General Modern

'Merry Christmas' Victorian illustration of Santa Claus holding toys and blowing on a trumpet, chromolithograph, 1915. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

A brief history of Santa Claus

Illustration by Femke de Jong

Does it always pay to trust the cash in your pockets?

Britons watch Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas message in 1958. (© Topfoto)

A brief history of the Christmas Speech

A group of carol singers on a wintry night at Christmas time, c1890. (Photo by William M. Spittle/Fine Art Photographic/Getty Images)

Christmas songs – the oldest ones are the best

Simon Sebag Montefiore on letters from history. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Letters that changed the world

A portrait of prime minister Lord Frederick North. His government was the first to be brought down by a vote of no confidence, in 1782. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Vote of no confidence: a brief history

(Illustration by Eleanor Shakespeare for BBC History Magazine)

36 books for history lovers: BBC History Magazine’s Christmas reading list

Ministers vomit taxes into a large bag labelled 'budget', while the Prince Regent lurks with a list of expenses in this illustration from 1816. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

10 terrible taxes in history

Malcolm X speaking at a rally, 29 June 1963.(Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Black radicalism with Kehinde Andrews

Ada Lovelace “had a unique and farsighted insight into the potential of computers,” says James Essinger. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ada Lovelace: a visionary of computing

Mary, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542–67) was “absolutely useless as queen of Scotland”, says historian Sean Lang. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

9 of the worst monarchs in history

The 30th Annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1958. (Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

13 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars

Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) – a “sentimental, eminently weighty version of presidential history”, says Dr Wills. (Photo by Moviestore collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disney history: how has the corporation shaped our perception of the past?

A poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children by Dorothea Lange, colourised by Marina Amaral. (Photo courtesy of Head of Zeus)

History in colour