North America

Members of the Ku Klux Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC in 1925. The Klan of this era was a terrorist group in the precise meaning of that term, says Linda Gordon. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

When the Ku Klux Klan was a mass movement

A Red Cross worker in the United States wears a mask to reduce the risk of contracting or spreading the disease in 1918. Though doctors didn’t initially understand the nature of the infectious agent, ‘social distancing’ helped slow the propagation of the flu. (Photo by Paul Thompson/FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world

A broker looks at his screens at Frankfurt's stock exchange on 15 September 2008. (Photo by Thomas Lohnes/AFP/Getty Images)

The 2008 financial crisis explained

New issue World 12 800x530

Issue 12 of BBC World Histories is out now

Sergeant Stubby, an American dog who served as the mascot of America's 102nd Infantry Regiment during the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

First World War

Sergeant Stubby of the First World War: the heroic story of America’s most decorated war dog

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after the closing bell on 29 September 2008. A record 778 points were wiped off the Dow Jones that day, as the 2008 financial crisis pushed the world's banking system to the edge of collapse. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The credit crunch: “It’s a story of hubris followed by a fall”

From The Library

Richard Nixon announces his resignation from the White House, 9 August 1974. Nixon resigned less than two years into his second term, before his near-certain impeachment following the Watergate scandal. (Photo by Dirck Halstead/Liaison via Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of impeachment and what it means for President Trump

A portrait of Benjamin Franklin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

How to negotiate an exit

From The Library

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

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

The legacy of Emmett Till: the murder that reshaped the American civil rights movement

President Nixon making his final televised address as president of the United States, 9 August 1974. Nixon became the first, and so far the only, president to resign from office, following the Watergate scandal. (Photo by Getty Images)

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

The first baby is born to English settlers in the Americas. (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

A big day in history: The first baby is born to English settlers in the Americas

Perkin Warbeck, an imposter and pretender to the English throne, being humiliated in the stocks before his execution in 1499. Warbeck was used by Henry VII’s Yorkist enemies in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty. (Getty Images)

Imposters in history: 16 famous con-artists and pretenders

Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The 16th president of the United States "understood the value of hard work, had deep beliefs and pursued them," says Alastair Campbell. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Lincoln’s funniest jokes

From The Library