England held its breath as the mighty Spanish Armada sailed up the English Channel. Invasion appeared imminent. Then Queen Elizabeth I is reputed to have made a rousing speech to her troops as they ...

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove ...

Ragnar Lothbrok, Erik Bloodaxe and Harald Hardrada are a trio of legendary Viking warriors. Towards the end of their careers, each man sailed his longships upriver to Jorvik, or York. Not one of them ...

Electricity: it is impossible to imagine the modern world without it. Simply turn the switch on and it works, but how is it ...

Became king following the death of his brother Æthelbald. Like his brother and his father, Aethelbert (pictured above) was crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames. Shortly after his succession a Danish army ...

Legend has it that Robin Hood was an outlaw living in Sherwood Forest with his ‘Merry Men’ – but did he really exist? There are several versions of the Robin Hood story. The Hollywood one is that of ...

In March 1987, the ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise sank off Zeebrugge with the loss of 188 lives. This great tragedy occurred because the roll-on/roll-off ferry had sailed with its bow doors open, ...

Please note that Platform 9 ¾ has moved! Click here to jump down to the updated part of this article. For those of you that have ever read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the films, Platform 9 ¾ ...