Q&A

Nineteenth century engraving depicting raining cats and dogs

General Early Modern

Q&A Why do we say ‘raining cats and dogs’?

Photo of tall ship

Q&A Who do we say 'shot across the bows'?

When were punctuation marks first used? Illustration by Glen McBeth for BBC History Magazine.

General History

Q&A When were punctuation marks first used?

Neville Chamberlain shows off the Anglo-German Declaration at Heston Aerodrome

Second World War

Q&A Peace for our time: what was written on Neville Chamberlain’s piece of paper?

A model of the so-called ‘Piltdown Man’ and a replica of its skull,

Q&A Who was the Piltdown Man?

An 18th-century painting depicts Alexander the Great preparing to hack through the Gordian Knot with his sword

General ancient history

Q&A What was the Gordian Knot?

Sketch of Pytheas of Massalia standing on the deck of a wooden ship. He was a Greek explorer who claimed to have visited the British Isles

Q&A Did any ancient Greeks visit Britain?

Sketch of Lord Richard Rich

Q&A Does Richard Rich deserve his bad reputation?

A group of worshippers praying in a chapel in Ireland, during the Irish famine, c1848. (Photo by Illustrated London News/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&A Why do some people call the Irish famine ‘the Great Hunger’?

English-Normans-e92d5aa

The Normans had a profound influence on Britain – so why do we not speak French?

A statue in Kiev showing a Ukrainian player defeating a Third Reich eagle symbol at the Start stadium's entrance

Second World War

Q&A Did Nazis guards really play a ‘death match’ against a Ukrainian football team?

Wehrmacht soldiers on parade, 1937

Second World War

Q&A How was Germany able to  afford the astronomical cost  of rearmament in the 1930s?

Shoppers in Liverpool during the 1960s

Q&A Why is the shopping day after Thanksgiving called ‘Black Friday’?

Weetoomoo Carey, 8, left, and her sister Jackolynn Carey, 5, Wampanoag Nipmucs from Mashpee, looked across to the Mayflower replica anchored near Plymouth Rock, where Native Americans gathered for a day of mourning in counterpoint to the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Q&A What and when is the National Day of Mourning in the United States?

Gaol fever illustration.

Q&A What is gaol fever and how was it caused and spread?