All About History

SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER The legends of history often prove to be more fun than the realities. Such is the case with the pirates of the 18th century and in particular those famous names like Blackbeard and Anne Bonny. The stories of the swas

Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster, played his final game against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. The machine won the match and in doing so became the first computer to beat a world chess champion under standard tournament time controls.

Settlers in the valley of the Yellow River andalong the Yangtze River establish villages and begin the development of an agricultural society. Farming communities emerge in Henan Province and rice becomes a staple crop. Evidence of terraced farming r

In March 1974 a group of peasants digging a well discovered something extraordinary: fragments of a terracotta statue from deep within the ground. The following excavations uncovered thousands of terracotta soldiers, which have since been named one o

The four arts were the four artistic and intellectual accomplishments required of the ancient Chinese scholarly gentleman academic. The concept developed during the Tang dynasty, though each individual art has a rich history dating back much further.

The ruins of Sanxingdui were discovered by chance in 1927 by a farmer digging a trench in the city of Guanghan in the Sichuan province of China. What he found transformed our understanding of the ancient Chinese world. Originally thought to have exis

The ruins of Yin are situated on the banks of the Huang He River in Henan Province, and a number of historic documents show that the city was once the capital of the late Shang Dynasty (1300 BCE to 1046 BCE). This makes it the first capital city in C

During the early 18th century a major increase in piratical attacks occurred. It disrupted maritime trade in American waters and markedly drove up marine insurance rates. The first significant attacks began around 1714, and they continued for the bes

HARETH AL BUSTANI Hareth Al Bustani is a journalist, historian and author of the Amazon bestseller Nero: The Art of Tyranny. For many, the Roman Emperor Nero is the quintessential mad tyrant: a talentless musician who played the fiddle while Rome bur

Although Nero’s later years were marked by a steep slide into hedonism, frivolity and tyranny, with the only accounts of his life written by those who loathed him it is hard to gauge how fairly his wider reign has been assessed. While the upper-class

Lawrence is a historian who has written several books on the German military, including Hitler’s Brandenburgers: The Third Reich’s Elite Special Forces and Eagles Over The Sea 1943-45: A History of Luftwaffe Maritime Operations. During the First and

Dr Catherine Hanley is a historian of Medieval Studies, specialising in warfare during the Middle Ages. She is the author of Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior (Yale University Press, 2019). Empress Matilda was a major political player of the 12th cent

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 of medieval magic and the dark arts. To quote the scientist and scholar Lawrence Pr

In 18th century France, the mysterious Count of St Germain appeared as if from nowhere, and from 1745-84 wooed the nobility with his skills as an adventurer, philosopher and, of course, alchemist. Who exactly this enigmatic man was remains something

Dr Matthew Landrus is a research fellow at the university of Oxford who specialises on the history of art and science in renaissance Italy. He is the author Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow (Springer, 2010) and Leonardo da Vinci: 500 Years on (Welb

At the beginning of 1967, General William Westmoreland had the best-trained and best-equipped forces that the USA had to offer under his command in South Vietnam, following a two-year build-up. Westmoreland headed the Military Assistance Command Viet

A general in the North Vietnamese Army, Thanh joined the Communist Party in the mid-1980s and rose to the Politburo by 1951. He was the leading strategist of the People’s Army and was the one who presented the plans for the Tet Offensive in 1967, alt

In 1600, William Adams became the first Englishman to visit Japan when his ship anchored off the island of Kyushu. This first encounter between England and Japan subsequently blossomed into a relationship that has grown and flourished for more than f

Book Film TV Podcast Games Other A heartwarming comedy about how a pensioner stole the UK’s most famous painting Certificate: 12 Director: Roger Michell Cast: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Matthew Goode Released: Out now Just what is a ‘feel-good’ fil

Director: John Guillermin Starring: ME Clifton James, John Mills, Cecil Parker Country: UK Released: 1958 A wartime comedy-drama in which Montgomery’s real-life double plays himself. But does it sacrifice fact for fun? VERDICT: Gains points for havin

• 200g cooked chicken meat (to replace the traditional turtle)• 1 can of corned beef• 200g cooked white fish• 60g anchovies• ½ head of lettuce• ½ cucumber• 3 spring onions• 4 pickled onions• 12 pitted black olives• 12 grapes• ½ mango• 4 eggs• 4 tbsp