BBC History Revealed Magazine

Lady Hall launches the British India Company passenger liner SS Uganda in Clydeside docks with the traditional bottle of champagne, 1952. The first time champagne was used to launch a ship was when Queen Victoria launched HMS Royal Arthur in 1891. (Photo by George Douglas/Getty Images)

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Q&AWhy do we smash champagne bottles against new ships?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

(Photo by iStock/Getty Images Plus)

20th Century

Q&AWhy do Americans call the British ‘limeys’?

Italian poet Francesco Petrarch

Medieval

Q&AHow and when did the medieval period get its name?

Photo of pencils

Tudor

Q&AHow old is the pencil?

Full-Length Portrait of King Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger

Tudor

Q&AHow big was Henry VIII’s codpiece?

The Empire State building

General Modern

FeatureFive facts about the Empire State Building

A combo picture of two images taken 13 August 2002 at Cairo Museum shows a foot of a mummy missing its big toe and beside it a prosthetic toe of leather and wood to replace the amputated real one. (Photo by Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images)

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Q&AHow long have people used prosthetic limbs?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of electric chair

Victorian

Q&AWho invented the electric chair?

View of an Ancient Eyptian burial chamber

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Q&AWhen was the first strike?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

Stuart

Q&AHow much did it cost to build Versailles?

Photo of British troops in World War I

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Q&AWhen were the terms ‘World War I’ and ‘World War II’ coined?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roman women on a fresco from Pompeii

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Q&ACould women in Ancient Rome hold any power?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

16th century engraving depicting a man with leprosy

Medieval

Q&AHow did doctors treat leprosy?

Photo of a statue of Boudicca

Roman

Q&AIs Boudica buried at Platform 9¾?

19th-century boxer Larry Foley

Victorian

Q&AWhy do we say ‘happy as Larry’?

Photo of a couple holding up a fan

Georgian

Q&AWhat signals were used in fan language?

Photo of a Canadian postage stamp

20th Century

Q&AWhen was the first Christmas stamp issued?

A vintage photograph showing an unknown man standing behind a stall selling lemonade, root beer and ice cream – among other things.

Tudor

Q&AWho invented lemonade?

A section of the Seikilos epitaph, the oldest surviving complete musical composition in the world

Ancient Greece

Q&AWhat is the oldest-known song?

Edwardian

Q&AWhy do we say ‘in the limelight’?

Three men wearing hats inspect a sack of potatoes, c1917.

Tudor

Q&AWhen did the potato catch on in Europe?

19th-century men in traditional dress, Marken Island, Netherlands.

General ancient history

Q&AWhen were trousers first worn?

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. This is one of several replicas of a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. Cromwell is supposed to have said: “I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me… but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it.”

Stuart

Why do we say 'warts and all'?

Black and white image depicting engraving of Julius Caesar.

Roman

Q&AWhat is the earliest evidence for a battle in Britain?

Patricia Simmons recording the speaking clock.

20th Century

Q&AWho voiced the original speaking clock?

A group of girls taking a bath as part of a contest to see who can wash the fastest.

General prehistory

Q&AHow old is bathing?

Winston Churchill with a bulldog mascot as he leaves the Wanstead Conservative Club in his Woodford, Essex constituency on general election day, 23 February 1950. (Photo by Central Press/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Q&AWhat is the significance of the British Bulldog?

A 'full English' breakfast

General Modern

Q&AWhy is a fry-up breakfast called a ‘full English’?

Pearly queens

Roman

Q&AWhy does Britain have so many accents?

Victorian

Q&AWhere does the word ‘posh’ come from?

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