Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Photograph of Mrs Beeton bracing herself against a chair while wearing a long, dark-coloured gown

The secret life of Mrs Beeton: 10 pieces of life advice from her famous Book of Household Management.

Black and white drawing showing King George V using a broom to sweep away several crowns adorned with the words 'Made in Germany'.

Fake history: 3 historical untruths that shaped the world

Q&AWhat is gaol fever and how was it caused and spread?

Illustration of Hereward the Wake, the rebel who rose against William the Conqueror

Hereward the Wake: the Anglo-Saxon rebel who became William the Conqueror's nemesis

First World War

10 surprising facts about First World War uniforms

Salem: Investigating the Witch Trials HistoryExtra podcast series title card

Salem witch trialsEpisode 7: Quarrelsome neighbours & family tensions.

From chariots to e-scooters: transformations in transport.

A mother receives her newborn baby in a c1490 text written for Henry VII. Childbirth in the Middle Ages exposed both mother and child to great peril but, writes Elma Brenner, midwives had the expertise to intervene when complications arose. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The medieval childbirth guide: 6 tips for pregnant mothers in the Middle Ages

An illustration of the Gunpowder Plot principal conspirators, copied from a rare print published at the time (5 November 1605). (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images).

Remember remember the 5th of November: why Bonfire Night is a 400-year-old political hot potato.

A very short history of bonfire night

Guy Fawkes and the men behind the gunpowder plot. Guy Fawkes, best known of the conspirators, is third from the right. (Print Collector/Getty Images)

Why did the 1605 gunpowder plot fail? 9 big questions about the conspiracy to blow up parliament.

Londoners flee the city during the earthquake panic of April 1750. (Getty Images)

The earthquakes that rocked Georgian London (plus three more seismic events that shaped history).

Cricket as a colonial weapon.

Daniel Lambert in a 19th-century painting

Super-sized Georgians: why satirists were fixated with fatness.

Clare Jackson“England was seen as a pariah state, ruled by regicidal rebels who’d publicly executed their king”.

Living through the fall of communism.

A scene from the Salem witch trials, depicted in a 19th-century lithograph. How two girls’ accusations of witchcraft escalated into one of the darkest episodes in early American history has long puzzled historians. (Image by Alamy)

When the devil stalked Salem: the story of the Salem witch trials

Salem: Investigating the Witch Trials HistoryExtra podcast series title card

Salem witch trialsEpisode 1: introduction.

Ghosts, necromancy & the underworld in ancient Mesopotamia.

3 curious medieval ghost stories.

Windows on to history.

Windows: an illuminating history.

Bulldog burners and dungboys: classifying occupations in British censuses (1841-1911).

How a ballerina survived the Gulag.

How did pasta come to Europe and when did it first become established in Italy?

Egyptian pharaohs: everything you wanted to know.

How dogs shaped city life.

7 weird and wonderful Georgian beauty treatments.

(Illustration: Clair Rossiter for BBC History Magazine)

Beans, ale & 'windy meats': surprising 17th-century aphrodisiacs.

Jodie Comer plays Marguerite de Carrouges in the upcoming film 'The Last Duel',

“A spotlight on historic societal misogyny and disbelief of women”: what The Last Duel gets right and wrong