Following the surprisingly quick election of the first non-European pope in a millennium, Alexander Lee recalls some of the more controversial papal conclaves As the plume of white smoke emerged from ...

The Dutch Republic, or United Provinces of the Netherlands, was one of the economic giants of the early modern period. Formed in 1579, by 1650 the Republic was dominating European trade and had ...

Charles Dimont traces the origin and history of ‘God Save the King’ (or ‘God Save the Queen’), the British national anthem. The origins of “God Save the Queen” are lost in obscurity, but there is no ...

The new threepenny weekly was launched as Punch or The London Charivari, implying a mixture of cheerful humour and biting satire. Punch was from Punch and Judy, while the word charivari meant a ...

Matthew Lynn finds a sobering historical parallel between 1873, a traumatic year for the global economy, and the present day. The New York Times, as it so often does, described the scene perfectly: ...

Ramsay MacDonald presided over his last cabinet on June 5th, 1935. He resigned two days later, on June 7th, 1935. From an unpromising start as the bastard son of a Scots farm girl, James Ramsay ...

Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert looks beyond the cities to the coffee and cotton that fuelled a global market.

That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not. The American War of Independence ...

While finding its origins in royal Aztec feasts, the history of the enchilada is more a product of colonialism and prejudice than authentic heritage. When the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del ...

History Today, established in 1951 and based in London, publishes the world's leading scholars, on all periods, regions, and themes of history. Published monthly, every issue is carefully edited and ...

The Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, later to be known as Kellogg's, was founded on February 19th, 1906. John Harvey Kellogg and Will Keith Kellogg were brothers from a Seventh-day Adventist ...

Unquestionably Philip II was a loyal son of the Catholic Church. He famously told Pope Pius V in 1566 that, 'rather than suffer the least damage to religion and the service of God, I would lose all my ...