Short History Of...

In 1799, French soldiers in Egypt unearthed what would become one of the world’s most famous artefacts. After a desperate race to decipher its symbols, the Rosetta Stone provided the key to understand...

The Tower of London has been a symbol of the authority and power of the British crown for almost a thousand years. Established by William the Conqueror, the iconic building has served as a palace and ...

First inhabited by the Rapa Nui people a thousand years ago, Easter Island is best known for its hundreds of giant stone statues. But what inspired a group of ancient Polynesian explorers to settle in...

Vincent van Gogh was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of art. Though he created thousands of drawings and paintings, his was a life of commercial failure, instability a...

From the end of the 15th century, the Conquistadors changed the face of the Americas. Invading first the Caribbean and Mexico, they then plunged on into the rest of the continent and plundered the Pac...

Albert Einstein overhauled our understanding of the universe—from the sub-atomic level to beyond the edges of the cosmos. Today his ideas are in evidence everywhere, from televisions and GPS systems, ...

The Great Train Robbery of 1963 saw a gang of career criminals stage a daring heist of the multi-million pound cargo of a travelling Royal Mail train. The investigation that followed spanned many year...

The last of the Ptolemaic Pharoahs, the enduring legend of Cleopatra has captivated imaginations for centuries. Though some write her off as a manipulative femme fatale, her competence as a ruler rest...

Standing over 29,000ft above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on the planet. To the sherpa people of the Himalayas it is sacred, and to foreign adventurers, it is the holy grail of ...

In the late Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire became the largest the world had ever seen. At its peak, maybe 100 million people lived under its banner, led by the Great Khans of the Asian steppe. But wha...