BBC History Magazine

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Chair used for the last execution at the Tower of London, c1940. Wooden chair on which the German Corporal Josef Jakobs was seated when he was shot as a spy in the Tower of London in August 1941. Two of the spindles have been shot away and the frame broken by bullets. Jakobs, who was seated due to an injured leg, was the last person to be executed at the Tower of London. (Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Armouries / HIP / TopFoto)

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Q&A: Why was Josef Jakobs the only WW2 spy to be shot rather than hanged?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Identifying the English: A History of Personal Identification 1500–2010

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

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The LibraryYe Olde Travel Guide: Mainz 1455. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge. (David Levenson/Getty Images)

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My history hero: Sir Moses I Finley (1912–86). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade, c1200. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

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Why Islam crushed the crusaders. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

It was in this villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee that one of history’s most infamous conferences was staged. (Getty) 

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

A statue of Joan of Arc in the home where she is thought to have been born, in Domrémy-La-Pucelle, eastern France. (PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images)

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Where history happenedJoan of Arc. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Better and better?

BBC History Magazine

The Glorious First of June

BBC History Magazine

Tomb raiders threaten Chinese heritage

BBC History Magazine

The Kings of Alba: c1000–c1130

BBC History Magazine

January issue out now

An illustration of Nikephoros II. (Photo by INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo)

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A big day in history: the all-conquering Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II loses his head. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer from an early 15th-century manuscript of the poem ‘De Regimine Principum’ by Thomas Hoccleve. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

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The LibraryChaucer and the idea of Englishness. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Cornish invention

An illustration from ‘A Short History of the English People’ by John Richard Green. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

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Drowning in Tudor England: why was water so dangerous?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

BBC History Magazine

Those meddling bureaucrats...

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

A c15th-century vellum shows the Squire from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For Adam Nicolson, the essence of the gentry was “government-through-networking”. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

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

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the leader of a network of French resistance agents during the Second World War. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

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My history hero: Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909–89). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Angela Burdett-Coutts, an English philanthropist who supported a wide variety of charitable causes assisting the church, the poor and the hungry. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

General Modern

Philanthropy: the root of all good

Guy Gibson (centre) with members of his squadron. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

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The triumph of the Dambusters. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Jonty Clark

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Ye olde travel guide: Pompeii 79 Ad. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. Famous for being the location of the ‘Great Escape’, it was home to Ron Last for ten months. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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The long road home. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An 1860s coloured engraving of Lake Victoria’s outflow at the Ripon Falls, which John Speke discovered in 1862 and correctly declared to be the source of the Nile. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

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

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Charles Dickens: his life and works. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

King George V and his wife, Queen Mary, pictured during a visit to Dublin in 1911. The royal couple were deeply conservative but common sense taught them they had to adapt to the modern world. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

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How George and Mary saved the royal family. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A postboy drives a mail coach in a contemporary illustration. Soon after their introduction in 1784, coaches were traversing the country at speeds of up to 10mph. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

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Red Letter Days: 10 milestones in the history of the Post Office. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman at a floral tribute to Neville Chamberlain at a florist in Ludgate Circus, London, 1938. In the wake of the Munich agreement, the prime minister was understood to be a hero of women everywhere. (Photo by Harry Todd/Getty Images)

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

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