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Lithograph portrait of Scottish poet Robert Burns. (Photo by Stock Montage/Getty Images)

7 facts about Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard

History explorer The Gladstone Pottery Museum

The real story of Bridgerton’s Queen Charlotte: from glittering courts to tragic decline

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones responds to listener questions and popular internet search queries about one of the dominant powers of the ancient world, the Persian empire. (Image by Getty Images)

General ancient history

The Persian empire: everything you wanted to know

BBC History Revealed issue 91 February 2021

February 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed out now!

Latest articles

In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Supporters of Donald Trump protest in Pennsylvania as the state’s electoral college casts its votes, December 2020

The constitutional crisis behind 2021’s presidential transition

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation

Edward Jenner performs a vaccination, in an 1802 cartoon that lampoons the notion that being vaccinated will turn you into a cow

The race for a cure: how we found vaccines for 4 of history’s most dangerous diseases

RuPaul – who produces and presents the reality TV show bearing his name – performs during a Gay Rights March in Washington, DC, April 1993. Over 500,000 LGBTQ+ activists and allies participated in a gathering organised to end discrimination. (Photo by Porter Gifford/Liaison)

From Fanny and Stella to Ru Paul’s Drag Race: a short history of drag

The real story behind The Dig

New film The Dig, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, arrives on Netflix worldwide on 29 January. Find out more about the real excavation that unearthed the treasures at Sutton Hoo…

Photo of an Anglo Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo: a brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon burial site and its discovery

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation

Ahead of the release of the new film The Dig, Professor Martin Carver discusses the real story of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo. (Image by Getty Images)

Spectacular discoveries at Sutton Hoo

One of the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo

How dark were the Dark Ages?

Read more about Sutton Hoo

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Historical Q&As

How did Spanish Flu get its name? When did our ancestors start using toilet paper? Why did the famous Crystal Palace burn down? And where was the WW1 Armistice signed? Here are the top questions about history, answered by historians and experts…

19th century advert for snuff

Q&A What was snuff?

Monument to Prince Vladimir the Great in Moscow

Q&A Who were the Kievan Rus and what do they have to do with the Vikings?

Edward Jenner

Q&A When did medical practitioners start to be called ‘doctor’?

Scrooge and Marley's ghost

Q&A Why do we say ‘Bah Humbug’ and what does it mean?

Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret as Prince Charming and Cinderella in a 1941 pantomime

Q&A What are the origins of the Christmas pantomime?

Shoppers in Liverpool during the 1960s

Q&A Why is the shopping day after Thanksgiving called ‘Black Friday’?

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HistoryExtra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Charles Spencer on the HistoryExtra podcast

The shipwreck that sunk a royal dynasty

Susan Cohen discusses the highs and lows of the NHS, from its creation in 1948 to the challenges it faces today. (Image by Getty Images)

The NHS: a brief history

Paul Betts explores how postwar regeneration after 1945 was inspired by the contested concept of civilisation. (Image by Getty Images)

Rebuilding Europe after WW2

King Arthur and a hand holding the sword Excalibur.

The legends of King Arthur: everything you wanted to know

Pectoral ornament in the form of a double headed serpent, Aztec/ Mixtec, c 1400/1521 (Photo by Getty Images)

The Aztecs: everything you wanted to know

Helen Czerski explores the impact of oceans on human history, from providing food to connecting trade routes. (Images by Getty Images)

How oceans shaped human civilisation

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Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton

Bridgerton: “A period drama like no other”

Richard III, Queen Victoria and Henry VIII. (Photos by Getty Images)

Monarchy history quiz: test your knowledge of these kings and queens

19th century advert for snuff

Q&A What was snuff?

Carved wall scene depicting Cleopatra at Dendera Temple

Cleopatra: what is the real legacy of the last pharaoh?

Picture galleries

Explore our historical galleries covering a wide range of historical periods and topics…

2C2A1441

In pictures: 150 years of the British Red Cross

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in season 4 of 'The Crown'. (Photo by Netflix)

The Crown S4 news: Netflix releases first images of Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher

This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

VE Day revellers blowing party trumpets

Second World War

In pictures: jubilant VE Day street party celebrations

Latest articles

Henry IV of Germany asking for the forgiveness of Pope Gregory VII in Canossa in 1077. (Photo by De Agostini/Getty Images)

Canossa: a medieval clash between church and state

Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

Annie Gray “For Queen Victoria, food was a way of exploring the world”

Student nurse Dorothy Norris

A brief guide to the history of the NHS

Photo of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria: how and why did she become Empress of India?

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History Quizzes

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How much do you know about the Vikings? Test your knowledge with our quiz. This mid-19th century painting shows Viking ships on the River Thames. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

History quiz: How much do you know about the Vikings?

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

Medieval quiz

Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria quiz: how much do you know about the monarch?

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

History quiz: how much do you know about the Black Death?

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

Tudor

Illustrated Medieval scene from the Romance of Lancelot

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20th Century

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Painting of Henry VIII

Henry VIII

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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

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

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