Explainer

Basildon Park in Berkshire

The profits of slaveryThe dire impact of empire on Britain's countryside. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Japanese painting on silk, in a traditional Japanese style, of a Samurai warrior riding a horse.

General Early Modern

The 47 Rōnin: the true story behind the famous Japanese tale of revenge

A depiction of an attack by the 47 ronin

What is a rōnin in Japan, and how is it different to a samurai?

The assassination of Julius Caesar on the 'Ides of March'.

Q&AWhy do we need to beware the Ides of March?

Gilles de Rais, accused of murdering at least 140 children in 15th-century France

Was Gilles de Rais really history’s first recorded serial killer?

Portrait of Saladin

Saladin: a hero of Islam and scourge of the crusaders

The 'Blue People' of Kentucky

Blue Fugates: the rare blood disorder that turned the ‘Blue People of Kentucky’ blue

A boxing match in A Thousand Blows alongside an illustration of a Victorian boxing ring

A Thousand Blows: the real history behind the Victorian boxing drama

The Forty Elephants gang with an inset of Diamond Annie

Who were the real Forty Elephants? The true story of Mary Carr and the all-woman crime gang

An illustration of the future King Edward VI of England with his whipping boy (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

“Literally whipped”: the boys who took the beatings meant for royal bottoms

An engraving of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett for Jane Austen's novel 'Pride and Prejudice' (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Honeymooning with your mother-in-law? The truths of Regency romance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Catherine the Great and (inset) a horse

Did Catherine the Great really have sex with a horse?

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo: the Renaissance polymath who transformed Western art

A c1300 depiction of a man paying taxes

Do you know the correct date of Magna Carta? Here’s why you might be wrong

Farmers standing in a field

Where does the term redneck come from?

John F Kennedy in 1960 (left) and would-be assassin Richard Pavlick

The JFK assassination attempt you’ve never heard of

Kuttenberg as seen in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

The real history behind Kuttenberg in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: how Kutná Hora became the silver crown of medieval Bohemia

A Japanese woodblock print, c1855, depicting the mythological giant catfish Namazu, and the god Takemikazuchi subduing it with the kaname-ishi stone (Photo by Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

General History

Why is a mythical catfish to blame for earthquakes in Japan?

Maria Theresa

General Early Modern

The incredible Habsburg empress you’ve never heard of: who was Maria Theresa?

Jane Austen's grave.

Lupus or murder?What was Jane Austen's cause of death?

The hydroelectric power plants at Niagara Falls, seen in 1890, would have been a key target for the US in War Plan Red (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

War Plan Red: The secret US plan for war with Britain via Canada

The coronation of Harold Godwinson as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Is this toilet the ultimate Anglo-Saxon status symbol? Inside Harold II’s ‘ensuite’

Several men stand around a table in a submarine

Whiskey on the Rocks: the real story behind Soviet submarine S-363’s Cold War grounding

The Fall of the Titans, 1588-90, painting by Cornelis van Haarlem (Photo by PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

When gods go to war: what was the Titanomachy of Greek mythology?

Adolf Hitler Saluting

The history of the Hitler salute, from its dubious Roman origins to its use by the far right

Twr Mawr Lighthouse and St Dwynwen's stone cross at sunrise on Llanddwyn Island on Anglesey.

Who was St Dwynwen?The legend of the Welsh patron saint of lovers

A fragment of a tapestry showing a Viking horseman adorned in armour

The real Viking Age: when did the era of Norse expansion start and end?

Photo of King George V's funeral

The death of King George V – and why his doctor hastened his demise

Statue of William Tell, with a crossbow over one shoulder and a boy at his hip

William Tell: was the legendary Swiss hero a real person?

A spiritual swastika on a lotus background.

Second World War

Why did Hitler choose the swastika as a Nazi symbol?