Social history

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

"With this ring..." A young couple say their vows in c1860, watched by bridesmaids and a clergyman – but much about Victorian weddings wasn't quite so familiar. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

How to celebrate a Victorian wedding

The president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt and his staff gathered together in New York to find a solution to the economic crisis. 1935. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Icons: the game changers of the 20th century

Portrait of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s most successful queen?

Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's left-wing president who in 1940 legalised drugs. (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The year Mexico legalised drugs

Wat Pra Singh is among the most visited temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Photo by Getty Images)

General ancient history

My favourite place: Chiang Mai, Thailand

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Paul Morland. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth”

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The history of the calendar

Portrait of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, who was born in around 1501 in Norfolk and executed by decapitation at Tower Green on 19 May 1536. (Photo by The Print Collector/Alamy Stock Photo)

The New Year’s resolutions Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I and Josef Stalin should have made…

Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king of England, depicted here in a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Anglo-Saxons

Tudor advent calendar

History advent calendar: 24 facts about Christmas in the Tudor period

English crime writer Agatha Christie and her daughter, Rosalind, are featured in a newspaper article reporting the mysterious disappearance of the novelist, 1926. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8 weird things that have happened during the festive season through history

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

The history of Christmas crackers

'The Young Princes in the Tower', 1831. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Anne Boleyn, Beefeaters, Guy Fawkes and the princes: a brief history of the Tower of London