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Tudor advent calendar

History advent calendar: 24 facts about Christmas in the Tudor period

Trouble brewing: This illustration shows “Boston boys throwing tea into the harbour” on 16 December 1773. The protestors revelled in the opportunity to make a bold statement that would be felt across the world. (Getty images)

The global origins of the Boston Tea Party

Are we returning to an age of political extremes? (Illustration by Davide Bonazzi for BBC World Histories Magazine)

The big question Are we returning to an age of political extremes?

Victoria & Albert: The Royal Wedding. (Photo by BBC)

History TV and radio: what’s on next week (15–21 December 2018)

A vintage colour postcard, possibly produced to send Christmas greetings from the frontline, somewhere on the Western Front, during the First World War, c1918. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

First World War

Christmas 10 ways Christmas was celebrated during the First World War

Dancers demonstrate the Charleston, c1926. The dance is often associated with ‘flappers’ – newly enfranchised women with bobbed hair, short skirts and supposedly looser morals – and characterised by frenetic up and down movements and swivelling, akimbo limbs. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Strictly history: 5 facts about the history of dancing

Marble bust of Emperor Caligula. (DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The 8 bloodiest Roman emperors in history

The National Portrait Gallery attributed this unfinished portrait to Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, and dated it to circa 1810. (Universal History Archive / Getty Images)

What did Jane Austen really look like?

Queen Victoria pictured c1862 during her period of mourning after the death of her husband, Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince Albert: the death that rocked the monarchy

A Royal Air Force fighter squadron 'scrambles' after receiving the signal to engage the enemy during the Battle of Britain. (Photo by William Vandivert/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

A brief history of the Royal Air Force

(Illustration by Eleanor Shakespeare for BBC History Magazine)

36 books for history lovers: BBC History Magazine’s Christmas reading list

The British poster for 'Mary, Queen of Scots' (2018). Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I and Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart. (© Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection)

Did Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots really meet?

The destroyer USS Shaw explodes in a massive fireball at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. The attack led almost immediately to Germany declaring war on America, and so brought Stalin an unexpected ally of colossal potential power, says Laurence Rees. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s devastating conclusions: why December 1941 was the most important month of the Second World War

A scene from 'They Shall Not Grow Old', showing how film director Peter Jackson digitally remastered footage of the First World War. (Photo courtesy of THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD/ WingNut Films/ Peter Jackson. Original black and white film © IWM)

First World War

“There was no feeling sorry for themselves”: director Peter Jackson on the soldiers of the First World War