Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Why was there a backlash against face masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918?

Four Murder, Inc hitmen are questioned by detectives

Murder, Inc: the rise and fall of New York City's mafia hitmen

American abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass, c 1866. (Photo by Shutterstock)

African American abolitionists in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard III

57 history questions for your home pub quiz

The real history behind Victorian thriller ‘The Limehouse Golem’

The battle of First Bar, 1841

Your guide to...the Opium Wars

The real Aztecs: brutal, bloodthirsty... and caring?

Lionheart of stone: the medieval statue debate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

York Minster's rose window features 16th-century Tudor Roses white on red (left) and Lancastrian Roses, red

A brief history of the English rose

The death of a dream: why Europe's great year of revolution in 1848 failed

Paul Stephenson and Guy Bailey

The great British civil rights scandal: the Bristol bus boycott

A miniature from the Codex Justinianus

Plague, famine and sudden death: 10 dangers of the medieval period

Phyllis Schlafly

The woman who opposed equality with men: Phyllis Schlafly and the real history behind Mrs. America

Winston Churchill gives his famous v-sign. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

From Winston Churchill to the Bengal famine: are we in denial about our role in WW2?

Freedom fighters: the enslaved people who fought for the abolition of slavery

Huge sun setting over power lines and palm trees in California. (Photo by Getty Images)

California’s century of change. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ship ‘Jesus of Lübeck’ was used in John Hawkins’ infamous early slaving voyages, some of which were sponsored by Elizabeth I. (Image by Alamy)

Were there slaves in Elizabethan England?

Carved Pictish Stone in the Meigle Museum east of Blairgowrie, Scotland. (Photo by Alamy)

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

A view of Mount Everest

Mystery on Everest: did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit in 1924?

Illustration from Dante's ‘Inferno', depicting thieves tormented in hell by serpents.

General ancient history

A brief history of the afterlife

Who’s holding the baby? How working mothers navigated the 20th century

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Globe Theatre illustration

The Globe theatre fire of 1613: when Shakespeare’s playhouse burned down

The Baillie Family c1784, by Thomas Gainsborough

The Georgians: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pompeii,Italy

What was life like in ancient Pompeii? Mary Beard shares an A-Z guide

Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Braveheart'

Good drama, bad history: 11 historically inaccurate films you need to watch

This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

How much do you know about the Vikings? Test your knowledge with our quiz. This mid-19th century painting shows Viking ships on the River Thames. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

QuizHow much do you know about the Vikings?

Crowds flock to the beach at Hastings in August 1938. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

Summer holiday revolution: when were Britons first allowed to take paid holiday?

Prospectors pan for gold in Siberia during the 19th century.

Where did the major gold rushes of the 19th century happen? And why were people so keen to join the gold rush?