Social history

The Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819 was the bloodiest political event of the 19th century on English soil. Troops under the authority of the Lancashire and Cheshire magistrates attacked and dispersed a rally of some 50,000 reformers on St Peter’s Field, Manchester. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Peterloo: the English uprising

A beach scene at an Easter Bank Holiday at Southend, c1927. In 1871, the Bank Holiday Act established the first paid days off for commonworkers in England, while some senior managers could be granted extra leave. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Q&A When were Brits first given leave from work to go on holiday?

A cartoon of Napoleon and King George III.

Q&A How tall was Napoleon Bonaparte?

Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown on Andrew Carnegie

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

Now a protected species in many countries, the hedgehog was once also a health food. A German cookbook dating from the mid-15th century recommends the meat of a hedgehog as useful for leprosy and urinary retention. (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

General ancient history

Hedgehogs, cannabis bread and horse placenta: 13 weird and wonderful health foods in history

18 August 1819: British soldiers charging the crowd at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, during a meeting called in support of political reform. (Photo by Spencer Arnold Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A “more shocking” massacre? How we might have overestimated the Peterloo crowds

19th-century mugshots

The real Peaky Blinders

Dire straits: Beggars are depicted in a woodcut. In the 16th century, waves of crop failures persuaded the government to place poor relief on the statute book. (Image by Bridgeman)

Taxing the rich to feed the poor in the 17th century: the world’s first welfare state

Native American leader Sitting Bull

My history hero Sitting Bull (1831–90)

US soldiers in Vietnam

From the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam and Iraq: a history of war trauma

Families in a London slum, c1900

From slums to suburbs: Britain’s council house revolution

Cavalry charge into a crowd of protesters at St Peter's Field, Manchester, as depicted in an 1819 engraving. What followed was the worst violence ever to occur at a political meeting in Britain. (Picture by Alamy)

The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve?

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle called Mata Hari (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

First World War

Mata Hari: exotic dancer, femme fatale, traitor and spy