Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

"I read and studied much": Adolf Hitler at his Berghof mountain retreat in c1936. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Hitler's philosophers

Image by Jonty Clark.

Ye olde travel guide: Calcutta 1905. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"Although the circus as we know it has its roots in the 18th century, the history of its three basic forms (clowning, equestrianism and animals) goes back much further," says Vanessa Toulmin. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Where history happened: the circus in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A big day in history: A speck of glitter triggers the California Gold Rush

Why Magna Carta matters

A rail revolution: Dan Snow on the meteoric rise of British railways. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Bank of England in a late 18th century illustration. A 1783 investigation into malpractice at the Bank is reminiscent of the current financial crisis. (Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Georgian banking blunders

Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, gives his 'victory' sign while making a polling day tour of his constituency during an election. (Getty Images)

Are these the most overrated people in history?

Medieval ploughmen ploughing with oxen

The dark side of the Anglo-Saxons

First Textbook

Toys and games that killed in Tudor England

A Mayan funeral mask, made from jadeite and shell

The Maya and the apocalypse

Q&A: Where did the monks go after the dissolution of the monasteries?

Rosa Parks Riding the Bus

My history hero: Rosa Parks (1913-2005). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Uganda railway, which links Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya, was built during the period of British control of East Africa. (SSPL/Getty Images)

The dark side of abolitionism

The Victorian trade in dead bodies

Alfred the Great and Æthelflæd, 13th century

The Anglo-Saxon cunning woman

BBC History Magazine

Q&A: When was the first wheelchair introduced?

BBC History Magazine

Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in 20th-Century England

BBC History Magazine

My generous Daddy

The scandal of female miners in 19th-century Britain

Hampton Court Palace

The LibraryWhere history happened: a history of disability. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Second World War

The dark charisma of Adolf Hitler

Illustration by Jonty Clark.

Ye olde travel guide: Dublin AD 1000. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Gasmark 200

BBC History Magazine

Bob Hope's Red Scare

BBC History Magazine

The Road Not Taken: How Britain Narrowly Missed a Revolution

A runestone depicting two warriors fighting and the journey of the Vikings to Valhalla, the hall of slain. (DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

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

A British waitress serves American servicemen inside Rainbow Corner, Piccadilly, January 1945. (Getty Images)

Where history happened: life on the home front. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

The Georges

An illustration titled ‘The petition for abolishing the slave trade’, from Amelia Opie’s ’The Black Man's Lament; or How to Make Sugar’, London, 1826. “Come, listen to my plaintive ditty,/Ye tender hearts, and children dear!/And, should it move your souls to pity,/Oh! try to end the griefs you hear.” (Photo by Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images)

9 key places connected to the abolition of the British slave trade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.