This Editorial celebrates the 70th anniversary of the European Journal of Histochemistry since its foundation as Rivista di Istochimica Normale e Patologica, and introduces a Special Collection of selected articles on the application of the histochemical approach for investigating cell biological features and processes in animals and plants, and under diseased conditions. The year 2024 is a special one for histochemists, as 100 years ago J.W. Robert Feulgen and H. Rossenbeck introduced the histochemical procedure for the specific stoichiometric staining of DNA in histological samples: to commemorate this influential publication, three papers in the present issue are devoted to the application of the Feulgen reaction at light and electron microscopy, and in cytometry.