Listicle

The ancient Roman goddess Venus with the gods Vulcan and Cupid, in a painting by Italian artist Sebastiano Ricci (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Roman gods and goddesses: 17 of the most important deities of ancient Rome

Zeus, king of the ancient Greek gods, seen in a 16th-century fresco by Pietro Bonaccorsi at Villa del Principe in Genoa, Italy

Zeus's children: who were the offspring of the god with a libido that couldn’t be contained

A portrait of King John of England

9 of the worst monarchs in history

'Monster soup commonly called Thames water, being a correct representation of that precious stuff doled out to us!!!', 1828; showing an ugly woman holding a spy glass which touches the circumference of a large circle representing a magnified drop of water filled with grotesque aquatic creatures. A satire on the Metropolitan Water Supply.

From murder bottles to arsenic wallpaper: 5 hidden killers in Victorian Britain.

Gladiators do battle in a c320 AD mosaic, housed in the Borghese Gallery in Rome

Blood, guts and spectacle: 6 shocking events from the history of ancient Roman gladiators.

Victorian cricket. (Photo by Getty Images)

Cricket, cocaine and cocoa houses: 5 ways Victorians spent their free time.

Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damien Lewis as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light

Thomas Cromwell on screen: is Wolf Hall the best depiction of the Tudor statesman?

Richard Nixon gives the thumbs-up after his resignation

General History

6 shocking presidential scandals that rocked the White House: from the Petticoat Affair to Clinton-Lewinsky

President Joe Biden delivers a speech

General History

Life after the White House: what the US presidents did next

Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Al Gore and George W Bush

General History

Lincoln, Adams and George W Bush: 6 disputed presidential elections in American history

5 things you (probably) didn't know about Victorian Britain.

Gustave Doré's famous engraving, produced to illustrate the 1872 book 'London: A Pilgrimage', depicts (and exaggerates) the squalor of tightly packed terraced houses. Yes, as Rosalind Crone observes, the washing lines in Doré's picture demonstrate that "slum-dwellers were not all very dirty - or, at least, they didn't choose to be". (Photo by Getty Images)

Was Victorian life really so grim? 5 reasons why the Victorians were 'happy'.

A man holds his head in his hands as he is visited by the ghostly apparition of a woman. A photographer's assistant is visible at centre, right.

General History

Halloween stories10 terrifying tales from medieval to modern history

A vessel at sea comes across the mythical ghost ship The Flying Dutchman

General History

Seven of history's most disturbing ghost ship stories that will haunt your dreams

Kingdom Come Deliverance: Two medieval soldiers figthing

Best medieval videogames for history enthusiasts in 2025

Bust of Lucius Verus.

The worst Roman emperors: 8 of the bloodiest from ancient Rome's history

30 under 30 banners 2024 winners

General History

Our 2024 ‘30 under 30’ list

Montage of famous assassinations, including Gandhi and JFK.

General History

50 assassinations that changed the world

Painting of the Wild Hunt of Odin

Norse gods and goddesses: 14 of the most important deities venerated by the Vikings

Norse god Wotan surrounded by fire.

General History

Fire gods and goddesses: 14 fire deities from world history

Bronze figure of Sulis, the Celtic goddess associated with medicine, fertility and healing. (Image by Getty Images)

Exile and exploitation: 5 things you probably didn't know about Roman Britain.

Suffragettes armed with materials to chain themselves to railings

Suffragettes history facts: 10 things you might not know about the Votes for Women campaigners

A 19th-century painting shows Henry VIII meeting Anne Boleyn, as ladies-in-waiting and courtiers look on (Photo by Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Inside the six wives' bedchamber: the stories of Tudor ladies-in-waiting.

Tituba of Salem, in a 19th-century illustration (Photo by The Granger Collection/Alamy)

General Early Modern

5 things you (probably) didn’t know about the history of witchcraft.

Victorian women gossip at the opera (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain.

Roman pizza, the Black Room, and renovation: 4 incredible things we learned from Pompeii: The New Dig

Hamida Djandoubi, 28, being led down a tunnel by a police official ahead of his execution in October 1977.

General History

10 strange historical facts that sound fake

General History

Love and lust: 7 of the most shocking romantic royal scandals from British history

From whipping horses to royal love chairs: the lewd yet luxurious history of high-end erotic furniture.

Viking ships arriving in Britain, c1130.

"A Viking wedding involved a bed and eight people", plus four other facts about the Vikings you might not know....