People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Ivinghoe Brecon. (Image by Alamy)

The landscape of England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Attempted assassination of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). On the evening of Wednesday 10 June 1840 Victoria and Prince Albert were travelling in a carriage along Constitution Hill near Buckingham Palace, London, when Edward Oxford fired a pistol at the Queen

Edward Oxford: the man who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A brief history of marathons

Queen Elizabeth II driving her children Prince Charles and Princess Anne at Windsor, 1957. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Why do Brits drive on the left-hand side of the road? Plus 4 other facts about the history of driving in Britain

The Queen reminds Prince William that he should not be kneeling down and talking to George during the Trooping the Colour parade. (Image by JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP/ Getty Images)

Dads with royal duties. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British spy writer Ian Fleming at his home, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

The man behind James Bond. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The chemistry between Emily Blunt (Victoria) and Rupert Friend (Albert) is palpable in the 2009 biopic. (Image by Alamy)

Queen Victoria on screen

British military behind a barricade, 1916. (Photo by ullstein picture via Getty Images)

The Easter Rising: when Ireland went to war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Osborne House from terrace.

Inside Osborne: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's island residence. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865), the British Liberal statesman who served almost continually as Prime Minister between 1855 and 1865, pictured circa 1860. (Photo by Herbert Fry/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Lord Palmerston: the people’s champion. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration from 1883 shows the phrenology chart of the skull

The Victorian phrenology craze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Anita Anand, photographed in London. "My grandfather was in Amritsar on the day of the massacre. This story has been woven into my DNA," she says. (Photography by Alastair Levy)

Books interview with Anita Anand: “Singh hoped that he would be the catalyst for a revolution”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Seeking to remove opponents who questioned his right to be head of church and state, Henry VIII was ruthless in his pursuit of those he deemed traitors. (Image by Alamy)

Henry VIII's hitmen: the Tudor king's secret hunt for traitors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The west Cornish tomb Lanyon Quoit, which dates to the Neolithic period (3500–2500 BC). The Anglo-Saxons believed that ancient burial sites were cursed – and guarded by dragons. (Image by Dreamstime)

Giants, dragons and Middle Earth: the Anglo-Saxon fear of the past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A protester in a headlock, Southall, April 1979, when a member of the Anti-Nazi League died after being struck on the head. (Images by Getty Images)

1979: Britain in meltdown. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thatcher holds up two shopping bags to show how much less a pound would buy due to inflation under Labour. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Are we still living in Thatcher’s Britain?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A souvenir for a burlesque adaptation of the classic opera 'Carmen' at the Gaiety Theatre, 1890. (Image by Bridgeman)

Victorian burlesque: cheap thrills for the chattering classes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Empire Cinema and Casino, Leicester Square, London. It was originally a theatre and ballet venue, before reopening as a music hall in 1884. (Image by Alamy)

History explorer: The birth of British cinema. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn's childhood home in Kent. (Photo by Prisma Bildagentur/UIG via Getty Images)

8 must-visit castles with Tudor connections

Blenheim Palace in a c1880 print from ‘A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland’, edited by Reverend FO Morris, Volume I, William Mackenzie, London. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

10 things you might not know about Blenheim Palace

Hardian's Wall, a world heritage site. (Photo by Getty Images)

A tale of two walls: how Hadrian's Wall inspired Game of Thrones. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The food served at the wedding of Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell may be inspired by accounts of ancient Roman excess, says Ayelet Haimson Lushkov. (© Home Box Office, Inc/Sky Atlantic)

Power plays and scheming queens: the ancient history behind Game of Thrones. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gerald Heard had a peculiar idea that the UFOs then being sighted all across the globe, as such as this ‘sighting’ in Sicily, were piloted not by humanoid ETs, as you may have presumed, but by alien super-bees from Mars. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

6 of history’s strangest ever theories about outer space. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Old Crofters Cottage, near Broadford, looking North, Isle of Skye, Scotland. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Scottish Clearances. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What is the nature of Margaret Thatcher's legacy?

A US soldier teaching two junior 'rookie' recruits how to clean a gun during the First World War

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about America’s entry and involvement in the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

1949: Clementine with husband Winston Churchill at Epsom racecourse for the Derby. (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

6 surprising facts about Clementine Churchill

Portrait of a young woman believed to be Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Did Catherine Howard commit adultery?

A French print by the Thierry bothers depicting the appearance of the landscape and inhabitants of the Moon

How to carry off a great hoax. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Royal Air Force fighter squadron 'scrambles' after receiving the signal to engage the enemy during the Battle of Britain. (Photo by William Vandivert/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

A brief history of the Royal Air Force. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.