History articles from around the world

History articles

Ancient Chariots Found in Bulgaria

Bulgarian police have discovered three ancient chariots and two ornaments tossed in an abandoned vine-field

Peaceful primitive people were a myth

Our society tends to portray pre western primitive people as mostly peace loving It serves as a kind of comparison that we now are more warlike, and that in the past people were more "attuned to nature" but this interesting book shows that the opposite is true

Circle the wagons!

This saying came from an amazing battle where 32 soldiers and workers held off over 1000 Indians The victory was also aided by the new breach loading rifles they used

Plane hits Empire State building - really!

The Plane That Crashed Into the Empire State Building. On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lt Colonel William Smith was piloting a US Army B-25 bomber through New York City

The history of the Kings of Britain - pre Romans

Way back in the 11C Geoffrey of Monmouth compiled together the existing Welsh legends and manuscripts about the History of the land of Britian before the Romans, here is a translation of his fascinating book

Blackbeards ship found me hearties

The pirate Blackbeard's flagship may finally be yielding its identity after nearly 300 years on the ocean floor

The Templars discovered America!! DaVinchi code eat your heart out.

Researchers have found new evidence of a secret code concealed on the Kensington Runestone, one of the most controversial pieces of Minnesota history

Archaeologists Unearth Britain's Own Miniature Coliseum

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of Britain's own miniature Coliseum, it was revealed today The two-tier stone built structure, in Chester.

WW2 Doolittle Raiders Share Stories

There has been a recent movie that ended with this scene of the Doolittle raiders taking off to bomb Tokyo, on what they all knew was a suicide mission Well some survived, hero's indeed

Stalin's secret files on Hitler

The secret personal files of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin on the private life of his greatest enemy, the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, have been unearthed in a Moscow archive

Archaeologist discovers ancient ships in Egypt

Kathryn Bard had the best Christmas ever this past December when she discovered the well-preserved timbers and riggings of pharaonic seafaring ships inside a cave.

Underground city in Iran?

Iranian Three-Story Underground City Served As Haven .

Guy finds ancient Roman villa on Google maps

While searching around his hometown in Google Earth, Luca Mori stumbled on what looked like the meanders of an ancient river On the satellite image, it looks like “prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long“ However, his eye caught what he described as “rectangular shadows“

Hiroshima, why they had to drop the bomb

60 years on from Hiroshima it seems very PC to criticize the dropping of the bomb, but released transcripts of the messages between the Japanese leaders shows that they would have "unleashed hell" had America tried to invade Japan

Graffiti from Pompeii some things never change

Some things never change, yet the style is more informative and poetic than just the random abuse now

Have they found King David's palace?

In what might be a profound discovery, an Israeli archaeologist has found the site of a great complex of buildings which may be the house of King David from the bible Not surprisingly she just followed the descriptions of its site from the bible, and there it was

 

Huge biblical underground complex found

Recent excavation of a cave site near Jerusalem has revealed once-full exterior water pools and a corridor

Lady Be Good WW2 bomber found

Fascinating true tale about finding a crashed WW2 bomber in North Africa Great article. In early November, 1958, a British oil exploration team was flying over North Africa's harsh Libyan Desert when they stumbled across something unexpected

Bodies of Knights Templar found.

Archaeologists have found remains of some Knights Templar, where they were killed fighting against the forces of Saladin. This is an exciting find, and I am surprised we do not hear about this in other news outlets

Ancient Pyramid Discovered in Mexico

Archaeologists said Wednesday they have discovered a massive 6th-century Indian pyramid beneath the site of a centuries-old re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ

Whatever happened to the monowheel?

This fascinating site shows pictures of monowheels through the centuries We don't seem to have the passion for them that they had in the past it seems

Ancient Sarcophagus Unearthed in Cyprus

A 2,500-year-old sarcophagus with vivid colour illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday .Construction workers found the limestone sarcophagus last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos

Hey where did these manmade caves come from

The puzzling Huashan caves. Is it simply a coincidence or do certain laws of nature lie behind the phenomenon.

Columbus mystery nearly solved 500 years after death

Nearly 500 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, a team of genetic researchers are using DNA to solve two nagging mysteries: Where was the explorer really born? And where the devil are his bones?

Egypt announces discovery of Ramses II statues

Statues weighing up to five tonnes and thought to be of one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs, Ramses II, have been found northeast of Cairo.

WW2 Russian tanks found that work perfectly

Now this is neat, they found 2 Russian tanks from 1943 in a Latvian bog, dug them out and within a couple of days drove them away with everything working

Russian Colonel prevented WW3 in 1983

Fascinating article, here we were quietly going about our business, and at any time a computing fault could have blown the whole world to oblivion Gives hope for humanity when the people with their hands on the missiles are careful like this

Stone age footprints in Australia

What's interesting is the size and fitness of the hunters We are often  old that prehistoric people were smaller than us, and that we are attaining optimum size because of diet and medicine

 

98 year old colour photos of Russia

View of the Nilova Monastery The Monastery of St Nil' on Stolobnyi Island in Lake Seliger in Tver' Province, northwest of Moscow, illustrates the fate of church institutions during the course of Russian history

12800 year old cave paintings verified

Britain's first cave art is more than 12,800 years old, scientific testing has shown Engravings of a deer and other creatures at Creswell Crags, in Derbyshire, have proved to be genuine Ice Age creations, and not modern fakes, as some had feared

Was stonehenge much bigger?

A team of archaeologists from Sheffield University have revealed significant new insights into the role of Stonehenge after discovering a prehistoric ceremonial road

Tragic end in ancient cave drama

Deep under a quiet valley in southern Greece, archaeologists are struggling to unravel a 1,400-year-old tragedy that wiped out a rural Byzantine community

Librarian finds hand written Beethoven manuscript

Now you don't see one of these every day, especially when it goes up for auction for a million pounds I wonder what Beethoven was doing in a religious school in Philadelphia

The real Robinson Crusoe found.

A glint of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe

 

Recent History Posts

The fall of the Swiss at the hands of Caesar
This is an amazing story. In 58BC the Swiss (Helvetti) tribes, all 368,000 people decided it would be nicer to live in what is now called France. So they all upped sticks and moved enmass, one huge convoy of tribes. ... Naturally the French were not...
Spartacus - Behind the myth - excellent 5 part video series
The real history of Spartacus, an excellent video series on the times and the slave revolt ... Spartacus (c. 109 BCE-71 BCE), according to Roman historians, was a slave and a gladiator who became a leader (or possibly one of several leaders) in the m...
WW2 footage of captured Zero fighter and other planes
Fascinating video of the allies with a captured Japanese Zero fighter. Also other wrecked fighters and allied planes. Unique video, I have never seen it before. http://www.youtube.com/v/doysYtwMgrY
Ancient lost Persian army found in desert - video
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology\'s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers. ... ...
WW2 Russian Pilot found preserved in his crashed plane
The body of Russian Pilot Sergeant Lazarev was recently found preserved in a bog, still in his crashed Hurricane fighter. ... February, 21st, 1943 From the Soviet military air base in Chupa two P-40 fighters and five Hurricanes took flight in an ope...
WW2 P32 fighter found after 65 years
For 65 years, this Second World War fighter had lain hidden under the surface of a beach where it crash-landed. ... The downed WW2 fighter P-38 found on a popular beach 65 years after being lost. Just a short distance above it, holidaying famili...
Hiroshima, why they had to drop the bomb
why is this occuring at the same time the chineese populace are also angry at japan over textbook issues? its very convienient to seperate Japan from its allies at a time when Japanese and Chinese economic interests are beggining to merge. ... my be...
The London Blitz - the mistake that cost Germany the war?
A fascinating article on the bad decisions the Germans made in focusing on the attack of London during WW2. ... The attack on London in fact marked a shift in Hitler\'s strategy, away from using the Luftwaffe to destroy Britain\'s air defenses direct...
Inflation, the military, and the fall of the Roman Empire
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. This excellent talk on the fall of the Roman Empire, covers some strikingly contemporary issues, such as the relationship between the military and inflation. Not only can history be interesting and......
47 years later they are still hunting the Alcatraz escapees
It was called The Rock — the country\'s only escape-proof prison. The federal penitentiary at Alcatraz was a cell house built on an island surrounded by the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay. ... Only the worst of the worst were sent there, life...
The Lake Peigneur disaster - a 14 inch hole drained an entire lake
Early in the morning on November 21, 1980, twelve men decided to abandon their oil drilling rig on the suspicion that it was beginning to collapse beneath them. They had been probing for oil under the floor of Lake Peigneur when their drill suddenly....
WW2 German flak towers - impenetrable sky towers
Like enormous fortressess or castles these huge structures dominated the major German cities during WW2. In many cvases they are still there, their bulk and size making the removal or adaption of them difficult. ... After the RAF\'s raid on Berlin in...
World War 2 - an unusual definition - funny
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The real Battle of Baghdad 1258
In 1258 a calamity hit the center of Islamic culture, Baghdad, a disaster so comprehensive it still echos 800 years later. In an act of hubris combined with stupidity the Calif of Baghdad insulted some Asian visitors knocking on the doors. The... ...
Huge 1BC cave found in Israel
An artificial underground cave, the largest of its kind in Israel, was discovered in the Jordan Valley during excavations by the Haifa University\'s Department of Archaeology. ... Imagine the amazement of the archeologists at finding a huge man made ...
WW1 trench warfare color video
Haunting and dramatic color video of WW1 trench warfare from both sides. Very good quality. In hindsight was there actually any alternative to this type of warfare? http://www.liveleak.com/e/63e_1244406814
Remains of Russian WW2 submarine found
The remains of a World War II-era Soviet submarine have been found by a team of Swedish divers in the Baltic Sea. ... The vessel, a Soviet S-2 class submarine, was sunk by mines in 1940, killing all 50 crew members. The search for the Soviet submarin...
British D-Day secret wartime military tests - video
During WW2 and prior to D day the British military tried out many novel types of equipment to better help their D-day assault. her eis a video so some of the more \'unorthodox\' experiments, such as the Kapoc Landing Stage MkI (which must have been.....
The Commander who proved Russian subs were in the Atlantic
Fifty years ago this week, Ted Davis and his 80-member crew made history, forcing a Soviet sub to the surface and proving the Soviet presence in the Atlantic. ... It all started as a sporting argument between Adms. Arleigh Burke and Jerald Wright. Wr...
Herefordshire woman keeps digging up treasure in her garden
Since moving into an old farmhouse Jan Long has unearthed hundreds of antiques worth thousands of pounds from under her lawn, flower beds and vegetable patch. ... Retired Jan, 57, first hit a stash of hundreds of Victorian bottles at her new home nea...
8 million year old trees discovered that are not fossils but still wood
Is this possible? To be still organic after 8 million years? What does this say about finding other non fossilized materials? ... Hungarian Environment Minister Gabor Fodor told reporters in Budapest Friday the government will contribute millions of ...
St. Petersburg / Leningrad, images from the past
These beautifully made images show Leningrad from WW2 and the same scenes from the same city, now called St. Petersburg, at present. Haunting images of the past. ... http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6762/bt00.jpg http://img50...
Operation Hardtack 1958 8KT nuclear explosion video
Operation Hardtack was a series of 72 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1958. With test moratoriums on the horizon, American weapons labs rushed out many new designs. ... Hardtack I was carried out in the Pacific Ocean, at Bikini Atoll...
World War 1 in color video
The reality of the trenches in WW1 and the futility of men running to their death. This amazing footage in color of the people fighting and dying in Europe during the Great War. ... http://www.youtube.com/v/HecarBy9XJc&hl=en&...
3800 year old Egyptian ship rebuilt and sailed
An international team of archaeologists, shipwrights and sailors recently built a full-scale replica of a 3,800-year-old ship and sailed it on the Red Sea to re-create a voyage to a place the ancient Egyptians called God’s Land, or Punt. ... Many ...
The British nearly made giant floating ice ships during WW2
One of the most amazing ideas we never saw. Ice so strong that it could be made into ships and floating islands. ... In late 1942, Lord Louis Mountbatten — the British military\'s Chief of Combined Operations — paid a visit to Winston Churchill at h...
German WW2 jet video - The Me-163 Komet
Funny looking little stubby plane, I imagine it must have been revolutionary for its day and look even more bizarre to the pilots used to seeing propellers on aircraft. ... I wonder how much it would have affected the war if they were operational a y...
WW2 Normandy invasion in color - video
Remarkable color video documentary taken just after the Normandy invasion in WW2. Well worth watching http://www.liveleak.com/e/a9d_1233301847
Volunteers wanted in WW2 to be sealed alive in a tunnel for one year
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The camel driver goes to America
This surprising story from 1961 covers the accidental invitation of Bashir Ahmad, an illiterate camel driver to America by the then Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Fascinating. Times certainly have changed, he would never get through security now. .....
The Vikings, misunderstood fashion setters
They were vain, wore baggy pants, washed and cleaned themselves fastidiously, and were style crazed trend setters. Nope not today\'s teenagers, but Vikings. ... Cambridge University has launched a campaign to recast Vikings as \"new men\" with an in...
Possibility the oldest human footprints found - 345,000 years old
Dating experiments have not always confirmed suspicions. In 2003, a team discovered 40,000 year old footprints preserved in volcanic ash in southern Mexico. But when a separate group dated the Mexican prints using the argon technique used by.....
WW1 soldier sketched tree under fire replaced it with fake
Camera technology must have been pretty bad back then. A soldier in WW1 sketched a dead tree so well it was copied and replaced with a steel replica and a solider inside it. ... In the days before satellite surveillance provided detailed images from ...
In WW2 pilots carried metal spheres in case they ditched in the ocean
During World War II, American pilots were given hollow metal spheres to be used when their planes went down over water. Metal, as you probably know, tends to be quite heavy and quite useless as a flotation device. ... So why were these pilots given ...
37000+ skeletons lie underneath London streets
Information like this remind you show how old and populated London has been for centuries. ... Tens of thousands of skeletons that lie hidden beneath the streets, houses and offices of London have been revealed for the first time on a map, in a colla...

The London Blitz - the mistake that cost Germany the war?

A fascinating article on the bad decisions the Germans made in focusing on the attack of London during WW2

Stonehenge was originally built as a cemetery

At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved:

Famous ancient theatres around the world

Here are some famous ancient Greek and Roman theatres that still remain I have visited a few and am amazed at the construction of such immense works

In 1951 the CIA dug a tunnel under Berlin to tap Soviet cables - amazing planning T

he tunnel was 1,476 feet in length and consumed 125 tons of steel liner plate and 1,000 cubic yards of grout This was not a small operation!

128 year old British Martini-Henry rifles found in Afghanistan

 British soldiers serving in Afghanistan have recovered weapons looted from the bodies of their Victorian forebears

The tomb of Herod the Great has been found in Israel

Claw marks from ancient giant bear found in cave

The bear that left a 3-foot-long claw mark in an Ice Age clay bank was the largest bear species ever to walk the earth, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and capable of moving its 1,800 pounds up to 45 miles per hour in a snarling dash for prey

The absence of Black Americans in WW2 movies

With the release of a war movie about Iwo Jima, by Clint Eastwood come the revelation that the roles of Black American soldiers were removed from the historical record Seems heroes could only be white in the 1940's

Ancient pagan graveyard found under the Vatican

Sounds like a DaVinchi Code book. Fascinating. Just inside the Vatican's fortified walls, directly below the street connecting its private pharmacy and its members-only supermarket, lies a 2,000-year-old graveyard littered with bizarre, often disturbing displays of pagan worship

WW1 pictures in colour

Awesome I always thought WW1 was fought in black and white : I wonder how much history was lost during that war, old buildings destroyed, art destroyed, communities reduced to nothing etc It must have changed totally that part of Europe

 

Ancient Roman mosaic found under football field

When teachers at St Laurence's School in Bradford-on-Avon, southern England, noticed how the school's football field became scored with yellow lines of dried grass during the summer, little did they know that an extraordinary archaeological site lay just a foot below

Russian T34 tank pulled from lake, after 56 years. Still runs.

14 September 2000, a Komatsu D375A-2 pulled an abandoned tank from its archival tomb under the bottom of a lake near Johvi, Estonia The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years

 

Russian war photos from WW2

Photo's from Russia of World War 2 The "Great War" Or in the west, it could be called the "Forgotten war" Suffering and horror almost unknown by the Allies

 

Celtic mummies in China a long way from home

Fascinating article includes Nordic mummies as well . Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man's hair is reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard

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The strange stone spheres of Costa Rica

Was God playing marbles? In the 1930s, workers from the United Fruit Company, were clearing land in the Diquis Valley and began unearthing large numbers of almost perfectly round stone spheres The largest of these apparently man-made balls was over two meters in diameter and weighed over 16 tons

Is an Egyptian pharaohs daughter the mother of all Scots

An ancient story about the origin of the Scots is given credence by some new research . Actually there are alternative histories written by the Celts and other people of the time that show a strong Greek and Mediterranean influence on the original inhabitants of the British Isles

Pyramid found in Ukraine older than Egypt

Archaeologists in Ukraine have unearthed the remains of an ancient pyramidal structure that pre-dates those in Egypt by at least 300 years

2000 year old underground iron age chamber discovered

An underground chamber undisturbed since the Iron Age was revealed on North Uist when a 10ft hole opened beneath the wheel of a tractor Archaeologists assessed the find at Port nan Long at the north of the island, which has been sealed off from the public

 

Hot summer reveals Scotland's past

A heat wave has revealed fleeting traces of early settlements to historians taking a bird's eye view of Scotland The conditions this summer have proved ideal for aerial archaeologists who document the buried sites, which appear in ripening crops

Has Noah's Ark been found in Northern Iran?

An interesting article here on Noah's ark not being on the traditional Mt Ararat, but in the north of Iran, on a mountain range there The reasoning is pretty sound and backs up the biblical story well

Archaeologists find more than 1000 skeletons dressed in togas

Archaeologists exploring one of Rome's oldest catacombs have discovered more than 1,000 skeletons dressed in elegant togas

Dwarf Dinosaur Fossils Found in Germany

Fossils from northern Germany have revealed a dinosaur that evolved into a dwarf, ending up only about one-third the size of its closest known relatives

Giant Crater Found: Tied to Worst Mass Extinction Ever

A crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica . Scientists think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago

Prehistoric ecosystem found in Israeli cave

Israeli scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered a prehistoric ecosystem dating back millions of years The discovery was made in a cave near the central Israeli city of Ramle during rock drilling at a quarry

Scientists Unveil World's Oldest Ice Block

A million-year-old ice sample drilled from 3 kilometres under the Antarctic and unveiled in Tokyo on Tuesday could yield vital clues on climate change,

Details Revealed About Huge Dinosaurs

Scientists are learning more about what appears to be one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known, a two-legged beast whose bones were found several years ago in the fossil-rich Patagonia region of Argentina