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British History

The Approach to Venice or Venice From the Lagoon, J.M.W. Turner, circa 1840

Cool Finds

Someone Sent a Fuzzy Photo of a Painting to Christie’s. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Watercolor by J.M.W. Turner

After its owner submitted the piece to an online appraisal service, auction house specialists realized it had been misattributed to another artist for decades

Works like Tissot's The Convalescent (1872), pictured here, reflect a sense of unease over a modernizing society that was sweeping women up in its fray.

These Stunning 19th-Century Artworks Reveal the Contradictions of the Modern Woman

A new exhibition spotlights James Tissot, whose paintings and prints reflected women’s ever-evolving roles in Victorian society

The two Just Stop Oil activists spray-painted "1.5 is dead" on the gravestone of Charles Darwin.

Climate Activists Spray-Paint Warning on Charles Darwin’s Grave

The two protesters hoped to draw attention to reports that global temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time

Portrait of Thomas Paine by Laurent Dabos

America's 250th Anniversary

America’s First ‘Viral’ Post Was Published on This Day in 1776, When Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ Sparked a Revolution

The Englishman’s pamphlet helped spur the 13 colonies to declare independence from Britain

The coffin was found in a small Roman cemetery.

Cool Finds

Construction Workers Discover Ancient Stone Coffin Filled With Plaster While Expanding Highway in England

The intricately crafted coffin dates back more than 1,500 years. Researchers say it weighs around 1,650 pounds, “comparable to an adult male polar bear”

The Ness of Brodgar—roughly, “headland of the bridge farm” in Old Norse. The isthmus separates the lochs of Harray and Stenness.

Discover the Astounding Secrets of Scotland’s Stone Age Settlements

In the Orkney Islands, archaeologists close the chapter on a legendary excavation, capping two decades of remarkable Neolithic discoveries

The Battle of New Orleans, as painted by E. Percy Moran, showing Andrew Jackson emerge victorious over the British

On This Day in History

An Unlikely Army of Militia and Pirates Shocked the World by Defeating the British Army at the Battle of New Orleans

Forces commanded by Andrew Jackson fought the British in the Louisiana port city in the last standoff of the War of 1812

Jean-Pierre Blanchard ascends in his gas balloon on July 12, 1785, six months after he and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a similar flying machine

On This Day in History

On This Day in 1785, Two Men Braved Death When They Flew Across the English Channel in a Balloon

Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries’ harrowing journey was the first aerial crossing between France and Britain

Experts are currently examining the sword in a lab.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Early Medieval Sword Engraved With Mysterious Runes in a Cemetery in England

Dating to the fifth and sixth centuries C.E., the burials held a trove of grave goods—but the team was particularly impressed by the sword, which was covered in intricate decorations

Painted around 1730, the angels were covered up in 1912.

Conservators Are Uncovering Elaborate Angel Murals Hidden Behind Seven Layers of White Paint at a Colonial-Era Church

The colorful wall paintings adorn Boston’s Old North Church, which played a crucial role during Paul Revere’s famed 1775 midnight ride

Fascinating finds unveiled in 2024 ranged from a jade Maya funerary mask to a Roman dodecahedron.

Cool Finds

Seventy-Seven Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2024, From a Mysterious ‘Anomaly’ Near the Great Pyramid of Giza to a Missing Portrait of Henry VIII

The year’s most exciting discoveries included musket balls fired in the early days of the American Revolution, a lost composition by Mozart and a medieval chess piece

Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain in southern England.

New Research

Ancient Britons May Have Built Stonehenge to Symbolize Unity

The monument was built during a period of immigration from mainland Europe, and it may been intended to unify communities across the British Isles

A drawing of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, when German and British soldiers left their trenches to meet, talk and swap food in no-mans land.

On This Day in History

A Stunning Series of Informal Ceasefires Known as the ‘Christmas Truce’ Began on This Day in 1914

After official attempts at a World War I truce failed, soldiers in the trenches of the Western Front took it upon themselves to share in the bonhomie of the season

By age 16, “being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed in learning when at school,” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “I took Cocker’s book of arithmetic and went through the whole by myself with great ease.”

After Failing Math Twice, a Young Benjamin Franklin Turned to This Popular 17th-Century Textbook

A 19th-century scholar claimed that “Cocker’s Arithmetick” had “probably made as much stir and noise in the English world as any [book]—next to the Bible”

The title page of the first edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

On This Day in History

‘A Christmas Carol’ Marvelously Captured the Holiday’s Victorian Spirit and Inspired New Traditions for Centuries to Come

Published on this day in 1843, at a time when Christmas was undergoing great transformation, Charles Dickens’ novel centered the virtues of kindness, charity and reform

Suffragettes protest along a London street wearing sandwich boards in 1912.

On This Day in History

What Happened When British Women Voted in a General Election for the First Time

The enfranchisement of property-owning women over 30 on this day in 1918 came at a time of great strife within political parties in post-World War I Britain

Charles de Gaulle talking to reporters in 1945

Cool Finds

A Forgotten Collection of Charles de Gaulle’s Personal Letters, Speeches and Manuscripts Has Been Discovered in a Safe

Most of the documents are heading to the auction block, where they could fetch more than $1 million. They were found in a bank vault owned by the French statesman’s son

A 1583 portrait of Sir Francis Drake

On This Day in History

In 1577, an English Explorer Set Out to Circumnavigate the World. Here’s What His Groundbreaking Journey Accomplished

Francis Drake’s successful voyage included British sailors’ arrival in California and the plundering of a glut of Spanish riches that sustained Elizabeth I’s empire

The exhibition showcases political cartoons dating from 1909 to 2003.

See Winston Churchill Through the Eyes of the Political Cartoonists He Inspired

A new exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum brings together political cartoons from around the world that celebrate and satirize the wartime prime minister

An 1812 illustration of a private from the Fifth West India Regiment. In the 1790s, the remaining members of the Carolina Corps became part of the newly established First West India Regiment.

America's 250th Anniversary

These Black Soldiers Fought for the British During the American Revolution in Exchange for Freedom From Slavery

The Carolina Corps achieved emancipation through military service, paving the way for future fighters in the British Empire to do the same

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