Period

BBC History Magazine

Religious differences

Matilda: William the Conqueror’s queen

BBC History Magazine

Perilous Glory: The Rise of Western Military Power

British microbiologist and discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming. (Photo by Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images)

A big day in history: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

Second World War

First World War shells

BBC History Magazine

Looking for bugs

The LibraryA new history of England and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Queen Matilda

Anti-capitalist graffiti referencing the Nike slogan ‘Just Do It’. Mayday riots, London, 2001. (Photo by PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images)

Opinion: should historians comment on current affairs?

Magna Carta

Keith LoweThe trouble with historical monuments

Kathleen Kenyon challenged biblical accounts with her pioneering work at the ancient city of Jericho. (Photo by Bettmann/contributor via Getty Images)

My history hero: Kathleen Kenyon (1906–78)

Douglas Haig (right) watches the stamping of poppies by ex-servicemen, during a visit to the British Legion poppy factory in Richmond, 22 October 1926. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The LibraryDouglas Haig: a postwar revolutionary?

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s ‘spymaster’. (Photo by Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images)

Sir Francis Walsingham: spy-master extraordinaire and Elizabeth I’s security chief

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A war of words

Illustration by Jonty Clark

Ye olde travel guide: Venice 1500

View across the river Clyde to Dumbarton Rock and the medieval Dumbarton Castle. (Photo by Martin W Holt via Getty Images)

History explorer: Alfred and the Vikings

Was Britain the only country to use children to sweep chimneys?

Roche Abbey, Yorkshire

BBC History Magazine

Clever Tom Clinch

A monument to Nicolaus Copernicus in Poland.

Q&AWas Copernicus the first to demonstrate that the earth goes around the sun?

BBC History Magazine

All history lies to us, but at least historical fiction admits it

Knights Templar: not guilty

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

BBC History Magazine

Dead Sea Scrolls online

Anne of Cleves House, East Sussex

The front page of the first edition of The Sun newspaper. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

A big day in history: The Sun first appeared on shelves in newsagents

BBC History Magazine

The vegetable plot

Caerphilly Castle, Glamorgan

BBC History Magazine

Battle numbers