History

Published: 05 October 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. People who served Egypt’s earliest kings may have been deliberately killed and buried alongside their rulers as part of ancient funerary rituals, new archaeological research suggests. The study, based on injuries found on the skulls of individuals buried near royal tombs, has revived a debate that has continued for more than a century over whether human sacrifice was...

Published: 02 October 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online A mural depicting ancient Egyptian figures Tutankhamun and Nefertiti with noticeably dark complexions has triggered a heated public debate in Cairo, highlighting long-running disagreements over the appearance, ancestry and ethnic diversity of ancient Egyptians. The 66-metre-long artwork had been created in Tahrir Square as part of a wider effort to beautify the Egyptian capital ahead of Chinese President...

Published: 26 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online Diplomatic gifts can be much more than ceremonial objects exchanged between political leaders. They can represent friendship, historical memory, cultural identity, strategic interests and, at times, carefully calculated political messages. From France’s monumental Statue of Liberty to China’s famous tradition of giving giant pandas, gifts exchanged between nations have long been used to communicate ideas that may extend...

Published: 26 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has delivered a forceful defence of the institution’s role in documenting American history, telling an audience in Washington that confronting difficult chapters of the past is not an act of disloyalty but an essential part of understanding the country. Bunch, who is due to retire from the Smithsonian at the end of...

Published: 23 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Archaeological discoveries beneath Bath Assembly Rooms have opened a rare window into everyday life in Roman-era Bath, revealing evidence of ordinary residents who lived beyond the city’s celebrated baths and monumental centre. The unexpected finds were uncovered during restoration work at the historic Georgian building and include pottery, coins, glassware, animal bones, roof tiles and a fragment of...

Published: 22 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. Nearly four million records documenting the lives of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies have become searchable online, creating a new opportunity for descendants of enslaved communities to investigate family histories that have remained difficult to trace for generations. The collection contains about 300,000 pages of historical records covering enslaved people in former British colonial territories between...

Published: 16 September 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. New historical research has found that wealth generated through the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans was deeply connected to Britain’s financial system, including the early development of the Bank of England and other major financial institutions. The research, compiled through the Register of British Slave Traders, suggests that the involvement of financial institutions and prominent financiers in...

Published: 05 May  2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online A renewed global debate over the ownership of the Koh-i-noor diamond has emerged after comments by New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani reignited long-standing calls for the United Kingdom to return one of the most controversial jewels in the British Crown collection to India. The discussion was triggered when Mamdani suggested that if he were to speak with...

Published: 25 April  2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online Ninety years after a fatal mountain hike claimed the lives of five British schoolboys in Germany’s Black Forest, relatives and local villagers have come together to honour the victims and re-examine a tragedy long overshadowed by wartime propaganda. The commemorative event took place in Hofsgrund, near the Schauinsland mountain, where on 17 April 1936 a group of 27...

Published: 26 March 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online. The name Samuel Pepys has long been synonymous with the vibrant and chaotic history of seventeenth-century London. His famous journals provided us with an almost voyeuristic window into the Great Fire, the Great Plague, and the intricate social hierarchies of the Restoration era. We have traditionally viewed him as a candid observer, a man whose private thoughts were...