Period

BBC History Magazine

The vulgar tower

Was a nine-year-old boy imprisoned for making a joke about Louis XIV’s bald head?

The Cold War Olympic boycott

BBC History Magazine

August issue out now

BBC History Magazine

Festival subscriptions offer

Fort George

BBC History Magazine

Guinness o'clock

An illustration depicting medieval pilgrims. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The LibraryMedieval tourism: pilgrimages and tourist destinations

Industrial might: Blenheim bombers in production in England, late 1939. The Allies’ combined industrial strength proved too much for the Axis. (Getty Images)

Second World War

The LibraryThe world in flames

The Fire of Rome, by Hubert Robert (1733-1808). "It was the worst possible place for a fire to break out, and fear turned into outright panic," says Dominic Sandbrook. Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The LibraryA big day in history: the Great Fire of Rome

A 19th-century woodblock print of Edo, now known as Tokyo. (GraphixaArtis/Getty Images)

Ye Olde Travel Guide: Edo 1850

Richard Buckminster standing next to his draft of a house of the 21st century. (Ullstein picture via Getty Images)

My History Hero: Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983)

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and British prime minister from 1782–83, was instrumental in the Genevan exiles’ move to southern Ireland. (Getty Images)

The watchmakers of Waterford

The replica of 'The Matthew' arriving at Douarnenez, France in 1998. It was on the original 15th-century vessel that John Cabot travelled to North America. (Getty Images)

Where history happened: Tudor smuggling

BBC History Magazine

America’s ‘birth certificate’ map found in Germany

BBC History Magazine

Trabi jokes

Peover Hall, Cheshire

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

BBC History Magazine

Digital roundup

BBC History Magazine

Woman and cow found in Anglo-Saxon grave

Second World War

German bomber insurance

BBC History Magazine

Buy yourself a drink

Abraham Lincoln: 5 facts

General prehistory

St Fagans, Cardiff

Procession portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

How Elizabeth I used parties as a weapon against the Catholic threat to her throne

BBC History Magazine

A Rough Justice

Q&A: How did the Romans write fractions?

It’s time we ditched the myth of German small-arms supremacy

Arundel Castle, West Sussex

BBC History Magazine

'Vampire' skeletons found in Bulgaria