Historian Steven Gunn uncovers what thousands of fatal accidents can tell us about everyday existence in 16th-century England ...

Historian Linda Paterson explores the rise of the troubadours – the poetic performers who turned love, politics and desire ...

Historian Bettany Hughes reveals what growing up in the ancient Roman Empire was really like – from knucklebones and wooden ...

This is how a royal Frankish dynasty turned flowing locks into a political weapon, and why cutting them could mean deadly ...

Behind the myth of the Minotaur lies the ancient Minoan civilisation – a culture steeped in ritual, rich in symbolism, and ...

That weapon – and the bombs dropped so soon after on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – are often credited to the Manhattan Project, ...

Read everything you need to know about the Second World War, by exploring our WWII archives of in-depth history articles, podcasts, slideshows and more.

Lasting six years and one day, the Second World War started on 1 September 1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland and ended with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Here, we trace the timeline ...

The removal of monuments to controversial figures in countries around the world has sparked heated debates between politicians and activists. But should we use common moral standards of today as ...

Symbolising uncontrollable rage and bloodlust, Viking berserkers were fierce warriors said to have fought in a trance-like fury. But did such people ever really exist? Here, historian Kim Hjardar ...

Bethlem Royal Hospital was England’s first asylum for the treatment of mental illness, and for many years a place of inhumane conditions, the nickname of which – Bedlam – became a byword for mayhem or ...

The earliest-known visible evidence of mass conflict between humans extends deep into the Mesolithic, around 13,400 years ago. Like it or not, warfare has been a part of the development of human ...