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Michelle Akers-Stahl, who scored twice in the final, celebrates with teammates Julie Foudy and Carin Jennings after the United States won the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup on 30 November 1991, defeating Norway 2–1. The tournament marked a turning point in the global recognition of the women’s game.

How a forgotten law helped women’s football conquer the world – but only by accident

In a televised address on 15 August 1973, President Richard Nixon proclaimed his innocence in the Watergate affair and urged Americans to reject efforts to exploit the scandal. This photograph was taken after the broadcast, as cameras were barred during the speech.

Watergate is the ultimate American conspiracy – but what if we’ve been misunderstanding it all along?

Fun, fear and flatbread: childhood in ancient Rome.

A monk with ginger hair and beard, dressed in blue, sits on.a bench with a book. He is against a pink background and around him are a fork, a yellow pencil and a brush

Riddle like an Anglo-Saxon monk.

Cleopatra testing poison on slaves.

QuizHow much do you know about Cleopatra?

In this early 20th-century illustration, Roman Emperor Nero watches the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 from the Tower of Maecenas, said to be singing of Troy’s destruction. Though likely apocryphal, such stories helped shape Nero’s enduring reputation for cruelty and excess.

One of ancient Rome’s most notorious emperors murdered his own mother, and there's a dark reason why

An illustrated drawing shows 3 peasants, dressed in yellow, green and orange, exchanging goods including corn and chicken. A pink pig is in the foreground

Live locally, live sustainably, live medieval.

Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America.

Bayeux Tapestry politics & natural disasters: history behind the headlines.

A surreal cartoon by illustrator Kate Hazell. The image depicts a peaceful, smiling figure in the middle of a pond, listening to the sounds of nature around them: a squealing pig, a honking goose, a buzzing bee and a thunderstorm.

Seek out the sounds of nature, like our early modern forebears.

Episode 4Not just the Western Front: why we can't ignore the rest of the world.

Episode 5Lions led by donkeys: a World War One myth?.

Why World War One didn't end when you think it did.

Two men dressed in military uniform stand behind a barbed wire, looking into the camera. One wears a bandage around his head, covering one eye

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about the First World War.

Deadly bellringing and fatal bacon: grisly accidental Tudor deaths.

Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi) and Bonox Baker (Reagan Mannix) square off against Major Nakamura (Show Kasamatsu) in The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Second World War

The Narrow Road to the Deep North: the real story behind the construction of the Burma Railway

Beer history: everything you wanted to know.

Captain Robert S. Johnson, a former cabinet-maker from Oklahoma, stands beside his aircraft during the Second World War. With 25 confirmed kills, he was the US Air Force’s leading fighter ace in the European theatre and the recipient of numerous decorations.

Second World War

On one of WW2’s deadliest air routes, pilots’ biggest fear was surviving a crash – here’s why

Richard Coles and Lorenzo Da Ponte

My history heroRichard Coles chooses Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Mein Kampf: Hitler's dark vision for the future.

This 19th-century chromolithograph depicts flagellants in Tournai in 1349, publicly scourging themselves in response to the Black Death. Known as the Brothers of the Cross, such groups believed self-punishment could help cleanse society of divine wrath.

It felt like the end of the world, but this medieval ‘apocalypse’ left a legacy no one saw coming

In a white hexagonal frame, there is a black and white image of a playground, with a young boy on a white rocking horse. The background is green

Swings and roundabouts: a history of Britain's playgrounds.

King vs parliament: the moment that sparked civil war.

Lucius Marcius Septimus, a Roman officer active during the Second Punic War in 3rd-century BC Hispania.

Could you have survived as a Roman soldier? Here's the surprising truth about life in the ancient army

The Mitford Sisters | Part Two: life of the week.

From fatal foliage to the perils of ploughing: the Tudor calendar of death.

Slavery on the medieval Silk Road.

J Robert Oppenheimer (left), and Cillian Murphy

Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’

The history of women's football: everything you wanted to know.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex — and future king — with a hawk, riding to Bosham for hunting and sea fishing. This scene offers a rare glimpse into elite pastimes on the eve of the Norman Conquest

After 1066, a medieval millionaire buried his fortune underground – why did he never reclaim it?