OTD the assassins of Julius Caesar were defeated at the Battle of Phillipi in northeast Greece.

On This Day, 27 August 1896, Britain fought its shortest ever war lasting just over 40 minutes.

In an earlier article we explored the origin of the French dish Chicken à la Marengo which was named, according to a popular myth, after the battle of the same name where the French army of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeated an Austrian army in June 1800. While researching and writing that article we also came across some other familiar things also reputedly named after famous battles. What follows, therefore, is a brief exploration of their origin stories starting with the

In warfare, throwing weapons at your enemies has a very long history indeed. In its simplest form, rocks could be hand-thrown by early man either to wound or kill their intended prey, whether animal or a rival human. The fire-hardened stick, or spear, also developed quite early on evolving first into a weapon tipped with knapped flint [1] and later, as metallurgy was discovered and harnessed, fitted with bronze and iron blades. Spears can be broadly divided into two categori

A brief introduction to the Home Front and rationing in both The Great War and World War Two.

A brief history of stirrups, when they first appeared in Europe, and why the Romans never used them.

Did just 300 Spartans defeat a million Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae? Or is this simply a heroic myth?