History Today

Robert Poole revisits the ‘Calendar Riots’ of 1752 and suggests they are a figment of historians’ imagination.

The warship Implacable was scuttled on December 2nd, 1949.

Suzanne Rickard meets one of the bogeymen of the 19th century and discovers he was not the cold-hearted monster that was often portrayed.

Sugar magnate and art lover Henry Tate died on December 5th, 1899, aged 80.

John Gardiner searches for the historical moment when our Victorian forebears went missing from the popular consciousness.

Today best known for its gambling industry, the rich cultural history of Europe’s last colonial toehold in China might be the key to its future. 

The first president of the United States died on December 14th, 1799.

Glen Jeansonne describes the anti-war, anti-liberal and antisemitic Mothers’ Movement that attracted a mass following in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.

The grim reality underlying Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness echoed the growing moral outrage over the murderous rubber trade. For Roger Casement, it became a moral crusade.

Penny Young explores Bethlehem’s plans to make the small town of Judaea central to the millennium celebrations.