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The characters of Ellen Cochrane (right) and her brother Patrick seem to take inspiration from some real figures within the Fenian cause (left shows an illustration of a Fenian demonstration in Hyde Park in the 1860s)

What was the Fenian Brotherhood? And was Ellen Cochrane real?

Anthony Boyle and Louis Partridge star as Arthur and Edward Guinness

Is House of Guinness a true story? Here’s the real history behind the Netflix drama

This 1896 portrait shows Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American steel magnate whose fortune helped build libraries, universities, and cultural institutions across the English-speaking world.

Skip the office and give your money away: a Victorian billionaire’s guide to financial triumph

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American violence & presidential visits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The real Miss Moneypennys: the secret history of Britain's female spies. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

On 31 August 1939, children from Chelsea line up with their belongings, ready to be evacuated from London as war looms. Part of a nationwide effort to move civilians — especially children — to safety, the evacuation began just days before Britain entered the Second World War.

Second World War

The biggest misconceptions about WW2 evacuees? This historian has the answers

Andrew Carnegie: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration showing a king dressed in green and orange, sitting on a blue throne made out of books. He is reading from a long scroll

Love learning like Æthelstan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wages for housework: the daring 1970s campaign that challenged women's roles

Ancient Roman theatre: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting depicting Rurik and his brothers arriving in Staraya Ladoga, a scene based on the legend of the Varangian invitation, in which Norse leaders were asked to bring order to the Slavic lands. Rurik’s arrival marked the legendary founding of the first ruling dynasty of Rus’, a key moment in the early history of Eastern Europe.

Why does Putin think Ukraine should be Russian? It’s all to do with the Vikings

Ask a WW1 expert! Don't miss our live Q&A with Alex Churchill. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Haiti's first and only king

An illustration of Matilda of Flanders, queen consort of William the Conqueror. As queen after the Norman Conquest, Matilda played a key political role.

The conqueror’s queen: meet the real Matilda of Flanders

LEFT TO RIGHT: US president William McKinley is shot in 1901; John F Kennedy in Dallas, moments before his murder in 1963; the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

"Violence and American politics have gone hand in hand right from the beginning": a history of political violence

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry shows a group of men sitting at a high

Why you should avoid hair-pulling, and cannibalism, at royal banquets. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This print depicts men gathered in a Tudor alehouse, a lively hub of social life where people met to drink, gossip and discuss events. Alehouses were central to everyday life in 16th-century England.

For ordinary Tudors, death lurked around every corner with these surprising ways to die

An illustration shows five women in colourful headscarves sewing a large piece of cloth with soldiers and horses on it

Michael Wood on women's contributions to the Bayeux Tapestry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How the Cold War made the modern world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Alva Vanderbilt: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman with blonde hair and wearing a navy T shirt stands looking up towards the top left of the image. She has a large white earring and stands in front of some Roman ruins

Alice Roberts: “Christianity didn’t invent itself as an empire from nothing: it adapted existing Roman structures”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How women were erased from economic history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

In this c.1891 stereoscopic image by Underwood & Underwood, a cowboy in woolly chaps demonstrates lasso techniques beside a covered wagon, as others look on. Scenes like this reflect the working life and performative culture of the late 19th-century American West.

These three unsuspecting inventions won the American Wild West – but did they destroy it too?

An edited image of a man with long curly hair and a lacy ruff. The right hand side of his face is colour inverted so it appears black with a red eye

The sinister secrets of Samuel Pepys. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Katya Adler and Rita Levi-Montalcini

My history heroKatya Adler chooses Rita Levi-Montalcini. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Black women and the fight for human rights. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This 19th-century illustration, based on ancient Greek vase imagery, depicts two mounted Amazons chasing after two fleeing youths. Scenes like this reflect classical fascination with the myth of warrior women.

Were the Amazons just a “male fantasy”? Here’s the truth behind the ancient world’s warrior women

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The real history of Britain's flags. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting showing a black beast biting the leg of an orange man dressed in a loincloth

What have the Etruscans ever done for us?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.