Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Q&AWhere does the word ‘posh’ come from?

An illustration of the barons compelling King John to ratify Magna Carta, 1215. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

What is the oldest law in England?.

Medieval banquet: saying grace before meal. From an engraving of an illuminated medieval Royal Manuscript. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Medieval kebabs and pasta: 5 foods you (probably) didn’t know were being eaten in the Middle Ages.

The ‘Spruce Girls’ wearing their specially made wooden bathing suits in 1929. (Credit: © Historic Collection / Alamy)

Second World War

6 weird inventions in history

'The Cricket on the Hearth' published in 1845 by Charles Dickens. (Image by Getty)

Cats in history: 3 curious tributes

A brief history of graffiti and creativity.

BBC History Magazine

8 weird and wonderful pictures from the past

Showering, teeth brushing and donning underwear: the strange history of our daily routine.

In pictures: Victorian life

Crusade logistics and the battle over the slave trade.

In pictures: medieval life

10 dangers of Georgian London.

The daily hustle and bustle in the busy fishing port of Newlyn in Penzance, Cornwall, c1870. (Photo by Gibson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Top 10 historical Cornish words

Lady Murasaki writing 'The Tale of Genji'

5 female trailblazers from history.

In pictures: Blackpool beach through time

Ancient thinkers and the history of madness.

Elton John sings Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana’s funeral, September 1997. (© Getty)

The LibraryThe history of Britain’s talent factory.

A virtuous Viking: the medieval legend of Havelok the Dane.

Witch trials and feuding queens.

Chinese plague

Q&AWhat was the Third Plague pandemic?

5 facts about the history of the Women’s Institute

7 weird and wonderful medieval facts.

Anglo-Saxon saints and British slave-owners.

A British sergeant measure the chest sizes of Indian men

Books interview with Yasmin Khan: "By the end of the war, few people in the Raj believed it could continue to exist".

What was the werewolf myth in Ancient Rome?

India at war and mining accidents.

Photo of ancient public toilets

General ancient history

Q&AHow old is the toilet seat?

Photo of Derinkuyu Underground City

Q&AHave people ever lived underground?.

Terror in Elizabethan England.

'Tomatina' festival in August 1999. (Photo by Müller-Stauffenberg/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

9 weird and wonderful festivals through history.