Victorian

Magic stone in Laraibina village in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea on September 27, 2009. This magic stone is hidden in a tree in Laraibina village. It is very useful to call the rain or to make some magic actions on people. It is forbidden to touch it, only the witch doctor can hold it. The same kind of stones exists in Vanuatu. (Photo by Eric LAFFORGUE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

A sweeping history of magic – from witchcraft to shamanism

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Victorian heroine Grace Darling (1815–1842) with her father, lighthouse keeper William Darling. They are rowing from the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands off Northumberland, to rescue the passengers of the stricken ship 'SS Forfarshire'. (Photo by Nigel Dobinson/Getty Images)

History hero Miriam Stoppard chooses Grace Darling (1815–1842) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Elizabeth I, c1565

The 10 best English queens in history

10 facts about Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë

Portrait of the Bronte sisters

The Brontës: the unfortunate and unlikely tale of the world’s “greatest literary sisters”

What's History's Greatest Mystery?

General ancient history

What is history’s greatest mystery?

The Kray brothers

The A-Z of British gangs and gangsters

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American abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass, c 1866. (Photo by Shutterstock)

African American abolitionists in Britain . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bill Nighy and Olivia Cooke in 'The Limehouse Golem'.

The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’

The battle of First Bar, 1841

Your guide to... the Opium Wars

Left: Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their wedding day, 29 July 1981. Right: Prince William and Catherine Middleton on their wedding day, 29 April 2011. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

The 8 most famous royal weddings in British history

York Minster's rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red

A brief history of the English rose

Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848. Found in the Collection of Musée Carnavalet, Paris. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The death of a dream: why Europe’s great year of revolution in 1848 failed

A family comprising several generations of enslaved people. Resistance, common throughout the history of slavery, ranged from slow working to violent fights for freedom (Universal History Archive/Gertty Images)

Freedom fighters: the enslaved people who fought for the abolition of slavery

Prospectors pan for gold in Siberia during the 19th century.

Where did the major gold rushes of the 19th century happen? And why were people so keen to join the gold rush?