Crime and punishment

great fire 4

Great Fire of London quiz – how much do you know?

The renowned poet Lord Byron has gone down in history for being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. But his ancestors were hardly paragons of virtue. (Image by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Adultery, elopement and incest: the scandalous sex lives of the 18th-century Byrons

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The scandalous Byrons . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

John Wilkes Booth leans forward to shoot President Abraham Lincoln as he watches a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, in 1865.

Q&A What play was Abraham Lincoln watching when he was shot?

A copper engraving of Margaret Pole's execution

General History

Are these the worst botched executions in history?

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The Cato Street conspiracy

Georgian terrorists: the Cato Street Conspiracy . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cat burglars scaled walls and climbed through lofty windows. (Illustration by Rachel Dickens for BBC History Magazine)

The rise of the cat burglar

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A Burglar Looks In, Picture Post 1950. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Burglary: a modern history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson

The execution of Charles I in 1649.

To kill a king: 350 years of regicide

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Policemen from Scotland Yard patrolling at night

Real-life Sherlocks: the detectives of Scotland Yard and their curious cases

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

Child survivors at Auschwitz

Second World War

A brief history of Auschwitz

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Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944

The liberation of Auschwitz, 75 years on: what happened and how do we remember the Holocaust? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.