General Modern

Elizabeth I preferred thoughtful new year gifts suited to her own tastes such as cloth, personal jewellery and trinkets. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Sobriety, royal presents and Victorian-era musings on failure: an unexpected history of New Year

HistoryExtra Christmas quiz 2020

Our 2020 Christmas quiz

A Victorian Christmas card

HistoryExtra’s Christmas history quiz 2020

The British poster for 'Mary, Queen of Scots' (2018). Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I and Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart. (© Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection)

The best historical TV shows and films to stream right now

Chris Harding gives a lecture on Japan’s attempts to carve out a place for itself in a world dominated by western power and culture

Japan and the west

Richard III, Queen Victoria and Henry VIII. (Photos by Getty Images)

Monarchy history quiz: test your knowledge of these kings and queens

Alfred Nobel (Bettmann/Getty Images)

The history of the Nobel Prizes

Robert Colls discusses the importance of sport to English society over the past 200 years. (Image by Getty Images)

England’s sporting obsession

Even the ancient Egyptian played board games – this fresco from the tomb of Nefertari shows the queen playing Senet

8 of the best historical board games for history lovers

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

Father Christmas and Santa Claus: a brief history of two Christmas champions

A2YTPA St Nicolas In Holland 2

Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her arrest

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat: what happened next?

Kerri Greenidge, Tom Holland, Suzannah Lipscomb and Michael Wood debate the historical context of 2020

2020: The historians’ verdict

The future King George VI playing at the Wimbledon tennis championships, 1926

How George VI’s sheer ordinariness made him the darling of the nation

The First Thanksgiving in 1621, after a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme; screen print, 1932. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

7 facts you might not know about the history of Thanksgiving