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'An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realise the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. [...]

Politics hardly has a nice clean image, does it? Sometimes called 'the dirty game', it feels like every other day a politician somewhere in the world becomes the subject of [...]

In 1972, Stanley Cohen published his monumental work Folk Devils and Moral Panics. The book is widely credited for defining the latter term, but just what is a 'moral panic'? [...]

Victorian Britain was not a safe time in which to be queer. Until 1861 intercourse between two males was punishable by death and from 1885, the Labouchere Amendment decried that [...]

Look at most lists of the great artists who worked in Britain and you're unlikely to find many women listed. Why is this? You might immediately assume that perhaps there [...]

By 1933, Fritz Lang had become the most celebrated director working in Germany. Movies such as Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), while not as commercially successful as some of his [...]

From Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple, we all love stories of the eccentric master detective, solving crimes through clever deduction and superior wit. Yet the world's first modern investigator was [...]

In 1945, with Nazi Germany defeated, Britain was already planning World War III. Well not exactly, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill had become disturbed by the Soviet Union's occupation of [...]

Founded in 1824, the National Gallery houses some 2,300 paintings and contains one of the finest art collections in the world. Since first opening its doors, the gallery has become [...]

As the 1980s drew to a close, a quirky group of youthful outsiders began to dominate the New York club scene. These were strange creatures to mainstream observers, a misfit [...]

From 1945 to 1989, Berlin was the hottest spot in the Cold War. At the end of World War II, a defeated Germany was carved up by the Allied powers [...]

From the early 1960s the fight against oppression, inequalities, injustices, and discrimination in the lives of Black and other non-white American citizens gathered pace, spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr. [...]

From the Greek poet Sappho to 20th century footballer Lily Parr, history is full of women who were romantically and sexually attracted to other women. Unfortunately, like other queer peoples, [...]

The 'Underground Railroad' (UGRR) was the name given to routes of escape for enslaved people labouring in the southern United States. Operating during the 19th century, 'conductors' guided the escapees [...]

In the annals of alchemy and occultism, only a handful of practitioners remain legendary today. Names such as Fulcanelli, St Germain and, one of the most notorious of them all, [...]

High in the Himalayas lurks a monster. A fearsome and rarely seen creature whose name has become legendary - the Yeti. Appearing first in Tibetan folklore, it was in the [...]

Key Events 1767 TOWNSHEND ACTS Further to the taxation policies of the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts are passed. These acts establish taxation on imported essential goods, like tea, paper [...]

From Alexandre Dumas's 1850 adventure The Man In The Iron Mask to Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, tales of imposters and devious doubles have thrilled us for centuries. But [...]

Grigori Rasputin was a mystic who entered the Russian court when he claimed to heal the Tsar's young son. However, in 1916 he met his end at the hands of [...]

In 1981, five healthy gay men, all between the ages of 29 and 35 and all within the area of Los Angeles, were treated for Pneumocystis Pneumonia. This was highly [...]

From the picturesque cliffs of rural Cornwall, to the quaint harbour town of Poole--the shores of 18th and early 19th century Britain were dangerous places to be. Due to import [...]

Following the Roundhead victory at the end of the English Civil War, King Charles I of England was executed. Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the new republic, took charge but [...]

The armed forces of the United States comprise one of the most formidable military powers in the modern world. Of course there are the Marines and the Navy Seals, but, [...]

On 19 April 1956, Lieutenant-Commander Lionel 'Buster' Crabb vanished into the murky waters of Portsmouth Harbour, never to return. Crabb was a diver of some renown and had been investigating [...]

In the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, secret societies practised rituals, the knowledge of which has since been lost to time. These rituals, known as 'mysteries', continue to [...]

June is traditionally international pride month, a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ lives and promote the ongoing fight for greater freedoms and understanding. For history lovers, it is a chance to [...]

A cold moon rose over Texarkana on the night of 22 February 1946. At 11.45pm, 25-year-old Jim Hollis and his 19-year-old girlfriend Mary Jeanne Larey parked their car on a [...]

In the late 16th century, plans were floated throughout the increasingly powerful Spanish Empire for a possible conquest of China. Many of those in the recently acquired Spanish territory of [...]

New York. From Brooklyn to the Bronx, the great city is a hive of culture and N considered by many to be the very heart of America itself. However, in [...]

San Francisco has long held a reputation as the 'Gay Capital of the World', with more of its citizens identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans than anywhere else in [...]

On 28 November 1911, Lord George Sanger, one of the most famous men in the British Isles at the time, was purportedly murdered in his own home. The supposed killer, [...]

In 1941, Erwin Rommel (who came to be known as the 'Desert Fox') had been given control of Germany's North Africa Korps. In a short period of time he had [...]

During the 18th century, a new form of British male began to populate high society - the 'rake'. This term came to define aristocratic gentlemen who were purely engaged in [...]

The Apollo programme is arguably the most iconic of all of NASA's space exploration missions. Beginning at the height of the space race between the United States and the USSR, [...]

Christmas today is seen almost exclusively as a time for merriment and to gather with our loved ones to exchange gifts and enjoy food. Of course, the various traditions associated [...]

For thousands of years the planet's oceans have provided us with food and resources, and allowed explorers to travel to the farthest reaches of the Earth. But they also present [...]

Public punishment has been intrinsic to our past. Capital punishment was a part of British history since the 5th century and the time of the early Anglo Saxons. Murderer Peter [...]

One by one, the archaeologists are picked off--death is the only punishment for the recipients of the mummy's curse. Not the plot of any one film in particular, but we [...]

As the autumn leaves begin to fall and the nights grow longer, you may already have noticed a chill in the air. It's the season when costumed creatures walk the [...]

On the eve of the battle's anniversary, historian Iain MacGregor discusses one of the most important engagements of World War II and why it matters today EXPERT BIO IAIN MACGREGOR [...]

Key Events 1762 INVENTION OF THE SANDWICH John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is playing cards and refuses to leave the table to eat. He asks for some roast [...]

The belief in witchcraft and magic seems to have always cast a spell on the popular imagination. The image of the green-faced, pointy-hatted witch who cackles maniacally as she rides [...]

The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on 1 June, with numerous predictions as to the ferocity and intensity of forthcoming storms inundating the online weather pages. To many readers the [...]

The alluring mystery of the sea has obsessed man for centuries. Author Peter Benchley, best known for Jaws, wrote in his 1977 novel The Deep that: 'You could start now, [...]

A longside figures such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest classical composers. In his lifetime Beethoven [...]

The dream of turning metal into gold is one that has obsessed man for centuries. The name of this mythical process is 'alchemy' and it's a word that inspires thoughts [...]

The Mona Lisa, with her slight smile and the statue of David with his impressive physique are two of the most instantly recognisable works of art. Their reputation stretches beyond [...]

'Keep looking, keep watching the skies!' Douglas Spencer proclaims during the final moments of the 1951 sci-fi horror film The Thing From Another World. From 1947 onwards that's just what [...]

The Marquis de Sade is a figure with two sides. He has been read and appreciated by the serial killer Ted Bundy as well as surrealist artists such as Man [...]

Key Events c.350 CE KHANDA MANUFACTURED Sugar cane is processed in India and solid blocks of sugar are formed. These blocks are called 'khanda', an ancient Sanskrit word which eventually [...]