British History

Secret Tunnels Under London, Once Used to Hide Art During WWI, Open to the Public for the First Time

Explore the 6.5-mile-long network of hidden mail tunnels starting this July

Tonedall Mills, once a large textile mill, is listed as an at-risk property in the 'Up My Street' catalogue.

UK Charity Calls On Developers to Save At-Risk Buildings

The ‘Up My Street’ catalogue profiles 100 historic properties in desperate need of repair

Aphra Behn made a name for herself in Restoration-era England, writing bawdy plays that were wildly popular.

The Spy Who Became England’s First Successful Female Writer

Aphra Behn made a name for herself in Restoration-era England, when most women still relied on their husbands

Aerial view of the wooden circle site

Massive Wooden Fire Monument Is Older Than Stonehenge

Carbon dating shows that the site dates back to 3300 B.C.

King George and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King ride in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's car as the president drives them away from church on June 11, 1939.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt Served Hot Dogs to a King

A king had never visited a president at home before, but by all accounts they got along fine

257-Year-Old Coloring Book Rediscovered in St. Louis

The Florist contains 60 drawings, and recommends watercolor pigments like “gall-stone brown”

A plaque marking one of the sites of the Pentrich Revolution.

Two Centuries Ago, These Ill-Fated Laborers Attempted to Overthrow the British Government

In 1817, the tragic Pentrich Revolution was short and brutal

An excerpt from the first road map of Britain, published by John Ogilby when Fiennes was 15, in 1675. No word on whether Fiennes ever saw it, although she did write about visiting a college in Manchester that had a map collection.

See 17th-Century England Through the Eyes of One of the First Modern Travel Writers

Celia Fiennes traveled and wrote about her adventures—including a bit of life advice

Mounted Normans attack the Anglo-Saxon infantry during the Battle of Hastings, as portrayed on the Bayeux Tapestry.

England’s Most Brutal King Was Its Best Peacemaker

William the Conqueror was ruthless, but he achieved something his predecessors couldn’t: peace

Although ketchup has roots in Southeast Asia, tomato ketchup may be an American original.

There's Something Fishy About the Ketchup You Put On Your Burgers

The red stuff that Americans eat on their French Fries doesn't look much like the 'kôechiap' it's based on

Why Does Every American Graduation Play ‘Pomp and Circumstance’?

The song was written for a British king’s coronation and its name is a Shakespeare reference. What gives?

The interior of the 1876 Glaciarium

The First Artificial Skating Rinks Looked Pretty But Smelled Terrible

Before the technology to reliably freeze water existed, the first rinks used pig fat and salts

"Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. I was just catching up on my latest diary entry."

Samuel Pepys Was England's First Blogger

The famed blogger—okay, diarist—told historians so much about 17th-century daily life in England, but he could have told us so much more

A Tiny Church Sits On Britain's Oldest Site of Continuous Worship

When a 4,000-year-old wooden post was found near the church, it suggested that area was used for ritual purposes since the late Neolithic period

Seven men tried to kill Queen Victoria during her almost 64-year reign. She wasn't amused by any of them.

The Eight Assassination Attempts on Queen Victoria Just Made Her More Powerful

People kept trying to kill Queen Victoria. She kept looking better and better

Draft of The Balfour Declaration with handwritten notes, 1917

How a Single Paragraph Paved the Way for a Jewish State

The Balfour Declaration changed the course of history with just one sentence

A posthumous engraving of Maria Agnesi from 1836.

The Witch of Agnesi

A mistranslation led to the unusual name of this mathematical concept

Chocolate chips as we know and love them today.

The First “Chocolate Chip” Was a Molasses Candy

The name "chocolate chip" goes back much farther than the Toll House cookies

This illustration puts the blame of the murder of Edward on Elfrida.

Medieval Mothers Had to Marry and Murder to Get Their Way

The stories are below aren’t pulled from “Game of Thrones.” Promise

The Klencke Atlas

Massive Royal Atlas Gets Digitized

The magnificent Klencke Atlas is now available online courtesy of the British Library

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