Just when you couldnt be any prouder to be British, here's Joseph Banks describing Xmas 1768 on Cook's Endeavour "all hands get abominably drunk so that at night there was scarce a sober man in the ship, wind thank god very moderate or the lord knows what would have become of us”.

US battleship classes are typically named after a state of the Union. Montana, Hawaii and Alaska are still available. No class has ever been named after an individual.

Strong ‘Ming special envoy to the steppe people beyond the wall’ energy with this

Venezuela is also not in North America.

Radio 4’s Jane Austen season is absolutely brilliant and wonderful. There is nothing like Radio 4 anywhere in the world, it is so precious.

Selim I wants a chat.

Remarkable #Viking discovery! Two graffitied longship prows have been identified on the base of a wooden tub from the #Gokstad Viking Ship, meaning we have graffiti of Viking longships on the grave goods of a Viking longship! Read all about it in A WHOLE LOT OF HISTORY ⤵️

Give the history lover in for life a History Hit subscription this Christmas: 🎁: www.historyhit.com/gift-subscri...

📰 📝 Which #history and #archaeology stories would you like to see featured on Friday the 19th's A Whole Lot of History? We've got a really cool #Viking story to kick off tomorrow's edition, and we'll be back again on Friday, so let us know if you've got any stories for us to consider!

Dawn on the coast.

If you love history and archaeology, and want to stay across all the breaking news- this is a must follow.

To be fair it’s going to be very funny when these clowns invent AGI and the super intelligent machine tells everyone to get offline, avoid processed food, stroll in the woods, seek community, eschew racism, pay high marginal rates of tax and ignore the ravings of deranged billionaires.

The USA’s first foreign invasion. It would be easy. They would be welcomed as liberators. In 1775, 250 years ago, the US invaded Canada. Here’s the story: youtu.be/1QNaBmWnk4E?...

IF the Princes in the Tower were murdered and IF the oldest, Edward V, was killed first- THEN at the second of his death, his brother Richard would have become king, for an instant until he was killed. SO he would have been Richard III. Richard III of carpark fame would actually be Richard IV

The entire project of advanced education is about believing it's worthwhile to do the hard work of learning to understand difficult things and express your understanding in your own words. Bringing GenAI into the process is wholly destructive.

Saturday: Forbidden City Monday: Taunton Castle Two world class heritage sites.

A Whole Lot of History - Friday edition! AWLOH for Friday 5th Dec. is out NOW, history and archaeology fans! It features: ⚫️ Roman sun hats ☀️👒 ⚫️ Henry VIII 🤴 ⚫️ Viking decapitation 🪓 ⚫️ Prohibition 🍺🚫 ...and more! open.substack.com/pub/historyh...

American hegemony on the European continent benefitted the USA. It was never an act of altruism. It was very clear what would happen if the Americans pulled back.

The Dunhuang Solar Power Tower, Gobi Desert. One of the world’s biggest towers. Mirrors focus the sun which super heats molten salt.

250 years ago today! The ensign of the Continental Navy was raised for the first time on an American fleet. It was raised by a young lieutenant, John Paul Jones

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Spending my birthday carrying clobber through storm drains in the Gobi Desert. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

There are not many places in the world further from the ocean than where I am now. 1,100 miles from the Bohai Sea. It’s making me a little edgy.

The edge of the Gobi desert

What to do about foreign talent? A debate raged in the court of Qin 2,200yrs ago: ‘Important officials told the King of Qin: “People from [other] states who come to serve Qin merely travel here to cause dissension in Qin on behalf of their own rulers. We request the complete expulsion of aliens.”

Sunset in the Gansu mountains, Western China.

Important and terrifying. This is an emergency.

Here’s the departure concourse of the airport in China’s 40th largest city, Lanzhou

As his army seemed about to disintegrate, 250 years ago today, in 1775, George Washington wrote, 'Could I have foreseen what I have, & am like to experience, no consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept this command.'

The queen on The Queen. @goingmedieval.bsky.social comes aboard the podcast to take me through the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Buckle up: youtu.be/r1IUtWIbrYs?...

The cause of America is, in great measure, the cause of all mankind. Thomas Paine, 1776

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.

Guys whose worldview was formed by exposure to Gladiator in their formative years, yet have misunderstood the entire premise.

Busted.

Michael Jordan, call your lawyer

Exit through the Commodity Department

Now on YouTube: The astonishing story of the Spanish Armada 📺: youtu.be/kr14pyCB70Q?...

In the 1750s two empires at either end of Eurasia started work on these two wooden structures. A stark illustration of different spending priorities and the cultures that shaped them.

Please share your best #MingDynastyJokes: Bandits to the left of me, Manchus to the right; here I am, stuck in the middle with Wu.

The imperial centre of Ming China, the Forbidden City. Yongle’s gigantic assertion of legitimacy. Nine is an auspicious number for the imperial family and so there are 9,999 rooms.

Beijing sunset

Qing temple on a crisp Beijing winter day.

Just showed the kids Rogue One and I’d forgotten how traumatic it is to see a beautiful imperial archive get absolutely rinsed. A tragedy up there with the destruction of the libraries of Alexandria and Baghdad.

Tonight in 1940 the medieval city of Coventry was smashed by a Luftwaffe raid. Today the ruined cathedral stands as a memorial, around it fragments of its historic environment survive. Here is the History Hit film on the raid. access.historyhit.com/videos/the-n...

Weak, weak, weak. Looking back on electoral failure with the knowledge that you did what was fiscally right & necessary is very different from looking back with the knowledge that you bottled it.

This perfectly encapsulates why we need the BBC

Excited to hear the boss of British Gas on the wireless saying how much we need gas.

Dr Douglas Kelley conducted the psychiatric analysis on the senior Nazis being tried at Nuremberg. These were his conclusions. It is a warning from history. (From Jack El-Hai’s great new book)

Have these clowns never watched the Princess Bride?

Today in 1869 William Lawrence died. He has one of the most remarkable service records I have ever come across. #ArmisticeDay