History Today

The man who conquered Mexico died on December 2nd, 1547.

What led middle-class students to join the urban guerrilla movement against the military regime in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s? Alzira Alves de Abreu reports on the evidence from interviews with those who survived.

St Paul’s Cathedral was opened on 2 December 1697.

Marika Sherwood trawls contemporary reports of the anti-Catholic protests that rocked London in June 1780 to reveal the black men and women who took part, exploring their motives and punishments for doing so.

Ron White draws on the diaries of Samuel Pepys to paint a picture of the festive season in the 1660s.

Max Beloff reviews a fresh account of de Gaulle and the Free French movement.

It was like a page from the Arabian Nights. Aladdin’s lamp had been rubbed and suddenly from the dry, brown bare desert had appeared paintings, not just one nor a panel nor a wall, but a whole building of scene after scene, all drawn from the Old Testament in a way never dreamed of before.’

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

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