Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

1450 farmworkers planting seeds and harrowing a ploughed field.

Medieval wellness: how our New Year’s resolutions mirror the Middle Ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Veggie Victorians. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Enoch Powell against a union jack flag

Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech: Britain and race in the mid 20th-century

Soldiers drafted in to work during a coal porters’ strike in London, shovelling coal

The Great Unrest: what caused the industrial action of 1911–14?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Postal workers at a rally outside the houses of parliament, December 2022 and (right) ambulance staff march through London, 1979

Britain’s century of strikes: the history behind today's industrial action

The Eridge Hunt, Boxing Day 1952

A brief history of Boxing Day

A carving of the Sator Square, 2nd-4th century

General ancient history

Q&AWhat is the Sator Square, and how old is it?

The House of Commons in Sir Robert Walpole's administration

Your guide toThe South Sea Bubble

Cover illustration from Le Petit Journal, 1908, showing Ferdinand I of Bulgaria declaring independence (centre) and Franz Joseph I of Austria Hungary seizing Bosnia and Herzegovina from a forlorn-looking Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid II (Photo by Archives Charmet / Alamy Images)

Divided they fell: how war, revolution and sectarianism led to the end of the Ottoman empire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dancers demonstrate the Charleston, c1926. The dance is often associated with ‘flappers’ – newly enfranchised women with bobbed hair, short skirts and supposedly looser morals – and characterised by frenetic up and down movements and swivelling, akimbo limbs. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Forbidden dances and deadly marathons: 5 facts about the history of dancing. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Christmas merriment in an old English manor in the 1500s

How to host a medieval Christmas. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A montage of images, including: Ukrainians in Rome protest against the Russian invasion; 2: Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai- shek (right) in 1949, when he retreated to Taiwan; 3: The future Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III, 1950; 4: Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and prime minister Liz Truss, October 2022

2022: The historians’ view. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

An illustration of the Great Fire of London, c1675. St Paul's Cathedral is seen in flames (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What if...The Great Fire of London never happened?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The dark side of ancient Egypt

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhy do we kiss under the mistletoe?

The Irish across the globe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Great Smog of London: what caused the 1952 crisis?

Sæberht of Essex, who oversaw the building of London’s original church of St Paul’s (Photo by The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

How to survive the Dark Ages in Britain: 6 crucial tips. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

General History

A history of medicine14 surprising facts

Hidden livesVictorian fasting girls

Baptism of Christ c1567, by Juan Fernandez de Navarrete

The “silent study of art”: the deaf artists of the Renaissance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

David Dimbleby commands the studio during the May 1997 general election

BBC at 100Into the digital age. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Grave of a fallen soldier in World War I

“Their name liveth for evermore”: the difficult task of locating, identifying and honouring the dead of WW1. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Elizabeth II sends her first Tweet during a visit to the 'Information Age' Exhibition at the Science Museum on October 24, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

How did the world change during Queen Elizabeth II's reign?

Britain’s harsh winter of 1880–81 depicted as the start of a new ice age, by contemporary cartoonist George du Maurier (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Out of the cold: the slow beginnings of climate change science. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Theban mural showing people plucking geese. (Photo by DEA / G Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Life in Ancient Egypt: what was it like?

The queen – dressed in dark clothing – stands up from a table to deliver a speech

Annus HorribilisWhat happened in the Queen’s horrible year?

The letter that betrayed the gunpowder plotters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A propaganda photograph showing a typical German family eating the Eintopf, a cost-saving stew promoted by the Third Reich

Second World War

The stomach for the fight: the food policies used by the Nazis to maintain control in the Third Reich