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Cold War-era President John F Kennedy leaves St Stephen Martyr Catholic Church in Washington DC — just hours before Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw missiles from Cuba, defusing the Cold War’s most dangerous standoff.

The CIA’s most unlikely Cold War weapon? A secret smuggling operation that terrified Soviet censors

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

A portrait of James Bond author Ian Fleming

Second World War

Think James Bond's pure fantasy? His creator's real WW2 missions were more outrageous than you'd believe

Archaeologist Buzz Busby alongside two Roman swords.

A hidden Roman villa? A pair of "remarkable" swords might have just unlocked its ancient secrets

Two green hearts are sideways, facing each other. In each there is an image: one has a painting of Elizabeth I and the other has a painting of the Duke of Anjou

The Virgin Queen? Elizabeth I's forbidden love. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The People's Princess: why Diana captivated the world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two pilots dressed in military uniform sit in the cockpit of a small war plane. Both are looking out the window the right of the picture

"England is invincible": How the Luftwaffe lost the Battle of Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Secrets of medieval manuscripts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This mosaic from the Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily depicts women exercising — a rare glimpse of female leisure in the Roman Empire. (Photo by Getty Images)

Are you healthier than a Roman? These ancient secrets for longevity are still shockingly relevant

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

Historical anniversariesJuly

Magic beakers & Roman helmets: artefacts that shaped history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

From a scandalous threesome to classical stardom: the actress who found redemption in Handel’s Messiah. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sisi & Eugénie: the empresses who redefined royalty. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Newgrange, a prehistoric monument in the Boyne Valley of eastern Ireland

General ancient history

Were ancient Ireland’s ‘incestuous elites’ just a myth? A tomb older than Stonehenge has new answers

Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "Samba schools used the carnival to foreground overlooked histories". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John Singer Sargent and his scandalous portrait of 'Madame X'.

John Singer Sargent and the scandalous Madame X portrait that set the Gilded Age alight

Illustration of a demon breathing fire with springs on his shoes jumping and scaring two women

Spring-Heeled Jack: the fire-breathing phantom that terrorised Victorian England

Ghosts, vampires & Abba holograms: an uncanny history of London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael Wood on the New Angel | "Few works of 20th-century art have such a distinguished list of past owners". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

International security & rough sleeping: history behind the headlines. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Recent HistoryExtra podcasts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This 9th-century illustration shows Alcuin of York presenting his pupil Rabanus Maurus to Saint Martin. An influential scholar and teacher, Alcuin played a key role in the intellectual revival of Charlemagne’s court.

The first mafia? How an early medieval kingdom perfected the art of deadly diplomacy

An illustration showing Queen Elizabeth I. Her body has been replaced with an egg timer and her facial expression is looking worried.

Master the art of procrastination, with the help of the Virgin Queen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Make Mercia Great Again. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nancy Mitford

The real Nancy Mitford: meet the bestselling novelist who betrayed her sister

Are Bertha and George Russell real? Inside the real Vanderbilt divorces that rocked the Gilded Age

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

Diana Mitord

The real Diana Mitford: society beauty and unabashed fascist