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Digital analyses of Enlightenment-era letters are teaching us a thing or two about Locke, Voltaire, and others.

An extraordinary haberdasher obsessed with buttons, lace collars, and death pioneered modern statistical analysis during the Age of Reason.

For the first time in nearly 1500 years, fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian.

In 1900, the UK clearly was the richest country in Europe. That’s no longer the case.

The documents that convicted the infamous traitor were all kept in this unassuming leather pouch.

From medieval myths to Shakespeare’s plays and modern cinema, British culture kept the Roman Empire alive long after its fall.

Centuries ago, the typical British coffeehouse was more like a “school without a master” than a place to grab a quick boost of caffeine.

For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.

The founder of gourmet fast food juggernauts Pret and Itsu unpacks the meaning of success and what really inspires him.

The global extent of the Revolutionary War surprises many Americans today — but it was crucial to independence.

Our bodies crave more food if we haven’t had enough protein, and this can lead to a vicious cycle.

Is the dumpster in the alley worthy of a poem?

Meet the people paid to rouse the workers of industrial Britain.

Long before the search for biosignatures, scientists imagined a cosmos teeming with intelligent life.

Considering the astronomical occupational risks, life insurance was prohibitively expensive for the first NASA astronauts.

When the UK bans the American Bully XL this year, it won’t rely on science to identify them.

Mary Toft staged an elaborate hoax, but the pain was real.

Alan Turing and Christopher Strachey created a ground-breaking computer program that allowed them to express affection vicariously when so doing publicly, as gay men, was criminal.

Darwin missed an amazing example of evolution.

Meet the world’s largest landowners.

The Knights Templar were not only skilled fighters, but also clever bankers who played a crucial role in the development of Europe’s financial systems.

Ice harvesters once made a living from frozen lakes and ponds, but the work was strenuous and dangerous. Then refrigeration changed everything.

Billy was a local celebrity in the early 1900s. And he might have been a murderer.

The “first-of-its-kind” archeological find is being reburied despite the fact that researchers haven’t finished studying it.

These ten maps provide a fascinating insight into the impact that soccer (sorry, football) has had worldwide.

You can buy over 400,000 products tagged “witch” on Etsy, from candles to spell bottles to pentagram necklaces.

“You’ll be able to fly twice as fast as a Boeing or Airbus, and it’ll be like the cost of flying business today.”

We rightly celebrate Winston Churchill as one of the world’s greatest leaders — but for all the wrong reasons.

Environmental activists want us to feel “flight shame” if we can take a train, instead. But this isn’t entirely realistic, even in Europe.

Its apples taste bad, but institutions all over the world want a descendant or clone of the tree, anyway.