Period

Exclusive podcastAnita Anand on an orphan radicalised by the Amritsar massacre

It was the need for witnesses in divorce courts – ones who wouldn’t mind their names being linked to scandals, no less – that partly gave rise to female detectives. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Women detectives: meet the Victorian female super sleuths

Tudors history quizTest your knowledge of the dynamic dynasty

Britain goes to war

The Crown S4 cast: which real historical figures feature in season four of Netflix’s royal drama – and what did they really look like?

Evening Light on Hadrian's Wall

The Romans in Britain: exploitation or innovation?

c1954: A photo-fiction serial telling the story of a young couple on honeymoon in the South of France. The parts are played by actors Mark Hashfield and Simone Lovell. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of honeymoons (and how the post-wedding holiday got its name)

Rjukan Hydro Plant

Spying in WW2: how wartime espionage was just as dramatic as fiction

Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin: working-class warrior

Victoria, Albert and their children admire the royal Christmas tree

ExploreThe history of Christmas

Henry Fitzroy

Henry Fitzroy: how Henry VIII’s “bastard son” rocked the Tudor court

A portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler

Second World War

Why did WW2 happen?

Postcards from the past competition: the winners

WW2 surrender signed, 2 September 1945

Second World War

How and when did WW2 end?

The 1851 Great Exhibition’s west wing

The 1851 Great Exhibition: inside the Victorian spectacle

Illustration for BBC History Magazine.

How potatoes conquered the world

Mary Seacole as seen in a contemporary photo. Although she became famous for her nursing work in the Crimean War, her story subsequently became largely forgotten. (Photo by Alamy)

History heroBernardine Evaristo chooses Mary Seacole (1805–1881)

Afua Hirsch in Kenya. (Photo by Clear Story/BBC)

Afua Hirsch: "The prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past"

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump: a president without precedent?

A late 18th-century painting of British and French sailors going head-to-head at war

The uncommon lives of common sailors

The Hundred Years’ War: everything you wanted to know

Exclusive podcastDan Jones on the human stories of the crusades

Mary Toft, perpetrator of the 1726 hoax – in which she appeared to give birth to rabbits

The woman who gave birth to rabbits? How Mary Toft's hoax captured Georgian society

Floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, outside Kensington Palace. (Photo by Liba Taylor/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Princess Diana's death: when grief gripped a nation

Selim I

The extraordinary life of Sultan Selim I

Painting of Masons building a pillar in a church

General Early Modern

Your guide to...the Freemasons

Edward the Confessor (Anglo-Saxon king of England from 1042) on his throne, as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry. (Photo by Getty Images)

Edward the Confessor

Engraving depicting a scene from the battle of Crécy, during the Hundred Years' War. Dated 14th Century. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The battle of Crécy: triumph of the longbow

King George VI and his eldest daughter, Elizabeth

The death of King George VI: what happened?

What are Roman numerals, where do they come from and how do you read them?