Period

This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Simo Häyhä, said to be the deadliest sniper in history

Second World War

The world’s deadliest sniper: Simo Häyhä

How much do you know about the Vikings? Test your knowledge with our quiz. This mid-19th century painting shows Viking ships on the River Thames. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

QuizHow much do you know about the Vikings?

The coronation of Philippa of Hainault

How did Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III, become one of medieval England’s best-loved queens?

A statue of Robert the Bruce Statue at Stirling Castle, Scotland. (Dreamstime)

The battle of Bannockburn: Robert Bruce's fight for freedom

A mushroom cloud produced by the explosion of a hydrogen bomb during Operation Ivy, an American nuclear test that took place in 1952. (SSPL/Getty Images)

How have nuclear weapons shaped global politics? 10 key moments in the post-war atomic world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Working mothers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Crowds flock to the beach at Hastings in August 1938. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

Summer holiday revolution: when were Britons first allowed to take paid holiday?

Prospectors pan for gold in Siberia during the 19th century.

Where did the major gold rushes of the 19th century happen? And why were people so keen to join the gold rush?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prospecting towns like Dawson boomed during the gold rush.

The dark side of the 19th-century gold rush. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Henry VIII

The surprising place where Henry VIII is buried

c1962: Military personnel in a car pass through the US Army's Checkpoint Charlie on the Berlin Wall. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

A brief history of Checkpoint Charlie

British battlefields: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two lovers rest after a hunt, Codex Manesse

Saturday lecture: Medieval love and marriage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Lancaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Despite popular misconception, Gladiatorial fighting was not the most popular entertainment in Ancient Rome. (Photo by Alamy)

A brief guide to ancient Rome and the Romans, plus 9 fascinating facts

Bronze effigy of King Henry III on his tomb, Westminster Abbey, London (Photo by Alamy)

Henry III: inside the mind of a medieval king. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American jazz singer Helen Forrest performing with trumpeter Harry James (1916-1983), c1945. (Photo by Metronome/Getty Images)

History heroDame Vera Lynn chooses Helen Forrest (1917–99). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruined monastery walls of Lindisfarne priory on Holy Island, on 27th June 2019, on Lindisfarne Island, Northumberland, England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish monk Saint Aidan, and the priory was founded before the end of 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, also known simply as Holy Island, is an island off the northeast coast of England. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic and Anglo-saxon Christianity. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was re-established. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #8: Did medieval people care about the time? And did they get bored?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria of Great Britain with her husband, Prince Albert, and their nine children. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s children

Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton: life, discoveries, rivalries and the truth about the apple

English admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), circa 1585. (Photo by Getty Images)

Francis Drake: slave trader. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Francis Drake portrait

Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade

American spotlight: how today’s protests echo historical outrage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Violence erupted in New Orleans, and white southerners killed and injured more than 100 freed slaves during a riot against reconstruction plans. (Image by Alamy)

Rebuilding America after the Civil War: what was the Reconstruction era and why did it fail?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain and the slave trade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Slaves of Confederate Brigadier-General Thomas F Drayton at his cotton plantation in South Carolina during the American Civil War

Why is America haunted by its past?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A police officer uses his baton on a protester in Glasgow, 1919

1919: Britain's red summer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King

The civil rights movement: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry VIII and Francis I meet at the Field of Cloth of Gold, 7 June 1520. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Field of the Cloth of Gold. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.