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Queen Victoria attends to matters of state. Illustration from 'The Life and Times of Queen Victoria' by Robert Wilson, (1900). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

What was it like meeting Queen Victoria? 6 royal encounters as told by famous Victorians

A group of household servants photographed in Northumberland, c1860–80. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

What was life like as a 19th-century servant?

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Gentleman Jack, Suranne Jones as Anne Lister (Photo by BBC/Lookout Point/Jay Brooks)

Gentleman Jack . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In 1937, Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most famous aviators, apparently disappeared without a trace during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

From Jack the Ripper to Amelia Earhart: 17 unsolved historical mysteries

After her recovery from smallpox, Queen Elizabeth I started using a ceruse foundation on her face, neck and chest. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

5 weird habits of royals through history

Funeral of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme

Who killed Olof Palme?

In his native Como, Pliny the Younger's fame is reflected in his statue on the city cathedral's imposing west front, which was built in the 15th century. (Image by AKG Images)

Pliny’s Rome: Vesuvius, vice and vestal virgins

British troops learn to swim in full kit on a training course in May 1944.

D-Day: why the training was deadlier than the assault

A portrait of Fridtjof Nansen, taken after his daring expedition across Greenland. (Image by Alamy)

My history hero Paul Rose chooses Fridtjof Nansen

A 1954 illustration of a woman wearing nylons. Lightweight, easy to conceal and fiercely sought after, stockings were a favourite with smugglers. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Nylon pirates: the postwar craze for cut-price stockings

A 16th-century woodcut by Albrecht Dürer entitled 'The true and false apostles of Christ'. As the Reformation recast Europe's spiritual landscape, many believers fretted that their religion no longer felt true to them. (Photo by Alamy)

The fury that fuelled the rise of atheism

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Looking out across the Channel, shell craters pockmark Pointe du Hoc – a German artillery position seized by US Rangers. The promontory is one of many reminders of D-Day along the Normandy coastline. (Photo by Getty Images)

History explorer: D-Day beaches . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Historian and geographer Jared Diamond

Books interview with Jared Diamond: “With countries, as with people, crises attract attention” . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Jared Diamond (Photo by Jochen Braun)

Jared Diamond on countries in crisis . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Henry, who would would later accede to the throne as Henry VIII, as a baby. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Young Henry VIII: the boy who would be king