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Smokey the bear is presented with a firefighter's helmet

The paratrooper, the poet's pet and the real Winnie: 10 famous bears in history

Margaret MacMillan gives a lecture on the reasons for conflict throughout history – and how warfare has shaped the human story (Photo by Getty Images)

Why do we fight wars?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why Charles I had to die

A depiction of Robin Hood, the heroic archer in English folklore who supposedly robbed the rich and gave to the poor. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Robin Hood: 7 myths about the legendary outlaw of Sherwood Forest

A guide to the Norse gods. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sutton Hoo helmet Anglo-Saxon

The discovery at Sutton Hoo: when the Dark Ages were lit up

QuizHow well do you know Year 9 history?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A guide to the Roman army, plus 10 facts about life in the legions

The Sutton Hoo excavations are the focus of a new film, 'The Dig'. Carey Mulligan stars as Edith Pretty, and Ralph Fiennes portrays Basil Brown

Second World War

The Dig: the real history of the remarkable Sutton Hoo excavation

Adolf Hitler photographed with British politician Henry Vane-Tempest Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry (left) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (right), minister of foreign affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. (Photo litzy ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Making friends with Hitler: Britain’s pre-war admiration for the Nazi dictator

Queen Victoria smiling

Q&ADid Queen Victoria really say "We are not amused"?

The hunt for Caesar’s killers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Did Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler (pictured) ever meet? (Photos by Getty Images)

Second World War

Q&ADid Churchill and Hitler ever meet?

Werewolves of the ancient world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A fanciful engraving imagines Peter the Hermit presenting Pope Urban II (centre) with a letter from Simeon II

Launching the First Crusade

Adolf Eichmann during his trial in 1961

Forgotten voices: the history behind Holocaust Memorial Day

Rich vs poor in Regency Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

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

A scene from an early rugby union game

The history of rugby: when was the sport invented?

Canossa: a medieval clash between church and state

Spectacular discoveries at Sutton Hoo. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The inner courtyard of the old pottery factory at Gladstone Pottery Museum, with its five towering bottle ovens. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History explorerThe Gladstone Pottery Museum. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

The shipwreck that sunk a royal dynasty. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

Annie Gray“For Queen Victoria, food was a way of exploring the world”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Student nurse Dorothy Norris

A brief guide to the history of the NHS

The NHS: a brief history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria: how and why did she become Empress of India?

Alphonse de Neuville's 1880 painting 'The Defence of Rorke's Drift'. The battle was to become a "supreme symbol of imperial heroism". (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

The battle of Rorke's Drift: a stand still clad in the "myths of empire"