British History
See 17th-Century England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers
Celia Fiennes traveled and wrote about her adventures—including a bit of life advice
England’s Most Brutal King Was Its Best Peacemaker
William the Conqueror was ruthless, but he achieved something his predecessors couldn’t: peace
There's Something Fishy About the Ketchup You Put On Your Burgers
The red stuff that Americans eat on their French Fries doesn't look much like the 'kôechiap' it's based on
Why Does Every American Graduation Play ‘Pomp and Circumstance’?
The song was written for a British king’s coronation and its name is a Shakespeare reference. What gives?
The First Artificial Skating Rinks Looked Pretty But Smelled Terrible
Before the technology to reliably freeze water existed, the first rinks used pig fat and salts
Samuel Pepys Was England's First Blogger
The famed blogger—okay, diarist—told historians so much about 17th-century daily life in England, but he could have told us so much more
A Tiny Church Sits On Britain's Oldest Site of Continuous Worship
When a 4,000-year-old wooden post was found near the church, it suggested that area was used for ritual purposes since the late Neolithic period
The Eight Assassination Attempts on Queen Victoria Just Made Her More Powerful
People kept trying to kill Queen Victoria. She kept looking better and better
How a Single Paragraph Paved the Way for a Jewish State
The Balfour Declaration changed the course of history with just one sentence
The Witch of Agnesi
A mistranslation led to the unusual name of this mathematical concept
The First “Chocolate Chip” Was a Molasses Candy
The name "chocolate chip" goes back much farther than the Toll House cookies
Medieval Mothers Had to Marry and Murder to Get Their Way
The stories are below aren’t pulled from “Game of Thrones.” Promise
Massive Royal Atlas Gets Digitized
The magnificent Klencke Atlas is now available online courtesy of the British Library
“Lost” 18th-Century Garden Found at Scottish Castle
Archaeologists believed that the garden had been demolished and buried during renovations of the sprawling estate
Found: Pages From One of the First Books Printed in England
A librarian at the University of Reading discovered the 15th-century text buried in a box
To Protect Allied WWI Soldiers, This Researcher Tested an Early Gas Mask on Himself
John Haldane developed a rudimentary respirator that protected wearers against chlorine gas—at least for a few minutes
People Have Been Email-Spamming Since the Dawn of (Internet) Time
This is why we can't have nice things
The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest
Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, "Loyalty Day" was declared to paper over International Workers' Day
The Tragic Story of the First Ascent of the Matterhorn
Edward Whymper had tried seven times to reach the top of the Matterhorn. He made it on the eighth try–at great cost
DNA Could Identify the Sailors (Including Women) of the Doomed Franklin Expedition
New analysis on bone and and tooth fragments will allow researchers to learn more about the ill-fated crew
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