History All Day – Stories From the Past, Every Day

Black and white photograph of an open car and mounted guards passing crowds on a Brussels street during Baudouin's accession in July 1951

Strange History

In 1990 Belgium Declared Its King Unable to Reign, for About a Day and a Half

Belgium's king just refused his prime minister's resignation. In 1990 his uncle Baudouin refused to sign a law, and the government switched him off for a day and a half.

Jonah Okafor · November 7, 2026

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Studio photograph of William W. Belknap in a Union general's uniform, seated, with a long beard

Belknap Quit Hours Before His 1876 Impeachment. The Senate Tried Him Anyway

November 7, 2026

Black and white photograph of David Ben-Gurion standing at a microphone reading the declaration of Israel's independence, under a portrait of Theodor Herzl, Tel Aviv, May 1948

World Figureheads

Ben-Gurion Exempted 400 Yeshiva Students in 1948. Israel Still Argues

November 7, 2026

Black and white photograph of Thomas Sully's painted portrait of an elderly Thomas Jefferson in a fur-collared coat

Jefferson Bought a Quran in 1765. Congress Has Owned It Since 1815

November 7, 2026

Two pages of a handwritten Rajatarangini manuscript in Sharada script, shown open under glass

Kalhana Wrote Kashmir's History in 1148. UNESCO Has Just Listed It

November 7, 2026

Aerial photograph of San Quentin prison on a point of land in San Francisco Bay, with hills across the water behind it

California Emptied Death Row in 1972, and Manson Got a Parole Hearing

November 6, 2026

More Stories

Piranesi etching of the Arch of Titus around 1760, half walled into later buildings, with trees growing beside it and small figures below the carved relief

Rome's Graffiti on Domitian's Arches Said 'Enough.' Then They Came Down

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 6, 2026

The 1812 Gerry-mander cartoon: an engraved map of an Essex County senate district drawn as a winged monster with claws and a beak

The Original Gerrymander Flipped on Its Makers in a Single Year

Marcus Delacroix · November 6, 2026

The pink colonnaded Cabildo of Asunción seen across a paved square, the building that housed Paraguay's Congress in 1999

World Figureheads

Peña's Resignation Was Refused. In 1999 Paraguay Let a President Walk Out

Tomás Ferreira · November 6, 2026

Indian miniature painting of Hanuman offering healing herbs to Rama and Lakshmana on a green hillside, surrounded by an army of monkeys and bears

Before Ranbir Kapoor's Ramayana, a TV Show Stopped India Every Sunday

Hannah Lindqvist · November 6, 2026

Painting of a crowded hall of men and a few women listening to a white-haired speaker at the 1840 Anti-Slavery Society Convention in London

Britain Already Paid Slavery Reparations in the 1830s, to the Slave Owners

Marcus Delacroix · November 5, 2026

Photographic portrait of P.B.S. Pinchback, a bearded man in a dark suit

America's First Black Governor Left Office in 1873. The Next Took 117 Years

Priya Raman · November 5, 2026

Photograph of the Princess Olga Monument in Kyiv, a white stone figure on a tall dark plinth, with the gold-domed bell tower of St Michael's behind

World Figureheads

Ukraine's Top Honor for Women Is Named for a Princess Who Burned a City

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 5, 2026

Press photograph of the crowded House chamber at the swearing-in of Speaker Nicholas Longworth, opening the 69th Congress

Republicans Won the House in 1930 and Lost It to 14 Funerals

Priya Raman · November 4, 2026

Photograph of the old town of Aden, with white mosque minarets in front of the dark volcanic cliffs of the crater

Aden Fell to Britain in 1839 Over a Looted Ship and a Need for Coal

Marcus Delacroix · November 4, 2026

Engraving after Hogarth of Guards soldiers, women and children crowding a road outside an inn on the march to Finchley in 1745

The Bank of England Survived a Run in 1745 by Paying Out in Sixpences

Hannah Lindqvist · November 4, 2026

Wood engraving of President Andrew Johnson shaking a man's hand in a crowded White House room while clerks work at a table, 1865

The Preemptive Pardon Comes From a Confederate Senator's 1867 Case

Tomás Ferreira · November 4, 2026

Coloured painted view of Renaissance Florence after the Pianta della Catena of about 1470, showing the walled city along the Arno

World Figureheads

Florence Tried a Wealth Tax in 1427. The Medici Turned It Into a Weapon

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 4, 2026

Black and white photograph of a Qantas Boeing 707, registration VH-EBA, on the ground at Heathrow in 1961; a sister ship of the jet in the 1971 ransom

Strange History

A TV Movie Taught a Sydney Man to Hold a Qantas Jet to Ransom in 1971

Jonah Okafor · November 4, 2026

Coloured 1823 print by William Clark showing enslaved people cutting sugar cane on an Antigua estate under a mounted overseer

World Figureheads

Antigua's Enslaved Crowned a King in 1736. The Island Executed 88 in Reply

Tomás Ferreira · November 4, 2026

Photograph of a Greenlandic dog team pulling a sled across sea ice near Thule, with a flat-topped mountain behind

Denmark Moved 116 Inughuit in 1953 to Clear Space for a US Greenland Base

Hannah Lindqvist · November 4, 2026

Studio photograph of Annie Oakley in a wide hat and long dress, holding a shotgun, her chest covered with shooting medals

Annie Oakley Died 100 Years Ago. Her Longest Fight Was 55 Libel Suits

Priya Raman · November 3, 2026

Thomas Nast cartoon from Harper's Weekly, 1874: a White League man and a Klansman shake hands above a shield showing a Black family kneeling beside a burned schoolhouse

Election Day 1874 in Alabama: Gunfire at the Polls, 700 Ballots Burned

Priya Raman · November 3, 2026

William Hogarth's 1740 engraving The Distrest Poet: a writer at a desk in a shabby attic room, a milkmaid demanding payment at the door while his wife mends clothes by the fire

Strange History

The Man From Formosa Had Never Seen It: Psalmanazar Fooled London in 1704

Jonah Okafor · November 3, 2026

Wood engraving of the Pied Piper in a dark cloak and feathered cap playing his pipe as a crowd of children follows him out of a walled town

Strange History

The Pied Piper Is a Fairy Tale. Hamelin's 130 Missing Children Were Not

Jonah Okafor · October 31, 2026

Photograph of British paratroopers landing at Gamil airfield near Port Said in November 1956, with smoke rising behind them

70 Years Ago Tonight, Britain and France Bombed Egypt. They Lost in a Week

Marcus Delacroix · October 31, 2026

Photochrom print of Tiflis (Tbilisi) around 1890 to 1900, showing the old fortress on its ridge above the town and the river

Lenin's Party Robbed a Bank With Bombs in 1907 and Couldn't Spend a Rouble

Marcus Delacroix · October 31, 2026

Black and white photograph of a farmer tuning a large wooden console radio with his young daughter on his lap, California, 1940

The Great Martian Panic of 1938 Was Mostly Invented by Newspapers

Jonah Okafor · October 31, 2026

Photochrom print of about 1905 showing the bronze statue of King Alfred in Winchester, sword raised, on a granite plinth

World Figureheads

In 878 Every Other English King Had Fled or Submitted. Alfred Went Into a Swamp Instead

Tomás Ferreira · October 30, 2026

Wood engraving of a family carving the turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner table, from Harper's Weekly, 1858

America's First Cookbook, 1796: An Orphan, a Pumpkin Pie and the Word 'Cookie'

Priya Raman · October 30, 2026