Q&A

Illustration of German Dominican preacher Johann Tetzel selling indulgences inside a church

Q&A What are indulgences, how were they abused in medieval times, and what do they have to do with the Reformation?

Joep de Beer of Holland throws a javelin at the Stoke Mandeville Games

Q&A When and where were the first Paralympics held?

The Byzantines and a flamethrower

General ancient history

Q&A What was Greek fire?

A portrait of Katherine Parr in a jewelled head dress and finery

Q&A What happened to Katherine Parr’s daughter, Mary Seymour, after her mother’s death?

How was it administered and by whom was it carried out? (Image from Getty Images)

Q&A: What was the punishment of being ‘burnt in the hand’?

Medal winners on a podium

Q&A Who won the first Olympic medal? And what was the prize before that?

Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster

What was the Chernobyl Disaster?

Photo of a crocodile

Q&A Why do we say 'crocodile tears'?

Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle

Q&A Who wrote the French national anthem?

Napoleon portrait by Jacques-Louis David shows is perhaps the most famous painting of the French emperor with one hand tucked out of sight

Why do Napoleon’s portraits often show him with one hand inside his shirt? The story of the French emperor’s missing hand…

Kissing the Blarney Stone: a women hangs over the precipice with the aid of a friend as she attempts the feat at Blarney Castle in 1935

What is the Blarney Stone, where did it come from and why do people kiss it?

The decapitation machine now known as the guillotine was not a French invention and wasn't invented by Joseph Guillotin. (Image by Getty Images)

Q&A Did the French invent the guillotine?

The Three Lions crest. A trio of lions has appeared on the arms of every English (and British) monarch since the late 12th century, and has been flown as a battle standard on English soil and abroad. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Offside/Getty Images)

Q&A Why are there three lions on the shirts of the English football team?

(Illustration by Glen McBeth for BBC History Magazine)

Q&A What are the origins of the word ‘shoddy’?

A drag queen applies lipstick in this 1959 photograph

Q&A Who was the first person to call themselves a ‘drag queen’?