Painting of Daniel Mendoza

Sport and leisure

My history heroTracy Austin chooses Arthur Ashe.

A history of women’s football in Scotland.

10 photographs that made history

Charlton Hetson races a chariot in Ben-Hur

Wacky races: 10 weird and wonderful contests through history.

A portrait of Fridtjof Nansen, taken after his daring expedition across Greenland. (Image by Alamy)

My history heroPaul Rose chooses Fridtjof Nansen

Members of Preston Ladies' Football Club (formerly Dick, Kerr’s Ladies) pose while carrying out leg exercises during practice, March 1937. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1921: the year when football banned women.

US baseball legend, Joseph 'Shoeless Joe' Jackson, who was banned from the game along with seven other players after admitting that they had accepted money to lose the 1919 World Series.

“Say it ain’t so”: The ‘Black Sox’ scandal that rocked American baseball.

A brief history of marathons

Irish rugby fans in London for the international match between Ireland and England at Twickenham Stadium, 13 February 1937. (Photo by E Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Rugby warriors: the rugby-playing heroes of the First and Second World War.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (L) fights Dick Tiger (R) in Madison Square Garden, New York, 1965 (Photo by Getty Images)

The story of the Hurricane.

By the time George II came to the throne in 1727, Britain was a nation addicted to gaming. A Georgian gaming table is shown in this sketch by Thomas Rowlandson. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

“A nation addicted to gaming”: the Georgians’ crackdown on addictive betting.

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.

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.

Kinder Scout

History explorer: The fight for the right to ramble.

The World Cup story.

A brief history of... the Derby

A group of women cycling along the beach at Newquay, c1923. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Choppers, burners and boneshakers: the rise of British cycling.

Pamir Mountains - know as Bam-i-dunya, 'Roof of the World'

In the footsteps of Alexander Gardner, a Victorian adventurer who travelled to the Hindu Kush.

From bats and brawls to new links between colonies: the origins of Australian cricket.

What are the historical origins of darts?

Shakespeare’s world and cricket in South Africa.

19th-century boxer Larry Foley

Q&AWhy do we say ‘happy as Larry’?

The famous Big Pit Mining Museum in South Wales

History explorer: Britain’s coal industry.

Henry VIII jousting

How jousting made a man of Henry VIII.

Edward Whymper in climbing gear

Tragedy on the Matterhorn.

Douglas Jardine

Life of the Week: Douglas Jardine

9 people you didn’t know made history swimming in the River Thames.

(Photo by naphtalina/Getty Images)

Q&AWhy do we say ‘resting on your laurels’?

Morris dancers perform

Steps in time: Dancing through history.

England captain Bobby Moore

My history hero: Bobby Moore.