History All Day – Stories From the Past, Every Day

Black and white photograph of Morarji Desai, far left in a white cap and dark waistcoat, standing with Mani Ram Bagri and a group of Indian and European guests in front of clipped hedges and a stone building

World Figureheads

India's Note Ban Is 10 Years Old. Morarji Desai Tried It First in 1978

Ten years after Modi's note ban, India has more cash than ever. In 1978 Morarji Desai scrapped big notes too, over the objections of his own central banker.

Tomás Ferreira · November 12, 2026

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Photograph of Deng Xiaoping and President Jimmy Carter waving from a White House balcony, January 1979

Xi Hosts Trump in Shenzhen, the Border Town His Father Helped Unlock

November 12, 2026

Spain's Biggest General Strike Was Called Against a Socialist in 1988

November 12, 2026

Front view of a cast of the Taung Child fossil: a small face with large eye sockets and milk teeth, with the reddish stone of the brain cast behind it, against a black background

Strange History

The Taung Child Is Now 3 Million Years Old. In 1925 Nobody Believed It

November 12, 2026

Photograph of the first permanent soldier guarding the low marble Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, March 1926

The Unknown Soldier's Tomb Got a Guard Because People Picnicked on It

November 12, 2026

Colour photograph of Sheikh Hasina in glasses and a red and pink sari over her head, speaking into a microphone at a rally in Gopalganj in 2023

World Figureheads

Hasina Wants to Go Home From Delhi. She Did It Once Before, in 1981

November 11, 2026

More Stories

Studio photograph of Isaiah T. Montgomery, a Black man with a grey goatee, in a dark suit and patterned tie with a ribbon on his lapel

Mississippi's Senate Count Runs on Rules From an 1890 Convention

Marcus Delacroix · November 11, 2026

Color photograph of two Saudi princes in white headdresses and dark robes seated on a purple sofa in front of a vase of chrysanthemums

Saudi Arabia Won Its 1934 War With Yemen, Then Gave Back the Port

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 11, 2026

Black and white photograph of a painting of Le Frigorifique, a three-masted steamship under sail with smoke from its funnel, flying the French flag at the stern

The Cold Chain Hackers Hit in France Began on a Ship From Rouen

Hannah Lindqvist · November 11, 2026

Black and white photograph of uniformed soldiers in campaign hats marching with rifles past a tobacco warehouse during the Armistice Day parade in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, November 1942

Congress Moved Veterans Day to October in 1971. The States Refused

Priya Raman · November 11, 2026

Black and white studio portrait of General Juan Vicente Gómez, Venezuela's ruler, with a heavy moustache, wearing a dark suit and patterned tie, about 1910 to 1915

Strange History

Venezuela's Oil Age Began With a Well That Sprayed Crude for Nine Days

Jonah Okafor · November 10, 2026

Hand-colored 1749 engraving of a West Indian sugar works, with cane growing on the left, a boiling house, an animal-driven cane mill and enslaved workers watched by an overseer

In 1972 John Berger Won the Booker and Gave Half to the Black Panthers

Hannah Lindqvist · November 10, 2026

Color photograph of the sheer limestone walls of Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, with the Rio Grande running between Mexico on the left and the United States on the right

Big Bend Was Meant to Be Half of a Park Shared With Mexico, Not a Wall

Priya Raman · November 10, 2026

Black and white photograph of the old Cairo railway station, a long building with a clock tower, seen across a square crowded with street vendors' carts in the early 1900s

World Figureheads

Egypt's Heir Drowned When His Train Fell in the Nile, and Ismail Got Egypt

Tomás Ferreira · November 10, 2026

Black and white photograph of President Sukarno in a peci cap and dark glasses, smiling and waving from the back of an open car in Washington, with photographers and onlookers behind him, May 1956

Indonesia's First Vice President Quit in 1956. The Post Sat Empty 17 Years

Marcus Delacroix · November 10, 2026

Hadrian's Gate in Antalya, a triple-arched Roman gateway of white marble set between stone towers, photographed in 2023

Antalya's Founding Dynasty Ended When a King Left His Kingdom to Rome

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 9, 2026

Black and white photograph of the stone Cenotaph in Whitehall draped in Union flags before its unveiling on 11 November 1920, with troops and crowds around it

The Cenotaph Was Built in Plaster for One Parade and Never Taken Down

Hannah Lindqvist · November 9, 2026

Black and white photograph of D. F. Malan in a homburg hat and glasses stepping off a KLM airliner in the Netherlands in 1953, as a woman holding flowers greets him

In 1948 South Africa's Ruling Party Won the Most Votes and Lost Power

Marcus Delacroix · November 9, 2026

Sepia photograph of José Batlle y Ordóñez, a heavy-set man in a dark coat, standing at a ballot table surrounded by men in suits

Strange History

Uruguay Renamed Christmas Family Day in 1919. Pope Leo Just Visited Anyway

Jonah Okafor · November 9, 2026

Black and white photograph of Senator Birch Bayh speaking at a lectern marked Democratic National Convention, with glass teleprompter screens on either side

The House Voted 338 to 70 to Abolish the Electoral College in 1969

Priya Raman · November 8, 2026

Two photographs of an early 1900s submarine telegraph cable: a length of tarred, armoured cable with a handwritten paper label, and the cut end showing the ring of steel armour wires around the core

Britain Cut Germany's Undersea Cables on the First Night of War in 1914

Marcus Delacroix · November 8, 2026

A gold pocket watch by Breguet, Paris, about 1810, with a white enamel chapter ring and a skeletonised movement visible through the dial

Strange History

The First Chronograph Was Lost for 200 Years and Credited to Someone Else

Jonah Okafor · November 8, 2026

Colour photograph of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gesturing from his seat in the Knesset during the 1995 debate on the Oslo B agreement, with two ministers seated beside him

World Figureheads

Eisenkot Has Arab Backing. Rabin's 1992 Government Lived on It Too

Tomás Ferreira · November 8, 2026

Photograph of a wedding party in India, taken between 1909 and 1919, with the seated couple garlanded and guests standing around them

Periyar's 1928 Weddings Had No Priests. A DMK Leader Has Just Apologised

Hannah Lindqvist · November 8, 2026

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

Jonah Okafor · November 7, 2026

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

Priya Raman · 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

Tomás Ferreira · 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

Hannah Lindqvist · 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

Eleanor Whitcombe · 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

Priya Raman · November 6, 2026