History All Day – Stories From the Past, Every Day

Photograph of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, bearded and in a dark jacket, speaking at a microphone during the 1989 campaign

Brazil Votes Today. The First Time Lula Lost a Runoff, It Took a TV Edit and a Kidnapping

In December 1989 Brazil held its first direct presidential vote in 29 years. A 44-year-old metalworker lost it to a governor nobody had heard of a year earlier.

Marcus Delacroix · October 25, 2026

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Illustrated cover of Puck magazine from 13 September 1911 showing a woman in a blue dress and wide black hat on a striped sofa, captioned Why Worry About Mona Lisa

Picasso Was Born 145 Years Ago Today. In 1911 Paris Police Asked Him About the Mona Lisa

October 25, 2026

Colour photograph of delegates seated at the United States and Austria desks in the United Nations General Assembly hall, New York, late 1960s

Fifty-Five Years Ago Tonight the UN Gave China's Seat to Beijing in One Vote

October 25, 2026

Lithograph of the Chinese junk Keying, a three-masted trading junk from Canton, as it appeared in New York harbour in 1847

Strange History

The Pirate Queen Who Beat China's Navy, Then Surrendered on Her Own Terms and Kept the Money

October 25, 2026

Photograph of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, four sandstone lions back to back on a drum carved with wheels, displayed in the Sarnath museum

World Figureheads

Ashoka Won the Kalinga War, Then Carved an Apology Into Rocks Across India

October 24, 2026

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing Harold enthroned as king of the English with Archbishop Stigand beside him

The Bayeux Tapestry Is in London at Last, and It Was Never a Tapestry

October 24, 2026

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Marble head of Zeus Ammon with ram's horns, Roman, about 120 to 160 AD

A Persian Army of 50,000 Vanished in the Egyptian Desert and People Are Still Looking

Jonah Okafor · October 24, 2026

Manuscript miniature of Charles VI of France enthroned in a blue robe covered in gold fleurs-de-lis, holding two sceptres

Strange History

The King of France Believed He Was Made of Glass, and England Nearly Got the Crown

Tomás Ferreira · October 24, 2026

Silver denarius of Didius Julianus, 193 AD: the emperor's laureate head on one side, the figure of Concordia with military standards on the other

World Figureheads

Rome Sold Its Empire to the Highest Bidder in 193 AD. He Lasted 66 Days

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 24, 2026

Engraved portrait of Benjamin Franklin in a fur cap and spectacles, after a 1777 drawing by Charles-Nicolas Cochin

Franklin Sailed for France 250 Years Ago and Conquered Paris in a Fur Hat

Hannah Lindqvist · October 24, 2026

Studio photograph of Harry Houdini in a three-piece suit and bow tie, leaning on a chair, about 1913

Houdini Did His Last Show 100 Years Ago Tonight With a Fever and a Burst Appendix

Priya Raman · October 24, 2026

Photograph of the Yugoslav federal parliament building in Belgrade with flames in its windows and a crowd in front of it on 5 October 2000

Serbia Votes Tomorrow. The Last Time Its Students Beat a Strongman Took One Day

Marcus Delacroix · October 24, 2026

Engraved 1851 plate comparing the planetary systems of Ptolemy, the Egyptians, Tycho Brahe and Copernicus

Strange History

Tycho Brahe Died 425 Years Ago Today, and It Took Two Exhumations to Clear Kepler

Jonah Okafor · October 24, 2026

Brass planispheric astrolabe made in Persia in 1654, with a degree scale divided in sixtieths around the rim

Why a Minute Has 60 Seconds: Babylon's Maths Just Outlived the Leap Second

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 24, 2026

Old Judge Cigarettes baseball card of pitcher Charles Radbourn in a Boston uniform tagging a sliding runner, 1887

Why It Is Called the World Series: A Freezing Weekend in 1884, Not a Newspaper

Priya Raman · October 24, 2026

Photograph of three women at a polling place in 1957, one checking a book of registered voters, with a voting booth and an American flag behind them

Why Your Vote Is Secret: A Gold-Rush Colony Invented the Ballot in 1856

Marcus Delacroix · October 24, 2026

Photo of a round clay school exercise tablet with rows of cuneiform signs, Mesopotamia, c. 20th to 16th century BC

The ABC Order Is 3,400 Years Old and Nobody Knows Why A Comes First

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 23, 2026

Painting of a storm cloud sweeping over the Connecticut River valley at Northampton, Massachusetts, with the river's oxbow bend in sunlight below

Strange History

New England's Dark Day of 1780: Noon Went Black and Tree Rings Explain Why

Priya Raman · October 23, 2026

Photo of a Day of the Dead ofrenda piled with orange marigolds, painted skulls, candles, oranges and papier-mâché skeletons

Day of the Dead Was Reshaped by Friars, a Printmaker and a Bond Film

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 23, 2026

Photograph of Charles de Gaulle in a dark suit standing beside Dwight Eisenhower at a microphone on an airport apron, surrounded by officials, in April 1960

World Figureheads

The Day de Gaulle Vanished: Six Hours in May 1968 That Saved His Presidency

Tomás Ferreira · October 23, 2026

Colourised scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles, in blue, budding from an infected cell, in yellow

Ebola Was Found Fifty Years Ago in a Thermos Flask Sent From a Mission Hospital

Marcus Delacroix · October 23, 2026

Printed broadside of the 29 September 1690 order by the Governor and Council of Massachusetts suppressing the newspaper Publick Occurrences

America's First Newspaper Lasted Four Days Before Boston Shut It Down

Hannah Lindqvist · October 23, 2026

Photograph of a wild emu feeding on dry open ground in outback Australia

Strange History

Australia Sent Machine Guns Against 20,000 Emus in 1932 and the Emus Won

Jonah Okafor · October 23, 2026

Woodblock print of a huge blue wave with clawed white foam curling over three boats, with a small Mount Fuji in the distance

The Great Wave Cost About as Much as a Double Helping of Noodles in 1831

Hannah Lindqvist · October 23, 2026

Let Them Eat Cake Was in Print Before Marie Antoinette Could Read

Jonah Okafor · October 23, 2026

Detail of a medieval map showing a crowned Black king seated on a throne holding a gold coin and a sceptre, with Catalan text beside him

World Figureheads

Mansa Musa Took So Much Gold to Mecca in 1324 That Cairo's Price Crashed

Tomás Ferreira · October 23, 2026

The Queens Museum, the former New York City Building at Flushing Meadows where the UN General Assembly met from 1946 to 1950, photographed in 2018

Eighty Years Ago the United Nations Moved Into a Skating Rink in Queens

Marcus Delacroix · October 23, 2026

Engraving of a crowd of men in hats gathered around the porch of a courthouse on election day, with a banner reading The Will of the People the Supreme Law

Why Americans Vote on a Tuesday in November: An 1845 Law for Farmers

Priya Raman · October 23, 2026

The Milwaukee Brewers' ballpark, then called Miller Park, photographed in 2016; it is now American Family Field

The Brewers Were Born When the Seattle Pilots Went Broke After One Season

Priya Raman · October 22, 2026

Sepia photograph from 1902 of the interior of the basilica of St John Lateran in Rome, looking toward the Gothic canopy over the high altar

Strange History

The Pope Who Dug Up His Predecessor and Put the Corpse on Trial

Jonah Okafor · October 22, 2026