Location

Second World War

Anthropoid: behind the scenes with director Sean Ellis

The history of London’s 10 greatest live music venues

The end of the First World War and the Duke of Wellington

History on film: London is smothered by a dangerous smog

Royal palaces of the Hundred Years’ War

Soviet missiles in Red Square during the May Day Parade of 1962, the year the world came closest to nuclear war. (Photo by Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)

History explorer: the Cold War

The medieval hilltop village of Vézelay in north central France enjoys a spectacular location. (Photo by Andia/UIG via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Vézelay, France

Douglas Bader in October 1940. “He was competitive, unruly, foolhardy – but also brilliant, brave and hugely talented,” says David Cameron. (Photo by Fg Off S A Devon/IWM via Getty Images)

My history hero: David Cameron chooses Douglas Bader (1910–82)

In the central image, leading Fifth Monarchists are executed on 19 January 1661 following the bloody failure of their uprising. Their leader, Thomas Venner, was hanged, drawn and quartered. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Soldiers of the Apocalypse

Emil Zátopek. (Photo by Universal/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

The running revolutionary

Passengers on board the Wilhelm Gustloff c1939 giving the Nazi salute shortly before leaving Tilbury Docks. (Photo by London Express/Getty Images)

The LibraryHolidays with Hitler

Yangguan Museum and a statue of Zhang Qian. (Getty Images)

Global encounters of the ancient kind

Singer Germaine Lubin in conversation with officer Hans Speidel at the German Embassy in Paris, 1941. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Les Parisiennes: how the women of Paris lived, loved and died in the 1940s

The Cold War and the history of philosophy

Photo of pencils

Q&AHow old is the pencil?

Full-Length Portrait of King Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger

Q&AHow big was Henry VIII’s codpiece?

British reserve troops waiting to move up to the forward area during the battle of the Somme, France, 1916. Photograph from the Daily Herald Archive. (Photo by Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)

The Somme: was it really a monstrous failure?

Adolf Hitler is welcomed by supporters at Nuremberg, 1933. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Enigma before Bletchley: the German spies who betrayed Hitler to steal codes

Queen Street Mill in Burnley. (Photo by Alamy)

History explorer: the power of cotton

Bologna, Italy. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Bologna, Italy

Paris’s women at war and the Housewives’ League

Seve Ballesteros. (Photo by Brian Morgan/Getty Images)

My history hero: Seve Ballesteros (1957–2011)

German soldiers at the battle of the Somme. (Photo by Robert Hunt/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty Images)

The Somme through German eyes

British soldiers arrive to take part in the battle of France, 1940. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Books interview with Daniel Todman: "Everything that happened in 1940 isn't somehow down to Winston Churchill"

Men line the rails around Radio City, on an abandoned naval fort in the Thames Estuary. In June 1966, Radio City was at the centre of a murder enquiry that would lead to the closure of Britain’s pirate radio stations. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

1966: when the swing turned sour

British gunners busily engaged in putting over a curtain barrage. Somme campaign, France, 1916. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Somme soldiers’ stories

Battle of the Somme special

‘Show me the money!’ A brief history of American spending power

The Radium Girls and the cotton revolution

BBC History Magazine

The ultimate guide to discovering history in Britain and overseas