The LanternThe year
January
MTWTFSS
1A Country of Mountains and Sea
2Deucalion and the Flood
3The Flood on the Clay Tablet
4Daedalus and Icarus
5The Argonauts and Heracles
6Theseus and the Minotaur
7Oedipus and the Sphinx
8The House of Oedipus
9Paris and Helen
10The Muster at Aulis and Iphigenia
11Achilles and Hector
12The Wooden Horse and Troy
13Codrus and the Return of the Heraclids
14Israel Remembers Its Beginnings
15David and Goliath
16Solomon and Hiram of Tyre
17The Phoenicians and the Alphabet
18Homer, the Blind Poet
19Homer’s Words for Color
20The Rise of Sparta and Lycurgus
21The Spartan Training
22How Sparta Lived
23The Messenian Wars
24How the Oracle at Delphi Worked
25The Olympic Games
26The Greeks Go Overseas
27Draco and Cylon
28The Laws of Solon
29Sappho
30Egypt, a Country Already Ancient
31Aesop
February
MTWTFSS
1Thespis and the First Plays
2Pisistratus
3Thales of Miletus
4Croesus and Cyrus
5The Writing on the Wall
6Harmodius and Aristogiton
7Hippias Driven Out, and Cleisthenes
8Persia and the Great King
9Hippias, Democedes and the Great King
10Milo of Croton
11The Ionian Revolt and Darius
12Herodotus of Halicarnassus
13The Battle of Marathon
14Miltiades at Paros
15Aristides the Just
16Xerxes, Sperthias and Bulis
17The Army of Xerxes
18Leonidas at Thermopylae
19The Death of Leonidas
20The Burning of Athens
21Salamis and Plataea
22The Charioteer of Delphi
23The Rebuilding of Athens
24Pausanias and Themistocles
25Theagenes and His Statue
26Cimon and the Earthquake at Sparta
27Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
28The Age of Pericles
March
MTWTFSS
1The Parthenon Frieze
2Anaxagoras and the Friends of Pericles
3The Beginning of the Peloponnesian War
4The Plague and the Death of Pericles
5Hippocrates
6The Philosopher Socrates
7An Athenian Household
8Socrates and Alcibiades
9Alcibiades and Nicias
10Sicily and the Great Expedition
11Alcibiades and the Sicilian Disaster
12The Return and Death of Alcibiades
13The Thirty Tyrants
14The Accusation of Socrates
15The Death of Socrates
16Cyrus and the Battle of Cunaxa
17The Retreat of the Ten Thousand
18Thebes Set Free
19The Battle of Leuctra
20Epaminondas at Mantinea
21Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse
22Damon, Phintias and Damocles
23Plato, Dion and Dionysius
24Philip of Macedon
25The Orator Demosthenes
26Phryne on Trial
27Philip Masters Greece
28Alexander’s Boyhood
29Alexander as King
30Alexander and Diogenes
31Aristotle and the Lyceum
April
MTWTFSS
1Alexander Crosses into Asia
2The Gordian Knot
3Alexander in Egypt and the Desert
4The Death of Darius
5Clitus, Porus and Bucephalas
6The Death of Alexander
7The Death of Demosthenes
8The Siege of Rhodes and the Colossus
9Alexandria and Its Library
10The Garden and the Porch
11Aratus, Philopoemen and the Achaean League
12The Maccabees
13Greece a Roman Province
14The Antikythera Mechanism
15Dido and Aeneas
16Aeneas in Latium
17The Wolf and the Twins
18Romulus Builds Rome
19The Sabine Women
20Numa and the Gods of Rome
21The Horatii and the Curiatii
22The Etruscans and Tarquin the Elder
23Tarquin the Proud and the Sibyl’s Books
24Lucretia and Brutus
25Brutus and His Sons
26Horatius at the Bridge and Mucius Scaevola
27The Secession to the Sacred Mount
28Coriolanus
29The Hearth and the Household Gods
30Cincinnatus
May
MTWTFSS
1The Twelve Tables and Virginia
2Camillus and the Schoolmaster
3The Gauls and the Sacred Geese
4The Caudine Forks
5Pyrrhus and His Elephants
6The First Roman Fleet
7The Sacred Chickens
8Regulus
9Hannibal Crosses the Alps
10Cannae
11Archimedes
12Scipio and Zama
13Cato the Censor
14The Destruction of Carthage
15Polybius on Why Rome Won
16The Jewels of Cornelia
17The Gracchi
18Jugurtha
19Marius and the Cimbri
20Sulla and the Proscriptions
21Sertorius and His Doe
22Spartacus
23Pompey the Great
24How to Win an Election
25Cicero and Catiline
26Catullus and Clodia
27Caesar in Gaul
28Caesar in Britain
29Lucretius
30The Crossing of the Rubicon
31Pharsalus
June
MTWTFSS
1Caesar’s Calendar
2The Death of Caesar
3The Death of Cicero
4Philippi
5Antony and Cleopatra
6The Augustan Age: Virgil and Horace
7The Ara Pacis
8Ovid at Tomis
9Varus and Germanicus
10A Teacher from Galilee
11Tiberius and Caligula
12Claudius, and Caratacus in Rome
13Nero and Seneca
14Boudica
15The Fire, and Peter and Paul
16Trimalchio’s Dinner
17The Destruction of Jerusalem
18The Colosseum and the Games
19Vesuvius
20The Walls of Pompeii
21Domitian’s Black Banquet
22A Roman Day
23Roads and Aqueducts
24Trajan and Pliny
25Ships to India
26Hadrian
27The Pantheon
28Epictetus
29Marcus Aurelius
30Galen
July
MTWTFSS
1The Martyrs of Lyons
2Commodus
3The Severans and the Senate of Women
4Roman Law
5Decius, Valerian and Shapur
6Zenobia
7Diocletian
8Constantine
9Julian the Apostate
10Theodosius and Ambrose
11Augustine
12Alaric and the Sack of Rome
13Attila
14The End of the Empire in the West
15Hengist and Horsa
16Patrick
17Arthur
18Clovis
19Constantinople: Justinian and Theodora
20Benedict and the Monasteries
21Brunhild and Fredegund
22Gregory the Great and the Angles
23Muhammad and the First Muslims
24Greek Fire and the War on Icons
25The Arabs in Spain, and Tours
26Bede
27Pepin and the Do-Nothing Kings
28Charlemagne’s Wars, and Roland
29Charlemagne at Home
30Baghdad and the House of Wisdom
31Charlemagne, Emperor
August
MTWTFSS
1The Strasbourg Oaths
2The Vikings
3The Danes in England
4The Book of Kells
5Alfred in the Cowherd’s Cottage
6Alfred Conquers the Danes
7The Northmen Besiege Paris
8Otto the Great
9Córdoba of the Caliphs
10Hugh Capet and the Year One Thousand
11Leif Ericsson
12Vladimir of Kiev Chooses a Faith
13The Schism of 1054
14Ethelred and Canute
15Stamford Bridge
16Hastings
17The Bayeux Tapestry
18Canossa
19Castle, Village and Town
20El Cid
21The First Crusade
22The White Ship
23Abelard and Heloise
24Bernard, Eleanor and the Second Crusade
25Hildegard of Bingen
26Thomas Becket
27Frederick Barbarossa
28Richard the Lionheart
29John and Arthur of Brittany
30The Fourth Crusade
31Innocent III and the Cathars
September
MTWTFSS
1Bouvines
2Magna Carta
3Francis of Assisi
4Chartres and the Blue Glass
5Frederick II, the Wonder of the World
6Genghis Khan and the Mongols in Europe
7Saint Louis
8Aquinas at the King’s Table
9Simon de Montfort
10Marco Polo and the Great Khan
11Venice, the Fairs and the Hanse
12Edward I and the Stone of Scone
13Bruce and Bannockburn
14Philip the Fair and the Templars
15Dante and the Feuding City
16Giotto’s Circle
17Petrarch on Mont Ventoux
18The Beginning of the Hundred Years’ War
19Crécy
20The Burghers of Calais
21The Black Death
22Poitiers
23Hawkwood and the White Company
24Avignon, the Schism and Catherine of Siena
25Wat Tyler
26Chaucer
27Charles VI and the Burning Men
28Jan Hus at Constance
29Agincourt
30The Très Riches Heures
October
MTWTFSS
1The Treaty of Troyes
2Joan of Arc
3Brunelleschi’s Dome
4Cosimo de’ Medici
5The Fall of Constantinople
6Gutenberg’s Press
7Henry the Navigator
8The Wars of the Roses
9Louis XI, the Spider King
10The Pazzi Conspiracy
11Richard III and the Princes
121492
13Charles VIII Invades Italy
14Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities
15The Borgias and Machiavelli
16Michelangelo and the Giant
17Julius II and the Sistine Ceiling
18Leonardo Goes to France
19Dürer
20Erasmus and More
21Luther at Worms
22Cortés and Moctezuma
23Magellan
24The Cloth of Gold and Pavia
25The Sack of Rome
26Suleiman and Vienna
27Henry VIII and Wolsey
28Henry’s Wives
29Calvin’s Geneva
30Ignatius and the Jesuits
31Las Casas and the Debate at Valladolid
November
MTWTFSS
1Lady Jane Grey and Mary Tudor
2Charles V Gives Up
3Elizabeth Becomes Queen
4Ivan the Terrible and the English Ships
5St Bartholomew’s Day
6Philip II and the Escorial
7Lepanto
8William the Silent
9Mary, Queen of Scots
10The Armada
11Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Age
12Montaigne
13Henry of Navarre
14The First Operas
15Sir Walter Raleigh
16The Gunpowder Plot
17Don Quixote
18The Death of Henry IV
19Copernicus, Tycho and Kepler
20Galileo and the Moons of Jupiter
21The Thirty Years’ War
22The Mayflower
23Richelieu
24Tulips and the Dutch Republic
25Rembrandt and the Night Watch
26The War from Below, and the Peace
27King and Parliament
28The Execution of Charles I
29The Royal Oak
30Cromwell
December
MTWTFSS
1Descartes and the Queen of Sweden
2The Fronde
3Velázquez and the Isle of Pheasants
4Plague and Fire
5Versailles
6The Man in the Iron Mask
7Newton
8Vienna, 1683
9The Glorious Revolution
10Peter the Great
11Bach
12The Death of Louis XIV
13John Law and the South Sea Bubble
14Voltaire in England
15Frederick the Great and Voltaire
16Diderot and the Encyclopédie
17Johnson’s Dictionary
18The Lisbon Earthquake
19Rousseau
20Wolfe at Quebec, Clive in India
21Mozart at Schönbrunn
22Catherine the Great
23Captain Cook
24The Spinning Wheel and the Steam Engine
25Adam Smith
26Olaudah Equiano
27How America Was Lost
28Franklin in Paris
29The Diamond Necklace
301789
31David’s Brutus
A five-minute story from history each morning. It's free and ends after a year.