Heroes of History: Gertrude Bell
Archaeologist, advisor, adventurer – meet the Victorian queen of the desert In a time when British women were expected to stay at home and raise a family, Gertrude Bell was busy climbing mountains and...
Category: History
Medical History: The NHS through the decades
Discover just some of the many medical milestones throughout 71 years of the UK’s National Health Service *Click to expand 5 July 1948 – Birth of the NHS Launched by the health secretary Aneurin...
Pompeii: How are casts of the dead created?
Discover how the victims of a volcanic eruption have been preserved On 24 August 79 CE, Italy’s Mount Vesuvius erupted with a violent explosion of lava, rock and ash, sending a cloud of debris...
What was the Chernobyl disaster?
Explore the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident and discover how it has made an incredible recovery When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986, it released five per cent of its 200-ton...
Explored: The catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa
Discover one of the seven wonders of the Middle Ages On the northern coast of Egypt, in the bustling city of Alexandria, lay the catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa. The tomb’s Arab name was given...
Toy story: How did the teddy bear get its name?
Once upon a time in 1902, the President of the United States was hunting for bears in the woods. He had not seen a single one and the other hunters began to feel sorry...
The History of Notre Dame
The most magnificent church in Paris throughout the Gothic age, Notre Dame defined what a cathedral should be The Cathedral church of Our Lady, normally referred to simply as ‘Notre Dame’, stands on the...
Top 5 most deadly cosmetics
Discover some of history’s most ill-advised beauty secrets Lead makeup During the Roman Empire, and in England until the 19th century, women would whiten their faces with a lead mixture called Ceruse. The resulting...
Prehistoric giants of the sky
Credit: Johnson-Mortimer The huge aerial predators that brought death from above Jumbo raptor Haast’s Eagle ▶ 1.8 MYA-1400 CE With talons the size of tigers’ claws, these monstrous eagles preyed on helpless herbivores of...
Meet the world’s biggest sloth
One of the biggest land mammals that ever existed, the giant ground sloth roamed the Earth for millions of years Towering over the Cenozoic flora of South America, a sloth the size of an...
