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Google Returns to Ancient RomeGoogle have added a new "layer" to Google Earth. Now you can take a virtual tour of the entire city as historians believe it may have looked c.320 CE, with...
Source : about.com | 15-Nov-2008 13:56
Video of Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle is best known today for his stories about (now legendary) detective Sherlock Holmes, films of which have gone a long way to influencing how people view Britain...
Source : about.com | 15-Nov-2008 13:55
Hadrian’s Wall Repairs
Hadrian’s Wall was a continuous fortification which stretched across northern Britain, from the east to west coast, to act as a defence for the northern limits of the Roman Empire....
Source : about.com | 15-Nov-2008 13:54
90th Anniversary of the End of World War 1
November 11 2008 will be the ninetieth anniversary of the end of World War 1, when an armistice came into effect at 11:00 am. Consequently there has been a lot...
Source : about.com | 08-Nov-2008 12:37
Modern Celebrity Began in the Eighteenth Century?
A press release from the University of Warwick explains a new theory on celebrity, explaining how the rise in popularity of obituaries in the eighteenth century developed into our “cult”...
Source : about.com | 08-Nov-2008 12:35
Bletchley Park Receives Funding
I reported a few months ago how Bletchley Park, site of code breakers who aided the Allied war effort during World War 2, was in need of funding to survive...
Source : about.com | 08-Nov-2008 12:34
Battle of Agincourt Raises Debate
Last weekend British newspapers were up in arms about comments allegedly made by Christophe Gilliot, director of the Centre Historique Médiéval, a museum in Agincourt, France. He was supposed to...
Source : about.com | 01-Nov-2008 19:14
"Amulet that ruined my life"
Britain’s Times newspaper this week reported on the "other side" of a recent controversy. It concerns Quentin Hutchinson, who in 1990 excavated a silver Christian amulet from an allegedly undisturbed...
Source : about.com | 01-Nov-2008 19:13
Medieval World Making a Comeback?
Tom Holland, author of a number of easily read popular histories, has written an article wondering about the resurgence of the middle ages in popular fiction, as well as the...
Source : about.com | 01-Nov-2008 19:12
Medieval Manuscripts Online
A library called the Stiftsbibliothek (abbey library) in St. Gallen, Switzerland, has received a $1 million dollar grant to digitize and place online its manuscript collection, including 350 documents which...
Source : about.com | 24-Oct-2008 14:27
Spanish Enigma Machines Found
I love a story about people finding things, and one caught my eye this week. Historians know that Spanish General Franco used Nazi Enigma machines in his command of Nationalist...
Source : about.com | 24-Oct-2008 14:26
Pirates, Corporations, Credit Crunch
This article from Science Daily attempts to make a parallel between modern corporations and the organisation of pirates and privateers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, bringing the “credit crunch”...
Source : about.com | 24-Oct-2008 14:25
Should Governments Enforce Historical Orthodoxy?
I try and avoid contemporary politics on this blog, but I felt a recent article by Timothy Garton Ash was sufficiently thought provoking to include. The article in question concerns...
Source : about.com | 17-Oct-2008 20:08
Auction House Acts over Illegal Artefacts
This week auction house Bonhams withdrew ten items from sale after being informed by the Italian embassy that the objects had possibly been looted by real life tomb raiders and...
Source : about.com | 17-Oct-2008 20:08
Roman Finds
I saw a number of Roman era archaeological discoveries this week: Also in Rome the tomb of a second century CE Roman nobleman, Marcus Nonius Macrinus, was discovered. The tomb was...
Source : about.com | 17-Oct-2008 20:07
Stonehenge: Older than Thought?
Excavations carried out at Stonehenge earlier this year indicate that the famous stones may have been erected 500 years earlier than currently believed, albeit in different positions. The current orthodoxy...
Source : about.com | 10-Oct-2008 19:31
World War 2 and Statistics
World War 2 was more than just soldiers and tanks, as this article by Gavyn Davies amply demonstrates. He explains the role played by statisticians in producing a formula which...
Source : about.com | 10-Oct-2008 19:31
World War 1 "Artist"
Several British news sources this week reported on the story of Leonard Smith, a Sapper with the British Royal Engineers during World War 1. He was tasked with providing detailed...
Source : about.com | 10-Oct-2008 19:31
800 Year Old Law Ends
Last week a 600g loaf of bread went on sale in England. This was unusual, as previously a law had decreed that all loaves sold in England had to be...
Source : about.com | 03-Oct-2008 21:51
Dresden Death Toll Reduced?
The Allied bombing of Dresden during World War 2, which destroyed 85% of the city, has been the subject of great debate recently, with some people complaining that the action...
Source : about.com | 03-Oct-2008 21:51
Hitler Assassination Story
One of the questions I’ve heard about World War 2 is why weren’t there attempts to assassinate Hitler, with the implication that disgruntled Germans should have acted. While this view...
Source : about.com | 03-Oct-2008 21:50
Key Gun to go on Display in Britain
The gun fired by an assassin in his, successful, attempt to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, thereby triggering the powder-keg of European politics and leading directly to the start...
Source : about.com | 26-Sep-2008 20:02
Napoleonic.org gets a Facelift
The “Fondation Napoléon” is dedicated to the study of all things Napoleon, and their website is one of the better resources on the web about the Emperors of France. It...
Source : about.com | 26-Sep-2008 20:02
Charge of the Polish Cavalry
Polishnews.com has published an account of the “Last Great Charge of the Polish Cavalry”. Any guesses as to when this was? Well, the answer was actually 1939, against the invading...
Source : about.com | 26-Sep-2008 20:00
Working Spitfire Auctioned
The Spitfire is the iconic British plane of the Second World War. While its precise role in the Battle of Britain – the aerial war fought between Britain and Germany...
Source : about.com | 19-Sep-2008 23:16
Museums and Mobiles
Museums and sites of historic interest have sometimes provided audio guides before, but the “Roman Town House” museum in Dorchester, UK, has introduced something a little different. Instead of giving...
Source : about.com | 19-Sep-2008 23:16
German War Memorial in Peril
As I mentioned a campaign to raise money by a British museum relating to the Second World War last week, I think it’s only right to mention a German campaign...
Source : about.com | 19-Sep-2008 23:15
Berkeley History Podcasts
For the last few years the University of California, Berkeley, has put podcasts of some lecture courses online. I’ve been listening to “History 5: European Civilization from the Renaissance to...
Source : about.com | 12-Sep-2008 20:28
Britain’s Failed WW2 Spies
Not everyone passes a training course, but what do you do when the training was for being a spy, and you now knew too much to be returned to a...
Source : about.com | 12-Sep-2008 20:27
Bletchley Park Needs Funds
During the Second World War Bletchley Park was the centre of British code breaking efforts, where a team of experts managed to break German ciphers and invent the era of...
Source : about.com | 12-Sep-2008 20:27
Roman Expansion May Have Left Aids Legacy
A recent study has discovered that people living in areas conquered by the Roman Empire are more susceptible to the Aids virus than those who aren’t. Now I don’t have...
Source : about.com | 05-Sep-2008 22:53
“Battle Bones” Reveal Secrets
Archaeologists don’t just “dig up” bones for the sake of it; modern analysis can tell a huge amount about a person’s life and death from the examination of their skeletal...
Source : about.com | 05-Sep-2008 22:45
Major Military Lives
These three pages are basically an advert for a book of military obituaries originally published in British newspaper The Times. Nevertheless, these extracts from the much longer pieces make interesting...
Source : about.com | 05-Sep-2008 22:44
Google Maps “demolish” history?
One of the internet’s many uses is providing maps to strange and new locations, whether for travelling or just sightseeing thanks to the aerial/satellite photography which is often overlaid. But...
Source : about.com | 29-Aug-2008 21:45
Thames Wrecks
The Thames is probably Britain’s most famous river, used heavily for shipping for centuries. Over time vessels have sunk, and recently a team examined the Thames Estuary area for wrecks,...
Source : about.com | 29-Aug-2008 21:44
Last Female WW1 Veteran Dies
When Gladys Powers died earlier this month another tie between the First World War and the modern age was cut. Powers, who lived most of her life in Canada but...
Source : about.com | 29-Aug-2008 21:43
Calcio Storico Fiorentino
The Calcio Storico in Florence is a ball game, now played in costume, which dates back to the fifteenth century. I heard about it through this site which has a...
Source : about.com | 22-Aug-2008 20:56
Beach Walker Discovers Bronze Age Chieftan
Walks along the beach are usually framed as something romantic, which makes this story a little different. When Trevor Renals was walking along the coast of an island off of...
Source : about.com | 22-Aug-2008 20:56
The Retired Know More About History?
Newspapers in Britain this week reported the results of a survey showing that young people knew much less about their nation’s history than older persons. The ‘Great British History Quiz’...
Source : about.com | 22-Aug-2008 20:54
Heroic British Moments
As readers of popular media may have noticed, there’s been a recent trend for lists of historical events: best Briton, worst king etc. Now, a UK newspaper called The Times...
Source : about.com | 15-Aug-2008 21:03
Warrior’s Grave Surprises
An excavation in Britain has discovered the grave of a warrior dating to between 40 and 60 CE, containing artefacts which have never been found on the island before. "What...
Source : about.com | 15-Aug-2008 21:02
New Insight into Anglo-Saxon England?
I feel there is some exaggeration going on in this news story, and I’m not alone as one of the experts also plays down the use of the word “apartheid”...
Source : about.com | 15-Aug-2008 21:02
WW1 Eastern Front Re-enactor Photos
As is swiftly becoming traditional, I’ve come across a page of excellent photographs with no idea who took them, when the event took place or what is really going on....
Source : about.com | 08-Aug-2008 21:18
Storm Uncovers WW2 Bunkers
During the Second World War German forces built an estimated 7000 bunkers along the Danish coast in an attempt to repel invasion. Earlier this year, in May 2008, four of...
Source : about.com | 08-Aug-2008 21:18
Royal Underwear Sells for $9,000
I really wasn’t sure whether to post this, but there is an element of something greater in this: the interest that people still have for royalty. A pair of bloomers,...
Source : about.com | 08-Aug-2008 21:16
Britain’s Oldest Joke (Allegedly)
A survey released this week has apparently found the world’s oldest jokes. I say apparently because the report I read said the survey was done for Britain’s “Dave” tv channel,...
Source : about.com | 01-Aug-2008 21:51