Period

Amazing archaeological discoveries that trounce Indiana Jones.

(l-r): Thomas Turgoose, Charlotte Ockelton, Sophie McShera and Michael Socha star as members of the Hartley clan in BBC Two series The Gallows Pole (Photo by BBC Pictures)

The Gallows PoleThe true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners

Prime minister Ramsay MacDonald (left) and chancellor Philip Snowden (right) at 10 Downing Street in 1929, two years before they formed a controversial National Government (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Alleged coups and government traitors: conspiracy theories in 20th-century British politics.

Living the life of luxury with the Persians & Greeks.

A 1380s depiction of the Knights of the Round Table. Their heroics were routinely celebrated at medieval feasts (Photo by Heritage Images / Contributor / Getty Images)

6 ingredients for a memorable medieval feast.

A uniformed US soldier plants American flags at gravesites on Memorial Day

Memorial DayA brief history

The waxing crescent moon rises over frosty rocks near the small settlement of Sligachan, on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Danny Robin's paranormal cold casesA Highlands horror story.

Simon Schama on how inoculation changed the world.

General History

ChomolungaWhy is Mount Everest called Everest?

Mountaineering on Everest: everything you want to know.

East India Company officer James Tod travels through India in a 19th-century illustration

Opinion“History is currently being used for political purposes that have very little to do with the past”.

London in the 16th century map, illustration by Theresa Grieben

Trade, religion and diversity: how Tudor London became a global city.

Is history too politicised?.

Police news

Nell Darby's historical cold casesThe Hoxton Horror.

Australian bushrangers

General History

Q&AWho were Australian bushrangers?

Junko Tabei and Ang Tsering pictured on the slopes of Everest

Q&AWho was the first woman to climb Everest?

Battling the British empire.

Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, born the son of a humble yak farmer, pictured around the time of his Everest triumph of 1953 (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Tenzing NorgayThe Sherpa who first conquered the world's highest mountain.

A photograph of Tenzing Norgay (left) and Edmund Hillary, sharing a smile in 1953, shortly after scaling Everest.

EverestThe story of the race to the top of the world.

William the Conqueror’s invasion plans.

Bishops tumble, with “popish” paraphernalia falling from their pockets, in a woodcut from a 1641 Puritan pamphlet titled 'A Decade of Grievances' (Photo by Bridgeman Images)

How people power fuelled England's century of chaos.

Replicas of necklaces belonging to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife (Photo by Angela-Treasures For A Queen - Etsy)

Queens of bling: the importance of jewellery to Henry VIII's six wives.

Illustration by Laurie Avon

Medieval warfare: five deceptive ways to win a battle.

A woman teaches a child to read in a 15th century depiction. The medieval period saw women challenge the male stranglehold on intellectual life, says Ian Mortimer (Photo by Marcello Fedeli / Electa / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

What does medieval mean? Why the Middle Ages was actually an age of transformation.

Did Israelite slaves build the pyramids, as shown in this copper engraving of 1630? Historians have shown that slave labour of this kind did not really exist in Egypt (Photo by akg-images)

Fact checking history: why dates, terminology and clarity matter.

An engraving of the pirate Henry Avery with his ship in a notorious raid that almost pushed England and India to war (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Hell on high water: the rise and fall of the golden age of piracy.

A woodcut from Frances Rose-Troup’s book about the Prayer Book Rebellion, in which some 4,000 people from Devon and Cornwall died (Photo by Collection PJ / Alamy Stock Photo)

The Prayer Book Rebellion: Mark Stoyle on how the 1549 rising almost changed Tudor history.

A clown, c1970s. The next decade, there would be a panic over "stalker clowns" in the US (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)

Clowns, agoraphobia and kayaks: a history of fear and loathing.

Did Black Death trigger the rise of Europe?.

Chartism: everything you wanted to know.