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A 19th-century depiction of HMS Erebus in the ice, by François Etienne Musin. What exactly happened to the ship and its crew remains a mystery. (Picture by Alamy)

The Franklin Expedition: what happened on the ill-fated Victorian voyage?

Spitfires under construction at the Vickers Supermarine works in Southampton, around 1940

The difficult birth of the Spitfire – and how the WW2 fighter almost missed the battle of Britain.

The assassination of Julius Caesar

What if…Julius Caesar had not been assassinated?.

6 articles about…the Victorian era

Picture depicting the Cato Street conspirators

To kill the cabinet: the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820.

Engraved portrait of George Washington, the first president of the United States of America

George Washington: your guide to the war hero, founding father, first US president and slave owner

Terracotta plaque which is believed to show the poet Sappho rejecting an amorous advance by her contemporary who is also from the island of Lesbos. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

From Sappho to It’s a Sin: 9 LGBT+ histories, chosen by experts.

A painting of Henry IV, housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London. English earls, Scottish kings, French dukes and a Welsh prince all tried to unseat Henry, yet this most resilient of medieval monarchs prevailed over them all. (Photo by Getty Images)

Henry IV: the usurper king

An Athenian red-figure kylix (cup) dating from around 510–500 BC depicts a young pentathlete pulling his older lover towards him for a kiss. In many of the city-states of ancient Greece, sex between a man and a youth was an accepted – even idealised – form of love, its virtues extolled in works by writers including Plato. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Pride and prejudice: same-sex relations through history.

View of a gay pride parade in Boston, Massachusetts, c1977. (Photo by Spencer Grant/Getty Images)

From the ancient world to the 1969 Stonewall Riots: a brief guide to LGBT+ history.

A women drives oxen pulling a loaded wagon train through the Black Hills (in South Dakota or Wyoming) in 1887

From the real Calamity Jane to 'Madam Moustache': pioneer women of the Wild West.

Lord Fiske, chairman of the Decimal Currency Board, makes a purchase at a Woolworths using the new currency on Decimal Day, 15 February 1971

Decimal Day: when Britain said farewell to the shilling

A decoy rubber tank such as those used by the Allies during WW2.

Masters of disguise: the story of the Allies' WW2 'Ghost Army'.

Dark side of fashion: a 1910 portrait of a woman wearing a hat adorned with ostrich plumes and a stuffed bird. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, owning hats like this was a sign of status for many women. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

A hatful of horror: the Victorian headwear craze that led to mass slaughter

Illustration of Despite being outnumbered, the Greeks gained vital supremacy at sea over the Persians at the battle of Salamis in 480 BC

The Peloponnesian War: Athens fights Sparta for dominance in ancient Greece

A c1520–40 portrait of Henry VI

The miraculous afterlife of Henry VI.

Norman cavalry on the charge in the Bayeux Tapestry. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Why the Nazis fell in love with the Bayeux Tapestry.

A c1638 oil painting of Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny

History heroJulia Donaldson chooses Katherine Howard, Lady Aubigny (d1650).

Aerial view reconstruction drawing of Maiden Castle

A brief guide to the British Iron Age

Harold Godwinson is proclaimed king of England in the Bayeux Tapestry. It may have been commissioned by a Norman but this magnificent artwork repeatedly acknowledges the English leader’s piety and courage. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Why is Harold Godwinson a hero of the Bayeux Tapestry?.

Volunteers shovel sand in Fulham in 1941, filling bags used to protect windows from bomb blasts. Our clichés of the Blitz don’t tell the whole story, writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Mary Evans)

Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners.

Historians have chosen their favourite historical novels.

22 of the best historical fiction novels to help you escape to the past

This image from the Nibelungenlied manuscript shows Pilgrim welcoming Kriemhild, a fictional character described as his neice in the text (Photo by Alamy)

The forged texts of the Middle Ages: why Europe's holy men turned to counterfeiting.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the US

Elizabeth BlackwellThe ‘first female doctor’, who entered medicine to prove a point

An account of the story of James Allen, whose sex at birth was revealed only by an autopsy conducted after their death

'Female husbands': the secret lives of 18th-century transgender pioneers.

The ruins of the once magnificent Roche Abbey

The dissolution of the monasteries: mindless violence or planned precision?

Photo of an Anglo Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo: a brief guide to the Anglo-Saxon burial site and its discovery

Smokey the bear is presented with a firefighter's helmet

The paratrooper, the poet's pet and the real Winnie: 10 famous bears in history

Why Charles I had to die.

Sutton Hoo helmet Anglo-Saxon

The discovery at Sutton Hoo: when the Dark Ages were lit up.