The Queen: History in an Hour

Dive into this vibrantly illustrated history of everything humans have invented to entertain ourselves, from Chess and Nintendo to Drag Queen Story Hour and Burning Man.

Elizabeth I came to the throne at a time of insecurity and unrest. Rivals threatened her reign; England was a Protestant island, isolated in a sea of Catholic countries. Spain plotted an invasion, but Elizabeth's Secretary, Francis Walsingham, was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her.

Queen spent three months in the studio making the landmark "A Night at the Opera", reportedly the most expensive album ever recorded in music history to that point. "Bohemian Rhapsody" alone took three weeks, with the band working 10 to 12 hour days on the multitrack vocal arrangements. The six-minute song contains so many overdubs that the original master tape was almost worn through, according to Brian May. Both the song and the album changed the course of Queen's career and rock music in general, rendering the cliché "classic" an understatement.