Weird and wonderful

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

The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie

Engraving of frost fair on the frozen Thames, 1897. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

6 of the most catastrophic weather events in British history

Viking sailors make the long voyage across the Atlantic between Europe and America, in order to bring back timber, circa 1350. The Vikings are thought to have discovered America in around 1000 AD, but never attempted full colonization of the new land, due to the hostile natives. Painting by NC Wyeth. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8 Viking myths busted

Heck cows, the result of Nazi breeding experiments. Seven Heck cows had to be put down in January 2015 after they tried, on multiple occasions, to attack Devon farmer Derek Gow. (Photo by Jim Wileman/Alamy Stock Photo)

Nazi super-cows and defamed Gods: 7 strange and forgotten moments in history

Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's left-wing president who in 1940 legalised drugs. (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The year Mexico legalised drugs

c60 AD, Queen Boudica of the Iceni holding a spear. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8 things you may not know about British history

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The history of the calendar

Portrait of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, who was born in around 1501 in Norfolk and executed by decapitation at Tower Green on 19 May 1536. (Photo by The Print Collector/Alamy Stock Photo)

The New Year’s resolutions Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I and Josef Stalin should have made…

English crime writer Agatha Christie and her daughter, Rosalind, are featured in a newspaper article reporting the mysterious disappearance of the novelist, 1926. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8 weird things that have happened during the festive season through history

Tom Smith's Surprise Cosaques, Christmas Crackers 1878. (Image by Getty)

The history of Christmas crackers

'Merry Christmas' Victorian illustration of Santa Claus holding toys and blowing on a trumpet, chromolithograph, 1915. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

A brief history of Santa Claus

Shapes for pies from T Hall, The Queen's Royal Cookery, 1713.

The taste of Christmas past: 4 historical festive recipes

Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) – a “sentimental, eminently weighty version of presidential history”, says Dr Wills. (Photo by Moviestore collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disney history: how has the corporation shaped our perception of the past?

Actor Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in the film 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', 1938. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

Robin Hood: 3 films