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Articles on Britain

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The spinning wheel game ‘EO’ became popular after statutes banned gambling with devices featuring ‘numbers or figures.’ Heritage Art/Getty Images

How the 18th-century ‘probability revolution’ fueled the casino gambling craze

Early writers on probability had explained how the ‘house advantage’ didn’t need to be large for a gambling enterprise to profit enormously. But gamblers and gambling operators were slow to catch on.
Graduates toss their caps into the air at the conclusion of the 2022 Dana Hills High School graduation ceremony in Dana Hills, Calif. Leonard Ortiz/Orange County Register via Getty Images

How a British military march became the distinctive sound of American graduations

For Brits, ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ evokes nostalgia for a vanished, golden age. But Americans experience it as a stirring sendoff into a hopeful future.
Men and boys, many dressed as women, attacking a turnpike gate in protest at charges at tollgates on public roads in west Wales. The Illustrated London News, 1843. World History Archive/Alamy

Why men in 19th century Wales dressed as women to protest taxation

The Rebecca riots saw Welsh farmers disguised as women destroy tollgates as a way of challenging what they believed was an oppressive taxation system.

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