BBC History Magazine | History Extra - History Extra

An illustration of King Arthur's coronation, from the 13th-century Flores Historiarum. Taken from ‘The Island Race’, a 20th-century book written by Sir Winston Churchill that covers the history of the British Isles from pre-Roman times to the Victorian era. (Photo by World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about King Arthur

Queen Victoria timeline: 9 milestones in the monarch’s life

The Library Edward VI: boy king and religious zealot

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Married architects Alison and Peter Smithson at work, October 1961. The pair were architect members of the Independent Group and had an impact on the British urban scene via what became known as ‘New Brutalism’. (Photo by Davies/Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Who were the original Independent Group? A very brief history of the radical 1950s movement that challenged the art establishment

Latest articles

Pets in history

Today is national Love Your Pet Day in the US...

Vintage postcard showing Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and a pet corgi. (Photo by the History Press)

8 of the best dogs in history

Queen Victoria and her dog Looty. (© Look and Learn/Bridgeman Art Library)

10 famous people in history and their bizarre pets

c1943: Soldiers enjoy a baseball match at Wembley Stadium in London between the United States Army and Canadian Forces. With them sits Bobby, the mascot of the Canadian Highland Scottish regiment. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

12 amazing pictures of animals through history

Animals that changed us

A history of red hair and amazing animals

Queen Victoria with her daughter Princess Beatrice at Balmoral Castle. Dogs seem to have been Victoria's favourite animal, writes Richard Sugg. (De Agostini Picture Library)

Queen Victoria’s pets and animals

Sergeant Stubby, an American dog who served as the mascot of America's 102nd Infantry Regiment during the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

First World War

Sergeant Stubby of the First World War: the heroic story of America’s most decorated war dog

An attendant and his guard dog at the world's first pet cemetery, Paris,

A dog’s-eye view of Paris

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Roman mosaic of a dog, bearing the legend 'Cave Canem' underneath, from Pompeii, from Naples National Museum's collection, 1st century. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

6 things you (probably) didn’t know about animals in ancient Rome

More animals in history

In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Britain’s first self-service supermarket, Sainsbury’s in Croydon, opened in 1950. (Sainsbury’s)

A brief history of shopping

An aerial view of Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. (Photo by David Goddard/Getty Images)

History explorer: Tintagel Castle and the legend of King Arthur

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Have nuclear weapons helped to maintain global peace?

Malcolm X chats with Eric Abrahams – the Oxford Union president who vowed to “fill the room with blacks” – before giving his famous address on 3 December 1964. (Getty)

Malcolm X in Oxford: Black power amid dreaming spires

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Queen Victoria

Season 3 of the hit drama Victoria is airing in the US

Attempted assassination of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). On the evening of Wednesday 10 June 1840 Victoria and Prince Albert were travelling in a carriage along Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace, London, when Edward Oxford fired a pistol at the Queen

The man who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria

A portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with five of their nine children, by Frederick Winterhalter. (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Library Victoria and Albert: a marriage of misery?

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Portrait of a young Queen Victoria, c1850, by F Winterhalter. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria, who “displayed a healthy enjoyment of food and drink throughout her life”, says food historian Rebecca Earle. (Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s voracious appetite for food and sex

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren. Kaiser Wilhelm II is pictured left in the front row. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Friends, family and rivals: Queen Victoria and the European empires

Osborne House

The Library Osborne: Queen Victoria's island retreat

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

More on Queen Victoria

Black History Month 2019

As Black History Month continues in the USA and Canada…

Young and Dabiri podcast

Africa’s contested past

Michael X, (right, foreground) black power advocate, in Hyde Park. (Photo by Terence Spencer/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Michael X and the British war on black power

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Portrait of an African man, c1530. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Library The missing Tudors: black people in 16th-century England

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Malcolm X speaking at a rally, 29 June 1963.(Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Black radicalism with Kehinde Andrews

A badge featuring American civil rights activist Martin Luther King

The global legacy of Martin Luther King

(Illustration for BBC History Magazine)

Michael Wood on… slavery

More black history

Trending in the US

Portrait of a young Queen Victoria, c1850, by F Winterhalter. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Queen Victoria

A portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with five of their nine children, by Frederick Winterhalter. (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Library Victoria and Albert: a marriage of misery?

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Queen Victoria pictured c1862 during her period of mourning after the death of her husband, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince Albert: the death that rocked the monarchy

This c1610 painting shows an elderly Elizabeth. The queen used "gems and pearls" to divert attention from her decaying body, says Anna Whitelock. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Library Elizabeth I: the monarch behind the mask

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Read American history

The Library

Unlock exclusive content for BBC History Magazine subscribers

A contemporary pictorial depiction of the Great Plague.

The Black Death: the historians’ view

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

A portrait of the young Elizabeth I. (Photo by Art Collection 2/Alamy Stock Photo)

The Library Elizabeth I's personality: the unfathomable queen

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. (Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library Why did the Second World War happen?

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

A painting by Vincenzo Camuccini depicting the death of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The death of Caesar: do we know the whole story?

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

More from The Library

History Extra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Richard J Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Eric Hobsbawm: history and politics

podcast-logo_v4_31-21a6c69

The conquest of Wales and Mary I

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

In 1877, a major rebellion in Kyushu concentrated the opposition of conservative elements to the westernization of Japan. (Photo by Asian Art/Getty Images)

The story of modern Japan

John Simpson. (Photo by Chris Williamson)

Second World War

War and music

Agrippina the Younger. (Photo by Alamy)

A Roman woman of great power

podcast-logo_v4_31-21a6c69

First World War

First World War special

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

View all podcasts

Kings and queens

Ahead of our Kings and Queens Weekend in March 2019…

BBC History Magazine's Kings and Queens Weekend, March 2019

Kings and Queens Weekend 2–3 March 2019

Wallis Simpson. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The Library The vilification of Wallis Simpson

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

A portrait of Elizabeth I, c1565. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The 10 best English queens in history

Travelling Mass set, c1535, consisting of a silver-gilt chalice; a paten (Communion plate) and a glass bottle for wine, with a leather box in which to carry them. (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Library Henry VIII's savage Reformation

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Engraved portrait of Empress Matilda of Flanders, wearing a crown and holding a scepter, c1100. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Speaker Q&A Catherine Hanley on Matilda

Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce in 'Outlaw King'. (Photo by Netfix / David Eustace)

Robert the Bruce: what do we know?

More kings and queens history

Brexit

The history behind Britain’s decision to leave the European Union…

1st May 1975: Three documents, for and against, published for the referendum on the Common Market. The document 'Britain's New Deal in Europe' (centre) contains a recommendation by the government signed by prime minister Harold Wilson for Britain to stay in the Community. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Britain decides: the first European referendum

Treaty Of Paris, 1783, by Benjamin West (Photo by Granger/REX/Shutterstock)

Brexit and American independence

(Getty Images)

The Library Why has Britain decided to leave the EU?

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

The historical significance of Theresa May’s Brexit defeat

The big question: Has the European Union been a success?

The Library The reluctant Europeans

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

A mushroom cloud over Nagasaki after the dropping of the second atomic bomb, 9 August 1945. The dropping of the bomb prompted Japan to agree to surrender unconditionally, as it now seemed likely that the Americans could mount an inexorable process of bombing. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Us Air Force/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

WW2 10 of the most important Second World War dates

Jews waiting on a Warsaw street for the deportation to a concentration camp.(Photo by Imagno/Getty Images) [Holocaust: Warten von Juden auf einer Warschauer Stra?e auf den Abtransport in ein deutsches Vernichtungslager. Polen. Photographie. Um 1944.]

Second World War

Should more be done to remember the Holocaust in Britain?

Japanese troops celebrate the capture of a British artillery position, Hong Kong, December 1941 (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

The lion and the rising sun: Britain and Japan’s 400-year relationship

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

circa 1942: Men of the 7th British Armoured Division, known as the Desert Rats, sitting on a field gun before the fall of Tobruk in the North African Campaign. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Tobruk

German soldiers with a horse-drawn cart during the retreat from Ukraine in 1943. The idea of Teutonic efficiency was a triumph of Nazi spin, says James Holland. (Keystone/Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library The great misconceptions of the Second World War

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

Irish rugby fans in London for the international match between Ireland and England at Twickenham Stadium, 13 February 1937. (Photo by E Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Rugby warriors: the rugby-playing heroes of the First and Second World War

Advertisement

Women's history

Woodcut of a woman who may be stoking a furnace or baking bread, printed in the 15th century. (SSPL/Getty Images)

What was life like for a medieval housewife?

100women_800x530

100 Women Who Changed the World: the results

Top ( l-r) Agrippina the Elder, Julia, and Livia. Bottom (l-r) Messalina and Agrippina the Younger

The Library The women who built the Roman Empire

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Library

From left: Fern Riddell, a cultural historian specialising in sex and suffrage; Janina Ramirez, a broadcaster and historian based at the University of Oxford; Joann Fletcher, a broadcaster and writer, and an Egyptologist at the University of York; Anna Whitelock, a historian of royal and early modern history, based at Royal Holloway, University of London. (Photography by Helen Atkinson)

What is it like to be a female historian in the 21st century?

female-friendships-2-7966543

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

Max Adams. (Photo by Kona Macphee/Royal Literary Fund)

Remarkable women through history

More women's history

Latest articles

Japanese soldiers and sailors disembark at Vladivostok, 22 August 1918. Of all the foreign interventions into the Russian civil war, the one from Japan was by far the largest, growing to 70,000 troops. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

6 lessons from the Allies’ failed intervention in Russia’s civil war

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, last Shah of Iran, pictured in 1967 with his third wife, Farah Diba, and their son Reza. His attempted reforms during his final years in power alienated many of his nation's people. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Iranian Revolution: why 1979’s uprising still shapes the Middle East

Four soliders of the 36th Sikhs, various ranks, 1896. The regiment was led in January 1897 to occupy the Samana posts, says Captain Jay Singh-Sohal. (Reproduced with permission from australiansikhheritage.com)

The battle of Saragarhi: when 21 Sikh soldiers stood against 10,000 men

A portrait of Samuel Pepys

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Samuel Pepys

History Quizzes

How much do you know about history? Test out your knowledge with our quizzes...

(Original Caption) Commercial Card.

Christmas history quiz 2018

great fire 4

Great Fire of London quiz – how much do you know?

Second World War soldiers

Second World War

Second World War quiz

People praying for relief from the bubonic plague, circa 1350. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Medieval quiz

View more quizzes

Popular historic periods

Portrait of King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour and Prince Edward. (Photo by Getty Images)

Tudor

Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

Medieval

Victorian - Getty Images

Victorian

20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Explore more historic periods

Popular people from history

Painting of Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Winston Churchill gives his famous v-sign as he opens the new headquarters of 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron of the RAAF (Royal Auxiliary Air Force) at Croydon, 1948. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Winston Churchill

Golden funerary mask of Tutankhamun, inlaid with lapis lazuli, obsidian and turquoise. (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Tutankhamun

Explore more people from history

Popular historic topics

Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Photo of Mabel Capper and Patricia Woodlock advertising a meeting, Manchester, Lancashire, July 1908

Women's history

Illustration of a couple

Sex and love

The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

Explore more historic topics