Period

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. (Photo by Getty Images)

Yuri Gagarin: 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the first man in space

A depiction of the Norman army, from the Bayeux Tapestry

Everything you wanted to know about the 1066 Norman invasion and the battle of Hastings – but were afraid to ask

'The Landing of St Augustine in Kent', AD 597

General ancient history

Q&AWhen did Christianity first arrive in Britain?

Engraving of emperor Commodus's death

Cheese, angry gods and shoddy surgeons: the unlikely deaths of Roman emperors

Historical recipeRussian Easter sweet bread Kulich

King Richard I, aka Richard the Lionheart. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Richard the Lionheart may not have spoken English – plus 7 more surprising facts

Dance of Death, printed by Jacob Meydenbach, Germany 1492. (Photo by Alamy)

The Black Death and social change

Miniature from an Apocalypse of Cambrai depicting the opening of the sixth seal: an earthquake occurs and the sun becomes black. Municipal library, Cambrai, France. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

Written in the stars: 7 celestial events that may have changed history

Why were the Tudors called the Tudors? The answer lies with Catherine of Valois (pictured), widow of Henry V. (Photo by Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty)

Q&AWhy were they called the Tudors?

The Church of St Martin of Tours in Canterbury

Q&AWhat is the oldest church in England?

Photograph of John Snow in 1856

The Broad Street cholera outbreak: how bad was it and how was it contained?

Illustration of Elizabeth I in a cage

What if...The Spanish Armada had landed?

Self portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi as a lute player (Photo by Getty Images)

The genius of Artemisia

Children in Auschwitz

Second World War

The Windermere Children: the remarkable stories of 300 child survivors of the Holocaust

Our composite image shows Henry II framed by an Arabic arch. Henry claimed he "would sooner accept the errors of Nur-al-Din" than suffer Thomas Becket remaining as archbishop. (Image by Bridgeman/Getty Images)

King Henry II: the Muslim monarch of medieval England?

Ramsay MacDonald, the first British Labour prime minister, pictured after the general election of 1931

A brief history of the Labour Party

Tomb of Richard the Lionheart

Q&AHow did Richard the Lionheart die? And where is he buried?

Britons watch Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas message in 1958. (© Topfoto)

A brief history of the Christmas Speech

The Tudors, everything you wanted to know

Photo of sand dunes

Why the American Wild West was a "hotbed of scientific discovery"

Postcard of a group of men wearing identical clothing boarding a boat for a stag party, c1914. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

Stag nights and hen dos: a brief history of bachelor and bachelorette parties

Viking women

The figure Mulan on a silk print, c19th century

General ancient history

Mulan: the history of the Chinese legend behind the film

Illustration of Boudica, victorious over the Romans

What if…Boudica had defeated the Romans?

A portrait of Florence Nightingale

Nursing by numbers: how Florence Nightingale campaigned for better conditions

An oil portrait of Charlemagne (c747–814), King of the Franks, by 15th/16th-century artist Albrecht Durer. (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

The legacy of Charlemagne: how the king of the Franks continues to cast a shadow over Europe

c1656: A plague doctor in protective clothing. The beak mask held spices thought to purify air, while the wand was used to avoid touching patients. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy did 17th-century plague doctors wear peculiar beaked masks?

Steve McQueen stars in the 1963 film that turned the 'Great Escape' into a symbol of Allied pluck and ingenuity. (Image by Alamy)

The not-so Great Escape

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an 'ancient' tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

Okinawa: the battle and the bomb