Social history

Gold miners in California in 1849. The gold rush sparked one of the greatest mass migrations in American history. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

A big day in history: A speck of glitter triggers the California Gold Rush

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Why Magna Carta matters

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An illustration from 'A Picture History of Railways' by C Hamilton Ellis, showing a filled wagon and a horse on a railway line. Railways were originally intended to move goods. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A rail revolution: Dan Snow on the meteoric rise of British railways . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Bank of England in a late 18th century illustration. A 1783 investigation into malpractice at the Bank is reminiscent of the current financial crisis. (Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Georgian banking blunders

Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, gives his 'victory' sign while making a polling day tour of his constituency during an election. (Getty Images)

Are these the most overrated people in history?

Medieval ploughmen ploughing with oxen

The dark side of the Anglo-Saxons

First Textbook

Toys and games that killed in Tudor England

A Mayan funeral mask, made from jadeite and shell

The Maya and the apocalypse

'Resurrectionists', or grave robbers, stealing a corpse from a cemetery to be sold for anatomical study and dissection, c1840. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Victorian trade in dead bodies

The Uganda railway, which links Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya, was built during the period of British control of East Africa. (SSPL/Getty Images)

The dark side of abolitionism

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Rosa Parks Riding the Bus

My history hero: Rosa Parks (1913-2005) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Q&A: Where did the monks go after the dissolution of the monasteries?

Alfred the Great and Æthelflæd, 13th century

The Anglo-Saxon cunning woman

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Q&A: When was the first wheelchair introduced?

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Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in 20th-Century England