History Today

Chinese Whispers from New South Wales

Janis Wilton records the stories of 19th-century Chinese immigrants and their descendants, and explores their relationship with ‘White Australia’.

Was it British?

Gavin Weightman finds historical precedents for Britain’s response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Orwell Now

Robert Pearce gives us a view of George Orwell for the 1990s

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The Union Lincoln Made

Joshua Kleinfeld explores Lincoln’s attitudes towards the constitution and civil liberty during the Civil War, and finds their impact still reverberating in the US today.

Elijah, arranged for piano duet. Manuscript copy in Mendelssohn's handwriting, 1847. Library of Congress.

Death of Felix Mendelssohn

The prolific composer died on 4 November, 1847.

Drawings of the funeral procession of Elizabeth I of England to to Westminster Abbey, 28th April 1603 : the horse trapped with velvet, led by two attendants; the Sergeant of the Vestry and Children of the Chapel Royal;

‘There was such a generall sighing and groning, and weeping, and the like hath not beene seene or knowne in the memorie of man’: visual images of the death of Elizabeth I played a key role in her funeral and in creating the ensuing cult of Gloriana.

William Hogarth, Painter and his Pug, 1745

Birth of William Hogarth

The artist was born in London on November 10th, 1697.

Maiden Flight of the 'Spruce Goose'

Ian Fitzgerald describes the maiden flight of the 'Spruce Goose', the largest seaplane ever built, on November 2nd, 1947.

Back in the USSR

The Soviet Union is now history but what do the ordinary people who lived through its last decades remember about it and what verdict do they give? Per Manson presents an intriguing insight.