England

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Soviet missiles in Red Square during the May Day Parade of 1962, the year the world came closest to nuclear war. (Photo by Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images)

History explorer: the Cold War . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of pencils

Q&A How old is the pencil?

Full-Length Portrait of King Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger

Q&A How big was Henry VIII’s codpiece?

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Queen Street Mill in Burnley. (Photo by Alamy)

History explorer: the power of cotton . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

charlotte-of-wales-4-b489bac

The most popular historical figures you’ve (probably) never heard of

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Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorer The Second Barons’ War . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Kate Summerscale. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The wicked boy: the mystery of a Victorian child murderer . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Anne Boleyn

Did Eustace Chapuys really despise Anne Boleyn?

Edmund II - better known as Edmund Ironside - shown in a 14th-century manuscript. (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)

Edmund Ironside: Anglo-Saxon warrior king

Elizabeth I of England

Personal politics in Elizabeth I’s court

A portrait of Catherine Howard. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Catherine Howard: The death of innocence

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The ruins of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. Henry’s motives when dismantling such monasteries “were much more complex than pure revenge or pure avarice alone”, says Adam Morton. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorer 6 places to explore the dissolution of the monasteries . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An engraving from Harvey's seminal work showing blood flowing through the veins of the lower arm. (SSPL/Getty Images)

A giant leap for mankind: William Harvey reveals the circulation of the blood

Aerial view on Westminster Abbey at night. (Photo by Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images)

7 of England’s best medieval buildings

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The Grand Bridge at Blenheim. (Getty Images)

History explorer Blenheim Palace and Capability Brown . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.