Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

The march for Catalan Independence held in Barcelona, 11 September 2014 (Photo by Jordi Elias Grassot/Alamy)

Scots and Catalans.

An engraving from 'The Illustrated Police News', c1889, imagines Jack the Ripper

Your guide to Jack the Ripper

A big day in history: Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first victim of ‘Jack the Ripper’ (31 August 1888).

A woodcut of a woman thought to be baking bread, printed in 1497. In the Middle Ages baking was a luxury few were able to enjoy, but those who could afford a wood-burning stove would start with bread. In the 15th century Britain saw explosion of expensive spices, such as saffron, and sweetened dough became popular. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

A brief history of baking

An Aztec priest performing the sacrificial offering of a living human's heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

General ancient history

Q&AHow many people did the Aztecs sacrifice?

A view of the Reculver Towers, Reculver, England. (Photo by Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images)

8 of Britain’s most mysterious ruins

The first baby is born to English settlers in the Americas. (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

A big day in history: the first baby is born to English settlers in the Americas.

Dan Jones on the secrets of popular history

Dan Jones on the secrets of popular history.

As many as 15 people may have been killed, and a further 500 badly injured, during the 1819 riot in Manchester that came to be known as the 'Peterloo' Massacre. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)

16 August 1819: Militia massacres protesters at ‘Peterloo’

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's funniest jokes

Mrs Frederica Bell, photographed with her children Freda, Roy and 'King' on the Pacific island of Raoul. (Photo courtesy of Lydia Syson/Mr Peacock's Possessions)

A real Swiss Family Robinson?.

Britons under Nazi rule podcast

Britons under Nazi rule.

"Queen Victoria was more than just a token ruler of India. Passionately interested in its people and culture, she intervened frequently in Indian politics," says Miles Taylor. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The LibraryQueen Victoria’s Indians.

Intellectuals, dieting businessmen, Indian students and fitness fanatics were among those to exhort the benefits of a meat-free diet in the 19th century, as shown in our illustration. (Illustration by Femke de Jong for BBC History Magazine)

Veggie Victorians: how Britain responded to the rise of the meat-free movement.

A c1750 watercolour shows workers "mixing the powder" at Woolwich Arsenal. "The institutions that made up the 18th-century British 'state' existed entirely to provide the resources for war," argues Priya Satia. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

How war sparked the industrial revolution.

Australian PoWs in a camp at the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, c1945. More than 80,000 forced labourers, including PoWs, died during the construction of Sumatran railway, most the victims of disease, starvation and maltreatment. (Photo by State Library of Victoria)

The Sumatran Railway: the forgotten death railway.

British former field marshal Douglas Haig, inspects poppies before Armistice Day, October 1922. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Remembering the First World War: blood, poppies and poetry.

Toilette of a Roman Lady. Found in the collection of Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What did they wear in Ancient Rome?

Comprising a large semi-circle of heavy woollen cloth, the Roman toga was a deeply impractical garment. (Photo By DEA/A.DE GREGORIO/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Q&ADid Ancient Roman togas have pockets?

A photograph of a crowd in Berlin celebrating Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany's proclamation of war against Great Britain, August 1914. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The Library1914: Countdown to catastrophe.

(Photo by Katie Edwards/Alamy Stock Photo)

Do we really live in a less charitable society than 50 years ago?

Penshurst house

The LibraryHighlights of medieval Britain.

An engraving showing the story of the Three Living and the Three Dead

Inside the medieval mind.

An introduction to the Black Death

A chocolate house in Georgian times. Coffee and chocolate houses were popular, and served as clubs and meeting places for business (© TopFoto)

The Georgian origins of our obsession with chocolate.

The history of birthday presents dates back to the Roman period. (Photo by Lambert/Fototrove/Getty Images Plus)

Q&AWhen did people start giving birthday presents?

Coca cola bottles from the 1990s

From Velcro to Viagra: 10 products that were invented by accident.

A photograph of Nelson Mandela. Peter Hain told the History Extra podcast about the South African leader’s remarkable achievements in the face of tremendous adversity. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

Peter Hain on Nelson Mandela: “A symbol for good leadership in the world”.

While young ladies may have been daydreaming of handsome film stars such as Cary Grant, pictured here kissing the cheek of Ingrid Bergman in a publicity still for the 1946 film ‘Notorious’, agony aunts were keen to bring them back down to earth. (Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

How to be a man: tips from 1930s agony aunts.

A Campaign for Homosexual Equality rally held in London’s Trafalgar Square in 1974. The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 helped pave the way for activism such as this in the 1970s, says Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite. (Corbis via Getty Images)

The 1967 Sexual Offences Act: a landmark moment in the history of British homosexuality.