Period

Night view of people jammed into Times Square, New York, celebrating the end of the war in Europe. (Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Was 1945 the world's zero?

Illustration of last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, surrendering to the 'barbarian' Odoacer

Your guide to...the fall of Rome

Hiroshima.

Second World War

The end of WW2: 5 articles you can read right now

Mural of the battle of Actium from 1600

Actium, 31 BC: the beginning of the end for Mark Antony and Cleopatra

14th century miniature showing a child's baptism. (Photo by Getty Images)

Exclusive podcastWhat’s in a medieval name?

The Parnethon, Athens

How to build a democracy (Athenian-style)

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall: everything you need to know

Painting of Martin Luther translating the New Testament into German vernacular in 1521 (Photo by Fine Art Photographic Library/Corbis via Getty Images)

Your guide to Martin Luther, the theologian who launched the Reformation

Athenian red-figure cup showing a seated man with a naked boy in the inside tondo, 470 BC

What was pederasty in ancient Greece?

Top, left to right: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour. Bottom, left to right: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Katherine Parr.

Henry VIII’s six wives: your guide to the Tudor king's queen consorts

A 19th-century painting of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

What if…Abraham Lincoln hadn't been assassinated?

The real Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold on Covent Garden's courtesans

Afrikaners with a Nordenfeld-Maxim field gun at Mafeking during the Second Boer War, 1900. (Photo by Getty Images)

Authors in the Boer War

Attila the Hun

General ancient history

Who was Attila the Hun, the barbarian ruler who terrorised the Romans?

The American Civil War: everything you wanted to know

Exclusive podcastJanina Ramirez on extraordinary medieval women

An engraving of Margaret Tudor

The forgotten Tudor: Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII

Half-sisters and daughters of Henry VIII: Mary Tudor (left) and Elizabeth I, who both reigned as queen of England. (Photos by Getty Images)

Did Elizabeth I and her half-sister, Mary Tudor, have a good relationship? Historian Tracy Borman explains

A bust of Roman dictator Julius Caesar

Julius CaesarYour guide to the Roman dictator

Documents that changed the world

A medieval king dining

Pig-chickens, beavers’ tails and turtle soup: 8 fascinating foods through history

Colourised print of the Lighthouse of Alexandria as imagined in the 18th century

General ancient history

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: what were they, and what happened to them?

Illustration of Venetian merchant Marco Polo travels along the Silk Road to China

General ancient history

Your guide to...the Silk Road

Dr Michael Mosley holds up a tapeworm

Tapeworms, arsenic and magic soap: fact-checking history’s weirdest fad diets and weight-loss gimmicks

Fasil Ghebbi, a 17th-century fortress city in Gondar, Ethiopia. (Photo by Getty Images)

Peter Frankopan on global history in 2020

Sunbathers on Blackpool beach in 1954. (Credit: John Chillingworth/Getty Images)

Caravans, spa towns and seaside resorts: a brief history of British holidays

A thin section of the Great Wall of China near Beijing

General ancient history

10 facts about the Great Wall of China

Summer reads 2020: the best history books to take on holiday (or staycation)

Brothers in arms Louis IX on his way to the Seventh Crusade, 1248. The French king kept his three brothers onside – preventing any potential family infighting – by providing them with huge lordships. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

Medieval dynasties: how to stay on the throne

First World War

WW1 poets5 famous figures you should know about