanley.

The Russian prime minister was shot during festivities to mark the centenary of the liberation of Russia's serfs on 14 September 1911.

The creator of Meccano, Hornby model railways and Dinky toys died on September 21st, 1936, aged 73 and a millionaire.

George III was crowned on September 22nd, 1761, aged 22. One of the longest reigns in English history was under way.

Martin Evans introduces a short series looking at changing attitudes to history in the former Communist states.

For over two centuries from 1641, Nagasaki – and the island of Dejima – was the only place in Japan open to foreigners. How were Europeans received there?

‘Have the authors of a two-penny weekly journal, a right to make a national inquiry'? 18th-century governments thought not and neither did the newspapers’ readers of the time.

José de San Martín and his forces liberated Peru and proclaimed its independence from Spain on 28 July 1821. 

George Macaulay Trevelyan, one of the last Whig historians, died on 21st July 1962.

Gordon Marsden revisits Henry Fairlie's prescient obituary of Aneurin Bevan, first published in History Today in October 1960.