Christmas 2013 cover

Christmas 2013

Articles from the Christmas 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine

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

The history of Christmas crackers

Tourists at Stonehenge. We have no better idea today than 200 years ago what the people who erected these sarsens truly believed. (Getty Images)

Prehistoric religion: a pagan riddle we will never solve?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Allied convoy PQ 17 is attacked by a German torpedo aircraft on its way across the Arctic Ocean, c1942. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“The worst journey in the world”: the Arctic convoys of the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ‘Black Terror’: the story of Britain's first black sports star

Tourists at Stonehenge

Stonehenge: a prehistoric tourist trap. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Japanese troops celebrate the capture of a British artillery position, Hong Kong, December 1941 (Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

The lion and the rising sun: Britain and Japan's 400-year relationship. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Khudadad Khan

My history hero: Khudadad Khan (1888-1971). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Becca Thorne.

Deadly beasts of Tudor England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ye olde travel guide: Prague 1600. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This detail from the Gundestrup Cauldron – a richly decorated silver vessel thought to date from the second-century BC – depicts a Celtic god or druid surrounded by beasts. (Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

The genius of the Celts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History explorer: the catastrophe of the Black Death. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.