Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

The Beatles arrive in Japan

1966: the Beatles' tumultuous world tour. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video: Historian Dan Jones on the Great Fire of London 1666

Should historical place names be changed to fit modern values? Historians debate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth Fry visiting Newgate Prison, 1926. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Fry: the great reformer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A series of images depicting Victorian women wearing crinolines, c1860. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Stitching the fashions of the 19th century: who dressed the 19th-century elite?

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

Historical fiction and a US murder scandal. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Their Finest' and the British films that inspired the home front during the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Veteran cars – a 1898 Benz and an early Panhard – outside Glover Brothers Cycle Makers, c1900. (Photo by National Motor Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

How the Victorians ruined the world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Procession of Charles II between the Tower of London and Westminster on the eve of his coronation, 1661. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

1660: The year that changed everything. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Demonstrators block the gates of the Greenham Common Airbase, tied together with string. The demonstrators were members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) group. (Getty Images)

The nuclear 1980s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A group of women cycling along the beach at Newquay, c1923. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Choppers, burners and boneshakers: the rise of British cycling. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A still from 'Guerrilla', a new Sky Atlantic drama inspired by emergence of British Black Power. (Sky UK Limited)

'Guerrilla' and the real history of British Black Power

BBC History Magazine

In profile: the 2017 Wolfson History Prize shortlist

A typewriter. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Q&A: Who invented the ‘QWERTY’ typewriter layout?

America in World War One and a naval tragedy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps find another use for discarded helmets in France during the First World War. (Alamy)

Female Tommies: women in the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What's it like to be a female historian in the 21st century?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Shortlist announced for 2017 Wolfson History Prize

Ruth Williams Khama: first lady of Botswana

An illustration of the novel ‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells, made by Henri Lanos, 1905. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

In thrall to the red planet: 5 facts about our view of Mars through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roots: a necessary portrayal of transatlantic slavery?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History of Harrods: a brief guide to the Knightsbridge landmark

Rune Temte as Ubba in 'The Last Kingdom'

Behind the scenes: series one of The Last Kingdom

The weird and wonderful world of Victorian entertainment. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Martin Luther (centre) preaching. With one hand he points to popes, monks and cardinals going down the mouth of hell; with the other he points to the crucifix. (Getty Images)

Books interview with Eamon Duffy: "You could call the Reformation the original Brexit". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Full-length portrait of (left) American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–91) and entertainer Commodore Nutt (1814–81), c1862. (Photo by HultonGetty/GettyImages)

Circus sensation: PT Barnum's greatest wheezes. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Terracotta vicar and Moses, c1770, in the Victoria And Albert Museum, London. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Vicars on the liquor. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Utopias in history and an environmental disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From bats and brawls to new links between colonies: the origins of Australian cricket. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.