American history

Black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) addresses crowds during the March On Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC, where he gave his 'I Have A Dream' speech. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

Is Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ the greatest speech in history?

Premium

John F Kennedy pictured in 1957

My history hero: John F Kennedy (1917–63) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Royal Navy battle

The Royal Navy’s American disaster

American artist Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) in London in 1984. (AGIP/RDA/Getty Images)

Life of the Week: Andy Warhol

Ruins of Hiroshima shortly after the dropping of the atomic bomb. (US Air Force/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Timeline: the countdown to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

A sack of red beans

Q&A Why do we say ‘spill the beans’?

Why did Canada not join the colonies in the American Revolutionary War? (Photo by Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Q&A Why didn’t Canada join the colonies in the American Revolutionary War?

Two survivors of the Lusitania disaster

Did Britain doom the Lusitania?

Photo of pipe and tobacco

Q&A Did people smoke anything before tobacco was discovered?

Premium

Comic Sam Kinison

My history hero: Sam Kinison (1953-92) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Women wearing unrationed shoe soles during the war

Dressed for war: fashions of the Second World War

A demonstrator vents his spleen at police officers during an anti-Vietnam War rally in London's Grosvenor Square

Britain at war over Vietnam

A Grand National Union Banner depicting president Abraham Lincoln and his running mate Andrew Johnson

Lincoln: The vote that saved America

Premium

Eleanor Roosevelt

My history hero: Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A still from the set of 'Westward the Women', directed by William A Wellman. (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

How the Wild West was spun