History Today

On 5 March 1936 the prototype Spitfire made its maiden flight. Its creator R.J. Mitchell would not live to see its finest hour.

Pre-Islamic history was once taboo in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Will the ‘rediscovery’ of an ancient people – the Nabataeans – encourage international tourism?

Friends in Youth: Choosing Sides in the English Civil War by Minoo Dinshaw views the conflict through the sad case of Bulstrode Whitelock and Edward Hyde.

The doomed film collaboration between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan resulted in two very different features serving the same fascist agenda: The Daughter of the Samurai and The New Earth. 

Giovanni Morell—later Morelli—was born in Verona on 25 February 1816 beginning a lifetime of dedication to the art of the connoisseur.

The survival of the papacy has always been dependent on a precarious balancing act between the pope’s religious and secular powers.

From a cult’s rogue personalities to its foundational ideologies, how have fringe beliefs guided the direction of the American dream?

As Late Imperial China sought to rebuild as a modern state from the ashes of war, a new national post office was born.

The Great Siege of Malta by Marcus Bull upends the myth of the Knights of Malta and their last stand of 1565. 

Pelayo, King of Asturias, is Spain’s first national hero, credited with beginning the Reconquista with his victory at the Battle of Covadonga. What do we really know about him?