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Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin spend time on the Riviera, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, late 1950s

Cocteau and Chaplin met in 1936, when they were returning from Japan on the same ship. Cocteau spoke no English, and Chaplin no French. Nevertheless they fell into conversation and on the very first day chattered until four in the morning, helped along by Cocteau's secretary, who knew

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The former King of England, the Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson, the cause of his abdication, in the star photographer Philippe Halsman's "Jump" series, 1958

Archive · Faith · Books · Monarchies

Monks who had access to monastic libraries, like the scribes engaged in copying and compiling manuscripts, sometimes left in the margins of the books they read notes or even entries recording the provenance of the volumes, or idle thoughts…

On the last leaf of a Lenten Triodion of 1462 there is a curious epitaph for the late Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasily II the Blind: "In the year 6970 [1462] on the 28th day of the month of March, on the feast of our holy and venerable father

Colour print of a winter scene: a soldier in a tall fur cap embraces a woman, with an old man, a child and a seated elderly woman with baskets nearby.

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An English soldier bids his family farewell before the Crimean War, after earlier Anglo-Russian conflict

An English soldier bids farewell to his family as he leaves for the Crimean War, the first combat encounter between the Russian and English armies on Russian territory. Before the Crimean War, England and Russia had been at odds in 1807-1812, during the Anglo-Russian War, but mostly at

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The First and Last Photographs of Elizabeth II

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Fidel Castro plays basketball in Kraków in 1972

A soldier in a red tunic lies on the ground in front of the ranks while a rider in red uniform passes on a dark horse.

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Soldier faints at a parade attended by Elizabeth II in a 1970 photograph

A soldier faints during a parade attended by Elizabeth II. This famous shot of 1970 could, in principle, quite easily have served as the cover of a British punk rock band's record

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The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna plays billiards with her elder sister, Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of England

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Prince Albert, Duke of York, on his way to his house at 145 Piccadilly, 10 December 1936, on the eve of his proclamation as King George VI following the abdication of King Edward VIII

People in a bar raise beer mugs beneath a sign reading “Farewell 18th Amendment”, while a bartender in a light jacket holds a huge mug.

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Prohibition in the United States repealed on 5 December 1933 after thirteen years

The lady in the foreground is delighted by the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, which had introduced Prohibition in the USA. The ban on the production, transportation and sale of alcohol had been in force in the States since 1920. On 5 December 1933 Prohibition was repealed by the ratification

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Mirror divination on the day of the Tilsit meeting of Alexander I and Napoleon

Pogodin has a tale, told by Countess A.D.B., of a strange divination that took place in a landowner's house, in the company of friends E.O. The young ladies fell to talking of divination by mirror, and the daughter of the house agreed to try it

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