Period

The Danelaw: a Viking kingdom in England?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Festival of Britain official programme. The event was held in 1951 on London's South Bank

The 1951 Festival of Britain: banishing the gloom of postwar Britain

Britain’s great postwar party. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Outlander: the real history that inspired the time-slip drama

Alcohol is poured away into a New York sewer during the prohibition era, c1920

QuizProhibition: how much do you know about the US ban on booze?

Young civil rights activists sit in defiance at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Oklahoma City, 1958

Jim Crow in the United States: a brief guide to the racial segregation laws

Happier days: The tsar and his family pose for a portrait in c1910, years before he was swept from power and murdered. Maria, Olga and Tatiana (left to right) are at the back. Alexandra and Nicholas are seated with Alexey at their feet. Anastasia is far right. (Photo by Getty Images)

The last days of the Romanovs: could George V have saved the family?

The death of Wat Tyler', 1859. Tyler was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, which saw a group of rebels march on London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and demand economic and social reforms. He was killed by officers loyal to King Richard II during negotiations at Smithfield, London. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Your guide to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381

In their own words: the team behind Apollo 11 describe the 1969 mission to the Moon

Members of the royal family: Prince Louis; Prince George; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Princess Charlotte; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; Princess Anne, Princess Royal; and Queen Elizabeth II during the Queen's annual birthday parade on 8 June 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Q&AHow did the royals choose 'Windsor'?

Zdeněk Burian’s painting from 1952 offers a sympathetic portrayal of Neanderthals practising cannibalism. Self-assurance, even contentment, emanate from “It appears as a calm response to death, rather than murderous carnage,” writes Rebecca Wragg Sykes. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

Neanderthal in the mirror: our changing perceptions of these ancient humans. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Peasants’ Revolt: who were the rebels of 1381?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

QuizRichard III: how much do you know about the last Plantagenet king?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British troops guard a wall during the Irish War of Independence, which bears a nationalist message

The Irish Republican Army: a brief guide

A 12th-century Celtic round tower at Clonmacnoise, County Offaly

“The power of the Irish over the Britons is great”: Fergal Keane on Britain's Irish roots

Who was Britain’s Greatest Prime Minister? Episode 2: Stanley Baldwin. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Explorer Ferdinand Magellan

Dire straits: the story of Ferdinand Magellan's fatal voyage of discovery

Stanley Baldwin in the study at Chequers, the PM's official country residence, c1925

Stanley Baldwin: Britain’s greatest peacetime prime minister?

Portrait of King George V of England. (Photo by Getty Images)

Your guide to King George V: facts about his life, reign and death

Women fighters of the Jewish resistance with Judy Batalion

Women fighters of the Jewish resistance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWhy do we say ‘white elephant’?

Terms and conditions - events and virtual lectures

Life in the workhouse podcast with Peter Higginbotham

Life in the workhouse: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

At dinner, St Marylebone Workhouse, London, c1901 (1903)

The rise and fall of the workhouse

How constitutions changed the world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The pretenders who threatened Henry VII’s crown. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A German sailor signals Bismarck during manoeuvres in the western Atlantic, some time before the British gave chase. The maimed battleship sank below the waves on 27 May 1941

Second World War

The sinking of the Bismarck: a cat and mouse chase across the Atlantic

Opulent headquarters East India House in London, 1850. From inside this grand building, the East India Company directors oversaw the governance of India and its associated territories (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

1838: A year in the life of the British empire

How Machiavellian was Machiavelli?

Michael Lewis and David MusgroveWhat's missing from the Bayeux Tapestry?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.