British History

"Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. I was just catching up on my latest diary entry."

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

Seven men tried to kill Queen Victoria during her almost 64-year reign. She wasn't amused by any of them.

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

Draft of The Balfour Declaration with handwritten notes, 1917

How a Single Paragraph Paved the Way for a Jewish State

The Balfour Declaration changed the course of history with just one sentence

A posthumous engraving of Maria Agnesi from 1836.

The Witch of Agnesi

A mistranslation led to the unusual name of this mathematical concept

Chocolate chips as we know and love them today.

The First “Chocolate Chip” Was a Molasses Candy

The name "chocolate chip" goes back much farther than the Toll House cookies

This illustration puts the blame of the murder of Edward on Elfrida.

Medieval Mothers Had to Marry and Murder to Get Their Way

The stories are below aren’t pulled from “Game of Thrones.” Promise

The Klencke Atlas

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

John Scott Haldane at his laboratory in Oxford.

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

The canned precooked meat product is significantly less ubiquitous than its digital counterpart.

People Have Been Email-Spamming Since the Dawn of (Internet) Time

This is why we can't have nice things

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

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 first ascent of the Matterhorn," by Gustave Dore, who was not actually there.

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

This map of London shows it around the time of John Gaunt's work.

People Have Been Using Big Data Since the 1600s

A humble hatmaker was among the first to compile data on how Londoners lived—and died

This illustration from The Murders in the Rue Morgue portrays Dupin, the first literary 'genius detective,' questioning a suspect.

Without Edgar Allan Poe, We Wouldn't Have Sherlock Holmes

C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's main character, was the first genius detective

The courtyard at St. Ermin's Hotel in London.

This Luxury Hotel in London Was Once a Secret Spy Base

St. Ermin’s Hotel has sat at the middle of British secret intelligence since the 1930s

In 19th century England, women often had fewer legal protections than animals, even in cases involving murder.

“Are Women Animals?” Asked One 19th-Century Letter Writer

If women couldn't have the rights of full human beings, "An Earnest Englishwoman" asked, could they at least have as many legal protections as animals?

The critically acclaimed director James Gray took on the story of explorer Percival Fawcett's search for a lost city in Amazonia.

How Director James Gray Discovered the Insanity Behind the Search for “The Lost City of Z”

A story of Victorian-age madness and exploration in the South American jungle is coming to a theater near you

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