Period

Princess Elizabeth 1939

The young Elizabeth II: life before she was Queen

What began as small raids on British coastal towns soon developed into all-out war, as a Great Viking Army arrived with a very different aim: to conquer (Photo credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Vikings in Britain: how did raiders and marauders become lords and kings?

Portrait of an unknown woman, c1490–95. She sports a necklace in a painting from c1485. Coral jewellery was widely believed to ward off evil spirits. (Photo by Getty Images)

Medieval magic at work: 7 spells and charms our ancestors used

Cousins at war: King Stephen is shown holding a falcon in a miniature from 1253. His battle with his cousin Matilda for the English crown plunged the realm into a long civil war. (Photo by Alamy)

The Anarchy: how bloody was Stephen and Matilda’s medieval battle for the English crown?

The burgers, known by the Romans as isicia omentata, were an early example of fast food. (Picture by Dave Thompson/Route OnePhotography/English Heritage)

Historical recipeRoman Homemade Burger

Coco Chanel photographed in Paris, c1936

Chanel and the Riviera

British author Bernard Cornwell, author of 'The Last Kingdom'

Bernard Cornwell on writing historical fiction and his blockbuster series The Last Kingdom: your questions answered

Coins depicting Viking longships

A brief history of the Vikings

Great Fire of London quiz – how much do you know?

American soldiers head towards the French coast, June 1944. (Photo by Getty Images)

D-Day: everything you wanted to know

Q&AWhere do the names for days of the week come from?

The renowned poet Lord Byron has gone down in history for being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. But his ancestors were hardly paragons of virtue. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Adultery, elopement and incest: the scandalous sex lives of the 18th-century Byrons

The scandalous Byrons

The Jews who fought back: the story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Rewriting the past: the history that inspired Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

The entry of Prince Charles Edward, 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', into Edinburgh in Scotland in 1745. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Forty-five rebellion: why did it fail?

Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944

Editor’s pick9 top articles from the BBC World Histories archive to read right now

Tomb of Cyrus the Great, Shiraz, Iran

From conqueror to youth icon: who was Cyrus the Great?

Emma Dabiri in conversation about her book 'Don't Touch My Hair'

"Afro-textured hair had no stigma before the dehumanisation of black people that emerged from slavery": Emma Dabiri discusses the changing perceptions of Afro-textured hair

Hollow victory: Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, attends Paris VE Day celebrations. But many faced privation and uncertainty as the war drew to a close. (Photo by Getty Images)

VE Day at 75The bitter taste of victory: why May 1945 was not a time of celebration for everyone

The mistresses of Charles II

A Wall Street speculator tries to sell his car to passersby

Your guide to the Great Depression

c1895: Queen Victoria with her family. Standing left to right: Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein; Prince Henry of Battenberg; Count Arthur Mensdorff-Pouilly; Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg; George, Duke of York. Seated left to right: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg; Queen Victoria; Victoria Mary, Duchess of York holding Prince Edward of York; Prince Arthur of Connaught; and Prince Alexander of Battenberg. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who were Queen Victoria's children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters

Prisoners at Bergen-Belsen

Second World War

A brief history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank died

John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, in 1865.

Q&AWhat play was Abraham Lincoln watching when he was shot?

Thomas Cromwell. (Photo by Gustavo Tomsich/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

The truth about Thomas Cromwell

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in a scene from the 1962 film 'James Bond: Dr. No' (Photo by United Artist/Getty Images)

The spies who inspired Bond

Julian of Norwich holds her famous book in a sculpture at the doors of Norwich Cathedral. (Photo by Creative Commons Wiki)

Julian of Norwich: Janina Ramirez hails 'the female Chaucer'

Roman Britain: everything you wanted to know

Astronauts being lifted from the Apollo 13 spacecraft after splashdown in the South Pacific,1970. (Photo by Alamy)

Apollo 13