Weird and wonderful

British mystery writer Agatha Christie, c1926. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie

Henry VI of England. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

Henry VI may have had a “sex coach” – plus 4 more curious facts about his life

A 14th-century illustration showing medieval butchery. (Photo by Prisma/UIG via Getty Images)

The medieval marketplace: a time traveller’s guide to shopping in the Middle Ages

Boys playing conkers in 1926. Horse chestnuts played an unlikely role in the war effort just a few years earlier. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

First World War

Did conkers help win the First World War?

Roman toilet

Tales of the toilet: a historical A–Z

Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of 'The Crown'

The Crown S4 E5 real history: Michael Fagan’s Buckingham Palace break-in and the Falklands crisis

Statue of King Alfred the Great in leafy Trinity Church Square, Southwark. It is thought to be the oldest statue in London.

Q&A What’s the oldest statue in London?

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan

Buckingham Palace intruder Michael Fagan: what happened and why did he break in?

President Donald Trump

Life after the White House: what the US presidents did next

President Nixon making final TV address

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

Glamis Castle is said to be the most-haunted castle in Scotland. (Photo by mpalis via Getty Images)

A royal ghost tour: 5 haunted sites around Britain

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

An empty knight's armor sitting on a chest.

Q&A How did knights in armour go to the toilet?

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, observed by Queen Catherine (of Aragon), who is stood in the doorway. Anne has been playing the lute for the king, watched by a gathering of courtiers. Cardinal Wolsey, right of centre, looks on. Painting by Marcus Stone, 1870. Private collection. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

‘Groom of the stool’: who were the men who changed Henry VIII’s underpants?

Trick photograph. (Photo by LM Melander and Brothers) entitled 'The Haunted Lane,' depicts a pair of men terrified by a female ghost, mid-to-late 19th century. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

5 historic hauntings for Halloween