Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Illustration by Owen Davey

General History

A brief history of human filth: how did people try to keep clean in the past?

Four women dressed in the perceived fashion of the roaring twenties in a 1954 musical called ‘The Boy Friend’. (Photo by Getty Images)

How the ‘Roaring Twenties’ myth obscures the making of modern Britain

London’s trailblazing women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c1960s photo showing a man places an engagement ring on a woman's finger.

A brief history of proposing marriage

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), holding a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow Airport, 17 March 1969. (Photo by Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

In pictures: the history of London’s Heathrow Airport

Depiction of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) by a late 18th/early 19th unknown artist. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

5 smells that made Georgian England

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

Hidden Figures: the incredible real history behind the film

A medieval monk praying in front of a table of apothacary's herbs

Beating the Black Death: did medieval medicine help people to survive?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Millennium Centre, Cardiff. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Simon Jenkins: "Wales needs to get over England and be Wales again"

The rise of the cat burglar

A Burglar Looks In, Picture Post 1950. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Burglary: a modern history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Confronting Holocaust Denial with David Baddiel (Image by Wall to Wall Media/Laurence Turnbull)

Confronting Holocaust denial: “History is more of a battleground now than ever” says David Baddiel

US academic Deborah Lipstadt exults the High Court in London after winning a libel case brought against her by British historian David Irving, 11 April 2000. (Photo by Martyn Hayhow/AFP/Getty Images)

Second World War

Holocaust denial on trial: the story of Irving v Lipstadt

American athlete Jesse Owens and German long-jumper Carl Ludwig 'Luz' Long.

5 acts of kindness that changed history

The Stonewall Riots: the flashpoint that launched the gay rights movement in the US

Michael Wood on the Peterloo photograph. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A postcard showing for women hunting for a man with guns and dogs.

Why do women propose in a leap year?

Confronting evils.

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

Bottle of 'love potion'

General ancient history

Spanish fly, holy bread and mashed worms: history's weirdest aphrodisiacs and love potions

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson

Henrietta Boyle

Fashion history: dressing to impress in the 17th century

A replica of the Koh-i-Noor in Bangalore in 2002

Desired, stolen, cursed: the history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond

John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon

Does history show that age affects US presidents’ performance? Plus, how old is too old?

January 1973: Londoners reading the newspapers headlining Britain's entry into the Common Market.

When did the UK join the European Economic Community (EEC) and why?

(Illustration by Davide Bonazzi for BBC History Magazine)

The big question: has the European Union been a success?

Youths salute Adolf Hitler

Second World War

Hitler Youth: how the Third Reich used children’s organisations to wage war

Policemen from Scotland Yard patrolling at night

Real-life Sherlocks: the detectives of Scotland Yard and their curious cases

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill

The death of Sir Winston Churchill and the top-secret plans for his funeral