The average age of survivors is now 80. In five years, very few of these first-hand witnesses will be around to remember the event. Many of their stories are in danger of being lost forever.
Koh-i-Noor in its current setting.
Crown Copyright
Amid renewed debate over Britain’s colonial debt to India, John MacKenzie discusses the history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond and discusses other Indian treasures that remain in British ownership.
In our era of 24-hour news, outrage and hyperbole seem to be par for the course. But as Sr John Madden’s 1909 “gravest peril” speech illustrates, overblown moral panic, to fit an agenda, is nothing new.
Blowing up the desert – and people’s minds: the first atom bomb test in 1945.
US Government
The first atom bomb test seventy years ago today marks the start of a change in Americans’ thinking about radiation. On balance, our nuclear anxieties endure today.
Children develop based on their interactions with people, books and cultural artefacts. History textbooks could have a great deal to teach them about empathy.
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Historical representation is far more complex than merely providing the facts – which is why debate continues to rage about the authenticity of popular televised historical dramas such as Game of Thrones and Banished.
‘Doctor, whenever I get up I feel dizzy for half an hour.’ ‘Then wait for half an hour before getting up.’
Alexander the Great trust to physician Phillip, Henryk Siemiradzki
The BBC’s chief contribution to the bicentenary has been to rename itself the Bonapartist Broadcasting Corporation.
If their deaths fighting for Islamic State in Iraq are confirmed, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar would be far from the first foreign fighters to be killed in the history of combat.
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Foreign fighters have always posed a dual challenge: how to stop them going and what to do if they return. History offers lessons on managing these problems, including that it’s hard to stop them leaving.
One of the stalagmites used in this study. The blue-green fluorescence is due to the light from the camera flash.
The most spectacular of the Waterloo celebrations will be a massive re-enactment on the actual battle site, involving more than 5,000 re-enactors, including 300 horses and 100 canon. What’s that all about?
Abba celebrate their 1974 victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’.
PA/PA Archive
Is the line between truth and fiction clear when it comes to history? And if not, is there scope for historians and novelists to re-engage, with a view to learning from – rather than bludgeoning – each other?
Remembering the past at the Magna Carta memorial at Runnymede.
Tim Ockenden /PA EDI