HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-04-29T10:11:27.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Was Elizabeth II's reign a golden age?
items: Pageantry and politics: a history of British royal visits to the US
items: I went digging for buried Nazi gold – and this is what I discovered
items: What happens when popes and politics collide?
items: Long to reign over us: how did Queen Elizabeth II survive seven decades of dizzying change?
items: How did the world change during Queen Elizabeth II's reign?
items: Chess, space and medieval monks: this spring’s overlooked historical headlines
items: 8 weird stories from the Space Age: from hungry tortoises to gorilla suits
items: Peter Ricketts on diplomacy, Trump and Iran
items: What happens when war puts oil supplies at risk?

Was Elizabeth II's reign a golden age?
type: item
date: 2026-04-29T10:11:27.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: By the end of Elizabeth II's reign in 2022 – the longest in Britain’s history – the nation and its place in the world was markedly different. Sir David Cannadine guides Danny Bird through the contours of the Second Elizabethan Age.
encoded: When the late Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, Britain, though left bankrupt and reeling from the Second World War, was still a major global power. By the end of Elizabeth II's reign in 2022 – the longest in Britain’s history – the nation and its place in the world was markedly different. Sir David Cannadine guides Danny Bird through the contours of the Second Elizabethan Age – from 'de-Victorianisation' to deindustrialisation – and the ways in which the monarchy responded to such dizzying change.

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Pageantry and politics: a history of British royal visits to the US
type: item
date: 2026-04-27T01:10:19.000Z
creator: Sam Edwards
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: Cold War
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: British prime ministers
subject: British queens
subject: Historical people
subject: The royal family
subject: US presidents
description: As transatlantic tensions swirled about King Charles III’s visit to Washington DC in 2026, Sam Edwards reveals how past royal tours have steadied the ‘special relationship’ in times of crisis
encoded: The April 2026 royal visit to the United States came at a particularly challenging moment for the US-UK ‘special relationship’. In the preceding months, President Donald Trump had repeatedly singled out prime minister Keir Starmer for blunt criticism, even going so far as to declare that Starmer as “no Churchill”. Meanwhile, the royal family similarly found itself caught up in transatlantic controversy: the Epstein scandal. If all that wasn’t challenging enough, King Charles’s visit to America also came at a time when the US-UK relationship was drawing even more scrutiny than usual. 2026 is year is the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, which popularised the phrase ‘special relationship’, and it’s also the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. The latter was of course the event that severed the connection between the American colonies and the British Crown and thereby put the transatlantic relationship onto a very different trajectory. In short, the visit came at a time of significant turbulence in the US-UK relationship. King Charles, however, might have been able to take some reassurance from the fact that several of his predecessors had similarly travelled to the United States during moments of challenge, change and upheaval... <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/2GettyImages-1320405043big-566d798-e1777245347971.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A large group of men and women in formal 19th-century dress gather outside a red-brick tomb set within a leafy landscape, their attention focused on a central meeting of figures. Women wear layered gowns with bonnets, while men in dark suits and top hats stand in lines, with trees and a distant sky framing the scene." title="A painting by Thomas Pritchard Rossiter captures the Prince of Wales’s historic visit to George Washington’s tomb in 1860. The young prince, who later ruled as Edward VII, can be seen standing with President James B…

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I went digging for buried Nazi gold – and this is what I discovered
type: item
date: 2026-04-26T16:00:57.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Debate
subject: Fascism
subject: Holocaust
description: In January 2023, the Dutch national archives released a map purporting to show where a cache of stolen treasure was buried during the Second World War. Guy Walters reveals how he tried to track it down – and the dark backstory that gave rise to the legend
encoded: I have been appearing in history documentaries for the best part of 20 years. Usually, they are something to do with the Third Reich and for the most part, the documentaries are weighty and serious, as indeed they should be. But nearly every year, I get a call – normally from a junior producer or researcher – who tells me they wish to make a documentary about Nazi gold, and if so, do I know where they might find some? It’s at that point that I ask them to think about their question very carefully. If – I say – I did know the location of a load of Nazi bullion, do they think I would tell them? For a day rate? Furthermore, wouldn’t I have gone and dug it up myself, and currently be speaking from my 20-bedroom mansion in the Maldives? The line invariably goes silent as the logic of my position seeps in. I then add that if they really want to find themselves some Nazi gold, they should just go to Zurich or Geneva and knock on the door of any Swiss bank and ask for a peek in the vaults. So far, so cynical. But then, in January 2023, my position changed with an intriguing release from the Dutch national archives: a real-life treasure map, hand-drawn by a Nazi paratrooper, revealing where he and his comrades had buried a load of loot they had stolen towards the end of the war. The map even had a red ‘X’ that marked the spot, outside a village called Ommeren, along what was the Allied front line of Operation Market Garden in 1944. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/2-GettyImages-1458770332-473e6bd-e1776953190948.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A hand‑drawn map with labelled towns, a river running across the top, and a compass rose. At the bottom are two small inset drawings, including a terrain cross‑section and a landscape sketch." title="The hand-drawn map released by the Dutch national archives in January 2023, allegedly showing the site of a treasure trove near the village of Ommeren. But where does the map’s red ‘X’ sit wi…

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What happens when popes and politics collide?
type: item
date: 2026-04-23T10:42:51.000Z
creator: Matt Elton
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History behind the Headlines
description: Regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter look back at other points of tension between politics and religion. Plus, following Viktor Orbán's seismic election defeat in this month's elections in Hungary, what parallels can we meaningfully draw from this moment in the nation's political history?
encoded: A high-profile spat between Pope Leo and leading figures in the US administration has made headlines in recent weeks, after United States president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance disagreed with comments the pope made about US-Israeli actions in the war with Iran. But it's far from the first time that the papacy and other powerful figures have butted heads. In this episode, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter look back at other points of tension between politics and religion. But first: following Viktor Orbán's seismic election defeat in this month's elections in Hungary, what parallels can we meaningfully draw from this moment in the nation's political history? And what's the unsung contribution that Hungarians have made to culture here in the UK? Want to hear more from History Behind the Headlines? Listen to all episodes now

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Long to reign over us: how did Queen Elizabeth II survive seven decades of dizzying change?
type: item
date: 2026-04-21T14:30:26.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: British queens
subject: Historical events
subject: Royal children
subject: Royal weddings
subject: The British Empire
subject: The royal family
description: When Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952, she could barely have conceived the currents – imperial retreat, multiculturalism, de-industrialiation – that would transform the nation during her reign. On the centenary of the Queen’s birth, David Cannadine explores how she navigated seven decades of dizzying change
encoded: When I was born in September 1950, King George VI had just over a year to live. I have no memory of him or his reign, and my first royal recollection was of the coronation of the second Queen Elizabeth – or, more precisely, of images of her state coach and horses, which I cut out of a souvenir magazine. My parents did not own a television set, and did not know anyone who did, so it was only in 2012, the year of Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee, that I watched the remastered version of the original coronation broadcast from Westminster Abbey. Richard Dimbleby’s reverential commentary, suffused with ardour and optimism, did indeed belong to that earlier time. When the Queen celebrated her platinum jubilee in 2022, few people in the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth could remember when she had not been on the throne. Like Queen Victoria, Elizabeth II had become part of what Victoria’s biographer Lytton Strachey called the “indissoluble” scheme of things, which made it impossible for many people to imagine the world without her. Apart from just over a year at the beginning, and (thus far) four years at the end, my own life has coincided exactly with the 70 years of her reign. I was no part of her life, and never met her, but she was certainly a part of mine, as she was of millions of people in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and far beyond. Joining Shakespeare I never imagined it would one day fall to me to tell Queen Elizabeth’s life story, but in 2014 I was appointed editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and it seemed likely that the Queen would die on my watch. The convention established for the ODNB’s predecessor, the original Dictionary of National Biography, was that when the monarch died, the editor would contribute the entry on him or her, and it duly fell to me to write the life of Elizabeth II. I did so in two forms: as a short book of 50,000 words, published late in 2025 by Oxford University Press; and as her entry in the ODNB, available onl…

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How did the world change during Queen Elizabeth II's reign?
type: item
date: 2026-04-21T10:20:12.000Z
creator: Anna Whitelock
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: Period
description: Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II remained a constant presence in an era of vast social, technological and geopolitical transformation. Anna Whitelock charts an era in which Britain, but not its queen, changed beyond recognition
encoded: Never before has Britain changed so dramatically during the reign of one monarch. The second Elizabethan age was defined by unprecedented transformations in every facet of life, the effects of which rivalled those of the industrial revolution more than two centuries earlier. Queen Elizabeth II witnessed significant changes in society, technology, transport and geopolitics, which created what most people would recognise today as the modern British state. The very fact that the monarchy has survived and, indeed, thrived against this backdrop owes much to the late Queen and her constant, unchanging presence over 70 years. Before the Queen’s coronation on 2 June 1953, few people owned a television. The decision to broadcast the ceremony live prompted many to buy their first set, and well over 20 million people in the UK watched Queen Elizabeth II being crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. The BBC, then the only national broadcaster, transmitted on just one (black-and-white) television channel and three radio stations. It approached the coronation filming with reverence and deference. The director general’s views were clear: “There ought to be an absolutely rigid policy that so far as the BBC is concerned [the royal family] can be guaranteed complete privacy.” Royal Women with Kate Williams Join Professor Kate Williams for a six-part HistoryExtra series uncovering the little-known stories behind some of history’s most famous queens. From Cleopatra to Elizabeth II, we’ll explore how royal women navigated power, politics, and expectation and how their legacies were shaped long after their deaths. Watch now Over the following 69 years, the media changed beyond recognition. Countless terrestrial television channels are now available, plus many more via streaming subscriptions. At the same time, the media industry has become global, with rolling 24-hour news channels, newspapers viewed online, and social media posts visible almost anywhere on the globe. Much of this was ma…

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Chess, space and medieval monks: this spring’s overlooked historical headlines
type: item
date: 2026-04-09T16:29:57.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History behind the Headlines
description: In this special episode, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter catch up with some of the headlines we’ve missed over the past few months
encoded: The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has dominated news coverage, and episodes of this podcast, in recent weeks – and because we chose to focus on those pressing events, some other stories have taken a back seat. So, in this special episode, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter catch up with some of the headlines we’ve missed over the past few months, from new theories about the ninth-century Book of Kells to a fresh take on how chess was regarded in the Middle Ages. Want to hear more from History Behind the Headlines? Listen to all episodes now

8 weird stories from the Space Age: from hungry tortoises to gorilla suits
type: item
date: 2026-04-01T18:03:43.000Z
creator: Jonathan Wright
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: Cold War
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Discover / Apple News
subject: Space
description: As the Artemis II mission prepares to send humans around the moon, Jonathan Wright explores the stranger side of space history – from UFO sightings to Cold War curiosities and beyond
encoded: Exploring space is a serious business. To use the term employed by Tom Wolfe in his 1979 book about the first US test pilots to enter astronaut training, you need the “right stuff” to sit atop an enormous firework leaving the protection of our atmosphere. But space travel is also a human endeavour. In the heavens as on Earth, that means it throws up stories that can be bizarre, funny or melancholy. As Nasa prepares to send astronauts back to the vicinity of the moon for the first time since 1972, here are eight strange-but-true tales from the ongoing history of the Space Age. 1. Ballistic legacy At the end of the Second World War, the USSR and the US competed to snaffle up as much German rocketry expertise and kit as possible. So it was that, despite his Nazi past, V-2 co-designer Wernher von Braun became chief architect of the Apollo programme’s Saturn V rocket. Less well remembered is the role of the V-2 itself in space exploration. In 1945, US Army Special Mission V-2 recovered parts and equipment needed to make the missiles from an underground factory in eastern Germany. Subsequently, much of the haul was taken to the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, where initial work resulted in the assembly of 25 rockets. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/1aGettyImages-544605263-d284276-e1775049918462.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A mid-20th-century photograph of a suited man seated at a desk, holding a pen and looking towards the camera. In front of him are several model rockets and a black rotary telephone. Behind him, a large illustration shows a spacecraft flying past the moon." title="Wernher von Braun - director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center" /> The first flights from the US followed in the spring of 1946. By October, the grandly named Upper Atmosphere Research Panel was expert enough in launching missiles to use one to capture the first photograph of the Earth from space. A terror weapon had found a mo…

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Peter Ricketts on diplomacy, Trump and Iran
type: item
date: 2026-04-01T16:35:03.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History behind the Headlines
description: Lord Peter Ricketts – former chair of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee – talks to David Musgrove about the changing nature of international relations, and whether the post-WW2 consensus is now a thing of the past.
encoded: Recent US actions in the Middle East have challenged the established world order, and called into question existing diplomatic and political norms. But how different is today’s diplomacy from that of the Second World War or the Cold War? And what does history tell us about the best way to deal with convention-busting figures such as President Trump. In this bonus episode of History Behind the Headlines, Lord Peter Ricketts – former chair of the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee and author of books including the upcoming Peace Makers: Shaping the Modern World – talks to David Musgrove about the changing nature of international relations, and whether the post-WW2 consensus is now a thing of the past. Want to hear more from History Behind the Headlines? Listen to all episodes now

What happens when war puts oil supplies at risk?
type: item
date: 2026-03-26T17:35:57.000Z
subject: 21st Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History behind the Headlines
description: Almost a month in, the Iran conflict has begun to have an impact on the world’s supplies of oil and gas. In this episode, Rana Mitter and Hannah Skoda discuss the ways in which energy has shaped the human story – and reveal how the Strait of Hormuz was a contested region centuries before the current war
encoded: Almost a month in, the Iran conflict has begun to have an impact on the world’s supplies of oil and gas – particularly as a result of Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest shipping channels. But what’s the longer story of our reliance on particular resources? And what have the historical consequences been when they’re jeopardised? In this episode, regular panellists Rana Mitter and Hannah Skoda discuss the ways in which energy has shaped the human story – and reveal how the Strait of Hormuz was a contested region centuries before the current war.