North America

Highclere Castle

Unusable rooms, a lost village and Tutankhamun: the secrets of Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle

A gamer plays the video game 'Red Dead Redemption II', an action-adventure and multi-platform western video game developed by Rockstar Studios released on October 26, 2018. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Battlefield V: the real history behind 3 popular video games

BBC World Histories Magazine Issue 18

Issue 18 of BBC World Histories is out now

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?

20 October 2018.
BBC History Weekend in York.
Henry Hemming.

Second World War

“There’s nothing essentially new about fake news”: 5 minutes with Henry Hemming

The destroyer USS Shaw explodes in a massive fireball at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. The attack led almost immediately to Germany declaring war on America, and so brought Stalin an unexpected ally of colossal potential power, says Laurence Rees. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

Why December 1941 was the most important month of the Second World War

Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in 1932. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

My history hero Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)

Courtiers dancing La Volta in a scene from 1953 film The Sword And The Rose

Strictly shocking: the dances that shook the world

The neutral USA entered World War II only when a Japanese fleet launched a big surprise air raid against its Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 7 December 1941. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

America and WW2: when, how and why did the US get involved, and why they didn’t enter sooner?

Brendan Simms photographed by Ian Farrell

Second World War

Hitler’s war with Anglo-America

Emmett Till pictured with his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, in the early 1950s. (Photo by Alamy)

Emmett Till: the murder that reshaped the American civil rights movement

The battleship USS California following the attack at Pearl Harbor

Second World War

12 things you (probably) didn’t know about Pearl Harbor

Digitally restored vintage photo of the RMS Titantic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912. (Photo by John Parrot/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

10 facts about the Titanic

The fact that so many cultures have a myth about a devastating flood has led some historians to wonder if there may have been a real event that explains the myths. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

General prehistory

Q&A Was there really a 'Great Flood'?

US President John F Kennedy gives his first State of the Union address to Congress at the House of Representatives, Washington DC, 30 January 1961. Kennedy is one of eight presidents to have died during their term in office. (Photo by NASA/SSPL/Getty Images)

Q&A How many US presidents died in office?