Period

Ivinghoe Brecon. (Image by Alamy)

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

US baseball legend, Joseph 'Shoeless Joe' Jackson, who was banned from the game along with seven other players after admitting that they had accepted money to lose the 1919 World Series.

“Say it ain’t so”: The ‘Black Sox’ scandal that rocked American baseball. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Adolf Hitler with his mistress, Eva Braun, in the early to mid-1940s. The pair married on 29 April 1945, the day before they committed suicide together. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Eva Braun: life with Adolf Hitler

Attempted assassination of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). On the evening of Wednesday 10 June 1840 Victoria and Prince Albert were travelling in a carriage along Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace, London, when Edward Oxford fired a pistol at the Queen

Edward Oxford: the man who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A brief history of marathons

Queen Elizabeth II driving her children Prince Charles and Princess Anne at Windsor, 1957. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Why do Brits drive on the left-hand side of the road? Plus 4 other facts about the history of driving in Britain

The Queen reminds Prince William that he should not be kneeling down and talking to George during the Trooping the Colour parade. (Image by JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP/ Getty Images)

Dads with royal duties. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bemused families in Narodychi, Ukraine watch neighbours preparing to leave home shortly after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, just 50 miles (80km) to the east. The Soviet state proposed to re-house rural inhabitants in badly affected districts, but many preferred to stay despite (or perhaps unaware of the danger of) the high radiation detected by Geiger counters. (Photo by Igor Kostin/Sygma via Getty Images)

Eyewitness account: the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Amritsar massacre. (Photo by Alamy)

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

British spy writer Ian Fleming at his home, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

The man behind James Bond. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The chemistry between Emily Blunt (Victoria) and Rupert Friend (Albert) is palpable in the 2009 biopic. (Image by Alamy)

Queen Victoria on screen

Australian troops (widely known as ‘Diggers’) at Anzac Cove in April 1915

The Gallipoli campaign: a defining moment in Australian history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British military behind a barricade, 1916. (Photo by ullstein picture via Getty Images)

The Easter Rising: when Ireland went to war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Letters from World War Two leaders. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Osborne House from terrace.

Inside Osborne: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's island residence. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865), the British Liberal statesman who served almost continually as Prime Minister between 1855 and 1865, pictured circa 1860. (Photo by Herbert Fry/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Lord Palmerston: the people’s champion. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from 1883 shows the phrenology chart of the skull

The Victorian phrenology craze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Notre Dame of Paris at first light (Photo by Captblack76-Dreamstime.com)

Notre-Dame. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Anita Anand, photographed in London. "My grandfather was in Amritsar on the day of the massacre. This story has been woven into my DNA," she says. (Photography by Alastair Levy)

Books interview with Anita Anand: “Singh hoped that he would be the catalyst for a revolution”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Seeking to remove opponents who questioned his right to be head of church and state, Henry VIII was ruthless in his pursuit of those he deemed traitors. (Image by Alamy)

Henry VIII's hitmen: the Tudor king's secret hunt for traitors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The west Cornish tomb Lanyon Quoit, which dates to the Neolithic period (3500–2500 BC). The Anglo-Saxons believed that ancient burial sites were cursed – and guarded by dragons. (Image by Dreamstime)

Giants, dragons and Middle Earth: the Anglo-Saxon fear of the past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A protester in a headlock, Southall, April 1979, when a member of the Anti-Nazi League died after being struck on the head. (Images by Getty Images)

1979: Britain in meltdown. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thatcher holds up two shopping bags to show how much less a pound would buy due to inflation under Labour. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Are we still living in Thatcher’s Britain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A souvenir for a burlesque adaptation of the classic opera 'Carmen' at the Gaiety Theatre, 1890. (Image by Bridgeman)

Victorian burlesque: cheap thrills for the chattering classes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Empire Cinema and Casino, Leicester Square, London. It was originally a theatre and ballet venue, before reopening as a music hall in 1884. (Image by Alamy)

History explorer: The birth of British cinema. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The photogenic Trevi Fountain is a highlight of most visits to Rome. (Image by Getty Images)

My favourite place: Rome, Italy

Wilfred Thesiger in Oman, c1946. "He was able to cope without sleep, and aI don't think he knew pain," says Frank Gardner. (Image by Bridgeman)

My history hero: Frank Gardner chooses Wilfred Thesiger. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's childhood home in Kent. (Photo by Prisma Bildagentur/UIG via Getty Images)

8 must-visit castles with Tudor connections

Blenheim Palace in a c1880 print from ‘A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland’, edited by Reverend FO Morris, Volume I, William Mackenzie, London. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

10 things you might not know about Blenheim Palace

Melvyn Bragg speaks to the History Extra podcast about the 12th-century love story of Heloise and Abelard. (Photo by Awakening/Getty Images)

Melvyn Bragg on Heloise and Abelard. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.