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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

Second World War

Hitler and Stalin’s utopian dreams

The Victorians and the British Empire: a brief guide and timeline

Dominic Sandbrook answers popular search queries and listener questions about Britain in the 1960s. (Image by Getty Images)

Britain’s Swinging Sixties: everything you wanted to know

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King in Washington DC, where he delivered his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech to a quarter of a million civil rights supporters in Washington DC in August 1963. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

Mourning Martin Luther King Jr: the life and legacy of the civil rights leader

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In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Richard Nixon resigns

A brief history of presidential impeachment

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

Dr Edward Jenner, a British physician, performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of eight, in 1796. (Photo by Getty Images)

The history of vaccination: from Edward Jenner to anti-vaxxers

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 Vikings

With the final season of History Channel's Vikings now streaming on Amazon Prime, explore the real history behind the show – and exploits of the Vikings themselves

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

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

Ragnar Lothbrok: the legend of the immortal Viking and his sons

A reconstruction of a Viking church

Vikings in America: the Europeans who arrived 500 years before Columbus

Alex Hogh Andersen as Ivar the Boneless

The real Vikings: the early medieval world behind the hit drama

Read more Viking history

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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

Gareth Williams explores previous efforts to combat lethal diseases, from smallpox to polio. (Image by Getty Images)

The race for vaccines: lessons from history

Helen Fry gives a lecture on MI9’s missions during the to help Allied prisoners of war escape during the Second World War.

Second World War

MI9’s secret escape missions

Hitler and Stalin: Laurence Rees compares the actions of the two dictators over the course of the Second World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Second World War

Hitler and Stalin: tyrants at war

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

Priya Satia explores how historians helped advance the British empire, only to later become critics of imperialism. (Image by Getty Images)

How historians helped build the British empire

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Trending in the US

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…

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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

Illustration of a mummy with mask

How to make an Egyptian mummy in 6 steps

Portrait of Queen Victoria

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

English cavalry attacking the Sikh at the Battle of Aliwal

Victoria the warrior queen

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)

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: was their union a marriage of misery?

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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

A Victorian Christmas card

HistoryExtra’s Christmas history quiz 2020

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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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

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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

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Sex and love

The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

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