HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-03-16T15:38:57.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Can you solve our history crossword of the week?
items: History crossword: 6 March
items: Trailblazers and troublemakers: women who made French history
items: What was the most important year in history? We asked 9 experts – and this is what they said
items: 12 modern trends with surprisingly ancient roots
items: "It wasn't very open about its queer connections": the hidden history of the National Trust
items: History crossword: 27 February
items: Quiz of the week: the first case of Spanish flu was recorded in what year?
items: A poetic history of England
items: Why do we still ban books?

Can you solve our history crossword of the week?
type: item
date: 2026-03-13T09:30:09.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

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History crossword: 6 March
type: item
date: 2026-03-13T08:30:44.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

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Trailblazers and troublemakers: women who made French history
type: item
date: 2026-03-11T08:00:41.000Z
creator: Charlotte Vosper
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Katherine Pangonis highlights some of the pioneering women from French history who deserve to be better known
encoded: Have women been relegated to the footnotes of French history? Katherine Pangonis – whose latest book is A History of France in 21 Women – tells Charlotte Vosper about why their stories have been pushed to the sidelines, and highlights some of the pioneering personalities who deserve to be better known. For more on change-making historical women from Katherine Pangonis, you can read all about the formidable queens who ruled and fought in medieval Jerusalem in this HistoryExtra article.

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What was the most important year in history? We asked 9 experts – and this is what they said
type: item
date: 2026-03-09T15:30:15.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: British queens
subject: Fascism
subject: Historical events
subject: Roman rulers
subject: Tudor kings and queens
description: Our crack team of historians, broadcasters and authors offer their takes on a conundrum that continues to divide opinions
encoded: AD 1000 Norse power: when worlds collide This moment is surely imbued with the most global symbolism. It was when, according to the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas, adventurers sailed across the north Atlantic from settlements on the west coast of Greenland to the edge of the North American continent. There they met inhabitants of coastal regions of what’s now Canada: ancestors of peoples such as the Beothuk and Algonquin. The circle of humanity was closed for the first time in recorded history. In the 1960s, archaeologists found a Norse overwintering site at L’Anse aux Meadows, at the northern tip of Newfoundland. This backed up what the sagas had already described: a series of voyages west from Greenland, the discovery of new lands and resources, and increasingly violent encounters with the people they called Skrælingar – an unpleasant name meaning ‘wretched ones’. These cross-cultural encounters began promisingly enough, with red cloth and dairy products traded for animal pelts. Eventually, though, relations disintegrated into distrust, violence and murder – an uneasy foreshadowing of what would follow centuries later. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/03/2RA49CHwebready-675b6fb-e1772549042852.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A cluster of reconstructed Viking buildings with sod-covered roofs sits inside a white wooden fence near a rocky coastline. The turf-walled structures vary in size and line a central dirt path, with wooden beams and tools displayed outside. Low hills and open water frame the background, evoking the historic Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland." title="Viking dwellings reconstructed at L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, likely the site of the first Norse settlement in North America (Image by Alamy)" /> This is, of course, a moment of retrospective significance. Those voyagers didn’t realise that they had reached an entirely new continent. Their expeditions did not make big new…

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12 modern trends with surprisingly ancient roots
type: item
date: 2026-03-08T15:30:09.000Z
creator: Hilary Mitchell
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: From dance competitions to viral memes, there are some features of everyday life that feel firmly rooted in the 21st century. However, there are plenty of fads and crazes that are much older than you think, as Hilary Mitchell reveals
encoded: 1. Cooking competitions Long before MasterChef, cooks in medieval Iraq also competed for culinary glory. In the 10th century, a collection of recipes from eighth and ninth-century Baghdad were compiled into a recipe book called Kitāb al-ṭabīkh (‘The Book of Dishes’) by Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq. As well as recipes, the book also includes fascinating accounts of what could be described as very early cookery competitions. They weren’t long-running, weekly tournaments like those we see on TV, but they were still prestigious culinary events, usually staged in elite households, which allowed rival chefs to showcase their talents. In one section that sounds very much like a challenge from The Great British Bake Off, al-Warrāq describes banquets where different chefs’ versions of the same dish were compared and judged by their patrons. There’s also another anecdote (recounted in later culinary literature) about the caliph al-Ma’mūn challenging his cooks to produce dishes using unexpected ingredients – like an early version of Ready Steady Cook. 2. Online gossip These days, gossip pages like Deuxmoi – a popular, mostly anonymous Instagram account that shares insider info about well-known people – are a staple of social media sites. However, it’s certainly not a new phenomenon. People in ancient Mesopotamia were gossiping about the elite and writing down the most salacious rumours about them. Cuneiform tablets written around 1800–1760 BC record a Mesopotamian mayor’s shocking affair with a married woman. An official spills the tea, writing to the king to say that the mayor of the city has been “lying with another man’s wife”, and explaining that the citizens are all outraged; everyone in the city is talking about the scandal. The tablet is part of a group of Old Babylonian cuneiform tablets found at ancient Mari – modern Tell Hariri – in Syria, the majority of which take the form of messages sent to King Zimri-Lim about various goings-on in his country. It’s not quite an Instagra…

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"It wasn't very open about its queer connections": the hidden history of the National Trust
type: item
date: 2026-03-06T15:30:11.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
description: Michael Hall speaks to Charlotte Vosper about the long-hidden stories of LGBTQ people whose lives were connected to the properties owned by the National Trust
encoded: Charlotte Vosper: In A Queer Inheritance, you explore histories of sexual difference connected to the National Trust. What drew you to those historical figures and their stories? Michael Hall: That goes back a long way. For quite a few years I worked for Country Life magazine, and in that role I wrote articles about country houses. I actually began with one of those I mention in my book: Packwood House in Warwickshire. It was acquired in 1904 by an industrialist for his son, Graham Baron Ash, who spent years renovating and transforming the property. It struck me that he never got married – and the idea that a bachelor might do up a house and then give it to the National Trust to look after seemed quite intriguing. I didn’t really spot that it was part of a pattern until I wrote a similar article on Anglesey Abbey. That’s when I realised that there was a story about the National Trust that hadn’t really been told before. It’s important to mention that I’ve never worked for the Trust, and A Queer Inheritance isn’t an official National Trust book in any way. I don’t speak on the Trust’s behalf – and indeed they may very well disagree with a lot of what I say. The National Trust was founded in 1895, when homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain – yet in your book you suggest that the Trust had queer connections from its very beginnings. Can you expand on this? That’s actually quite a complicated question. The origins of the National Trust were rooted in an anxiety about London’s urban poor and how they could be morally improved. Its founders thought that if the urban poor could be given access to architectural and natural beauty, this would do away with what they saw as their worrying vices – of which homosexuality was a rather prominent example. Yet several people on the Trust’s original council and executive committee were in fact queer. They included the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who was worried that he might be named in the Oscar Wilde trials o…

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History crossword: 27 February
type: item
date: 2026-03-06T09:29:04.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

Quiz of the week: the first case of Spanish flu was recorded in what year?
type: item
date: 2026-03-06T09:25:15.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Period
subject: Quiz
subject: Evergreen
description: How much have you been paying attention to this week's content on HistoryExtra? Test your knowledge with our quiz…
encoded: Test your knowledge with our general knowledge weekly history quiz... View Riddle on the source website More from us Exclusive quizzes for HistoryExtra members from our archives The ultimate Windors quiz The ultimate Second World War quiz How well do you know the history behind everyday inventions? Who's missing from these images? Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers How did you score? Share your result on social media to see how your knowledge compares with other HistoryExtra readers!

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A poetic history of England
type: item
date: 2026-03-06T08:00:24.000Z
creator: Lauren Good
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Catherine Clarke explains why we should treat poems as portals through which to view the more intimate side of history
encoded: How can you do justice to the story of 1,300 years of English history? Through verse, according to cultural historian Catherine Clarke – whose latest book is A History of England in 25 Poems. She takes Lauren Good on a poetic journey through time, exploring how it could be used for spiritual uplift and social change – and how it can offer uniquely human insights into key moments in history.

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Why do we still ban books?
type: item
date: 2026-03-05T14:21:21.000Z
creator: Isabel King
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: HistoryExtra's Isabel King explores the history of book censorship
encoded: HistoryExtra's Isabel King explores the history of book banning, and investigates the reasons behind this censorship – from inappropriate content, to political concerns View Green Video on the source website

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