Period

Ethiopia 1935: The real history behind The Shadow King.

David Olusoga“Desks went from a niche furniture item to the work station of millions”.

Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy

Illustration showing Roman Saturnalia banquet. (Photo by Alamy)

Saturnalia: the origins of the debauched Roman 'Christmas'

Second World War

Caught off guard: why didn't America see Pearl Harbor coming?

The ‘lost’ city of Atlantis.

A 19th-century engraving of Francis Grose

History heroSusie Dent chooses Francis Grose (1731–1791)

Ancient Babylon: everything you wanted to know.

Looking for Egypt’s lost tombs.

Robert Harris on V2, historical fiction and WW2.

Thomas Cromwell, Tudor statesman and 'alter rex'.

Your guide to Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor statesman and prince of the church

A Victorian Christmas

What was Christmas like in the Victorian era?

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her arrest

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

British mystery writer Agatha Christie, c1926.

The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie

Henry VI of England. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

Henry VI may have had a "sex coach" - plus 4 more curious facts about his life

2020: The historians’ verdict.

US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, meeting during the Casablanca conference in 1943. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

Churchill and D-Day: did the prime minister oppose the Normandy landings?

Laurence ReesHitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War.

Chess players in the 14th century

Ancient board games: which ones did people play for fun in the past?.

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

The Trojan Horse – seen in the 2004 film Troy

How much of the legend of Troy is real?

Women in Greek myths.

Actress Lily James and actor Michael Huisman looking at each other in a still from the film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Life under Nazi rule: the occupation of the Channel Islands.

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

Ian Fleming, British author and creator of the James Bond character

James Bond in real life: where did Ian Fleming's inspirations come from?.

A 14th-century illustration showing medieval butchery. (Photo by Prisma/UIG via Getty Images)

The medieval marketplace: a time traveller’s guide to shopping in the Middle Ages

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the 'Origin of Species' cause a clash between church and science?

Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

German writer Hans Fallada (1893–1947), pictured in 1934 with his son Uli in a carriage in Carwitz, Mecklenburg. (Photo by Getty Images)

Germans who resisted the Nazis.

Boys playing conkers in 1926. Horse chestnuts played an unlikely role in the war effort just a few years earlier. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Did conkers help win the First World War?.