Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Mixed-race babies born after the Second World War

A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

12 facts about the Stuarts

Rotten boroughs cartoon

9 general election curiosities through history.

How the American Revolution created a global storm.

Tourists at Stonehenge

Stonehenge: a prehistoric tourist trap.

The Cunard liner Lusitania

How did Britain react to the sinking of the Lusitania?.

Asians in 1980s Britain.

How America captured Christmas.

A family at the seaside in the 1960s.

In pictures: English life in the 1960s, photographed by Tony Ray-Jones

A statue of Leif Eriksson, Erik the Red's son, who sailed to North America, c1000 AD. (Image by RF/Getty Images)

Russia, North America and the Middle East: where did the Vikings visit to trade and raid?.

A medieval new England: the Anglo-Saxons’ eastern odyssey.

The Mountbattens: success and scandal.

A c1880 Christmas card shows a frog committing murder

Carrots, goblins and killer frogs: an unexpected history of Christmas.

Oskar Schindler, who prevented hundreds of Jews from being murdered in the Holocaust

History heroSimon Reeve chooses Oskar Schindler (1908–74).

Few war leaders have been more profoundly steeped in history than Winston Churchill, who drew inspiration from his ancestor – and one of Britain's most celebrated generals – the Duke of Marlborough (left). (Images by Getty Images/Bridgeman

Sending history into battle: the lessons that war leaders have tried to learn from the past.

Rosa Parks rides an integrated bus

From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King: the boycott that inspired the dream

A 'Thanksgiving Greetings' postcard. (Photo by K.J. Historical/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

A brief history of Thanksgiving.

A waitress working behind the counter at the first ever Lyons tea shop to be opened in London, 1953

The teashop empire.

Harlech Castle with Snowdonia in the background.

A brief history of Wales: the resilient nation

The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)

10 ways the Anglo-Saxons changed the course of British history.

President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Texas governor John Connally ride through the streets of Dallas

The assassination of JFK: an eyewitness account.

Viking ships arriving in Britain, c1130. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty

From the raid on Lindisfarne to Harald Hardrada's defeat: 8 Viking dates you need to know

The queen's visit to the Welsh village of Aberfan

“No match for reality”: the missing history in The Crown series three.

The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II

Why has the British monarchy survived?

Statue of Liberty. (Photo by Dreamstime)

A history of the United States.

Turkeys, bred in Norfolk, cover the facade of a London butcher's shop, 1929. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Shop ’till you drop: a brief history of Christmas shopping.

The Crown of Thorns allegedly worn by Christ during the Passion. It was one of the prized possessions in Notre-Dame Cathedral until April 2019 – when it was rescued by the inferno that gutted the building. (Photo by: Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Father, son and holy goat? The dark side of medieval relics.

A scene from 'They Shall Not Grow Old', showing how film director Peter Jackson digitally remastered footage of the First World War. (Photo courtesy of THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD/ WingNut Films/ Peter Jackson. Original black and white film © IWM)

"There was no feeling sorry for themselves": director Peter Jackson on the soldiers of the First World War.

East Germans crowd around and on the Berlin Wall the day after the gates opened for free movement in 1989

What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall?.

A ‘Trabi’ – the classic East German Trabant 601 car

The cost of unity: Ian Kershaw on the fall of the Berlin Wall.