Period

Belgium and the Netherlands compete in a tug of war at the Antwerp Olympic

Olympic oddballs: 5 unusual Olympic sports from the past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jesse Owens sprinting on a track at the Berlin Olympics.

A history of unsporting conduct at the Olympics. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elinor CleghornThe History of Unwell Women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mao Zedong applauds a parade of Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. These young militants followed Mao’s call in early August 1966 to defend the party from a ‘white terror’. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Reign of the red terror: Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The slave trade: a family history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster

What was the Chernobyl Disaster?

Tokyo Olympics 1964: Yoshinori Sakai prepares to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony. Born on the day that the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, he was a symbol of Japan’s postwar reconstruction and peace

Tokyo Olympics 1964: the Games that defined Japan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The piano: a musical history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of a crocodile

Q&AWhy do we say 'crocodile tears'?

Queen Elizabeth I dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Artist unknown. (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy)

Tudor tunes: music at the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James VI and I

The first modern Olympics at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens

The first modern Olympics: what happened at the 1896 games?

Should they stand or fall? The great statue debate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

George Westinghouse, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla: the history behind The Current War

Everything you wanted to know about the church in medieval England – Nicholas Orme podcast

The church in medieval England: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

French Revolution Quiz – test your knowledge with our history quiz

QuizHow much do you know about the French Revolution?

Madness and misery in Antarctica. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bronwen Everill discusses the Benin Bronzes

The battle over the Benin Bronzes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Are revolutions doomed to failure?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval romances were sometimes considered subversive material. This scene from the Roman de la Rose, written in the 13th century, depict two lovers. In later centuries, it was said romances “inflamed beastly and filthy desire”

The Mills & Boon of the Middle Ages? Unpicking the mysteries of medieval romances. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle

Q&AWho wrote the French national anthem?

Napoleon portrait by Jacques-Louis David shows is perhaps the most famous painting of the French emperor with one hand tucked out of sight

Why do Napoleon’s portraits often show him with one hand inside his shirt? The story of the French emperor’s missing hand…

Samir PuriHow Empires Shaped the World. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier’s painting portrays the Declaration of the Rights of Man

How progressive was the French Revolution?

Robespierre is guillotined on 28 July 1794. Had he died two years earlier, his name would now be associated with liberty and equality, argues Marisa Linton. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Robespierre: man of terror

Kissing the Blarney Stone: a women hangs over the precipice with the aid of a friend as she attempts the feat at Blarney Castle in 1935

What is the Blarney Stone, where did it come from and why do people kiss it?

Britain & France: enemies or economic partners?

Britain & France: enemies or economic partners?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

French Revolution podcast episodes

A late 18th-century painting depicting the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The smile revolution against the Reign of Terror. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The execution of Louis XVI in the Place de la Revolution

What is a revolution?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration of the head of Louis XVI

Guillotined in the French Revolution: the bloody story through 7 severed heads