History Today

The Pope, in a bull of 22 November 1903, ended the use of the male singers in the Sistine Chapel, who had previously dominated men’s opera.

Recent restrictions on the right to abortion in the United States imitate policies enacted 150 years ago.

‘Hitler’s architect’ Albert Speer denied all responsibility for the ruthless exploitation of millions of slave labourers. Yet he was head of a bureaucratic machine that did just that. 

Scotland’s short-lived, catastrophic Central American colony exposed its precarious relationship with England. Was closer union an inevitable result?

Conclave 1559: Ippolito d’Este and the Papal Election of 1559 by Mary Hollingsworth captures the gruelling voting and the arduous politicking.

‘Curating is a powerful form of history-telling.’

Reinterpreting George III’s reputation.

Alcohol was an integral part of diplomacy in early modern Russia.

In 1822 a badly abused donkey became the first animal to receive justice in a British court.

In the 1950s Mills & Boon’s medical romances helped make the NHS more appealing to an ambivalent British public.