The first shots were exchanged between Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, when the Union ship ‘Star of the West’ attempted to deliver troops and supplies to Fort Sumter, South Carolina [more]. Share this:

The very mention of the name The Forty Elephants, a crime syndicate made up exclusively of young women, would send shivers down the spines of West End shop owners.

But details of the world's first ever nose jobs show how it's not as modern as you might imagine. A 16th century book detailing one of the earliest rhinoplasty operations came to light when it was sold at auction.

Execution of William Joyce (‘Lord Haw-Haw’) at Wandsworth prison, London. Joyce was the British traitor who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany during World War Two [more]. Share this:

Dec. 30, 2010 — Geraldine Hoff Doyle, the woman who became the poster girl for American working women during World War II, has died at age 86 in Lansing, Mich.

They both said: "Let them eat cake!" Somewhere in the Constitution, Sarah Palin has found the "God-given" right to be obese…

There was nothing unexpected about the racially motivated rioting and attacks that took place in Moscow and other cities during the past 10 days…

As you arrive at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the stunning sleek, black lines of Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured warship, take your breath away. Warrior, launched in 1860, was the pride of Queen Victoria’s fleet. Powered by steam and sail, she was the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her day and had a profound effect…

The anti-tank mine was found by dog walkers on the beach at Kessingland, near Lowestoft.

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BAH humbug no more. The Scottish merchant who inspired one of the most famous Christmas characters of all time is finally to be recognised for his place in literary history. Ebenezer Scroggie was a hugely successful Edinburgh merchant renowned as much for his generosity and jovial nature as his wild parties.

A mummified head dug up after the French Revolution, lost for a century and unearthed by an antiques dealer belongs to Henri IV, the revered French king who died 400 years ago, leading historians and scientists have revealed.

The only American flag to survive Little Big Horn will go up for auction today at Sotheby's New York. The flag, one of the few remnants of Gen. George Armstrong Custer's legendary defeat, is expected to fetch $2 million to $5 million.

Horrible Histories, a factual series aimed at children, is to be remade and given a prime-time slot on BBC One in the Corporation's latest attempt to bring the past to an adult audience.

Introducing the launch of the 2010 History Today Advent Calendar, Kathryn Hadley provides an overview of the history of advent calendars.

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Two more walls have given way inside Pompeii's 2,000-year-old archaeological site, officials said Wednesday, reporting the second collapse in as many days.

CBBC show Horrible Histories has won three awards at the Children's Baftas, where former Play School presenter Brian Cant picked up a special award.

Even though the fighting in Korea has all the elements needed to spark off the next world war – weapons of mass destruction, hostile superpowers, and a failing, nuclear-armed regime – it is improbable that apocalypse is around the corner in East Asia.

The extraordinarily bloodthirsty war diaries of German soldier and later celebrated writer Ernst Jünger have been published for the first time.

A hopelessly drunk teenager high-fived his pals after urinating on a war memorial, a court heard.

FRAGMENTS of what could be the earliest known battlefield guns have been unearthed by treasure hunters near Tadcaster.

No other historical figure from the Old West has stirred up more controversy and eluded historians and biographers than Billy the Kid alias William H. Bonney. This young man in his short life has established his place in history and legend, but there is more to the myth there’s the man, which in my opinion…

Steven Spielberg is expected to cause controversy in the US with his choice, announced this weekend, of Daniel Day-Lewis to play Abraham Lincoln in a biopic of one of America's best-loved leaders.

In a debate about arts funding on Monday, Cllr Adam Kellett, who represents the Ashburton ward, described Black History Month as “a left-wing vanity project.”

A four-year-old boy from Essex has unearthed a gold pendant believed to date from the 16th Century, using a metal detector.

Michael Gove is bringing in celebrities to revamp school history teaching. That's not what's needed, says James Vernon

A century ago, Leo Tolstoy – perhaps the greatest novelist of all time – died at a remote train station. He had embarked on a journey to find the simple life he believed in – partly due to early German influences…[more] Share this:

More than 200 years after Marie Antoinette lost her head, I got a whiff of her from a scented candle in a downtown Manhattan basement…

The last surviving British veteran of the First World War will not mark Remembrance Day today because he wants to forget the horrors of war, his family has said.

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die…[more] Share this:

More than 300 artefacts rescued from the Titanic, including some that have never been seen before, are going on display in London.

Romans 'were first to invent the eco-friendly house'

It was among Henry VIII's grandest undertakings: a castle to outshine the castle of his rival, King Francois I of France. And so it was named "Nonsuch," as in no other palace could ever equal its magnificence. But, after taking eight years to construct, the Nonsuch Palace would end up standing for less than 150 years. In the 1680s, the grand estate fell into disrepair and was lost to history.

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MICHAEL WOODRUFF, one of the pioneer surgeons in transplantation, was undoubtedly a lateral thinker, a most unusual trait in a surgeon and one illustrated no better than by his outstanding work on dietetic deficiencies while a prisoner in the notorious Changi camp in Singapore during the Second World War….[more] Share this:

Encased in pinkish marble-like slabs supporting a balustrade, this dinosaur — or what's left of it — has for centuries been the most faithful presence in the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano, a town about 20 miles from Milan.

Dating back to the French Revolution, this gourd is thought to contain the blood of Louis XVI, collected shortly after he was executed.

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes following the discovery of a series of bombs from the Second World War in the French city centre of Rennes.

Senior officials were willing participants in the Nazi campaign, says report published yesterday

George was elector of Hanover and second Hanoverian king of Great Britain and Ireland. George was born in Hanover, Germany on 10 November 1683, the only son of the elector of Hanover. In 1705 he married Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and they had nine children…[more] Share this:

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Cassius Marcellus Clay (October 19, 1810 – July 22, 1903), nicknamed “The Lion of White Hall”, was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States. He was a cousin of Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay…[more] Share this:

Louis XIII of France was born in 1601 and died in 1643. Louis was the son of Henry IV and Marie de Medici. He was king from 1610 on, the year of his father’s assassination. His monarchy was dominated by the careers of the Duke de Luynes and Cardinal Richelieu. His monarchy saw an expansion…

A special court was appointed and in October 1660 those Regicides who were still alive and living in Britain were brought to trial. Ten were found guilty and were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. This included Thomas Harrison, John Jones, John Carew and Hugh Peters. Others executed included Adrian Scroope, Thomas Scot, Gregory…

It is ferocity and incompetence that have characterised Figes's own extraordinary war with academics, and dominated the headlines earlier this year. The stakes could not have been higher.

THE mystery of a badly corroded pocket watch, recovered from a wrecked warship hailed as Scotland's Mary Rose, has finally been solved – thanks to medical science and good old-fashioned detective work.

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FORMER World War Two pilots and navigators are holding a signature session to mark 70 years of a Hatfield fighter plane this weekend.

Simon Schama is one of the UK's most brilliant historians and particularly excels at telling stories. His BBC series A History of Britain is arguably the most provocative and engaging televisual narrative of our island story ever produced. So it is no surprise that the government wants Schama to play a role in reshaping the school history curriculum.

As the most barbaric event of the twentieth century, the Nazis' mass extermination of Jews during World War II has served as the basis of countless books, plays, and films over the past sixty years.

A Russian archaeologist claims to have found the well-preserved ruins of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization in Russia's North Caucasus.

A Russian archaeologist claims to have found the well-preserved ruins of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization in Russia's North Caucasus.

But did it really happen?! Read more Share this:

For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside.

A rare, first-person account of the ordeal of one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster will soon hit the auction block.

The appointment of historian and presenter Simon Schama as the Coalition Government's new history tsar has been condemned as insincere and insulting by a leading academic.

elangelo's er..Tracey?

The latest tests conducted by anthropologists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have proven that the bacteria Yersinia pestis was indeed the causative agent behind the "Black Death" that raged across Europe in the Middle Ages.

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This seems really interesting…

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The academic Simon Schama, who presents the BBC series A History of Britain, has agreed to advise ministers on an overhaul of the curriculum, the education secretary, Michael Gove, said today.

Gove said the move would ensure that no pupil leaves school without learning "narrative British history".

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Germany is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its reunification.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading the celebrations, hosted by the northern city of Bremen, where tens of thousands of people have turned out.

Germany is finally paying off World War I reparations, with the last 70 million euro (£60m) payment drawing the debt to a close.

The graph would be really useful to use!

The top photo is an actual photograph taken of President Obama leading several people to the East Room. However, the state-run Egyptian paper didn’t like that their president, Hosni Mubarak, was in the back of the group. They made the logical decision to show their president leading the way through the White House, which is clearly what happens when foreign dignitaries come to speak to Obama. Journalism at its finest.

Germany will finally clear its First World War debt by repaying nearly £60million this weekend.

The £22billion reparations were set by the Allied victors – mostly Britain, France and America – as compensation and punishment for the 1914-18 war.

Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë…[more] Share this:

A 250-year-old antique pistol taken from an Italian museum by a British squaddie as a souvenir during World War II has finally been returned, fulfilling the old soldier's death bed wish.

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