| History
| History
28 July 1914. Now there’s a date that changed the world! Or was that 11 November 1918? I guess it is the whole four years, isn’t it really? And the impact is so obvious that I’m not even going to…
Can a single book change the world? In 1859, Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of the Species became an instant bestseller – and swiftly took its place as the lightning rod for controversy it has been ever since. Positing his…
On 4th of July 1776 the Declaration of Independence, a document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and other ‘framers,’ declared that the 13 former British colonies now formed the first independent nation of the Western world. Alongside the Constitution, the Declaration…
Oh dear; dates are funny things aren’t they – as this series has already demonstrated. Just when you think that you have hit on a genuine ‘game-changer’ then you are forced to think again. And so it is with 1707.…
1688 is not the most visible of British constitutional landmarks. Especially in this 800th anniversary year, 1215 often gets more love, and Magna Carta is more often enthused about by politicians and historians alike than the Glorious Revolution. Likewise, 1649,…
In 1517, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. At least, that’s the story: in truth, this is probably a legend put around after the event, and the list of grievances against…
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So goes the rhyme that many schoolchildren still learn in order to remember the date which has come to be thought of as the moment Europe ‘discovered’ North America. In truth, this is a lesson…
This month is looking like quite a busy one (in a good way!) for students and staff in History. We have a range of events, papers and seminars taking place over the next few weeks, all of which – of…
We had a little bit of snow in Cheltenham overnight. As always, our FCH campus looks beautiful in the seasonal weather. Here are a couple of pictures taken really early this morning, before most of our students had arrived in…