20th Century

A depiction of the interior of parliament

9 things you didn’t know about the history of parliament

"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 Seal. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of capital punishment in Britain

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. (Getty Images)

Yuri Gagarin: 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the first man in space

Robert Scott Kellner podcast

Second World War

Opposing the Nazis

Sarah Dunant. (Alamy)

The history of today

Rosa Parks rides an integrated bus

From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King: the boycott that inspired the dream

World Histories 10

Issue 10 of BBC World Histories is out now!

Charlie Chaplin, in a still from his 1936 film 'Modern Times’. (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charlie Chaplin

From The Library

John Julius Norwich pictured at the Oxford Literary Festival in 2014. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Books interview with John Julius Norwich: “Most British people know practically nothing about French history”

From The Library

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: the big questions

From The Library

Husband and wife Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang), pictured at their wedding in 1928. The pair “dominated Chinese politics for two decades [and] were among the most prominent non-westerners on the planet throughout the 1930s and 1940s”, says Rana Mitter. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Six lives that shaped China

From The Library

Benjamin Tillett, organiser of the Docker's Union and leader of the London Transport Worker's strike in 1911, addressing a rally of the strikers. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The essay: Britain’s cautious revolutionaries

From The Library

An engraving from Ulrich Molitor’s ‘On witches and female soothsayers’, depicting witches bringing down the rain. Germany, 15th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

General ancient history

A spell-binding history of witches

From The Library

Radio Times cover, 1931. (Photo by Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Radio nation

From The Library