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History / World History

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Introducing New History Blog: Past Imperfect

Three historians bring their expertise together to provide history with all the interesting bits left in

Murray Hall at the ballot box

The Mystery of Murray Hall

Hall realized his death would set off a national political scandal, inspiring the genuine wonder that he had never been what he seemed

Kersey in 1957. Although Jack Merriott's watercolor presents an idealized image of the village – it was commissioned for use in a railway advertising campaign – it does give an idea of just how 'old' Kersey must have looked to strangers in the year it became central to a 'timeslip' case.

When Three British Boys Traveled to Medieval England (Or Did They?)

A 1957 “time traveler” recalls “a feeling of unfriendliness and unseen watchers which sent shivers up one’s back”

Mike Tyson's tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Entertainment this spring, claiming that the use of his design in the movie The Hangover Part II was copyright infringement.

Ten Famous Intellectual Property Disputes

From Barbie to cereal to a tattoo, a copyright lawsuit can get contentious; some have even reached the Supreme Court

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June Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

A circa 1925 woodcut by Unpo Takashima depicts Tokyo's Ueno district ablaze. "Each new gust of wind," reported Joseph Dahlmann, a Jesuit priest who witnessed the calamity from a hilltop, "gave new impulse to the fury of the conflagration."

The Great Japan Earthquake of 1923

The powerful quake and ensuing tsunami that struck Yokohama and Tokyo traumatized a nation and unleashed historic consequences

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May 2011 Anniversaries

May 2011 Anniversaries

Yuri Gagarin

April 2011 Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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March Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Ludd, drawn here in 1812, was the fictitious leader of numerous real protests.

What the Luddites Really Fought Against

The label now has many meanings, but when the group protested 200 years ago, technology wasn’t really the enemy

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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November Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Zygmunt Aksienow rescued a caged canary as a "sign of the normal life I was used to."

Capturing Warsaw at the Dawn of World War II

As German bombs began falling on Poland in 1939, an American photographer made a fateful decision

Producer Lee Mendelson directs children who are recording the dialogue for the animated TV special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

British archaeologists looking for evidence of prehistoric activity in the English county of Dorset discovered instead a mass grave holding 54 male skeletons.

A Viking Mystery

Beneath Oxford University, archaeologists have uncovered a medieval city that altered the course of English history

Invented in the late 19th century as a means to contain cattle in the American West, barbed wire soon found military applications.

Ten Inventions That Inadvertently Transformed Warfare

Some of the most pivotal battlefield innovations throughout history began as peacetime inventions

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

In Japan, violence has faded as its population has aged.

The Age of Peace

Maturing populations may mean a less violent future for many societies torn by internal conflict

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