On This Day: Britain asks the IMF for a loan September 30, 2025 49 years ago today, sterling crashed to its lowest ever point against the dollar. Denis Healey stared down his socialist opponents and asked the IMF for a loan – paving the way for Margaret Thatcher’s election victory, writes Eliot Wilson Denis Winston Healey, chancellor of the Exchequer (1974-79) and Labour’s indomitable intellectual brawler, soaked up [...]
On this day: The Bill of Rights is set in motion September 29, 2025 On this day in 1789, the Bill of Rights was sent to the states for ratification. With the right to free speech still hotly contested 300 years later, Eliot Wilson goes back to the start.
On this day: Profumo proves the cover up is always worse than the crime September 26, 2025 62 years ago today, Lord Denning published his verdict on the Profumo affair – a minor sex scandal made far worse by subsequent lies. What lessons does the ensuing collapse of Harold Macmillan’s government have for politicians today? Asks Eliot Wilson Today in 1963, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, published his 70,000-word report [...]
On this day in 1888: The Football League kicks off September 8, 2025 Today in 1888, Aston Villa came to an anticlimactic 1-1 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers as the Football League’s first season began.
On this day: The worst blazes of the Great Fire of London September 4, 2025 On this day in 1666, the worst blazes of the Great Fire of London engulfed the City. Eliot Wilson tells us more.
Business has never been a man’s world – meet the women who bankrolled history August 28, 2025 A new history challenges the myth that business was “just for men” by uncovering the forgotten stories of powerful female entrepreneurs, bankers, and industrialists who have been crucial to building global prosperity throughout the ages, writes Victoria Bateman Hidden away inside the British Museum is a little-known collection of women’s business cards dating to the [...]
On this day in 1968: Moscow crushes the Prague Spring August 20, 2025 On this day in 1968, Alexander Dubček's experiments in "socialism with a human face" with the Prague Spring were met by the force of Moscow.
On this day: Gibraltar is captured by the British August 4, 2025 On this day in 1704, Gibraltar was surrendered to the Anglo-Dutch fleet. 321 years later, Eliot Wilson looks at what that means today.
On this day 1848: The opening of Waterloo Station July 11, 2025 Waterloo Bridge Station opened on this day in 1848. 177 years later, it is the largest station in Britain. Eliot Wilson takes us back.
On this day: May 26 1896 — the first Dow Jones Industrial Average is published May 26, 2025 Charles Dow was a financial journalist with a rare gift. A high school dropout from rural Connecticut, he was able to explain the arcana of investment, stocks and bonds in clear, straightforward terms. In 1882, he and two other journalists, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, founded Dow Jones & Company Inc. in a basement at [...]
