Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

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

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

The quest for the Loch Ness Monster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?

The Ashes urn, a cricketing trophy

In pictures: The Ashes through history

For our forebears, the secret to a good night's sleep lay in the contents of your gut. (Photo by Leemage/UIG via Getty Images)

6 sleeping tips and tricks from history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ‘Surgeon’s Photo’, taken in 1934, which claimed to depict the Loch Ness Monster. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

5 facts about the Loch Ness Monster

A 15th-century map of the world illustrating a Latin edition of Ptolemy's the 'Geography'. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

12 alternative giant leaps for mankind – from carnivorism to Magna Carta. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A cartoon showing a man in a suit of armour on the moon

Q&ADid NASA really pick the brains of the Tower of London armoury when designing the first space suits?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Glen McBeth.

Q&AWhen did the leopards on the royal arms of England become the lions depicted today?

Revealed: the history of America’s national anthem

Victorian freak shows. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Peter Pan and Wendy' by James Matthew Barrie.

8 of the best dogs in history

9 eccentric monarchs through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The story of Madame Tussaud. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Between 1613 and 1754, a legal loophole meant that on-the-spot marriages could be carried out in an area surrounding the Fleet Debtors’ Prison known as the ‘Liberties of the Fleet’. (Photo by Getty Images)

General History

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the history of London

Sergeant Stubby, an American dog who served as the mascot of America's 102nd Infantry Regiment during the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

First World War

Sergeant Stubby of the First World War: the heroic story of America’s most decorated war dog

Men enjoying a drink and a chat in a coffee house, 1674. Coffee houses became known as ‘schools of the wise’, where people would gossip, argue and discuss the breaking news of the day. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A drink for the devil: 8 facts about the history of coffee

Peasants in the Middle Ages at a cattle market. Cows appear to have been difficult to manage in the medieval period, and caused several deaths. (Photo by INTERFOTO /Alamy)

5 strange causes of death in the medieval period. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Spanish publisher works on cloning the illustrated codex hand-written manuscript Voynich. (Photo by CESAR MANSO/AFP/Getty Images)

How the Voynich manuscript hit the headlines

In 1937, Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most famous aviators, apparently disappeared without a trace during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

From Jack the Ripper to Amelia Earhart: 17 unsolved historical mysteries. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 1954 illustration of a woman wearing nylons. Lightweight, easy to conceal and fiercely sought after, stockings were a favourite with smugglers. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Nylon pirates: the postwar craze for cut-price stockings. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Great Pyramid of Giza. Egypt. (Photo by Olgakostenko | Dreamstime.com)

10 of the most surprising numbers in history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Victorian lady washing in the nude

In pictures: erotic postcards of the early 20th century

Portrait of theologian and Bible translator John Wycliffe (c1330–84). (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The murderous history of Bible translations

The pirate Blackbeard

10 brilliant beards from history

A brief history of marathons

c1943: Soldiers enjoy a baseball match at Wembley Stadium in London between the United States Army and Canadian Forces. With them sits Bobby, the mascot of the Canadian Highland Scottish regiment. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Animals at war: 12 amazing pictures

Gerald Heard had a peculiar idea that the UFOs then being sighted all across the globe, as such as this ‘sighting’ in Sicily, were piloted not by humanoid ETs, as you may have presumed, but by alien super-bees from Mars. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

6 of history’s strangest ever theories about outer space. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.