Science has made a strong case for the year 536 as being one of the worst in human history, a year punctuated by volcanic eruptions, drought, famine and plague - and a year long winter.
Despite arguments that young children have enjoyed Jane Eyre for 150 years, the Victorians were much more concerned about the novel’s influence than universities are today.
The volcano shortly before its eruption.
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Women were not really present during the signing of the Four Powers Agreement but they were at home in parliament. Film often demand sexy more sympathetic female characters
Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament.
National Portrait Gallery
Dennis Penu, International Institute of Social Studies
Ghana lost its federalism due to mistaken political choices and missed opportunities, suggesting that other federations in Africa might well be at similar risk.
Portrait of Richard III.
National Portrait Gallery
Rumours and gossip dominated his short reign and the stories were more than just about the Princes in the Tower.
A Mayan spiritual guide arranges crosses, marked with the names of people who died in the nation’s civil war, in a circle in preparation for a ceremony marking the National Day of Dignity for the Victims of Armed Internal Conflict. Guatemalans annually honor the victims of the 36-year civil war that ended in 1996 on Feb. 25.
(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
We tend to romanticise the Christmas season, that time of year when we gather with friends and family, feast and be merry. But for most of its history Christmas has been a time of sordid behaviour.
(Alice) Maud Arncliffe Sennett, English actress and suffragette, arrested four times for her activism.
Shutterstock/Wikimedia
“Who could have imagined that it would simply collapse?” It’s been 30 years since the Soviet Union dissolved in the wake of a bungled reform effort by Mikhail Gorbachev - here’s what went wrong.
Cicero’s public and private correspondence provides a detailed look at political life in Rome.
(Shutterstock)
Although he privately disapproved of Caesar’s power, Cicero publicly supported him and Cicero also directly contributed to the end of the Roman Republic and the reign of Caesar’s nephew Augustus.