Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Miners work hard in cramped conditions at the pit face in Ellington Colliery, Northumberland, 1951 (Photo by Getty Images)

The Northumbrians: from Bede to Geordie Shore. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

VE Day revellers blowing party trumpets

Second World War

In pictures: jubilant VE Day street party celebrations

Marble statue of a young Roman girl

Everything you wanted to know about Roman Britain – but were afraid to ask

View of the Norse Buildings, L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, Newfoundland. (Photo by Alamy)

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

A 10th-century silver coin minted in a Danish settlement

The global millennium: how the year AD 1000 was more globalised than we might think. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

8 May 1945: Crowds celebrate VE Day in London, at the end of World War 2. (Photo by Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

"Hooray! The war is ended": 5 people's recollections of VE Day. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Expelled Germans leaving Poland's western territories

"The war without an end": what happened in Europe after VE Day?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victorian family. (Photo by Sean Sexton-Getty images)

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

The rise of spiritualism after WW1. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Irish people starving during the Potato Famine

The Corn Laws crisis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851. (The Print Collector/Getty Images)

"A wonder of the world": Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition at the famous Crystal Palace. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The dark side: A man summons demons in a 14th-century English encyclopaedia. "Some educated men were determined to contact the spirit world – and took great risks to do so," writes Catherine Rider. (Photo by Bridgeman)

From healing spells to conjuring demons: the medieval obsession with magic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Harvest time in Surrey in the mid-19th century. Powerful Tory landowners had agitated for the introduction of the Corn Laws to protect the income from their farms. (Photo by Christie's Images via Bridgman)

The Corn Law crisis: the bitter political war that threatened thousands with starvation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tectonic foliation in metamorphic rocks at Porthleven, Cornwall. (Photo by Getty Images)

How the world made us. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The effects of the disease known as the Black Death

History quiz: how much do you know about the Black Death?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Crowds in Piccadilly Circus in London celebrate VE Day

Countdown to VE Day: the week World War 2 ended in Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Silver penny of Cnut

Ivar the Boneless, Ragnvald of Ed and 6 more Vikings you should know about

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton, replica Viking helmet by Dreamstime)

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

Illustration by Luke Waller for BBC History Magazine.

Æthelwold: Alfred the Great's rebel nephew

Edward the Confessor

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Anglo-Saxons

A Viking sword with silver and gold hilt, from Dyback, Skane. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How England rode the Viking storm. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Traditional Kente cloth from Ghana (Photo by Dreamstime)

A new view of Africa’s past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What began as small raids on British coastal towns soon developed into all-out war, as a Great Viking Army arrived with a very different aim: to conquer (Photo credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Vikings in Britain: how did raiders and marauders become lords and kings?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of an unknown woman, c1490–95. She sports a necklace in a painting from c1485. Coral jewellery was widely believed to ward off evil spirits. (Photo by Getty Images)

Medieval magic at work: 7 spells and charms our ancestors used. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Coco Chanel photographed in Paris, c1936

Chanel and the Riviera. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AWhere do the names for days of the week come from?

Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944

Editor’s pick9 top articles from the BBC World Histories archive to read right now

Hollow victory: Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, attends Paris VE Day celebrations. But many faced privation and uncertainty as the war drew to a close. (Photo by Getty Images)

VE Day at 75The bitter taste of victory: why May 1945 was not a time of celebration for everyone. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Wall Street speculator tries to sell his car to passersby

Your guide to...the Great Depression

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