Culture

Prohibition protesters parade in a car emblazoned with signs and flags calling for the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which outlawed the production and consumption of alcohol in the United States. (Archive Photos/Getty Images)

“A great social experiment”: your guide to prohibition

A group of men wearing togas assault Julius Caesar in this painting depicting his assassination.

Violence, rebellion and sexual exploitation: the darker side of ancient Rome

Bearded Victorian man. (Photo by Getty Images)

A brief history of beards

Freddie Mercury – born Farrokh Bulsara – on stage at Brondby Hallen, Denmark. (Photo by Jorgen Angel/Redferns)

My history hero: Freddie Mercury (1946–91)

From The Library

Old Wardour Castle

Britain’s 7 most amazing ruins

Richard Burbage

Richard Burbage: The vanishing act of the star who outshone Shakespeare

A crowd admiring the artworks at an exhibition by the Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington House, London. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of London tourism since 1800

Portrait of William Shakespeare by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about William Shakespeare

Mount Stuart, a house built for built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. (Photo by Mount Stuart)

8 of Britain’s best historical houses and gardens

Chatsworth House, where Elizabeth I ordered for Mary, Queen of Scots to be imprisoned after she abdicated and fled from Scotland to England in 1567. (Photo by Chatsworth House Trust)

Britain’s 7 most amazing stately homes

English actor Laurence Olivier as Richard III in a production of Shakespeare's play of the same name. (Photo by Felix Man/Picture Post/Getty Images)

Shakespeare’s best (or worst) villains

The Russian sweetbread kulich

Historical recipes: How to make Russian Easter sweet bread Kulich

Coca cola bottles from the 1990s

From Velcro to Viagra: 10 products that were invented by accident

A St Patrick's Day Parade in America, Union Square, 1870s, from a colour lithograph.

The history of St Patrick’s Day