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A man sneezes into a handkerchief, c1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

General History

6 facts about the history of hay fever

In the ninth century Pope Nicholas I decreed that St Peter’s symbol, the cockerel, should be displayed on all churches and many incorporated the design into weather vanes. Pictured here is the St Thomas church spire, Melbury Abbas in Dorset, United Kingdom. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

Q&A What does Jesus have to do with cockerel weather vanes?

A portrait of Sir Robert Peel by by English painter Henry William Pickersgill. (Photo by: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

Sir Robert Peel and the ‘moral authority’ of the House of Commons

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Brass band playing during Mardi Gras in Mew Orleans

Explore New Orleans, United States: Louisiana's 'big easy' . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Sarah Churchwell and Adam IP Smith in conversation

Behold, America: Sarah Churchwell in conversation . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bronze statue of a she-wolf suckling twin brothers Romulus and Remus, the main characters of Rome's foundation myth. (Photo By DEA/G NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

10 key Roman dates you need to know

A woodcut print depicting the stocks, a form of Elizabethan punishment. Dated 16th century. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

“Damn your blood”: Swearing in early modern English

First built in 1576, the Globe theatre burnt to the ground in 1613. During a performance of the play now known as 'Henry VIII', a set of stage cannons were fired and a piece of flaming material from one of the cannons landed on the theatre’s thatched roof, causing the fire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

5 facts about Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

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Sherwood Forest podcast

Sherwood Forest through the ages . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael Fish makes his first televised weather forecast in 1974. (Photo by Press Association)

4 facts about the history of the weather forecast

Henry VIII. Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1540. The painting has the inscription 'Anno Aetatis suae XLIX' (His year of age, 49)’. Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy. (Photo by PHAS/UIG via Getty Images)

Henry VIII: 5 places you (probably) didn’t know shaped his life

Chastity belt decorated with a flower design and a heart pierced with arrows. (SSPL/Getty Images)

13 weird historical facts

King William II is often overshadowed by his Norman father, William the Conqueror. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

7 forgotten monarchs

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National debt podcast

The national debt dilemma . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Troops in Korea, c1951. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Forging alliances: Britain and the US in the Korean War