The grave of Cecil John Rhodes in Zimbabwe’s Matopos Hills.
Susan E Adams/flickr.com
Why Oriel College Oxford was right not to agree to take down a statue of the British imperalist.
A ‘flat-Earth’ map drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893. This rendering of a flat Earth still gets some truck today.
Wikimedia/Orlando Ferguson
We often hear that most people throughout history believed the world was flat. But that’s not entirely true.
Are today’s politicians more cynical and power-hungry than their predecessors?
AAP/Sam Mooy
Governing was not meant to be easy. It never has been either.
Entrance to the gate of Nimrod, destroyed by the IS group and digitally reconstructed as part of Project Mosul.
Model by ruimx from photos at projectmosul.org
Researchers are making 3D scans, architectural plans and detailed photographic records of cultural heritage sites around the world, knowing they could be destroyed at any time.
An exhibition about France’s long history in Algeria.
Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
France’s colonial legacy remains an uncomfortable subject.
In the late 19th century, three brothers from New Hampshire drew uniforms for the military troops of their imaginary world.
Amherst College
One historian is plumbing the oft-discarded works of kids – from shipwreck tales to diary entries – to augment our understanding of U.S. history.
Reuters/Michael Dalder
Printers have been overwhelmed with orders for the first edition of the text to be published in Germany since 1945.
Remembering the fallen.
PA
Gallipoli has become an enduring symbol of World War I’s futile carnage. But the campaign did have a purpose.
Much about the ‘Ndrangheta’s history and current operations in Australia remains shrouded in mystery.
Marco Derksen
Australian scholars have almost universally downplayed evidence for the ‘Ndrangheta’s existence or significance, or avoided the topic altogether.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was often referred to as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining in the 19th century.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
What explains the anger behind the Malheur occupation in Oregon, and why does the BLM own so much land in the West?
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is part of a complicated history of land in the western US.
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Like much federal land in the US West, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has a long history tied to Native Americans’ plight and conflicts between settlers and the federal government.
A beekeeper uses smoke to calm bees in a Langstroth hive.
moosicorn/flickr
Bees and humans share a long history. But now bee populations are in a worrying decline. So can beekeeping teach us how to live in harmony with the world’s most famous pollinator?
Eddie Redmayne stars as Lili Elbe.
The film tells the story of Lili Elbe, who was one of the first people to receive sexual reassignment surgery. Sadly, the film barely scratches the surface of the real story.
Ada Lovelace circa 1842, daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet.
Reproduced by permission of G C Bond
This extraordinary individual defied the constraints of her time and gave a remarkable and farseeing account of computation.
ITV
You might be forgiven for wondering if there’s any connection between ITV’s Jekyll and Hyde and Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella other than the title.
A postcard depicts Adolf Hitler posing with a child and a Christmas tree.
Through the Nazification of Christmas, the regime was able to gain the support of ordinary Germans.
John Dryden by John Michael Wright, 1668.
Stephencdickson
Many literary greats have been religious outsiders, and reading them we can relate to our times. This is particularly the case with Dryden.
Floods during warm periods of human history likely inspired the Noah’s Ark myth.
Noah's ark image from www.shutterstock.com
2015 will likely be a degree warmer than before people started pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The last time the world was this hot wasn’t great for civilisation.
Thalidomide was initially marketed for daytime use, first as a flu treatment, then as ain aid to reduce stress and anxiety.
1950sUnlimited/Flickr
Thalidomide was developed in an era of widespread enthusiasm – but little critical attention – for pharmaceutical therapies.
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Thalidomide was marketed as a safe, sleep-inducing drug, but when taken during pregnancy it could cause severe birth defects.