Crime and punishment

An 18th-century public execution and crowd

Q&A When did people stop attending public executions in Britain?

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Criminal register photographs at Wormwood Scrubs prison, around 1890. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Prisoner dilemmas . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

19th-century mugshots

The real Peaky Blinders

Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's left-wing president who in 1940 legalised drugs. (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The year Mexico legalised drugs

One of the earliest and most famous examples of extremism comes from ancient Rome. Starting in 264 BC and continuing for more than a century, Rome engaged in a series of wars with neighbouring Carthage. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of extremism – from ancient Rome to al Qaeda

Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark. The BBC television drama is putting Cornwall’s coastline at risk of

Poldark, Peaky Blinders and 6 other historical TV shows that have tourists flocking to Britain

Ruth Ellis and her friend Desmond Cussen, who supplied the gun with which she shot David Blakely. (Photo by Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo)

Ruth Ellis and the hanging that rocked a nation

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Charles I. (Photo by World History Archive/Alamy)

King killers in America . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Mary Fulbrook and Richard J Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks)

“Many of the Holocaust’s perpetrators got away with it”: why Nazi crimes went unpunished . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Through MK ULtra's experiments, often performed on unwitting test subjects, the CIA hoped to make 'brainwashing' real. (Image by RF CREATIVE/Getty Images)

MK Ultra: the secrets of the CIA’s mind-control programme

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

Funeral of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme

Who killed Olof Palme?

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

Jesse James is one of America’s most notorious outlaw heroes. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

How historically accurate are film portrayals of Jesse James?

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Hallie Rubenhold. (Photo by Fran Monks)

The women killed by Jack the Ripper . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.