10 Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. (Photo by Getty Images)

Politics

Mandy Rice-Davies (left) and Christine Keeler

Notes on a scandal: revisiting the Profumo Affair. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Politics, Roman style. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Margaret Thatcher enters Downing Street

How to win an election: 25 general elections and where they were won – and lost

Rotten boroughs cartoon

9 general election curiosities through history

How the American Revolution created a global storm

A voter in a British election in 1923.

A new political climate? The UK's long tradition of winter elections

Richard Nixon gives a thumbs-up

Presidents under pressure: the resignation of Richard Nixon and the impeachment case against Trump. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Lord Mountbatten at a desk

Lord Mountbatten: Did Prince Philip’s uncle attempt to lead a coup against Harold Wilson’s government?

The White House in Washington DC, which has been home to all US presidents since John Adams in 1800. (Photo by Getty Images)

8 facts you might not know about the White House, home of the president of the USA

Chinese propaganda poster, c1969. (Photo by Getty images)

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

Statue of Liberty. (Photo by Dreamstime)

A history of the United States. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Marshal Foch and his accompaniment leaving Compiègne in order to inform the French government in Paris about the Armistice agreement with Germany. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

First World War

Where was the Armistice signed?

East Germans crowd around and on the Berlin Wall the day after the gates opened for free movement in 1989

What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall?

A ‘Trabi’ – the classic East German Trabant 601 car

The cost of unity: Ian Kershaw on the fall of the Berlin Wall

Sketch of Guy Fawkes with a lantern kneeling in front of barrels of gunpowder

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot: everything you need to know

King John out hunting

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about medieval elections

Britons. Join Your Country's Army! (Photo by Alfred Leete/ Imperial War Museums via Getty Images)

The death of Kitchener: a World War One mystery. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A depiction of a 13th-century parliament, sitting under Edward I. The Good Parliament of 1376, during the reign of Edward III, sowed the seeds for discontent that was to come.

The Good Parliament of 1376: Crown v Commons

1st May 1975: Three documents, for and against, published for the referendum on the Common Market

Britain decides: the first European referendum

James VI and I depicted in Parliament, c1605

Queen Elizabeth I’s ‘Golden Speech’ and 5 more key moments in the history of crown and parliament

Peter Hennessy on Britain in transition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

1651, Charles Prince of Wales (1630 - 1685) (later King Charles II of England) meets Sir Henry Lee near Oxford during the Civil War, while escaping after the Battle of Worcester.

How Charles II put Britain back together after the Civil War

British journalist Tom Wintringham (1898–1949), the candidate for the Christian Socialist Commonwealth Party. (Photo by Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

History heroPeter Tatchell chooses Tom Wintringham (1898–1949). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Elizabeth II

The differences between UK and US governments: a brief guide

In 1992, Betty Boothroyd was voted in as Speaker of the House of Commons, with cross-party support by 372 votes to 238, asking the House “to elect me for what I am, not for what I was born”. (Photo by Tom Stoddart/Getty Images)

A brief history of the Speakers of the House of Commons

A portrait of prime minister Lord Frederick North. His government was the first to be brought down by a vote of no confidence, in 1782. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Vote of no confidence: a brief history

The historical differences between Scottish and English Law, and what it means for Brexit

Neil MacGregor photographed in London. “It seemed a good juncture, as Britain sets to leave the EU and operate alone on the world stage, to get a sense of how other countries view us,” he says. (Image by Chris McAndrew)

Neil MacGregor: “A consistent element of Britain’s image has been the lonely fighter standing against foreign tyranny”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Engraving depicting Chinese opium smokers in a saloon

What caused the First Opium War?

Protester Blocking Tanks Approaching Tiananmen Square

Why China has forgotten ‘Tank Man’? Remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations