These days, we don’t give colour photography a second thought. It’s everywhere. From the high-res selfies on your phone to vintage film simulations on Instagram, colour has become so normal, so ever-present, that it’s easy to forget just how long it took for photography to get there, and how mind-blowing those early colour images must have seemed. Back in the early 20th century, when someone first saw a colour photograph, it wasn’t just impressive, it was magical. The colour

In the early years of the Cold War, the CIA dreamed of a Caribbean sweep, one bullet for Trujillo, another for Castro. Only one found its...

In the summer of 1943, as Allied forces plotted the downfall of Hitler and Mussolini, a little-known episode played out in the Caribbean....

It’s one of those stories that sounds more like legend than fact, yet tucked away in the quiet, windswept monasteries of Mount Athos, it...

It’s easy to forget how recently women in many parts of the world were granted the right to vote — and just how uneven the journey to...

In the summer of 1968, as children ran barefoot through the derelict streets of Scotswood, a working-class neighbourhood in Newcastle...

It began with a calling card, scrawled with a misspelled insult, and ended in a prison cell. The most celebrated playwright in London,...

When police raided William Bradford’s Los Angeles apartment in 1984, they weren’t just looking for evidence of two murders. What they...

In an age when spectacle was king and public fascination with “human curiosities” filled theatre seats from New York to New Zealand, one...

For more than 30 years, Mary Filan, a widowed 74-year-old woman semi-paralysed from a recent stroke, had lived in Apartment 6B, 143-15 Barclay Avenue, in Flushing, Queens. Her flat was modest, but it was home. Living alone on a fixed income from Social Security and a telephone company pension, her monthly earnings totalled less than $500. Her rent, which remained under $200, allowed her to remain independent. That all changed on the afternoon of Friday, 25 April 1980. “They r

At the dawn of the 20th century, Beach Haven had the feel of a seaside postcard come to life. Situated at the southern tip of Long Beach...

Phil Hartman in a suit with a retro microphone, a woman in a green coat, and another man with glasses. Bright yellow and blue background.

In the summer of 2017, the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach — one of the most iconic luxury destinations in America — nearly welcomed a...

When it opened its doors in May 2007, Dickens World promised visitors the chance to step directly into the fog-shrouded, gaslit streets...

Discover the forgotten treehouse taverns of 19th-century Paris at Les Guinguettes de Robinson. Once a summer playground of chestnut trees, roast chicken and treetop feasts, today only faint traces remain of this whimsical Belle Époque wonderland.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art received an extraordinary bequest from Columbia University librarian Herbert Mitchell, a lifelong...

When The Beatles burst onto the global stage in the early 1960s, they didn’t simply ride the wave of pop culture—they redirected its...

Known to many as the dancer who took Paris by storm in the 1920s, Josephine Baker’s story is one of dazzling reinvention and fearless...

If you’ve ever fallen down an internet rabbit hole of famous mugshots, you’ll know the one, David Bowie in a crisp shirt, sharp...

Explore the harrowing story of Diane Downs, the mother who shot her three children in 1983 to win back a lover. Learn how investigators uncovered the truth, and what happened to her surviving children. A shocking case of true crime and maternal betrayal.

In 1927, Andrew Kehoe killed 38 children and 6 adults in Bath, Michigan, in a bombing that remains the deadliest school massacre in US history. Here's the full story.

Few figures loom as defiantly or as colourfully in the history of music as Fela Anikulapo Kuti. His name evokes not just a sound, but a...

When you think of Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World , The Doors of Perception , and one of the most articulate advocates for...