RAF Display, 1934
Roger Hudson describes advances in British military aviation technology in the years before the Second World War.
History Today
Technology Capital Then and Now
Britain’s Industrial Revolution is most closely associated with the Midlands and the North. But the capital was also a centre of innovation and enterprise, as David Waller explains.
Slavery, Women’s Suffrage and the American Civil War
As calls for women’s suffrage gained momentum following the Civil War, an uncomfortable racial faultline emerged dividing white suffragists from their African-American sisters.
Premiere of The Great Dictator
Chaplin's celebrated film first appeared on 15 October 1940.
The Media’s First Moral Panic
Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was blamed for a spate of suicides during the ‘reading fever’ of the 1700s. It set a trend for manufactured outrage that is with us still.
In the Court of Haile Selassie
Oriental despot or martyr to fascism? Three very different writers reported on the court of Haile Selassie over his reign, producing contrasting accounts of Ethiopia’s emperor.
Death of Thomas Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel
The English noble and a major figure during the reign of Henry IV died on October 13th 1415.
A Landmark Witch Trial
In 1615 Katharina, mother of the great scientist Johannes Kepler, was accused of witchcraft. Ulinka Rublack asks what her landmark trial tells us about early-modern attitudes towards science, nature and the family.
Is it British to Weep?
The reputation of Britons as a people who tightly control their emotions in the face of adversity is not necessarily a deserved one, argues Thomas Dixon.
The Story of Ogham
The ancient rune-like writing system is carved into stones across Ireland.