The charge of the light, battle illustration

Military history

An Israeli pilot after the raid on Entebbe

Operation Thunderbolt: Was the 1976 'raid on Entebbe' a brilliant rescue?

Two Hitler Youth who have surrendered to Allied Forces, Germany, 1945. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Innocence under fire: how children were used in warfare of the past

Allied convoy PQ 17 is attacked by a German torpedo aircraft on its way across the Arctic Ocean, c1942. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“The worst journey in the world”: the Arctic convoys of the Second World War.

US secretary of state William Seward (seated left) signs the agreement to buy Alaska from Russia in 1867

America’s hidden empire: the USA's forgotten imperial expansion.

Soldiers disembark a landing craft with a battle on the beach beyond

How to win a 20th-century battle

In partnership with Gaijin War Thunder

German troops on horseback cross a bridge during the Poland campaign

The brutal blitzkrieg: the 1939 invasion of Poland.

John F Kennedy with US Army officials during the Cuban missile crisis

“We are eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked”: how the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated.

Portrait of English admiral Lord Horatio Nelson

Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson: a rebel with a cause

Nikita Khrushchev visits President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964

Snuffed out democracies and poisoned toothpaste: how the Cold War wreaked havoc in post-colonial Africa

A plaque which decorated the palace of the Benin Obas, The Obas butchers sacrificing a cow, the most prestigious animal sacrifice

Benin: a kingdom cast in bronze, brought to ruin by Britain.

The Byzantines and a flamethrower

General ancient history

Q&AWhat was Greek fire?

Brazilian peacekeepers under UN command in Haiti during general election 2006

When should countries intervene in others’ affairs?

Concerned that Russia was expanding its influence in the region, Britain invaded Afghanistan in 1839, ousting ruler Dost Mohammad and replacing him with Shah Shuja, who had been king from 1803–10. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Britain's first war in Afghanistan: what happened and why?.

Witnesses to the Berlin Wall.

VJ Day: turning the tide in the east.

Robespierre’s brutal downfall.

Building utopia after WW1.

Portrait of Saladin (1560) by Cristofano Dell Altissimo.

Why does Saladin have such an enduring reputation?

The Ottoman empire: everything you wanted to know.

Scientists Frederic Joliot-Curie and his wife, Irene, at work in their Paris laboratory in December 1932. The couple were among a wide-ranging group of scientists whose work paved the way for the atomic bomb. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Hiroshima: the race to the atomic bomb.

The transformation of India’s glamorous golden couple.

Oliver Cromwell’s remarkable rise to power.

Antwerp: city of innovation & intrigue.

How the 1964 Tokyo Olympics redefined Japan.

Samir PuriHow Empires Shaped the World.

Britain & France: enemies or economic partners?

Britain & France: enemies or economic partners?.

Antony and Cleopatra meet for the first time

What if...Antony and Cleopatra had won the battle of Actium?.

The vanquishers of the Bastille before the Hôtel de Ville, 14 July 1789. Found in the Collection of Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What triggered the French Revolution?.

An illustration of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII.

Did the Tudors invent the Wars of the Roses?.

The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) in 1807, the spire of the Church of Our Lady on fire, watercolour by Christofer Willem Eckersberg (1783-1853). Napoleonic Wars, Denmark, 19th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Britain’s illegal war: the story of the battle of Copenhagen.