Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

The Mayflower.

Enola Holmes (left to right): Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, Sam Caflin as Mycroft Holmes. (Photo by Robert Viglaski/Legendary)

From Enola Holmes to Fanny Dickens: recognising 5 historical women ‘overshadowed’ by their more famous brothers.

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

Medieval rebellions.

History graduate Steve Humphries' 1998 film exploring the stories of women who worked in Magdalene laundries

How my history degree led to my dream job.

How did England react to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1751? (Illustration for BBC History Magazine)

Q&ADid the introduction of the Gregorian calendar spark riots?.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor playing Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII in the 1963 film, Cleopatra. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

7 of the most memorable couples in history

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?.

An illustration depicting the deposition of the body of Edward the Confessor in the tomb at Westminster in 1066. (

Was the early medieval period a "golden age" for the elderly?.

London during the Blitz - the systematic night-time bombing of the British by the Luftwaffe in 1940 - 1941. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rationing, school closures and 'Blitz spirit': how did people cope in WW2?.

Exclusive podcastAnita Anand on an orphan radicalised by the Amritsar massacre.

The Crown S4 cast: which real historical figures feature in season four of Netflix’s royal drama – and what did they really look like?

Evening Light on Hadrian's Wall

The Romans in Britain: exploitation or innovation?.

c1954: A photo-fiction serial telling the story of a young couple on honeymoon in the South of France. The parts are played by actors Mark Hashfield and Simone Lovell. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of honeymoons (and how the post-wedding holiday got its name)

The 1851 Great Exhibition’s west wing

The 1851 Great Exhibition: inside the Victorian spectacle

Illustration for BBC History Magazine.

How potatoes conquered the world.

Afua Hirsch in Kenya. (Photo by Clear Story/BBC)

Afua Hirsch: "The prejudice still surrounding Africa is absolutely rooted in a racist past".

A late 18th-century painting of British and French sailors going head-to-head at war

The uncommon lives of common sailors.

Exclusive podcastDan Jones on the human stories of the crusades.

Mary Toft, perpetrator of the 1726 hoax – in which she appeared to give birth to rabbits

The woman who gave birth to rabbits? How Mary Toft's hoax captured Georgian society

Painting of Masons building a pillar in a church

General Early Modern

Your guide to...the Freemasons

What are Roman numerals, where do they come from and how do you read them?

The Pilgrim fathers arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts on board the Mayflower. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

"They decided that God must be leading them to North America": the Puritans journey to the Mayflower.

Some of the 5,000 Jewish and non-Aryan German child refugees, the 'Kindertransport', arriving in England at Harwich from Germany, 2 December 1938. (Photo by Getty Images)

Revisiting the Kindertransport.

The tomb of Pharaoh Djoser, built at Saqqara

Timeline: the evolution of ancient empires.

As seen in this early 19th-century depiction of an initiation, Masons have long used secrecy to "create a sense of awe and specialness around their rituals". (Image by Alamy)

A history of Freemasonry: from Enlightenment ideals to satanic conspiracy stories

The Aztecs: everything you wanted to know.

Exclusive podcastDominic Sandbrook on the 1980s.

The story of the Freemasons.

The pilgrim fathers

Your guide to the Pilgrim Fathers, plus 6 interesting facts