British History

Prisoners walk the treadmill at Coldbath Fields prison in England, circa 1864. Other prisoners are exercising in the yard below.

In the 19th Century, You Wouldn’t Want to Be Put on the Treadmill

This grueling nineteenth-century punishment was supposed to provide a torturous lesson about hard work

Mercury wrote or cowrote a number of Queen's biggest hits.

Freddie Mercury, Musical Genius and Stamp Collector

The singer-songwriter's childhood stamp album offers an insight to his character

Some of the hundreds of brass plaques taken from Benin City in 1897 now held by the British Museum

European Summit to Discuss the Return of Looted West African Art

Treasures taken by a British invasion in 1897 could return to Nigeria as a permanent exhibition

The familiar home vacuum was immediately predated by the carpet sweeper.

The Vacuum Cleaner Was Harder to Invent Than You Might Think

The original vacuum cleaner required a number of improvements before becoming the household staple it is today

Newly found letters by Alan Turing

New Letters Show Alan Turing Wasn't a Fan of the U.S.A.

The groundbreaking mathematician and computer scientist who spent 2 years at Princeton wrote that he 'detests America' in newly found documents

People were just starting to gain an obsession with apocalypse fiction when Mary Shelley wrote "The Last Man."

The Author of ‘Frankenstein’ Also Wrote a Post-Apocalyptic Plague Novel

‘The Last Man’ was derided in its time for being too grim, but today it would fit in with a growing genre of dystopian fiction

The Koh-i-Noor diamond set at the front of the crown made for the Queen Mother Elizabeth, set on her coffin in April 2002.

The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond—and Why the British Won't Give It Back

A star of London’s Crown Jewels, the Indian gem has a bloody history of colonial conquest

A look inside the Cabinet Room.

Go Behind the Glass of Churchill’s Underground War Rooms

Exploring the secrets of the storied bunker—from its well-worn maps to a leader under extreme duress

Shakespeare wrote 'Macbeth,' which features three witches, during James I's reign, which also was the time of some of England's most famous witch trials.

England’s Witch Trials Were Lawful

It might seem like collective madness today, but the mechanisms for trying witches in England were enshrined in law

Artists view of Greenwich Palace

Part of Henry VIII's Birthplace Discovered

Workers uncovered two rooms of Greenwich Palace while building a visitors center at the Old Royal Naval College in London

Big Ben to Fall Silent During Four-Year Renovation Project

It is the longest time that Big Ben has been paused during its 157-year history

Winston Churchill and FDR aboard the HMS 'Prince of Wales,' Churchill's ship, when the Atlantic Charter was released.

Months Before Pearl Harbor, Churchill and Roosevelt Held a Secret Meeting of Alliance

The two leaders met in a warship off the coast of northern Canada to talk strategy

Almost since ballooning was invented, people were talking about trans-Atlantic crossings, but it took until 1978 for a crossing to be successful.

A Brief History of Trans-Atlantic Balloon Crossings

Fifteenth time’s the charm, evidently

The engraved bones found in Gough's Cave

New Analysis Indicates Early Britons Engaged in Ritualistic Cannibalism

A zigzag pattern on an arm bone indicates around 15,000 years ago, humans in Britain may have consumed others as part of a funeral rite

The sport of angling ("angle" is an old work for "hook") was a popular 1600s pastime that had a number of guides written about it.

This Obscure Fishing Book is One of the Most Reprinted English Books Ever

'The Compleat Angler' is much more than an instruction manual on fishing. It's a Walden-like meditation on nature and friendship

Joseph Moxon, author of 'Mathematicks Made Easie,' was born on this day in 1627.

Is One A Number? According to ‘Mathematicks Made Easie,' Yes

The ancient Greeks, and people for almost 2,000 years after them, argued over whether one was a number

Mahatma Gandhi, center, confers with leaders of the All-India Congress Party, Aug. 1942

The Speech That Brought India to the Brink of Independence

Although the 1942 'Quit India' movement was hardly peaceful, Gandhi's 'Do or Die' address inspired a nation to unify against its British colonizers

The beer that flooded the streets was porter, an extremely dark-colored beer that was traditionally aged for a time before being drunk–which is why it was stored in vats.

This 1814 Beer Flood Killed Eight People

More than a hundred thousand gallons of beer burst onto the streets of London when a vat broke

The Crucial Role the British Railway Played During WWII

As the Luftwaffe began to target London with increasing regularity, the railway network became the saving grace of the nation

Excavation at Burghead

Dig Uncovers Artifacts From One of "Europe's Lost People"

A archaeological excavation in Burghead Fort has uncovered a longhouse from the Picts, a late Iron Age and early Medieval powerhouse

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