Period

First World War

10 things you (probably) didn't know about the bloody eastern front in 1914

King Alfred The Great's statue designed by Hamo Thornycroft and erected in 1899 stands at the eastern end of the Broadway in Winchester, Hampshire, England. (Photo by Tony Baggett/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AHow many English kings were known as ‘the Great’?

Photo of a poppy growing in a preserved WWI trench

First World War

Q&ADid the Somme offensive achieve anything?

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Q&AWas Thomas Jefferson an atheist?

Relief of a charioteer

Q&AWho was the highest-paid sportsman in history?

Photo of Uruguay football players celebrating victory

Q&AWho won the first FIFA World Cup?

The Mill: behind the scenes of the new series

A letter-writer depicted by Janez Subic, c1878. (© Getty)

The great Victorian letter swindle.

A portrait of Richard III.

Inside the mind of Richard III.

Crowds in Coronation Park, Delhi, celebrate the coronation of King George V in 1911. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The LibraryDid Britain make the modern world?

The World War Two French resistance and British holidays.

Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie Mandela upon his release from prison. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

My history heroNelson Mandela (1918-2013).

William Kent, a Yorkshire-born artist and architect

History explorer: The English landscape garden.

An oil painting by John Cleveley The Elder depicting the Royal Naval Dockyard

The quest for longitude: the men who mapped the surface of the earth.

7 Victorian jokes have been given a modern twist - and they're hilarious

10 amazing Punch magazine sketches from 1859 to 1981

BBC History Magazine

History teachers' body reacts to Michael Gove's education secretary replacement

Cold War smuggling and First World War veterans.

Mont Saint Michel (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Mont Saint Michel, France

Delphi and the Spanish empire.

Yorkshire’s top 10 historical sites as county prepares for Tour de France 2014

How did it become a gesture of well-wishing to say to an actor before they go on stage "break a leg"? (Photo by Andrys Lukowski via iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Break a leg’?

Historian at the Movies: Belle reviewed.

Historian at the Movies: Grace of Monaco reviewed.

Finance and war.

The Stygian Lake in the Fifth Circle of Hell from from Dante’s epic poem 'The Inferno'. The phrase "Paint the town red" may originate from the sentence in the poem "we are they who painted the world scarlet with sins". (Photo by Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we say ‘Paint the town red’?

My favourite place: Janina Ramirez

The decline of the pub: what can we learn from history?

Q&AD-Day: How did a weather forecast change the fate of the war?.

Photo of Chelsea Pensioners

Q&ACould you really once be hanged for impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner?