HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-04-21T08:05:03.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: In times of crisis, the Soviet Union turned to something unexpected to calm the masses
items: 16 of the worst monarchs in history
items: Oh, Mary! makes a monster of Mary Todd Lincoln – but has history been too harsh?
items: Famous last words: what did Winston Churchill, Walt Disney and Marie Antoinette say on their deathbeds?
items: This musical instrument was made by a US Founding Father – and it 'drove people mad'
items: Think your job is bad? These 17 occupations from the past were much, much worse
items: Think you know everything about the history of Thanksgiving? Here’s 21 facts that will prove you wrong
items: What was the Habsburg jaw?
items: Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
items: Who was the real James Garfield, ‘the man from Ohio’ and doomed president of Death by Lightning?

In times of crisis, the Soviet Union turned to something unexpected to calm the masses
type: item
date: 2026-04-21T08:04:45.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
description: At times of political instability and crisis, Soviet authorities turned to Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet to inspire calm and patriotic fervour. Today, it is a means of standing up against the regime
encoded: Surely the most famous ballet in the world is Swan Lake, by Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. And if there’s an argument for another ballet being more popular, then chances are it will be one of his other contributions, such as The Sleeping Beauty (1889) or The Nutcracker (1892). Swan Lake tells the doomed love story of Prince Siegfried and Odette, a beautiful princess cursed to transform into a swan during the day after the evil Baron Von Rothbart put a spell on her. The only way she can be freed is for a person to declare their undying love for her and remain faithful. Before Siegfried can break the spell, however, he is tricked by Rothbart into choosing his daughter, Odile, disguised as Odette, as his bride. The real Odette, knowing that Siegfried’s vow of love has been broken, throws herself into the lake to drown. Siegfried follows her into death. That is the most common denouement: over the years and countless versions, there have been a myriad alternative endings, including happy ones where the lovers break the spell and survive. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/03/GettyImages-502501157-86908f2-e1774448435219.jpg" width="1500" height="1002" alt="A black-and-white photograph shows a ballerina in a tutu dancing en pointe while a male partner supports her arm, with a line of similarly dressed dancers posed in the background" title="Maya Plisetskaya, prima ballerina of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, in the lead role of Swan Lake (Photo via Getty)" /> Despite its renown today, Swan Lake had an inauspicious start. Upon its premiere in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, it was critically panned for being overly complicated both in its score and choreography. The dancers themselves supposedly said they could not dance to the music. It would be a revival, with major changes and additions, in 1895, a couple of years after Tchaikovsky’s death, that established Swan Lake’s reputation. To this day, it is the 1895 ver…

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16 of the worst monarchs in history
type: item
date: 2026-04-17T11:12:27.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General Modern
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Stuart
subject: Tudor
subject: Victorian
subject: British queens
subject: Evergreen
subject: Medieval kings and queens
description: From the morally bankrupt to the staggeringly inept, Jonny Wilkes guides us through the lives of 16 rulers who wrote their names into the history books for all the wrong reasons
encoded: The past has no shortage of disastrous kings, queens, and other rulers; such a list could easily have been filled with the worst Roman emperors alone. Some have been homicidal, like Nero or Genghis Khan; simply incompetent, like Edward II; completely untrustworthy, like Charles I; or amiable but inadequate, like Louis XVI of France. But who are truly the worst, and why? Jonny Wilkes makes the case against 16 rulers from history… <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/GettyImages-520718487-44a3fc9-e1776420577392.jpg" width="1498" height="1000" alt="A medieval battle scene shows armoured soldiers fighting with spears and shields, while two mounted knights dominate the centre and right. The figures wear ornate gold-and-black armour, and richly decorated horses move through the fray. Stone buildings and a towered structure rise in the background." title="King Tarquin and his family were expelled from Rome in 509 BC, paving the way for the creation of the Roman Republic (Image by Getty Images)" /> 1. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus King of Rome, 534–509 BC Before Rome had emperors, it had a line of kings going back to the city’s mythical founder, Romulus. The last, however, presided over a reign of terror so bad that the people gave up on the monarchy altogether, heralding the dawn of the Republic. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (commonly known as ‘Tarquin the Proud’) had seized the throne by planning the assassination of his own father-in-law, then once in power he killed senators on a whim and imprisoned or executed anyone suspected of disloyalty. His undoing came when his son raped a noblewoman, which caused such outrage that a revolt broke out that saw the tyrannical king overthrown and exiled. In his doomed attempts to regain the throne, he persuaded neighbouring cities to attack Rome, seemingly unfazed by the damage this would do to his erstwhile kingdom. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/Getty…

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Oh, Mary! makes a monster of Mary Todd Lincoln – but has history been too harsh?
type: item
date: 2026-04-07T07:14:30.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Industrial revolution
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: Mary Todd Lincoln has been much maligned for her erratic behaviour ever since she stepped foot into the White House, and stage play Oh, Mary! leans into that, portraying her as a drunk, cabaret-obsessed drama queen. But the story of the real First Lady is one of enduring tragedy after tragedy
encoded: The legacy of US President Abraham Lincoln is beyond reproach: he emancipated the slaves and saved the Union in the American Civil War. That’s enough to enshrine him as one of the best to have ever served in the Oval Office. When it came to his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, however, the history books have been less kind. The First Lady is remembered as a tragic figure with a troubled mental state, which worsened throughout her life as she endured a series of devastating personal losses, including Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. Prone to depression, headaches and tempers, she battled inner demons within and censure without. Her own son had her committed to an insane asylum. While that does not sound like a story filled with laughs, Mary Todd Lincoln has inspired the darkly comic and deeply silly stage play Oh, Mary!, currently playing on Broadway in New York City and in London’s West End. *Warning: spoilers for the stage play ahead * Leaving historical accuracy far behind, it gleefully reframes her as a miserable alcoholic longing to escape her closeted homosexual presidential husband and become a cabaret star. Who was the real Mary Todd Lincoln? Mary Todd Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who served from 1861 to 1865. Following his assassination, she would live for another 17 years, although she was consumed by her grief and deteriorating mental health. Her sad end was the more poignant given that, in her youth, Mary had the makings for a successful role in the political landscape of Washington, DC, thanks to an upbringing that fostered her education, intelligence and social standing. Born on 13 December 1818, she was the fourth child of a wealthy and well-connected businessman, Robert Smith Todd, and Eliza Ann Parker Todd, daughter of a prominent family. Mary lost her mother at the age of six and her father quickly remarried. With a total of 16 children, there was little affection in the Todd household. Yet Mary r…

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Famous last words: what did Winston Churchill, Walt Disney and Marie Antoinette say on their deathbeds?
type: item
date: 2026-04-05T12:30:45.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Death
description: The parting comments of some of history's most famous figures have been recorded for posterity. Here, Jonny Wilkes reveals a selection of the most noteworthy examples – from dying presidents to condemned prisoners
encoded: <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/Oscar-WildeGettyImages-2207162542-7ce61a2-e1775118534122.jpg" width="1500" height="1003" alt="A colourised print of Oscar Wilde, 1882. His unique sense of humour lasted until his death (Image by Getty Images)" title="A colourised print of Oscar Wilde, 1882. His unique sense of humour lasted until his death (Image by Getty Images)" /> 1. “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go” Oscar Wilde The Irish author and playwright – best known for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) – is an enduring source of witty, pithy adages, such as “I can resist everything except temptation” and “always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much”. Oscar Wilde kept that unique brand of humour until the end: on his deathbed, in a Paris hotel room, he reportedly quipped about the dingy wallpaper. Evidently, the wallpaper won the duel, since 46-year-old Wilde passed away of meningitis shortly afterwards, on 30 November 1900. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/ChurchillGettyImages-106756722-ecd2b88-e1775118778678.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="An elderly person lies on a stretcher and raises two fingers in a V‑sign while uniformed officers and suited men stand around them" title="Winston Churchill giving the ‘V’ sign as he’s transported to hospital, 1962. Three years later, he would succumb to complications from his eighth stroke (Image by Getty Images)" /> 2. “I’m bored with it all” Winston Churchill Winston Churchill suffered his eighth stroke on 15 January 1965, after a decade and a half of failing health. All the cigars, booze and rich meals had caught up with him. He had been the prime minister who led Britain through the Second World War with impassioned oratory and declarations of “We shall never surrender”, but, if his last words are anything to go by, his battle was f…

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This musical instrument was made by a US Founding Father – and it 'drove people mad'
type: item
date: 2026-04-02T07:01:14.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Georgian
subject: Period
description: Have you ever sat around a dinner table or in a pub and rubbed your finger along the rim of a glass to make that eerie ringing noise? The great American inventor made a musical instrument out of the concept, and it was so successful that it was used by Mozart and Beethoven
encoded: “Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.” That was quite the claim for the American polymath and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, whose long list of inventions also includes the lightning rod, an innovative type of stove, and bifocal spectacles. Franklin developed the armonica – named for the Italian word ‘armonia’, meaning ‘harmony’ – as a musical instrument that was capable of duplicating the high-pitched, almost ethereal, ringing noise made by rubbing fingers along the top of wine glasses. What was Franklin’s armonica? Invented around 1761, the armonica comprised 37 glass bowls of graduated sizes and thicknesses that were lined up in an overlapping horizontal stack on a rotating spindle. The player turned them all at once with a foot pedal, while rubbing their fingers against the rims of the desired bowls to make them ‘sing’. The beauty of the instrument was that the bowls did not need liquid inside, since they had been made (by London-based glassblower Charles James) to precise specification, so that each produced a different note. The rims were painted certain colours so that the player knew which bowl produced which note. It was possible to play multiple bowls at once, making chords possible. “Its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other [instrument]; that they may be swelled and softened at pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures of the finger, and continued to any length,” said Franklin. For the rest of his life, he always travelled with the instrument to play at his leisure. Why was Franklin’s glass armonica so popular? Around the mid-18th century, musical performances with sets of wine glasses had become popular in England. Franklin was living there at the time, and attended one such performance by his friend, the natural philosopher Edward Delaval. In the years after its premiere in 1762, the armonica equally became a favourite of numerous musicians and composers across Europe. Wolfgang Am…

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Think your job is bad? These 17 occupations from the past were much, much worse
type: item
date: 2026-02-22T15:30:43.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Victorian crime and punishment
description: From digging up corpses to collecting faeces, Jonny Wilkes delves into some of the dirtiest – and most dangerous – ways that our ancestors earned a living
encoded: 1. Gong farmer Medieval era Before flushing toilets and proper sewers, there were cesspits: big holes in the ground where all the human waste ended up. When these filled up, it fell to the gong farmers to empty them and take away the excrement for disposal, or to sell as fertiliser on the fields. They earned a decent wage, but the job was considered so revolting – paddling in poo using only shovels and buckets, and breathing in the foulest of stenches – that they were forced to do it at night under the cover of darkness. Gong farmers risked disease and, in the case of poor Richard the Raker, even death by scatological accident. In 1326, he fell through the rotten boards of a privy (possibly while using the convenience himself) and drowned in the stinky pool below. 2. Matchgirl Victorian era There are a lot of contenders for the title of ‘grisliest job in Victorian Britain’, but matchgirl has a strong claim. Done by young girls, it involved working 12 to 14 hours a day with minimal breaks, meagre pay and the likelihood of fines for any perceived wrongdoing (including altering a machine to prevent getting their hands cut). Most seriously, matchgirls worked with white phosphorus, a highly toxic chemical that caused terrible physical ailments, the worst of which was ‘phossy jaw’. In short, this caused the jawbone to rot entirely, causing teeth to fall out, large abscesses to form on the head and possibly brain damage. Sufferers were left disfigured and in acute pain. The working conditions got so bad that, in 1888, the matchgirls of Bryant & May in London went on strike, which eventually brought about the end of white phosphorus in the industry. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/22SBJPTX-4e0af31-e1771425220743.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A black and white illustration of a woman. She has her head slightly bowed, and her hair is in a bun. Her mouth is wide, with the skin around the lips has disintegrated and shows some …

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Think you know everything about the history of Thanksgiving? Here’s 21 facts that will prove you wrong
type: item
date: 2025-11-26T15:03:54.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Thanksgiving
description: From tales of pumpkin-pie panics to the story of the president who turned his dinner into a pet, Jonny Wilkes uncovers the surprising history behind Thanksgiving: America’s turkey-tastic holiday
encoded: There are only two accounts of the first Thanksgiving The story of the first Thanksgiving has been highly mythologised in American history. In 1621, the so-called Pilgrims who travelled on the Mayflower and formed the settlement of Plymouth, in Massachusetts, came together with the local indigenous peoples, the Wampanoag, for a feast to celebrate a good harvest and the growing friendship of settler and Native American in the New World. That is the version long told in schools. In truth, the Pilgrims threw themselves a harvest festival and around 90 of the Wampanoag showed up. Without their help, especially a man named Squanto, the European settlers would have likely perished in their brutal first winter. The only sources for the three-day feast are sparse mentions in writings by two of the Pilgrims, Edward Winslow and William Bradford. Neither actually used the word ‘thanksgiving’, however, and since they gave few details of what happened, the mythologising took over. They may not have eaten turkey at the first Thanksgiving For many Americans, no modern Thanksgiving meal is complete without a turkey as the centrepiece of the table. It’s unclear, however, whether this tradition began in 1621. The Pilgrims cooked up a selection of fowl – which may have included turkey, but could just as easily been duck and goose – while the Wampanoag killed a number of deer, meaning venison was on the menu. They might have had seafood, too, including eels, clams, mussels and lobster. Yes, William Bradford mentioned a “great store of wild Turkies” in the region, but the bird did not become a staple of the Thanksgiving meal until the 19th century. The first Thanksgiving may have happened earlier than 1621 While the 1621 feast became the foundation for the Thanksgiving holiday, perhaps Americans should celebrate a different year. Other acts of thanksgiving, based in the tradition of Christian harvest festivals, took place earlier in the short-lived Popham Colony in Maine and Jamestown i…

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What was the Habsburg jaw?
type: item
date: 2025-11-26T10:13:30.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Evergreen
description: One family was an ever-present force in European affairs from the Middle Ages to the modern era, but, as Jonny Wilkes explores, the Habsburgs’ desperate bid to keep power within the family gave them a distinctive physical callsign, as well as dynastic longevity…
encoded: For centuries, the Habsburgs were one of the most prominent royal dynasties in Europe. They ruled as kings of Germany, from the 13th century, and as archdukes of Austria from the mid-14th century. They sat on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire from the 15th to 19th centuries. Their house dominated swathes of the continent with Habsburg rulers in a host of countries, most notably Spain. But there was something else that became prominent about the Habsburgs: their jawline. What was the Habsburg jaw? Many members of the dynasty had the same physical trait of a protruding bottom jaw – a mandibular prognathism, medically speaking. The jutting chin could be so pronounced that the flattering portrait artists of the day could not manage to hide them. The condition even prevented some members of the dynasty from eating or speaking properly. Read more | The Habsburgs: the dynasty that wouldn’t die The ‘Habsburg jaw’ was a biological result from generations of inbreeding. In a bid to keep their power, the Habsburgs kept everything within the family. They relied on ‘consanguine’ marriages that partnered close relatives, such as first cousins, or uncles with their nieces. View Green Video on the source website Why did the Habsburgs intermarry so much? It’s true that close-family marriages weren’t exactly unusual among the royal houses of Europe, but the Habsburgs were the champions of consanguinity. Of the 11 marriages during the reign of the Spanish Habsburgs, from 1516 to 1700, only two were not incestuous. “The arrangement made good political sense, guaranteeing that the two lines would support each other militarily,” writes historian Martyn Rady, “which paid dividends in the Thirty Years’ War (the bloody religious conflict fought across central Europe from 1618–48). “Biologically, however, it was a disaster. As first and second-cousin and uncle-niece marriages became the norm, madness and deformity followed.” In 1517, Italian diplomat Antonio di Beatis described the future …

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Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained
type: item
date: 2025-11-21T15:20:39.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
subject: Witches
description: There have been many examples of pointed hats in history, but it remains unclear how any of them became a must-wear for the witches
encoded: We’re off to see… the Wicked Witch of the West, as she returns to the silver screen in Wicked: For Good, the second part of the fantasy epic based on the popular stage musical. But where would Elphaba be without her trademark look, including the iconic black, pointed and wide-brimmed hat? Along with a cat, broomstick and black robes, the pointed hat is a required feature of any depiction of the typical ‘evil witch’, and has been for centuries. How it became the headgear of choice, however, remains the subject of numerous theories – as there is no single hat to point the way to the archetypal witch. The myth of the alewives Before getting to the major theories, there is one that can be debunked. The internet is well-populated with the claim that the image of the witch began with alewives, medieval women who brewed ale in their homes and sold it locally. Dominating the brewing industry for a time, these women could achieve a degree of financial independence. In an era where any woman who baulked social norms was suspicious, this autonomy would have been enough to single them out, putting them at risk of being accused of witchcraft. In addition, the fact that they stood over bubbling cauldrons while brewing and wearing pointed hats to be easily spotted at markets, it is clear why some have argued that alewives were the inspiration for the image of the witch. Except, there is just zero historical evidence to back this up. The highly symbolic history of the pointed witch hat Instead, theories have taken in pointy hats from throughout history, some with highly symbolic meaning. The Phrygian cap of antiquity, for instance, came to represent liberty and freedom in the American and French Revolutions of the 18th century, while the ancient Romans presented freed slaves with a special pointed felt cap, called a pileus. In medieval Europe, the hennin came into fashion: an extremely tall cone with flowing material hanging out of the top. Yet while it certainly has a resemblance …

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Who was the real James Garfield, ‘the man from Ohio’ and doomed president of Death by Lightning?
type: item
date: 2025-11-06T17:27:53.000Z
creator: Jonny Wilkes
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: The 20th President of the United States had the potential to be one of the greats, according to many – until his assassination less than a year into the job. As a new drama comes to Netflix about what set him and his killer on their tragic collision, here’s why it’s time to better remember James Garfield
encoded: In the history of the presidents of the United States, James Garfield is too easily overlooked. It’s not hard to see why: his time in the presidential spotlight had been brief, emerging late as a surprise candidate for the 1880 election and serving only 200 days in office. He is perhaps best known as one of the four US presidents to be assassinated, alongside Abraham Lincoln (1865), William McKinley (1901) and John F Kennedy (1963). But while he does not rank as one of the ‘greats’, Garfield is the great ‘what if’ of American politics. A brilliant mind, commanding yet humble, and driven by principle, he fought against corruption and for the modernisation of the country. If he had lived, who knows what he might have accomplished. Now Garfield is back in in the spotlight again in 2025 Netflix limited series Death by Lightning starring Michael Shannon as the doomed president and Matthew Macfadyen as his killer, Charles Guiteau. How and why was US President James Garfield assassinated? On 2 July 1881, President James Garfield travelled to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington DC, on his way to speak at his college reunion before heading off on a family holiday. Only a couple of members of his cabinet accompanied him; even after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination 16 years earlier, it was not common practice for a president to have a security detail. As he entered the waiting room, a man named Charles Guiteau approached from behind, and fired his British Bulldog revolver twice. The first shot grazed Garfield’s arm – causing him to cry out, “My God, what is this?” – and the second hit his back, becoming lodged near his pancreas. While Garfield was rushed away for medical care, police seized the gunman. Guiteau, almost certainly suffering from a severe mental condition, had a lifetime’s worth of failed enterprises and disappointed ambitions that stretched well beyond his ability. The latest had been a role in politics. He had supported Garfield in the electi…

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