Buzz Aldrin Poses next To The U.S. flag On Moon

American history

Speech of Adolf Hitler to the Reichstag inthe Kroll Opera in Berlin after the Declaration of war to the USA, in addition to the lectern to the right: Press Chief Otto Dietrich and the personal adjutant of Hitler Albert Bormann the Brigade Commander o

Second World War

"One of the most puzzling decisions of WW2": Ian Kershaw on why Hitler declared war on America

Harriet Tubman (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad: how one woman saved hundreds from hell

RuPaul – who produces and presents the reality TV show bearing his name – performs during a Gay Rights March in Washington, DC, April 1993. Over 500,000 LGBTQ+ activists and allies participated in a gathering organised to end discrimination. (Photo by Porter Gifford/Liaison)

From Fanny and Stella to Ru Paul's Drag Race: a short history of drag

Supporters of Donald Trump protest in Pennsylvania as the state’s electoral college casts its votes, December 2020

The constitutional crisis behind 2021's presidential transition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mourning Martin Luther King JrThe life and legacy of the civil rights leader. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

When British pop invaded America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard Nixon resigns

Which US presidents have been impeached? A brief history of presidential impeachment

9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Helen Keller

Editor’s pick: Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of founding father Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull

Your guide to Alexander Hamilton, plus 6 fascinating facts about the founding father

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (2020): Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. (Photo by David Lee/Netflix)

Who was Ma Rainey, “mother of the blues”?

Second World War

Caught off guard: why didn't America see Pearl Harbor coming?

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

The First Thanksgiving in 1621, after a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme; screen print, 1932. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

7 facts you might not know about the history of Thanksgiving

The Wild West: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

President Nixon making final TV address

The 5 most notorious presidents in US history

George Washington

American presidents: 9 things you (probably) didn’t know

Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer was a salvage vessel disguised as a mining ship, designed to secretly recover Soviet sub K-129

Project Azorian: the Cold War CIA mission to snatch Soviet nuclear sub K-129 from the sea floor

The dispossession of Native Americans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Halloween postcard

10 things you didn’t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween

Life in bondage Formerly enslaved African-Americans sit for a photograph in Virginia, c1850. At that time, 4 million people were still enslaved across the US, as debates around abolition raged on both sides of the Atlantic (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

The black abolitionists who shocked Victorian Britain

An illustration of slaves picking cotton on a plantation. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

David Olusoga"Black history affects all of us – it is British history". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Afua Hirsh with her ‘Enslaved’ co-presenters Simcha Jacobovici and Samuel L Jackson

Afua Hirsch on tracing the story of the transatlantic slave trade

The ‘Pilgrims’ stride onto American soil in 1620 after crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower, as shown in a 20th-century painting. The colony that they established was – initially, at least – a genuinely enlightened place, writes James Evans. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Myth of the Mayflower: the voyage that made America?

Writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson at her home in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Alamy)

Isabel Wilkerson: “Caste is like the wind. You may not be able to see it, but it’s a quietly destructive force”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

JFK: the path to power. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

Isabel Wilkerson on caste in America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.