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Towards the end of the third century BC, the First Emperor of China sought to make his new state immortal by shielding it with what would be the earliest predecessor to the Great Wall. (Photo by Jean-Luc PETIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A brief history of border walls – from 2,000 BC to Trump’s Mexico wall

How should history remember Fidel Castro?

The Library Lord Nelson and slavery: Nelson’s dark side

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A man helps his partner to dress by lacing her corset. (Photo by Frank Martin)

Love in Georgian times

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In the news

Today’s events in historical context…

Contrasting biographies of iconic leader Winston Churchill show how perceptions of historical figures change with the passing of time, says David Cannadine. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Why Churchill’s reputation is still on the line

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Second World War

Migrating to Britain

A group of skaters on a frozen-over backwater of the River Thames at Abingdon, 1895. (Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Harbingers of doom: a brief history of climate change warnings

A portrait of Benjamin Franklin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Library How to negotiate an exit

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Black History Month 2019

As Black History Month continues in the USA and Canada…

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200-metre run at the 1968 Olympic Games, engage in a victory stand protest against unfair treatment of blacks in the United States. They refuse to recognise the American flag and national anthem. (Getty Images)

The fight for Black America

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Black British history and Charles I’s children

Men sealing cases of Rowntree’s Elect Cocoa, York, Yorkshire, 1893. (Photo by Borthwick Institute/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chocolate and empire: from the land where the cocoa grows

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A still from 'Guerrilla', a new Sky Atlantic drama inspired by emergence of British Black Power. (Sky UK Limited)

‘Guerrilla’ and the real history of British Black Power

Rosa Parks rides an integrated bus

From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King: the boycott that inspired the dream

Young and Dabiri podcast

Africa’s contested past

More black history

Queen Victoria

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

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Love before Prince Albert: Queen Victoria’s suitors

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?

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As Queen Victoria ended the 19th century, she was not her usual self. She was visibly fading: her voracious appetite had disappeared and she had lost almost half her body weight. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The final days of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria of Great Britain with her husband, Prince Albert, and their nine children. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s children

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

English cavalry attacking the Sikh at the Battle of Aliwal

Victoria the warrior queen

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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 animals and pets

Queen Victoria. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

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

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

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

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Winston Churchill pictured in July 1964, a few months before his 90th birthday – a milestone that he marked with tears. The prime minister would cry at everything from suffering pets and march-pasts to dying friends and poetry recitals. (Picture by PA Images)

Second World War

Churchill: The ‘cry-baby’ war hero

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Detail from The Last Judgement, a fresco in the Sistine Chapel painted by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo. The scene depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the final judgement of all humanity. (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Medieval zombies: how the walking dead haunted the Middle Ages

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Duncan Grant's studio at Charleston. Despite its lack of creature comforts, the East Sussex farmhouse became the weekend hub of the Bloomsbury set. (Photo by Charleston House/Tony Tree)

History Explorer The story of the Bloomsbury set

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Inside the fort was a famous spring, St Helen’s Well, today Robin Hood’s Well. (© Bill Henderson)

Where was the battle that saved England?

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Trending in the US

A portrait of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400), who modern literary scholars credit for turning Valentine into the patron of love. Chaucer was a major influencer in his day – after him, everyone began calling their beloved “Valentine” and writing love poems on 14 February, says Lisa Bitel. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of Valentine’s Day – from the patron saint of epilepsy to Chaucer’s love tales

Queen Anne, based on a work by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c1702–10. Anne's reign saw women take centre stage in fierce political debates. (Photo by Bridgeman/National Trust Photographic Library)

Queen Anne's feuding favourites

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Queen Victoria. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

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

Princess Margaret attends the premiere of Captain Horatio Hornblower, Leicester Square, 1951. (Photo by Ron Burton/Keystone/Getty Images)

The Queen’s “rebel sister”: 8 facts about Princess Margaret

Read American history

History Extra Podcast

The latest episodes from the History Extra podcast

Richard J Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Eric Hobsbawm: history and politics

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The conquest of Wales and Mary I

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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

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First World War

First World War special

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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

(Illustration by Davide Bonazzi for BBC History Magazine)

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

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The Library Why has Britain decided to leave the EU?

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The historical significance of Theresa May’s Brexit defeat

Brexit and American independence

The Library The reluctant Europeans

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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

A statue of Robert the Bruce Statue at Stirling Castle, Scotland. (Dreamstime)

The battle of Bannockburn: Robert Bruce’s fight for freedom

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A portrait of Henry VIII, who is buried in a ‘temporary’ vault under the Quire in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the company of his third queen, Jane Seymour. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

The surprising place where Henry VIII is buried

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Queen Victoria behind closed doors

Edward VIII, c1952. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Speaker Q&A Piers Brendon on Edward VIII

From left to right: Queen Isabella of Castile; French regent Anne de Beaujeu; and Catherine of Aragon. (Photos by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/DeAgostini/Imagno/Getty Images)

The Library Game of Queens: when women ruled Renaissance Europe

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More kings and queens history

The Second World War

Everything you need to know...

The battleship USS California (centre) following the attack at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

12 things you (probably) didn’t know about Pearl Harbor

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Second World War

The Library Pivotal points of WWII

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Second World War

The big questions of the Holocaust

Calculated risk: Adolf Hitler makes plans at his headquarters in Bruly-de-Peche, Ardennes, Belgium. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

The fall of France: Hitler’s greatest gamble

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Winston Churchill making the famed ‘V’ for Victory sign. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Winston Churchill

The crew of ‘Mi Amigo’. The pilot, 23-year-old Lt John Kriegshauser, can be seen in the front row, far left. (Photo courtesy of Sheffield County Council via American Air Museum in Britain)

Second World War

Mi Amigo: the deadly WW2 bomber crash in Sheffield play park that killed 10 airmen

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Women's history

The Italian-French poet and campaigner for women's rights, Christine de Pizan (1364–c1430). (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Not so silent: the unquiet women of history

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100 Women Who Changed the World: the results

Hard labour: a woman tarring and flinting in Oxford Street, central London, 1919. (Getty Images)

First World War

“Our Excess Girls”: women after the First World War

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English journalist and broadcaster Jenni Murray at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2017. (Photo by Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)

World-changing women

Mosaic in the Roman villa of Casale, near Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Italy, showing women exercising. (Photo by Peter Thompson/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Roman women

Vienna Plague Hospital, 1679. (Getty Images)

The Library Women of the plague

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More women's history

Latest articles

London schoolboys on strike, Shoreditch, September 1911. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The 1911 schoolchildren strikes

Issue 14 of BBC World Histories Magazine.

Issue 14 of BBC World Histories is out now

An Art Deco mechanical valentine (moving the cape causes the arms to move up and down) from the 1930s. (Photo by Alan Mays)

In pictures: creepy historical Valentine’s Day cards

Cesare Lombroso, described as the 'father of criminology'. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

The ‘born criminal’? Lombroso and the origins of modern criminology

History Quizzes

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

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Christmas history quiz 2018

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

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Second World War quiz

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

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

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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)

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