Q&A

Premium

Inflation hit Britain hard in the 1970s. Here activist Erin Pizz addresses a protest by housewives holdiing placards decrying rising food prices in July 1971

Q&A UK inflation: how does today’s economic crisis compare to the 1970s? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tudor codpieces

Q&A What was the fascination behind Tudor codpieces?

Messalina

Sex, scandal and slander: who was Messalina?

Mount Everest: why is it called that? (Photo by Getty Images)

General History

Chomolunga Why is Mount Everest called Everest?

Australian bushrangers

General History

Q&A Who were Australian bushrangers?

Junko Tabei and Ang Tsering pictured on the slopes of Everest

Q&A Who was the first woman to climb Everest?

AXDC2T The Biddenden Charity Dole Kent UK 2008 Easter Monday. Also know as Chulkhurst Charity after Elisa & Mary Chulkhurst 1100-1134. Image shot 2008. Exact date unknown.

Q&A What are the Easter treats known as Biddenden cakes?

Engraving depicting the assassination of Julius Caesar

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

Two women share a tender moment, c1902

Q&A Has it ever been a crime to be lesbian in England?

A carving of the Sator Square, 2nd-4th century

General ancient history

Q&A What is the Sator Square, and how old is it?

Santa_Surveillance_s Glen McBeth

Q&A Why did NORAD begin tracking Santa Claus in the Cold War?

The real Wenceslas is that he was not actually a king, but Duke of Bohemia.

Q&A Who was Good King Wenceslas, and was he actually good?

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Q&A Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

Premium

Clinic at the School of Dentistry, Paris, 1892. A female student treating a patient under supervision. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&A What are the roots of dentistry? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Premium

Prime minister and king in black and white photo

Q&A Prior to 2022, has there ever been a new monarch and prime minister in Britain in the same week? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.