Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

A view of a calander showing the date, Friday the 13th. (Photo by William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

10 historical superstitions we carry on today.

People approach the VI Lenin Stadium, now known as the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, in 1956. (Photo by James Whitmore/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

The history of Luzhniki Stadium, home of the 2018 football World Cup final.

Britain’s refugee camps.

With its huge bell and five-storey pagoda, Sensoji Temple is one of Tokyo's most popular –and venerable – landmarks. (Photo by Mike Hewitt - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Tokyo, Japan

Historian David Edgerton. (Photographed by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Books interview with David Edgerton: "We need to tackle British history as we would the turbulent story of Germany”.

Kate Middleton: a thoroughly modern mum.

A 19th-century cricket match at the Kennington Oval. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

10 things you didn’t know about London’s sporting history.

Ireland podcast

Ireland’s past and present.

Sarah Churchwell and Adam IP Smith in conversation

Behold, America: Sarah Churchwell in conversation.

A woodcut print depicting the stocks, a form of Elizabethan punishment. Dated 16th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

"Damn your blood": Swearing in early modern English

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

Michael Fish makes his first televised weather forecast in 1974. (Photo by Press Association)

4 facts about the history of the weather forecast

Chastity belt decorated with a flower design and a heart pierced with arrows. (SSPL/Getty Images)

13 weird historical facts.

Keith Thomas on how ideas of civilisation shaped society 500 years ago.

The history of manners.

Early 20th century image showing a tribune in the Roman Republic. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Elections in the late Roman Republic: how did they work?.

Mona Baptiste, a Trinidad-born blues singer

“London is the place for me”: David Olusoga on the Windrush generation.

A councillor and architects discuss plans for the Moss Heights development in Glasgow, 1953. Proponents of high-rise flats believed that they would provide

The LibraryHave high-rises ever been the answer to our housing woes?

The city of Bern, Switzerland. "I lived in Bern as a young lecturer, and I still feel positive about its effect on my life and writing," says Seán Williams. (Photo by Chinnaphong Mungsiri via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Bern, Switzerland

Keith Thomas. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Books interview with Keith Thomas: “The world was divided into the ‘civil’ and the ‘barbarous’”.

Grenfell Tower: from hope to tragedy.

London traffic. (Photo by Popper Ltd./ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The history of Britain’s roads

A group of men wearing togas assault Julius Caesar in this painting depicting his assassination.

Violence, rebellion and sexual exploitation: the darker side of Ancient Rome

Scene depicting rural life in Stuart Britain. (via Getty Images)

Stuart Britain: what was life like for ordinary people?

The remarkable history of the Netherlands.

London & North Western Railway locomotive, 1848. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

8 ways railway travel changed everything for Britain.

Bearded Victorian man. (Photo by Getty Images)

A brief history of beards

Charles Lindbergh, photographed alongside the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’.

A pioneering flight: Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic crossing.

A Georgian painting depicting children leaving for school

The Georgian guide to perfect parenting.

A 14th-century Flemish illustration depicting the burying of plague victims in coffins in Tournai in 1349. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Black Death: “Oh father, why have you abandoned me?”.

Four police officers, members of the Bow Street Horse Patrol, pose for a photograph with a horse.

The rise of the Great British 'bobby': a brief history of Britain's police service