Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

The truth about Viking berserkers

The reconcilliation between Thomas Becket and Henry II. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From the handshake to the high-five: a brief history of gestures

General ancient history

When was toilet paper invented and what did people use before?

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

Illustration by Owen Davey

General History

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

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

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.

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

Why do women propose in a leap year?

An Art Deco mechanical valentine (moving the cape causes the arms to move up and down) from the 1930s. (Photo by Alan Mays)

'Vinegar Valentines': 9 surprisingly dark Valentine's Day cards from the past

Bottle of 'love potion'

General ancient history

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

A history of nakedness in art: Mary Beard on her new BBC series Shock of the Nude

Historian Mary Beard at the Oxford Literary Festival 2019. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on the nude in western art. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector

Royalists, beards and cowardice: are these the strangest taxes in history?

Edvard Munch's painting 'Love and Pain'

The Vampyre stirs: 200 years of vampire entertainment

A poster for Terence Fisher's 1958 horror 'Dracula'

From Dracula to The Historian: 5 gothic novels that reflected the anxieties of their age

The filthy Middle Ages?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rotten boroughs cartoon

9 general election curiosities through history

Tourists at Stonehenge

Stonehenge: a prehistoric tourist trap

Simon the cat

10 top cats in history

Being invited to become a 'guest' of the Tower of London in medieval England meant, more often than not, that you would soon be food for the crows. (Image by Getty Images/RM Creative)

10 historical haunted sites across Britain

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

This 1867 magazine illustration shows a group of children preparing for Halloween. (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

The origins of Halloween: tricks, treats and cobbled streets

Cariad Lloyd, Suzannah Lipscomb and Greg Jenner

"A history podcast for people who don't like history": Greg Jenner on his new podcast You’re Dead To Me. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Q&AHow did Area 51 become associated with aliens?

A photo which was believed to be of the Loch Ness Monster

The quest for the Loch Ness Monster

Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's left-wing president who in 1940 legalised drugs. (Photo by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The year Mexico legalised drugs

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?