Historical people

The truth about Viking berserkers

Portrait of Madam CJ Walker, America's first female millionaire. (Photo courtesy of Madam Walker Family Archives/A'Lelia Bundles)

Self Made: the real story of Madam CJ Walker, America’s first black female millionaire

Anti-suffrage: the women who didn't want the vote

Christine de Pizan. (Photo by Getty Images)

Doctors, playwrights and feminists: meet 6 trailblazing medieval women

A 19th-century depiction of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

Who was Maharaja Ranjit Singh?

Who is the greatest leader in world history?

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

Once he gained control of the entire Roman Empire, Constantine set about an ambitious programme of reform. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Constantine the Great: the emperor who created Europe

US academic Deborah Lipstadt exults the High Court in London after winning a libel case brought against her by British historian David Irving, 11 April 2000. (Photo by Martyn Hayhow/AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

Holocaust denial on trial: the story of Irving v Lipstadt

Actress Emmy Goring and her husband Hermann

Nazi wives: the women beside Hess, Goebbels, Göring and Himmler

American actresses Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Bennett playing the March girls in George Cukor's film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', 1933. (Photo by RKO Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)

“Fresh and full of soul”: the history of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women

"A great social experiment”: a brief guide to prohibition

A portrait of Louis XIV in 1701.

From musketeers to Macron: 10 remarkable facts about the Sun King, Louis XIV

Ragnar Lothbrok. (Illustration by Georgie Gozem for BBC History Magazine)

Ragnar Lothbrok: the legend of the immortal Viking and his sons

Einstein on the run

Einstein on the run: when the brilliant scientist fled to England

A portrait of Isabella I of Castile. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

Isabella I of Castile: Europe’s greatest queen?

British writer Roald Dahl

Second World War

Roald Dahl11 things you might not know about the children's author

Charles I's great weakness was that he made a strict distinction between his role as king, in which he could not compromise, and his personal role, which was entirely pleasant and courteous, says Sean Lang. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

8 of the nicest kings in history

The murder of Thomas Becket

Q&A: What happened to the assassins who killed Thomas Becket?

Ramesses II holding prisoners

Was Ramesses II really that great?

A real Peaky Blinder mug-shot

In pictures: what did the real Peaky Blinders look like?

Emperor Nero and the fire in Rome

Q&ADid Emperor Nero really play the fiddle while Rome burned?

A 16th-century map showing Magellan's ship

A voyage from hell: how Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world changed history

How wild was the Wild West?

9 eccentric monarchs through history

Lucrezia Borgia with her father Pope Alexander VI

Lucrezia Borgia: is her bad reputation deserved?

In 1937, Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most famous aviators, apparently disappeared without a trace during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

From Jack the Ripper to Amelia Earhart: 17 unsolved historical mysteries

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865), the British Liberal statesman who served almost continually as Prime Minister between 1855 and 1865, pictured circa 1860. (Photo by Herbert Fry/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Lord Palmerston: the people’s champion

How historically accurate are film portrayals of Jesse James?

Perkin Warbeck, an imposter and pretender to the English throne, being humiliated in the stocks before his execution in 1499. Warbeck was used by Henry VII’s Yorkist enemies in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty. (Getty Images)

Imposters in history: 16 famous con-artists and pretenders