Period

Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's left-wing president who in 1940 legalised drugs. (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The year Mexico legalised drugs

An 1824 cartoon depicting the drinking escapades of Oxford students. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The history of student life: 7 things you didn’t know

Why black hair matters

One of the earliest and most famous examples of extremism comes from ancient Rome. Starting in 264 BC and continuing for more than a century, Rome engaged in a series of wars with neighbouring Carthage. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of extremism – from ancient Rome to al Qaeda

Q&A'God Save The Queen': how old is the British national anthem?

US infantrymen in snowdrifts

Second World War

Q&AWhy is Hitler's Ardennes campaign called the battle of the Bulge?

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?

Winchester Cathedral

From King Alfred to Jane Austen: a historical tour of Winchester

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Have nuclear weapons helped to maintain global peace?

(Photo by Westend61/Roman Märzinger/Getty Images)

The Zinoviev Letter conspiracy

Prime ministers Robert Walpole and Boris Johnson

From Walpole to Boris: a brief history of Eton College and the 20 prime ministers it has produced

The HMS Victory in Portsmouth

A visit to HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar

The Venus de Milo sculpture

Q&AWhen was the Venus de Milo found?

The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides

General ancient history

Happy plants and laughing weeds: how people of the ancient world used – and abused – drugs

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa portrait

Q&AWho was the Mona Lisa?

The Ashes urn, a cricketing trophy

In pictures: The Ashes through history

A late 19th or early 20th-century painting entitled 'Mother and Child'. As fertility rates fell, sentimental idealisations of mothers and babies developed. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The motherhood revolution: how the great fertility decline affected the lives of women

9 notable ambassadors in history

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

Making history funny: is any historical topic off-limits?

A depiction of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (10 September 1547), the last formal battle between England and Scotland. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhen was the last battle between England and Scotland?

Historian Greg Jenner

Making jokes about Romans

Professor Dame Janet L Nelson

Charlemagne: medieval empire builder

Wrestlers in ancient Greece

Q&AHow did ancient athletes prepare for the Olympics?

For our forebears, the secret to a good night's sleep lay in the contents of your gut. (Photo by Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

6 sleeping tips and tricks from history

10 Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. (Photo by Getty Images)

Who was the best 20th-century prime minister?

Stonewall and the fight for gay rights

The ‘Surgeon’s Photo’, taken in 1934, which claimed to depict the Loch Ness Monster. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

5 facts about the Loch Ness Monster

Henry VIII's Mary Rose (© 19th era/Alamy)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose

A 15th-century map of the world illustrating a Latin edition of Ptolemy's the 'Geography'. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

12 alternative giant leaps for mankind – from carnivorism to Magna Carta