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

Today in history · 70 years ago · October 31, 1956World History

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

On 31 October 1956 British and French bombers hit Egyptian airfields to take back the Suez Canal. Six days later Washington had forced them to stop.

Marcus Delacroix · October 31, 2026

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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

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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'

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Stereograph photo of the Acropolis of Athens seen from the south-west in 1900, with a man in a hat sitting on a rock in the foreground

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Athens Imposed the First Recorded Trade Embargo in 432 BC. It Got a 27-Year War

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Hand-coloured etching by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800, of a London night watchman in a greatcoat holding a lantern and a rattle

Strange History

A Man Shot a Ghost in Hammersmith in 1804. The Law Took 180 Years to Decide If He Was Guilty

Jonah Okafor · October 30, 2026

Postcard photograph of the finish of the 1905 Melbourne Cup at Flemington, with the crowd in the foreground

The First Melbourne Cup Had 4,000 People, a Gold Watch and a Horse Who Came by Boat

Hannah Lindqvist · October 30, 2026

Photo of Patrick Stewart on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2013

Patrick Stewart Was the Captain Star Trek's Creator Refused to Have

Hannah Lindqvist · October 30, 2026

Photograph of Royal Marines lined up at English Camp on San Juan Island before leaving in 1872

Strange History

Britain and America Nearly Went to War Over One Pig and Stayed Twelve Years

Marcus Delacroix · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the white stone obelisk of the Governor Sevier Monument in Knoxville, Tennessee, about 1900

Franklin Was a 14th State for Four Years. Congress Said No by Two Votes

Priya Raman · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the Tsar Bomba fireball over Novaya Zemlya on 30 October 1961

Sixty-Five Years Ago Today the Soviets Set Off a Bomb Too Big to Use

Marcus Delacroix · October 30, 2026

Photograph of Obispo Street in Havana around 1906, with shop awnings, signs in Spanish and English and people on the pavements

The United States Has Governed Cuba Twice. The Second Time, Almost Nobody Remembers

Tomás Ferreira · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the Pantheon in Rome from the piazza, with its portico, dome and fountain, about 1910

Why All Saints' Day Is 1 November: From a Roman Temple to a Frankish Decree

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Chromolithograph of about 1872 showing a boy carving a face into a pumpkin while a small girl watches

Why We Carve Pumpkins: An Irish Turnip, a Man the Devil Would Not Take, and a Bigger Vegetable

Jonah Okafor · October 30, 2026

Albumen photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, 1867: two men of Clarence King's Fortieth Parallel Survey sit and stand among knobbly tufa rock formations at Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Strange History

Two Prospectors Salted a Mesa With Diamonds in 1872 and Fooled Tiffany's

Priya Raman · October 29, 2026

Photograph of Miller Park in Milwaukee, now American Family Field, under a clear blue sky in 2016, with its arched roof trusses and brick facade

Milwaukee's Last Title Was 1957. Eight Years Later the Braves Were Gone

Priya Raman · October 29, 2026

Johannes Vermeer's painting Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (about 1662): a woman in a white headdress and a deep blue ultramarine skirt stands by a window holding a brass pitcher

The Blue That Cost More Than Gold Came From One Valley in Afghanistan

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

William Hogarth's 1755 engraving An Election Entertainment: a crowded tavern feast, with a placard reading Give Us Our Eleven Days lying under a man's foot at bottom right

Why the Year Begins on 1 January, and Why Britain's Tax Year Doesn't

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

Engraving from 1896 of a British cruiser firing on the sultan's palace in Zanzibar harbour, with smoke rising from the waterfront and the lighthouse behind

Strange History

The Shortest War in History Lasted 38 Minutes, and Zanzibar Was Billed for the Shells

Marcus Delacroix · October 28, 2026

Hellenistic bronze statue of a sleeping winged boy lying on a rock, 3rd to 2nd century BC, of the kind the divers mistook for drowned bodies (this one is in New York, not from the wreck)

Strange History

Divers Raised the Antikythera Mechanism in 1901. It Sat on a Shelf a Year

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 28, 2026

Studio photograph of Rear Admiral William B. Caperton of the US Navy in full dress uniform with epaulettes and sword, around 1915

1,000 Salvadoran Troops Are in Haiti. The Last Big Landing Stayed 19 Years

Tomás Ferreira · October 28, 2026

Woodblock print by Kawanabe Kyōsai, about 1863, showing two long-necked goblins frightening a customer at a noodle stall

Instant Noodles Began in an Osaka Shed. Last Year the World Ate 124 Billion

Hannah Lindqvist · October 28, 2026

Black-and-white photograph of Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres sitting side by side in the Knesset in the 1980s, Peres reading a note

Israel Is Deadlocked Again. In 1984 the Answer Was Two Prime Ministers Taking Turns

Marcus Delacroix · October 28, 2026

Blue and white porcelain bowl from Joseon-dynasty Korea, dated 1847, with floral panels and an inscription incised around the foot

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King Sejong Invented an Alphabet in 1443. His Scholars Begged Him to Stop

Tomás Ferreira · October 28, 2026

William Hogarth's etching Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation (1726): doctors gather round Mary Toft's bed while rabbits run across the floor

Strange History

Mary Toft Gave Birth to 17 Rabbits in 1726. The King's Surgeon Believed Her

Jonah Okafor · October 28, 2026

Oil painting by Edward Moran of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in 1886, with the statue above a crowd of flag-decked boats and gun smoke in New York Harbor

The Statue of Liberty Was Unveiled 140 Years Ago Today in Fog, Rain and a Mistimed Speech

Priya Raman · October 28, 2026

Photograph of Adolf Hitler saluting the Olympic flag at the Berlin Games in 1936, the year the Peace Prize went to Carl von Ossietzky

Trump Won't Forget Norway. Hitler Banned Germans From the Nobel in 1937

Jonah Okafor · October 28, 2026

The Cloisters Playing Cards, a complete hand-painted deck of 52 made in the Burgundian Netherlands around 1475 to 1480, laid out in four rows

Why a Jack Is a Jack: The Deck in Your Drawer Is a 1480s French Design

Hannah Lindqvist · October 28, 2026