Period

Lady Hall launches the British India Company passenger liner SS Uganda in Clydeside docks with the traditional bottle of champagne, 1952. The first time champagne was used to launch a ship was when Queen Victoria launched HMS Royal Arthur in 1891. (Photo by George Douglas/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we smash champagne bottles against new ships?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Photo by iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do Americans call the British ‘limeys’?

First World War

What is the origin of the phrase 'to blow smoke up someone's arse'?

Photograph of Vladimir Lenin, 1901. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

First World War

Books interview with Catherine Merridale: "This was the most important railway journey made in the 20th century"

History quiz – Chaucer, sailors and the Civil War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History quiz – Anglo-Saxons, Bright’s disease and the Byzantine army. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Charlotte Brontë. (Photo by De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charlotte Brontë (1816-55). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soviet science and feeding Britain at war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sky covered by smoke from the first H-Bomb explosion at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, 1 April 1954. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Winston Churchill: atomic warrior, nuclear peacemaker. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Leopold II statue. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: the Belgian coast

BBC History Magazine

Who was the first ever teenage heartthrob?

Donald Trump’s unsurprising victory. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The wartime SAS and Hitler’s drug addiction. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Donald Trump elected president: the historians’ verdict. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

America's devious dream: Roosevelt and the Panama Canal. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Black British history and Charles I’s children. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Italian poet Francesco Petrarch

Q&AHow and when did the medieval period get its name?

Operation Gold Rush with Dan Snow

“I’ve been close to death nine times”: John Simpson on life as a foreign correspondent. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Reporting from war zones. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The secrets of 6 of Britain’s most famous castles – with Dan Jones

A London slum family stood in a street with all their possessions following eviction, c1901. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Life in 19th-century slums: Victorian London’s homes from hell

Q&AQ&A: Why is Portugal known as Britain’s oldest ally?

Roman silver denarius coins AD 72 till 200 and were offered up at the beginning of the 4th century AD, from the Nydan Bog archaeological site. (Photo by Clare Rowan)

From bes to Bitcoin: alternative currencies in the ancient Roman world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The end game: Britain’s role in Afghanistan 1947–50. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Adrian Turner as Poldark. (Photo by BBC Pictures)

Poldark’s Cornwall: the history behind the hit series

The Aberfan disaster and women who made history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Shakespeare’s Globe. (Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images)

Touring London with Shakespeare, Dickens and Oscar Wilde: 7 must-see literary landmarks. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History quiz – Dames, JFK and the house of Gonzaga. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Harrying of the North. Gouache on paper, by Patrick Nicolle (1907–95). Private collection. (© Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images)

Occupation, resistance, subjugation: the bloody aftermath of 1066. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.