North America

The 30th Annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1958. (Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

13 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars

Martin Luther King waves to supporters on the Mall in Washington DC during the March on Washington, 28 August 1963. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

Martin Luther King’s unfinished dream: the historians’ view

Podcast Website large Hurricane

The story of the Hurricane

The bronze statue in Washington DC celebrating Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of slaves shows the 16th president standing over a shackled African American. Lincoln is "one of the towering figures in the story that Americans tell about themselves," writes Lucy Worsley. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lincoln and slavery: “If I could save the union without freeing any slave, I would”

A painting depicting George Washington with British soldiers at Yorktown. In the final battle of the war at the siege of Yorktown, writes Jem Duducu, there were nearlyas many French soldiers and sailors as American rebels fighting for colonial independence. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

American history myths: 7 things people get wrong

Prohibition protesters parade in a car emblazoned with signs and flags calling for the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the production and consumption of alcohol in the United States. (Archive Photos/Getty Images)

“A great social experiment”: your guide to prohibition

Captain Edward Teach, better known as 'Blackbeard', a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

6 despicable pirates from history

Portrait of founding father Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, c1806. (Photo by National Gallery Of Art/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Alexander Hamilton

The president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt and his staff gathered together in New York to find a solution to the economic crisis. 1935. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Icons: the game changers of the 20th century

Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Braveheart', 1995. (Photo by 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)

Good drama, bad history: 11 historically inaccurate films you need to watch

A 15th-century miniature from 'La Vraye Histoire du Bon Roy Alixandre'. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

6 Christmas party tips from the past

Trouble brewing: This illustration shows “Boston boys throwing tea into the harbour” on 16 December 1773. The protestors revelled in the opportunity to make a bold statement that would be felt across the world. (Getty images)

The global origins of the Boston Tea Party

Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) – a “sentimental, eminently weighty version of presidential history”, says Dr Wills. (Photo by Moviestore collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disney history: how has the corporation shaped our perception of the past?

BBC World Histories magazine

Issue 13 of BBC World Histories is out now