Hello, History Captains!

You know what's wild about history? The most pivotal moments often happen when you least expect them. Take this week in July: in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon while Michael Collins orbited alone above them, fulfilling JFK's impossible promise with just months to spare; in 1588, the English navy demolished the supposedly invincible Spanish Armada in a series of battles that saved Protestant England and made Elizabeth I a legend; and most bizarrely, in 1796, surveyor David Thomas laid the cornerstone for Washington D.C. in a swamp that everyone thought was a terrible location for America's capital. History loves throwing curveballs that seem random in the moment but change everything. So if you enjoy this trip through time, make sure to share it with a friend :)

Picture this: March 15, 44 BC. Julius Caesar, Rome's most feared and powerful man, ignores the soothsayer's warning about the Ides of March. He walks into the Senate house, but instead of meeting 23 knife wounds, he delivers a speech that reshapes history forever. Because in our timeline, those senators who thought they were saving the Republic with their assassination plot? They accidentally destroyed it. Their daggers didn't just end Caesar's life, they carved the tombstone of Roman democracy itself. Within years, civil war had torn the Republic apart, paving the way for Augustus and an empire that would dominate the world for centuries. But strip away that single moment of violence, and everything changes.

Caesar wasn't just another politician, he was a visionary reformer caught in a dying system. The Roman Republic was already gasping for air, strangled by corruption, inequality, and endless civil wars. If Caesar had lived, imagine the Rome he might have built: debt forgiveness that lifted millions from poverty, expanded citizenship that transformed conquered peoples into Romans, and grain reforms that ended the cycles of famine and unrest. Sure, he might have ruled as dictator-for-life, but here's the twist… Many historians believe he could have preserved the Senate's power while actually fixing what was broken. Instead of the brutal imperial cult that followed, we might have seen a reformed Republic that lasted another thousand years. Or perhaps Caesar would have gone full monarch, crowning himself king and accelerating Rome's transformation in ways Augustus never dared.

Without Caesar's assassination, there's no Augustus, no empire, no Pax Romana, and that means no world as we know it. Think about it: no Roman roads stretching from Britain to North Africa, no Colosseum, no vast imperial network that carried Christianity across continents. Europe's entire development pivots on this moment. Would Rome have remained a powerful but localized city-state? Would other civilizations have filled the imperial vacuum? Would Jesus's message have spread without Roman infrastructure to carry it? One knife thrust on a spring morning in 44 BC didn't just kill a man, it rewrote the DNA of Western civilization. Every road not built, every war not fought, every idea not spread ripples forward through two millennia. History isn't a predetermined march toward progress; it's a house of cards where pulling out Julius Caesar brings down everything we think we know about how the world was supposed to unfold.

Tell Us Your Theories

Do you think Caeser would have been a good or a terrible king?

Hit reply and share your thoughts or tell us about another king in history you think is interesting.

Picture London Bridge on a warm June evening in 2017. Families strolling, couples dining, the usual hum of city life until a van mounted the pavement and everything went to hell. Three terrorists were carving a path of destruction through Borough Market, knives flashing, people screaming, chaos everywhere. But in the Black & Blue pub, cornered and facing certain death, Roy Larner, a 47-year-old Millwall fan with nothing but his fists and his fury, made a choice that defied every survival instinct. While everyone else ran (and rightly so), Roy charged straight at three armed killers, bellowing the most unlikely battle cry in modern history: "F*** you, I'm Millwall!" It was raw, reckless, and absolutely mad. It was also exactly what those terrified people needed to hear as they scrambled for their lives.

What happened next reads like something from a movie, except Roy Larner's blood was real and his pain was excruciating. Three knives against two fists, the math was brutal and obvious. They stabbed him eight times, slicing through his neck, chest, and hands until he'd lost half the blood in his body. But here's the thing about fighting when you've got nothing left to lose: Roy didn't go down quietly. Every second he stayed standing, swinging, shouting, was another second for strangers to reach safety. He didn't win the fight, that was never the point. He bought time with his own flesh, trading his body for other people's lives in the most primal act of heroism imaginable. When the police finally arrived and ended the terror, Roy was still breathing, still defiant, still very much alive.

Roy's story exploded across every front page in Britain, earning him the nickname "The Lion of London Bridge" a perfect nod to Millwall FC's infamous chant "No one likes us, we don't care." But beneath the headlines and hero worship, Roy himself remained refreshingly humble: "I didn't think about it, I just did it." That's the thing about real courage — it doesn't pose for cameras or wait for perfect conditions. Sometimes it's just an ordinary bloke from South London, bloodied but unbroken, showing the world that heroism comes in all shapes and sizes. In an age of terror designed to make us cower, Roy Larner stood up and threw punches, reminding us all that the human spirit, rough around the edges and stubborn as hell, refuses to be terrorized.

Do you know someone who stood up when fear said to run?

Reply and share their story — we might feature it in a future issue.

Want More?

Next week, we’ll unpack your requested stories with new insights, forgotten facts, and mind-bending consequences.

Until then, keep questioning the past. Because sometimes, one tiny moment changes everything.

If you’re a teacher or parent and would like to find an engaging way to teach history, check out History Unboxed Here!