People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

An 1824 cartoon depicting the drinking escapades of Oxford students. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The history of student life: 7 things you didn’t know.

Why black hair matters.

Q&A'God Save The Queen': how old is the British national anthem?

Winchester Cathedral

From King Alfred to Jane Austen: a historical tour of Winchester.

(Photo by Westend61/Roman Märzinger/Getty Images)

The Zinoviev Letter conspiracy.

Prime ministers Robert Walpole and Boris Johnson

From Walpole to Boris: a brief history of Eton College and the 20 prime ministers it has produced.

The HMS Victory in Portsmouth

A visit to HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar.

The Ashes urn, a cricketing trophy

In pictures: The Ashes through history

A late 19th or early 20th-century painting entitled 'Mother and Child'. As fertility rates fell, sentimental idealisations of mothers and babies developed. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The motherhood revolution: how the great fertility decline affected the lives of women.

9 notable ambassadors in history.

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships.

Making history funny: is any historical topic off-limits?.

A depiction of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (10 September 1547), the last formal battle between England and Scotland. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhen was the last battle between England and Scotland?

Historian Greg Jenner

Making jokes about Romans.

10 Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. (Photo by Getty Images)

Who was the best 20th-century prime minister?

The ‘Surgeon’s Photo’, taken in 1934, which claimed to depict the Loch Ness Monster. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

5 facts about the Loch Ness Monster

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (© 19th era/Alamy)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose

A 15th-century map of the world illustrating a Latin edition of Ptolemy's the 'Geography'. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

12 alternative giant leaps for mankind – from carnivorism to Magna Carta.

NASA’s unknown Welsh hero: the story of Tecwyn Roberts

A cartoon showing a man in a suit of armour on the moon

Q&ADid NASA really pick the brains of the Tower of London armoury when designing the first space suits?.

Illustration by Glen McBeth.

Q&AWhen did the leopards on the royal arms of England become the lions depicted today?

Britain didn't "rule the waves" after the battle of Trafalgar, says historian Sam Willis.

A portrait of 17th-century scholar John Wilkins

Ye final frontier: the 17th-century space race.

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark. The BBC television drama is putting Cornwall’s coastline at risk of "over-tourism” as visitors flock to the area to visit the show's scenic filming locations, tourism chiefs have warned. (Photo by BBC/Mammoth Screen/Mike Hogan)

Poldark, Peaky Blinders and 6 other historical TV shows that have tourists flocking to Britain

4 historical cricketing curiosities.

Illustration by Kate Hazell for BBC History Magazine.

From Churchill and Roosevelt to May and Trump: 75 years of the 'special relationship' between the US and the UK.

Britain’s 7 most amazing stately homes

Clash between the English Temeraire and the French Redoutable ships during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

The battle of Trafalgar.

Dornier 217 bombers of the Luftwaffe bomb London during the Battle of Britain. "The crucial role of the RAF in denying the Germans control of the air in 1940 and therefore persuading Hitler to abandon his invasion plans is so well known that it might seem almost sacrilegious to question it, " says Sean Lang. "But was it solely responsible for saving Britain from invasion? Not quite." (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

9 of the most overrated battles in history (and one underrated one).

Illustrations by Ian Morris.

The Civil War cross-dressers: the women who swapped dresses for breeches