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The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories Magazine

August 2016

Articles from the August 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine

Two scenes from the Chronique de St Denis, late 14th century. The left-hand scene depicts the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France in 1137. The scene on the right shows Louis departing by ship to go on the Second Crusade in 1147. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Eleanor of Aquitaine: the medieval queen who took on Europe’s most powerful men

(Getty Images)

Why has Britain decided to leave the EU?

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)

Second World War

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

Mao Zedong applauds a parade of Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. These young militants followed Mao’s call in early August 1966 to defend the party from a ‘white terror’. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Reign of the red terror

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)

Second World War

The Library Holidays 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

An illustration showing a house and a woman with an umbrella

1816: a year without summer