BBC History Magazine

The online archive of articles from BBC History Magazine

Gerald Heard had a peculiar idea that the UFOs then being sighted all across the globe, as such as this ‘sighting’ in Sicily, were piloted not by humanoid ETs, as you may have presumed, but by alien super-bees from Mars. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

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6 of history’s strangest ever theories about outer space. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

20th Century

What is the nature of Margaret Thatcher's legacy?

A joint Franco-Native Indian raid left 56 residents of Deerfield, a small township in north-western Massachusetts, dead. (Alamy)

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America: Brave new world or accident?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

1949: Clementine with husband Winston Churchill at Epsom racecourse for the Derby. (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

6 surprising facts about Clementine Churchill

A French print by the Thierry bothers depicting the appearance of the landscape and inhabitants of the Moon

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How to carry off a great hoax. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This 16th-century woodcut depicts King James VI at the North Berwick witch trials, the case that first sparked his obsession with hunting. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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James VI and I: the king who hunted witches. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Scottish soldier and Field Marshal Douglas Haig (1861 - 1928) visiting the troops during the First World War. (Central Press/Getty Images)

First World War

Field Marshal Haig: a man much misunderstood?

An ancient Roman relief shows a midwife delivering a baby. Many midwives had other occupations, and undertook the task as a contribution to their community. (Wellcome Images)

Roman

Call the (Roman) midwife

In only two years, Hernán Cortés brought about the downfall of an efficient military civilisation through a combination of diplomacy, warfare, tactics, luck and sheer force of personality, writes Caroline Dodds. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Tudor

Cortés and Montezuma: the conquering of Tenochtitlan

Towards the end of the third century BC, the First Emperor of China sought to make his new state immortal by shielding it with what would be the earliest predecessor to the Great Wall. (Photo by Jean-Luc PETIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

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A brief history of border walls – from 2,000 BC to Trump’s Mexico wall. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

General Modern

BBC History Magazine’s ‘ordinary’ people tweet: a response

Prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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5 myths of the Second World War's Great Escape. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Falkner Street, Liverpool in the 1960s. A house on this road was the star of a 2018 BBC series. Image by Nick Hedges

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David Olusoga on house histories: "Our homes are often the sites of great dramas and tragedies". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"It was in Ireland that King John revealed himself as a monster," writes Nicholas Vincent. (Image by Alamy)

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King John: the making of a medieval monster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Pocket-sized paintings: Elizabethans in miniature. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A rocky relationship: Eleanor of Woodstock with her husband, Reginald II of Guelders. (Photo by Alamy)

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The medieval rebel princesses. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of the Amritsar massacre. While Churchill described the killings as "without precedent", MP Benjamin Spoor said: "Amritsar is not an isolated event, any more than General Dyer is an isolated officer." (Photo by AKG Images)

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The Amritsar massacre: the British empire's darkest day. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Clifford's Tower stands on the site where around 150 Jews took their own lives rather than renounce their faith, in 1190. (Photo by Dreamstime)

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The persecution of Jews in medieval England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus, which boasts superb acoustics and aesthetics. (Photo by Alamy)

Ancient Greece

My favourite place: the Peloponnese, Greece

A c1830 portrait of the scandalous but sublimely talented Lorenzo da Ponte. (Photo by Alamy)

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My history hero: Katie Derham chooses Lorenzo Da Ponte. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Photo by Alamy)

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Brexit lessons from history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting depicting the Mexican-American War of 1846–48: battle of Buena Vista, also known as battle of Angostura. Since that traumatic war, the US-Mexico bilateral relationship "has experienced sharp ups-and-downs; but there have also been underlying continuities," says Professor Alan Knight. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

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Peace, stability and pragmatism: a brief history of US-Mexico relations. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Comedian Rhona Cameron and political activist Peter Tatchell help to hold a banner at an LGBT Pride event in London, 1998. (Photo by Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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The historians’ view: is the world finally waking up to transgender issues?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British military behind a barricade in Dublin, 1916. (Photo by ullstein picture via Getty Images)

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Bullets and ballot boxes: a history of Anglo-Irish relations since the Easter Rising. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"For those of noble birth who were condemned to die, execution by beheading (which was considered the least brutal method of execution) was used until the 18th century," says criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal. This illustration depicts the execution of Charles I in January 1649. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

General Modern

A brief history of capital punishment in Britain

English countrywoman (right) with a lady of the court. From ‘Civitates Orbis Terrarum’, 1572. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Tudor

Tudor women: what was life like?

Woodcut of a woman who may be stoking a furnace or baking bread, printed in the 15th century. (SSPL/Getty Images)

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What was life like for a medieval housewife?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Grace Humiston was nicknamed 'Mrs Sherlock Holmes' by the American press. (Image courtesy of Brad Ricca)

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America’s ‘Mrs Holmes’: how one woman took on the cases the NYPD couldn’t solve. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria pictured c1862 during her period of mourning

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Prince Albert: the death that rocked the monarchy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway, 1888. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

StuartgalleryIn pictures: fairytales through history

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