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From slavery to tuberculosis, it’s been a tumultuous year of exploring our past and looking to the future
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Why Charles Dickens Wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’
The beloved story sold 6,000 copies in its first week in print and 15,000 in its first year
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Presidents Can Be Impeached Because Benjamin Franklin Thought It Was Better Than Assassination
The founding fathers struggled with the idea of whether the top leader should be impeachable
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Most Expensive Science Book Sells for $3.7 Million
An anonymous buyer paid triple the estimated sale price for this first-edition copy
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Why Do We Love Period Dramas So Much?
Gone With The Wind, the highest-grossing period drama ever, premiered on this day in 1939
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Researchers Found a Long-Lost Christmas Song
“Crown Winter With Green” has some serious archival cred—and a sad story to tell
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How the British Cleverly Diverted Nazi Missiles
Operation Double Cross was the British response to the threat of Nazi V2 rockets. It involved relaying bogus information about British targets
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Thumbnail Reveals the Final Days of Franklin Expedition Explorer
A synchrotron micro-x-ray sheds new light on the cause that led to one crew member’s death
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Explore the Seedy Reality of a London Long Gone
Charles Booth explored the poorest parts of England’s capital—and changed the way social scientists think about the world
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Ever Wonder Why Encylopedia Is Sometimes Spelled Encyclopædia?
Scribes added the ash to the Roman alphabet so they could phonetically spell sounds that Latin didn’t include
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Why Vegetarians Hate the U.K.’s New £5 Note
The new currency uses a polymer that contains some animal fat, and it turns out at least 24 other nations use the same product
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English Mass Grave Sheds New Light on the Horrors of the Black Death
The burial pit contained 48 skeletons that tested positive for the plague
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The ‘Flying Scotsman’ Made Train History When The Speedometer Hit 100
The first locomotive to hit 100 miles per hour was billed as “The Most Famous Train in the World”
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Rare 17th-Century Map Found Shoved Up a Chimney Is Restored
Nothing like an antique document to block a draft
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American Culture’s Unlikely Debt to a British Scientist
A fortuitous influx of cash launched the Smithsonian Institution and its earliest art collection
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New Dictionary Explains 45,000 English and Irish Surnames
Using sources dating back to the 11th century, researchers have put together the massive Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
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Shakespeare May Have Tailored “Henry V” for a Specific Theater
Archaeological digs at the Curtain theater suggest it looked very different from the Bard’s usual venues
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A “Cursed” English Well Has Been Rediscovered
An old photograph led archaeologists to the long-lost well
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Hi-Res Photography Reveals New Details of the Centuries Old Aberdeen Bestiary
Fingerprints, wear marks and other details show the beautiful manuscript was once a teaching tool, not a royal collectible
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Britain’s First Robot Lives Again
A recreation of the spark-spitting Eric the Robot is once again delighting audiences
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