History is the interpretation of past events, societies and civilisations. The term
history comes from the
Greek historia (
ἱστορία), "an account of one's inquiries," and shares that
etymology with the
English word
story. The
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica stated that "history in the wider sense is all that has happened, not merely all the phenomena of human life, but those of the natural world as well. It is everything that undergoes change; and as modern science has shown that there is nothing absolutely
static, therefore, the whole universe, and every part of it, has its history."
