mysql> create table history (name varchar(40), section_id int);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> create table history_section (id int not null auto_increment, section_name varchar(40), primary key(id));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> insert into history_section (section_name) values ('abc'), ('def'), ('ghi');
Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 3  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from history_section;
+----+--------------+
| id | section_name |
+----+--------------+
|  1 | abc          | 
|  2 | def          | 
|  3 | ghi          | 
+----+--------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> insert into history (name, section_id) values ('line 1', (select id from history_section where section_name = 'def'));
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> insert into history (name, section_id) values ('line 2', (select id from history_section where section_name = 'abc'));
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from history;
+---------+------------+
| name    | section_id |
+---------+------------+
| line 1  |          2 | 
| line 2  |          1 | 
+---------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)