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Napoleon watches on as the fighting at Waterloo unfolds in this 1843 painting

What if… Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winston Churchill pictured in July 1964, a few months before his 90th birthday – a milestone that he marked with tears. The prime minister would cry at everything from suffering pets and march-pasts to dying friends and poetry recitals. (Picture by PA Images)

Churchill: the ‘cry-baby’ war hero

Prinsesstårta. (Photo by Samantha Nott)

Historical recipe Prinsesstårta (Princess cake)

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A mother and her children amid the smoking rubble of their city in 1940. (Photo by Getty Images)

Hitler’s vengeance . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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An official of the British East India Company riding on an elephant with an escort of foot soldiers and mounted Indian retainers, India, end of 18th century (Photo by Getty Images)

The East India Company: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Thomas Williams on the HistoryExtra podcast

Ghosts of Viking London . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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British author, historian, reviewer and columnist Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre on Agent Sonya – the greatest female spy in history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The 1921 Wrangel Island expedition team: Ada Blackjack, Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, Fred Maurer, Milton Galle, and Victoria the cat. (Photo by Alamy)

Ada Blackjack: how the ‘female Robinson Crusoe’ escaped death in the Arctic

A spider on its web, woodcut, 1547. (Image courtesy of Wellcome Collection)

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages

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A group of American soldiers captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Java, 1942 (Photo by Getty Images)

Prisoners of the Japanese . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Catherine of Aragon

Your guide to Catherine of Aragon: Henry VIII’s first wife and mother of Mary I

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Krystyna Skarbeck, also called Christine Granville

History hero Michael Morpurgo chooses Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pilgrim Fathers boarding the Mayflower

5 facts about the Mayflower

A painting of the Tudor succession

The truth about the Tudors: what 5 kings and queens were really like behind closed doors

London burns behind Tower Bridge on 7 September 1940

Second World War

Days of destiny: 5 key dates in the Battle of Britain