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

November 2012

Articles from the November 2012 issue of BBC History Magazine

JFK prepares to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union. (Picture by Corbis/Getty Images)

The Library Nuclear nightmare: the Cuban missile crisis

"Pope Urban II’s address at the Council of Clermont, the moment that triggered the First Crusade, has gone down as perhaps the most influential speech in history," writes Sandbrook. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A big day in history: The day Pope Urban II exhorted Christians to go on crusade

Nelson mortally wounded at Trafalgar in 1805

Nelson: the unhappy admiral

The assassination of Austrian crown prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, both pictured here, triggered the start of the First World War. (Getty Images)

First World War

The shot that sparked the First World War

Alfred the Great and Æthelflæd, 13th century

The Anglo-Saxon cunning woman

British political cartoonist David Low. His caricatures of political figures including Hitler resulted in him being placed in the Nazi 'Black Book' – a list of prominent Britons who were to be arrested in the case of a successful invasion of Britain. (Photo by Felix Man/Picture Post/Getty Images

My history hero: Sir David Low (1891–1963)

The Monument, a 202-feet-high stone column erected in the 1670s to commemorate the Great Fire of London, was originally designed by Robert Hooke and his friend Sir Christopher Wren (both astronomers) to serve as a giant telescope. (Getty Images)

Where history happened: British astronomy

British soldiers on the front of El Alamein. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Second World War

El Alamein: The British empire’s last hurrah

A vintage map of Europe. One of the hardest things for small nations to accept is that they're not in control over their own destinies, says Mark Mazower. (Getty Images)

The Library A little history of the world: the importance of small states in global politics

Chepstow Castle', C1770S.

The Library Wales in the Civil War: the last refuge of monarchy

Illustration by Jonty Clark.

Ye olde travel guide: Moscow 1937