North America

J Robert Oppenheimer (left), and Cillian Murphy

Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’

Are Bertha and George Russell real? Inside the real Vanderbilt divorces that rocked the Gilded Age

A historical reenactor, dressed as a member of the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War, takes a selfie with a phone. He is standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC; a Stars and Stripes flag is to his right.

What is Juneteenth, and why is it celebrated? A historian explains the significance of the holiday today

"These women transformed his understanding of the world": making Malcolm X

The Enola Gay aircraft, which dropped the first atomic bomb of the Second World War on Hiroshima.

Second World War

Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US in WW2 justified?

John Kennedy and Barry Goldwater

Was JFK about to be re-elected? An expert weighs in on the president's lost second term

Could America have won the Vietnam War? The mistakes that denied the US victory

JFK and Marilyn Monroe

“Risks he should never have taken”: a historian’s take on JFK’s sexual waywardness

Who shot first?Lexington and Concord

Minutemen facing British soldiers on Lexington common

What happened at the battles of Lexington and Concord?

Portraits of William and Ellen Craft

A “desperate leap for liberty”: how Ellen and William Craft made a daring escape from slavery

Did Ronald Reagan 'Make America Great Again'?

Black America on British airwaves

Sexuality on trial in colonial America

The 'Blue People' of Kentucky

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

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

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

Who was the greatest President of the United States in history?

A portrait of William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody standing in front of his saddle, holding a rifle behind his back.

13 famous cowboys and gunslingers from the history of the American Wild West

Fess Parker, an American actor, as Davy Crockett

The man in the coonskin cap: your guide to Davy Crockett

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

Charlotta Bass, the first black woman to be nominated to the US Vice Presidency

Charlotta Bass: the first woman of colour to run for US vice president

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

Abraham Lincoln

How Abraham Lincoln's 1860 election victory set America on the path to Civil War

Women at Kappa Kappa Gamma and Gamma Phi Beta Houses of University of California at Los Angeles in 1952

General History

What is Greek life?

A 14th-century depiction of a lady and youth playing a game of draughts (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

War and pieces: 5 games from history that were about much more than fun

Rosemary Kennedy (right), the eldest Kennedy daughter. Pictured here with her mother Rose (centre) and sister Kathleen

The lost Kennedy: the tragic life of JFK’s sister Rosemary

Senator Edward Kennedy leaves the Dukes County Courthouse in Edgartown, Mass

What was the Chappaquiddick incident?