Today in history

Courses

Five-minute lessons

You read a lesson a card at a time, with questions along the way. The first lesson of every course is free.

• Cleopatra

  Queen. Gambler. Legend.

  The last queen of Egypt, and the two Romans she bet her kingdom on.

• Julius Caesar

  General. Dictator. Target.

  From the Rubicon to the Ides of March: the rise and murder of Rome’s dictator.

• The Vikings

  Raiders. Traders. Explorers.

  From the raid on Lindisfarne to a settlement in North America.

• History’s Mysteries

  Vanished. Abandoned. Unsolved.

  A lost colony, two missing princes, an empty ship and a vanished pilot.

• Titanic

  Built. Warned. Lost.

  The ship, the ice warnings, the sinking and what changed after.

• D-Day

  Spies. Storms. Beaches.

  How the Allies fooled the Germans, gambled on the weather, landed in Normandy and fought their way to Paris.

• The Space Race

  Rivals. Rockets. Moon.

  How the United States and the Soviet Union raced to the Moon.

In the app

Also in Pastwise

• Listen with your phone locked

  Pastwise reads today’s story aloud for free. With Premium, it reads every lesson too, questions and answers included. Narration uses your iPhone’s built-in voice.

• Review what you’ve learned

  Each lesson saves four or five facts. Review asks you about them again after a day, a few days, a week and a month. It’s part of Premium.

• Every picture credited

  The pictures are paintings, photographs, maps and documents that are public domain or CC0, and each one carries its credit. Every lesson lists its sources, and you can report a mistake from the lesson it’s in.

Plans

Free and Premium

Premium is a yearly or monthly subscription, or a one-time purchase. New subscribers can try the yearly plan free for 7 days. Prices are shown in the app before you buy. See the terms of use for how subscriptions renew and how to cancel.