People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

A day in the life of Jane Austen

Corner shops and Russian ballet

A silhouette in front of a fire.

History quiz – Vikings, mobile phones and the Varangian Guard

Roman amphitheatre in Caerleon, Wales. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History Explorer: The Roman army in Britain

Martin Luther King (centre) rides the Montgomery bus with Rev Glenn Smiley of Texas. (Getty Images)

The LibraryWhat was history’s most dramatic year?

Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum Tristram Hunt. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

History-loving politicians

Historians in parliament

Photo of gauntlets

Q&AWhy do we say throw down the gauntlet?

Bridge Cottage, Wirral. (Photo by Corbis Documentary/Getty Images)

History explorer: the arts and crafts movement

19 November 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers arriving on the Mayflower and landing in New England, where they founded the Plymouth Colony. Original artwork: painting by Charles Lucy. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

It is claimed that the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth but I’ve also heard that they started in Boston, Lincolnshire. Which is correct?

Through foreign eyes: the forgotten ambassadors to the Tudor court

General History

Q&AWhy are kissing gates so called and what is their significance as entrances to graveyards?

Peter Snow’s six most important documents in history

Lady Hall launches the British India Company passenger liner SS Uganda in Clydeside docks with the traditional bottle of champagne, 1952. The first time champagne was used to launch a ship was when Queen Victoria launched HMS Royal Arthur in 1891. (Photo by George Douglas/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we smash champagne bottles against new ships?

(Photo by iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do Americans call the British ‘limeys’?

History quiz – Chaucer, sailors and the Civil War

History quiz – Anglo-Saxons, Bright’s disease and the Byzantine army

Portrait of Charlotte Brontë. (Photo by De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charlotte Brontë (1816-55)

Soviet science and feeding Britain at war

Sky covered by smoke from the first H-Bomb explosion at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, 1 April 1954. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Winston Churchill: atomic warrior, nuclear peacemaker

BBC History Magazine

Who was the first ever teenage heartthrob?

Black British history and Charles I’s children

Reporting from war zones

The secrets of 6 of Britain’s most famous castles – with Dan Jones

A London slum family stood in a street with all their possessions following eviction, c1901. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Life in 19th-century slums: Victorian London’s homes from hell

Q&AQ&A: Why is Portugal known as Britain’s oldest ally?

Adrian Turner as Poldark. (Photo by BBC Pictures)

Poldark’s Cornwall: the history behind the hit series

The Aberfan disaster and women who made history

Shakespeare’s Globe. (Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images)

Touring London with Shakespeare, Dickens and Oscar Wilde: 7 must-see literary landmarks

The Harrying of the North. Gouache on paper, by Patrick Nicolle (1907–95). Private collection. (© Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images)

Occupation, resistance, subjugation: the bloody aftermath of 1066