Articles

The Sandbar Fight of 19 September 1827 made James 'Jim' Bowie famous, as well as the Bowie knife – less than 10 years before the Alamo (where he fell alongside the heroes William Barret Travis and David Crockett) – but it was essentially...

Already subjected to constant bombardment by artillery, enemy sniper fire, and the awful living conditions, soldiers fighting in the muddy trenches of the First World War did not imagine their situation could get any worse. Then, from April...

There were around 15 non-combatants in the Alamo who survived the battle on the morning of 6 March 1836 and, among these, were two who became famous for their first-hand accounts of what happened during the 13-day siege of the Alamo and the...

Colonel José Enrique de la Peña (1807-1840) was an officer in the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution in 1836 and was present during the siege of the Alamo, participated in the Battle of the Alamo, and retreated from Texas after President/General...

The death of David 'Davy' Crockett at the Battle of the Alamo (6 March 1836) has been understood as a heroic last stand at least since 1880 when Texan historian Reuben M. Potter dismissed eyewitness accounts that Crockett had surrendered...

Though Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) wed Charles II of England (reign 1660-1685) in a union of great political consequence, her life and impact in Restoration England remain largely overlooked in the English-speaking world. In her latest...

The armistice that ended the First World War (1914-18) on the Western Front was signed between Germany and the Allies on 11 November 1918. The guns fell silent at 11:00 a.m. that day. The Allies, who included Britain, France, and the United...

Bodo was a early 9th-century Frankish farmer. He and his family hailed from a manor owned by the monastery of St.-Germain-des-Prés near Paris and worked as its tenants. He ploughed the farmlands while his wife, Ermentrude, took care of their...

The First World War (1914-18) was the first truly global conflict and the first to be fully mechanised. Armies clashed across continents on land, in the air, and at sea. Civilians were caught up in the destruction as never before. In this...

Smasher of Napoleon's invasion dream, veteran of three major wars, and scene of the death of the Royal Navy's greatest hero, HMS Victory is one of Britain's most famous warships. Curiously, and despite being on permanent display as a tourist...