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During his time in Oxford, Wilde fully embraced ‘aesthetic flair’: growing his hair long; dressing in flamboyant fashions and assuming exaggerated affectations. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Oscar Wilde

Restoring women’s voices

Second World War

Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s greatest mistake

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Poll: 100 women who changed the world

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The Second World War

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Nazi leader Adolf Hitler sits at a table facing a group of young uniformed National Socialists crowded into a small room in the 'Braune Haus' or Brown House, Munich, Germany, c1935. (Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The dark charisma of Adolf Hitler

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An older couple is watching a Canadian soldier with a bulldozer working in the ruins of a house in the rue de Bayeux.10th July 1944. The church towers in the background have survived the Allied bombing intact. Caen, Normandy, France. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

Second World War

D-Day: the successes and failures in focus

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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 great misconceptions of the Second World War

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Adolph Hitler (Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Second World War

Why did the Second World War happen?

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Adolf Eichmann during his trial in 1961

Second World War

Forgotten voices of the Holocaust

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The USS Arizona burning in Pearl Harbor following the Japanese attack. To the left of her are USS Tennessee and the sunken USS West Virginia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The shock of Pearl Harbor

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Ragnar Lothbrok. (Illustration by Georgie Gozem for BBC History Magazine)

Ragnar Lothbrok: the immortal Viking

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An illustration of the Peasants' Revolt

The Peasants’ Revolt: did Richard II side with the rebels?

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Victorian surgeon Robert Liston during an operation

An appointment at the house of death: the horror of the early Victorian hospital

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A group of five marble busts of typical early Roman citizens. The empire expanded by absorbing the peoples it defeated, giving rights and obligations to former outsiders. (Photo by Gjon Mili/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on why Rome ruled the world

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Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring on the balcony of the Reichs Chancellery, Berlin. One British journalist recalled how, in 1933, Göring began an attack against the foreign press unlike any he had previously witnessed. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Second World War

Reporting on Hitler: how foreign correspondents in Nazi Germany battled to expose the truth

The battle of Moscow, 1942. The German invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941, was the largest military operation in history. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Second World War

Operation Barbarossa: 9 popular myths busted

Queen Victoria with children

Queen Victoria’s children

Queen Victoria. (Getty Images)

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

History Extra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Keith Thomas on how ideas of civilisation shaped society 500 years ago.

General Early Modern

The history of manners

Podcast Website large Maggie Andrews

First World War

World War One at home

Grenfell Tower: from hope to tragedy

Grenfell Tower: from hope to tragedy

Podcast Website large Antonia Fraser

Britain’s Catholic emancipation

Podcast Website large Roland Philipps

Second World War

The mystery of Donald Maclean

Professor Sarah Churchwell and fellow historian Adam IP Smith discuss America's changing dream in our latest podcast.

America’s changing dream

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In this painting from c1650, a witch wields a broomstick as demons and 'familiars' (helpers of witches) congregate before her. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

History quiz – witchcraft and superstition

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

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