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

Bikes on a canal in Amsterdam and the Basilica of Saint Nicholas church in the background. (Photo by maydays via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Amsterdam, Netherlands

John Julius Norwich pictured at the Oxford Literary Festival in 2014. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Books interview with John Julius Norwich: “Most British people know practically nothing about French history”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Sultanahmet district in Istanbul, Turkey, which is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. (Photo by DOZIER Marc via Getty Images)

A new civilisation rises

Operators dealing with emergency calls at New Scotland Yard, London, c1956. (Photo by Reg Speller/Getty Images)

5 crimes that changed law enforcement in Britain

My favourite place: Paris, France

6 trivial decisions that changed British history

Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton: the man behind the hit musical. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin stands beside an American flag, soon after landing on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. (Photo by NASA/Liaison)

OpinionWas the Moon landing really a great leap for mankind?

A portrait of Charles Dickens. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A British soldier uses a searchlight to spot German aircraft during the Second World War. Britain has lived with the fear of invasion for several centuries, a fact reflected in its architecture, its art and its people’s mental health. (Photo by David Savill/Getty Images)

The LibraryThe island fortress fallacy

Edward, Prince of Wales, in the rear seat of a Bristol F.2B Fighter with Captain WG Barker of No. 139 Squadron during his flight in 1918, while on a visit to the Italian Front. (Crown Copyright/Air Historical Branch image H1608)

Royal flying

Children at the Berlin Wall on Sebastianstrasse, Berlin - Kreuzberg - in around 1964. (Photo by Lehnartz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The secret history of the Berlin Wall

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

Church of Santo Domingo de Guzman in Oaxaca Mexico

ExploreOaxaca: Central Mexico’s “fair and beautiful city”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bob Marley performs live on stage with the Wailers in Holland

My history hero: Bob Marley (1945–81). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael X, (right, foreground) black power advocate, in Hyde Park. (Photo by Terence Spencer/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Michael X and the British war on black power

Addington and Napoleon facing each other across a narrow channel, from a caricature by James Gillray. Illustration from the magazine ‘The Graphic’, 9 July 1881. (Getty Images)

Britain and France: the best of enemies

A c1880 advertisement poster for Coca-Cola. The name derived from its extracts of coca leaves and kola nuts – the former did contain small amounts of cocaine. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Q&ADid the original Coca-Cola drink really contain cocaine?

A boy sitting on a rock ledge above a refugee camp, October 1947. (Photo by Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

The bloody road to partition: 8 landmark moments in the turbulent story

Friends or enemies? Anglo-French relations. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A decade of domesticity: how the 1950s made the modern home

The legacy of partition: an interview with Babita Sharma. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

A proponent of same-sex marriage protests outside the Houses of Parliament, 3 June 2013. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The Sexual Offences Act: a gay revolution?

Icelandic murder mystery. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Winston Churchill greeting the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. From left to right: Princess Elizabeth II; the Queen Mother; Churchill, King George VI and Princess Margaret. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Buckingham Palace’s balcony: a focal point for national celebration

View of Halong Bay taken from the top of an island. (Getty Images)

My favourite place: Vietnam

Money, love and revenge: the motivations of spies through history

The LibraryThe English in America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.