BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed & BBC World Histories - HistoryExtra

Augustus was the first Roman emperor (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Your guide to the Roman empire: when it was formed, why it split and how it failed, plus its most colourful emperors

Death under the black mountain: surviving the 1966 Aberfan disaster

Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s wedding: everything you need to know

Stella Dadzie on the HistoryExtra podcast (Image by Getty Images)

Enslaved women & resistance

Princes in the Tower Podcast Series

Princes in the Tower Exclusive podcast series

Latest articles

Black History Month

October is Black History Month in the UK, an event that has been celebrated nationwide for more than 30 years

Sara Forbes Bonetta (seated besides her husband James Davies was brought to England in the late 1840s by a Navy captain. Presented to Queen Victoria, she impressed the monarch so much that Victoria became her godmother

Black History Month: what is it, historians on its relevance, plus 6 articles you should read

(Illustration by Eleanor Shakespeare. Portrait of Christian Cole: ©The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, G. A. Oxon 4° 417, fol. 980)

Christian Frederick Cole: England’s first black barrister

Life in bondage Formerly enslaved African-Americans sit for a photograph in Virginia, c1850. At that time, 4 million people were still enslaved across the US, as debates around abolition raged on both sides of the Atlantic (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

The black abolitionists who shocked Victorian Britain

An illustration of slaves picking cotton on a plantation. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

David Olusoga "Black history affects all of us – it is British history"

Learn more about Black history with our expert articles and podcasts

The Crown

Ahead of the fourth series of The Crown, which lands on Netflix on 15 November, we bring you the real history behind the hit show...

Queen Elizabeth II visits the Welsh mining town of Aberfan in 1966 following the disaster, and actor Olivia Colman recreates the tragic scene in series three of The Crown.

Netflix’s The Crown: the real history behind the royal drama

Diana and Charles in Canada, 1986

Charles and Diana: a history of their marriage

Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher attend a ball to celebrate the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, 1979 in Lusaka, Zambia. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II: what was their relationship like?

Cast of the Crown vs their real life counterparts. Top (right to left): actors Gillian Anderson, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin. Bottom: Margaret Thatcher, Elizabeth II, Princess Diana. (Photos by Netflix/Getty Images)

The Crown S4 cast: which real historical figures feature in season four of Netflix’s royal drama – and what did they really look like?

Charles and Camilla, 1979

Prince Charles and Camilla: a history of their romance

Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth II

In profile: Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II

Read more about The Crown

In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, Adams and George W Bush: the 6 most disputed presidential elections in American history

Cleopatra's face on a coin

The face of Cleopatra: was she really so beautiful?

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

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

The three shortlisted finalists for the 2020 Cundill History Prize.

Judges reveal the finalists of the 2020 Cundill History Prize

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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…

Photo of Abraham Lincoln

Q&A Did Abraham Lincoln’s beard win him the election?

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waves to the crowd at Heston Airport and declaims

Second World War

Q&A Did appeasement cause the Second World War?

How did England react to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1751? (Illustration for BBC History Magazine)

Q&A Did the introduction of the Gregorian calendar spark riots?

King Arthur and his knights return to Camelot (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Q&A Where was Camelot?

St Swithin (or Swithun). (Image by Alamy)

Q&A Who was St Swithin?

Winston Churchill gives his famous v-sign. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

From Winston Churchill to the Bengal famine: are we in denial about our role in WW2?

Read more answers from the experts

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HistoryExtra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Camilla Townsend on the HistoryExtra podcast. (Image by Getty Images)

Aztecs in their own words

Richard M Eaton on the HistoryExtra podcast (Image by Getty Images)

A new take on India’s history

Marisa Linton on the French Revolution.

The French Revolution: Everything you need to know

King Arthur and a hand holding the sword Excalibur.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the legends of King Arthur, but were afraid to ask

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

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Aztecs, but were afraid to ask

Thomas Penn on the House of York.

A Triple Bond Broken: The Destruction of the House of York

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Trending in the US

Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

The lost heirs of Henry VIII: Alison Weir on Katherine of Aragon’s failed pregnancies

The Spanish Princess Part II. (Image by Starz)

The real history behind The Spanish Princess

Princes in the Tower Podcast Series

Princes in the Tower Exclusive podcast series

The month of November, gathering acorns and hare hunting. (Photo by Getty Images)

Everything you ever wanted to know about medieval daily life, but were afraid to ask

Picture galleries

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

Picture shows: Princess Diana (EMMA CORRIN)

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

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), holding a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow Airport, 17 March 1969. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

In pictures: the history of London’s Heathrow Airport

Latest articles

The Knights of the Round Table are that the heart of many Arthurian legends

Who were the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, and where does the Holy Grail fit in?

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, observed by Queen Catherine (of Aragon), who is stood in the doorway. Anne has been playing the lute for the king, watched by a gathering of courtiers. Cardinal Wolsey, right of centre, looks on. Painting by Marcus Stone, 1870. Private collection. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The men who changed Henry VIII’s underpants

The Varangian Guard as depicted in the illuminated 12th-century manuscript known as the Madrid Skylitzes. These Viking warriors became the Byzantine emperors' personal bodyguard

What was the Varangian Guard? A brief history of the Viking warriors of the Byzantine empire

Early 19th-century engraving of a convict ship, ready to sail from England to Austrailia

Your guide to... transportation to Australia

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History Quizzes

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

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

(Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Tudors history quiz: test your knowledge of the dynamic dynasty

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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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

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Victorian

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20th Century

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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

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Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

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

Women's history

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Sex and love

The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

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