Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight's (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo

The Bal des Ardents (the 'Ball of the Burning Men'), from 'The Chronicler of European Chivalry' by GG Coulton (London, 1930). The 1393 tragedy claimed the lives of four people. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’?

The burgundy cover of a British passport

Q&AWhen were passports as we know them today first introduced?

An ancient Greek vase depicting sexual intercourse

A brief history of sex and sexuality in Ancient Greece

Extraordinary hoaxes of the 18th century

Q&ADid the Scottish mass-murdering cannibal Sawney Bean actually exist?

A medieval illustration showing a doctor bleeding a patient

QuizCan you spot the real historical remedies?

Bewitched cars & mail-order charms: witchcraft in modern France

An architectural grotesque of a woman displaying her vulva

How naughty was the past? The hidden depths of the medieval church

Soldiers of the Third Reich surround a huge bonfire during a winter solstice festival in December 1936. The Nazis attempted to use elements of pagan beliefs to promote a Germanic ‘national religiosity’. (Photo by Getty Images)

Witches, werewolves and vampires: the Nazi's quest for the supernatural

A group of men observe a body lying on a table.

Early-modern cannibal doctors: why mummified corpse was considered medicine

Q&A: What was the punishment of being ‘burnt in the hand’?

Why were the Georgians fixated with fatness?

Crown Prince Olav on his ice yacht (Getty Images)

From Hollywood to war heroes: 10 Olympians who were more famous outside sport

Belgium and the Netherlands compete in a tug of war at the Antwerp Olympic

Olympic oddballs: 5 unusual Olympic sports from the past

Kissing the Blarney Stone: a women hangs over the precipice with the aid of a friend as she attempts the feat at Blarney Castle in 1935

What is the Blarney Stone, where did it come from and why do people kiss it?

The decapitation machine now known as the guillotine was not a French invention and wasn't invented by Joseph Guillotin. (Image by Getty Images)

Q&ADid the French invent the guillotine?

American billionaire Howard Hughes (shown here in a car in 1947) went from a visionary filmmaker to a germ-obsessed recluse, dying in 1976. (Photo by Getty Images)

“His flesh had rotted, and his bed was full of worms”: 5 of history's most eccentric hermits

Elizabeth Woodville with her husband, Edward IV. According to one medieval document, their marriage only came about “by Sorcerie and Wichecrafte, committed by the said Elizabeth, and her Moder Jaquett Duchess of Bedford”. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Medieval royal witches: from Elizabeth Woodville to Queen Joan of Navarre

UFO history10 top sightings and a timeline

A UFO photographed in New Mexico by a government employee. The image was released by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization after careful study. It is unknown what the image shows.(Photo by Getty Images)

How UFOs conquered the world – without firing a shot

An early Christian standing stone situated in an open field at Gelligaer Common near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. (Getty Images)

Where history happened: the villages that disappeared

A red herring on a plate

Q&AWhy do we say ‘red herring’?

Two garden gnomes on grass

A brief history of garden gnomes

17th century engraving showing the execution by hanging of four witches. (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images)

QuizWould you have been accused of witchcraft?

Young woman gets hair cut in to a bob

A brief history of changing hairstyles

The Imperial State Crown

Second World War

Q&AWhere were the crown jewels kept during World War II?

Basilisks, manticores and more: medieval fantastic beasts (and where to find them)

Aesop's fables: The Fox and The Crow. Illustration after 1485 edition printed in Naples by German printers for Francesco del Tuppo. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images

A 'superfluity of nuns' plus 9 more collective nouns that originate from the Middle Ages

The mystery of the vanishing lighthouse keepers