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A view of a calander showing the date, Friday the 13th. (Photo by William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

10 historical superstitions we carry on today. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

People approach the VI Lenin Stadium, now known as the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, in 1956. (Photo by James Whitmore/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

The history of Luzhniki Stadium, home of the 2018 football World Cup final. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Detail from the Bayeux tapestry, which depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

10 medieval dates you need to know

The battle of Marston Moor, the largest clash of the Civil War, depicted in a 19th-century painting. Preventing a slide into chaos required "diplomatic panache, not Charles's fabled stubbornness", writes Jonathan Healey. (Photo by A 16th-century portrait of Bess of Hardwick. Bess's talent, ambition and eye for a well-connected husband elevated her to dizzying levels of wealth and power in Tudor England. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The LibraryWhat sparked the Civil War?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German prisoners traipse past Allied anti-aircraft positions near Méricourt-l'Abbé, August 1918. The battle of Amiens fired the starting-gun on a succession of Allied triumphs on the western front that would end in ultimate victory on 11 November. (Photo by Alamy)

Amiens: the battle that broke the Germans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

My history hero: Elizabeth I (1533-1603). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

With its huge bell and five-storey pagoda, Sensoji Temple is one of Tokyo's most popular –and venerable – landmarks. (Photo by Mike Hewitt - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Tokyo, Japan

Historian David Edgerton. (Photographed by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Books interview with David Edgerton: "We need to tackle British history as we would the turbulent story of Germany”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ross Poldark in London in the BBC's drama. The capital city was described in contemporary magazines and newspapers as the "vortex of dissipation", says Hannah Greig. (Image Credit: BBC/Mammoth Screen/Robert Viglasky)

From politics to pleasure gardens: the real history behind Poldark's 18th-century London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Kate Middleton: a thoroughly modern mum. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A flight of Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft of No 73 Squadron RAF, over France, 19 April 1940. (Photo by S. A. Devon/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

How the RAF won the war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 19th-century cricket match at the Kennington Oval. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

10 things you didn’t know about London’s sporting history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman conquest of England in 1066. (Photo by DEA/M. SEEMULLER via Getty Images)

The Bayeux Tapestry now and in the future. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan making a speech on the freedom of the press at a meeting of the National Council of Civil Liberties at Central Hall, Westminster, London, in 1942. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images)

My history heroTanni Grey-Thompson chooses Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A man sneezes into a handkerchief, c1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

General History

6 facts about the history of hay fever

Brass band playing during Mardi Gras in Mew Orleans

ExploreNew Orleans, United States: Louisiana's 'big easy'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sarah Churchwell and Adam IP Smith in conversation

Behold, America: Sarah Churchwell in conversation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woodcut print depicting the stocks, a form of Elizabethan punishment. Dated 16th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

"Damn your blood": Swearing in early modern English

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

Michael Fish makes his first televised weather forecast in 1974. (Photo by Press Association)

4 facts about the history of the weather forecast

Henry VIII. Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540. The painting has the inscription 'Anno Aetatis suae XLIX' (His year of age, 49)’. Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

Henry VIII: 5 places you (probably) didn’t know shaped his life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Chastity belt decorated with a flower design and a heart pierced with arrows. (SSPL/Getty Images)

13 weird historical facts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King William II is often overshadowed by his Norman father, William the Conqueror. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

7 forgotten monarchs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Troops in Korea, c1951. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Forging alliances: Britain and the US in the Korean War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Getty Images)

Why has Britain decided to leave the EU?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. (Photo by Ken Welsh/Design Pics/Corbis via Getty Images)

Princely pleasures at Kenilworth: Robert Dudley's three-week marriage proposal to Elizabeth I. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The American War of Independence: Three Films

An 1870s illustration of a typical London artisan terraced houses with washhouses, privies and yards leading on to an alley, all dominated by railway viaducts. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Victorian London’s East End: what can a foul murder tell us about life in the city?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

General Sir Douglas Haig (left) and Sir Henry Rawlinson are largely to blame for the failure of the battle of the Somme, says historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. (Photos by Hulton Archive/Getty Images and Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

The British generals whose infighting lost the battle of the Somme. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Edward I in parliament with the Archbishop of Canterbury; King Alexander III of Scotland; the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ab Gruffydd and the Archbishop of York. From the Wriothesley MS, 1523, published in ‘The Island Race’, a 20th-century book written by Sir Winston Churchill covering the history of the British Isles from the pre-Roman times to the Victorian era. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Edward I: man of principle or grasping opportunist?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.