People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

General prehistory

Clearwell Caves, Gloucestershire

Provost Skene's House, Aberdeen

Major Roy Farran (seated, centre) at a press conference on his return from Palestine, 1947. (Bentley Archive/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Trouble in Palestine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Members of the royal family on board the royal barge 'Spirit of Chartwell'. (Rota/Anwar Hussein/Getty Images)

The LibraryThe Thames triumphant: royal parties on London's grandest street

A cartoon depiction of mythical Luddite leader Ned Ludd. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Where history happened: Luddites. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Landscape gardener, architect and writer John Loudon. "I just wish I had a fraction of his vision," says Mark Easton of one of the first people to champion green space in Britain's cities. (Public Domain)

My history hero: John Loudon (1783–1843). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two medieval men thresh a sheaf of wheat in this 14th century illustration. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Michael Wood on the history of you and me. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Laurence Olivier plays Richard III in the 1955 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. In it, the controversial monarch is damned as everything from a "bottled spider" and "lump of foul deformity" to a "poisonous bunch-backed toad". (Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Why did Shakespeare revile Richard III?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Plantation of Ulster: The British Colonisation of the North of Ireland in the 17th Century

Abergavenny Castle, Monmouthshire

A cast of a Roman warship carrying armed soldiers. (Photo By DEA / G. NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The Roman invasion: whose side were the Britons on?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Queen's silver jubilee took place in 1977. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

Why the Seventies still matter

British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is portrayed as pirate in an Argentine newspaper from 30 April 1982.(Photo by Alain Nogues/Sygma via Getty Images)

Sir Max Hastings: Witness to the Falklands War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard II, led captive by Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), renounces the throne in Jean Creton's 'Histoire du Roy d'Angleterre Richard II' (1401-05). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Richard II: “I find myself a traitor”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The death of Aelfeah at the hands of the Danes, portrayed in a window of St Luke's church, Bath. (Photo by: MyLoupe/UIG via Getty Images)

St Ælfheah: Canterbury’s other martyr. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sue Townsend admires Charles Dickens (pictured c1960) for his battles against social injustice. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens (1812-1870). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The RMS Titanic. (Image by Perspectives/Getty Images)

Where history happened: The Titanic disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What are the origins of the ‘mutes’ that attended Victorian funerals?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Stamford, Lincolnshire

BBC History Magazine

Remembered in wax

St Albans Clock Tower, Hertfordshire

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

Castle Campbell, Clackmannanshire

Queen’s Corporal

Porthcumo Telegraph Museum, Cornwall

BBC History Magazine

The Right Kind of History: Teaching the Past in Twentieth-Century England

When did the practice of funeral rings begin/end and how widespread was it?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The White Man’s World

A view towards the Carew estuary between a dry stone wall and the ruins of Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, UK. (Dreamstime)

Where history happened: Tudor courtiers with Suzannah Lipscomb. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Painting depicting medieval nuns. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

17th-century nuns on the run. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.