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  • Weird and wonderful history

Weird and wonderful history

Learn all about weird, yet wonderful, events that happened in history through in-depth history articles, podcasts, video and more…

A young woman sat in front of a mirror applies lipstick, 1967
General Modern

The price of beauty: the dangerous cosmetics used until the 20th century

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Supernatural stories: 9 unusual British folktales.

A scene from the German film 'Ways to Strength and Beauty', 1925. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)
Second World War

Germany’s naked truth: the 19th-century nudism movements co-opted by the Nazis

An architectural grotesque of a woman displaying her vulva
Medieval

How naughty was the past? The hidden depths of the medieval church

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A woodcut showing the interior of a kitchen in Elizabethan England. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Membership

Hold your noses: the smells, sounds and sights of Elizabethan England.

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Winston Churchill on roller skates
Membership

How the roller skating craze caught Churchill.

More weird and wonderful

Weird & wonderful Q&As

Historians take on questions about bizarre history…

An illustration of a witch on a broomstick, wearing a pointed hat.
General History

Why do ‘wicked’ witches wear pointed hats? The real history explained

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A depiction of Roman communal toilets
Membership

Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z.

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An illustration showing a samurai soldier dressed in a black and blue robe. Behind him is a person holding up a bar with two buckets of poo hanging from it.
Membership

Let’s think before we flush, with Dr Christopher Harding.

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A red and black illustration showing a large wolf jumping up, above a man laying on the floor. Around the central wolf, there are several others
Membership

Spectral beasts and hounds of hell: a spooky history of Britain's ghost dogs.

Hoaxes and hijinks

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies
20th Century

Fairies, rabbit births and an 'ancient' tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

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5 Georgian ghost hoaxes.

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Henry VIII, Princess Mary and William Somers
Membership

Playing the fool: Tudor jesters.

Monsters and aliens

Soldiers of the Third Reich surround a huge bonfire during a winter solstice festival in December 1936. The Nazis attempted to use elements of pagan beliefs to promote a Germanic ‘national religiosity’. (Photo by Getty Images)
20th Century

Witches, werewolves and vampires: the Nazi's quest for the supernatural

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A photo which was believed to be of the Loch Ness Monster
Membership

The quest for the Loch Ness Monster.

General Modern

UFO history10 top sightings and a timeline

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