History is the academic discipline concerned with the study of the past. Below, you will find a list of things that you could use to learn more about History, or to improve a future application to university.
Books; There are so many good History books about the many various periods or events that people generally study, and you might prefer to find books on topics that you find interesting, but the following books come recommended:
The French Revolution and What Went Wrong by Stephen Clarke
The Uses and Abuses of History and History's People by Margaret McMillan
Comrades: A World History of Communism and The End of The Cold War 1985-1991 by Robert Service
Stalingrad by Anthony Beever
Stalin's Englishman: the Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie
Vietnam: An Epic History of a Tragic War by Max Hastings
Citizens by Simon Shama
Passchendaele: a New History by Nick Lloyd
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
Somme by Lyn MacDonald
How To Be A Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the 20th Century by Frank Dikotter
Rifles by Mark Urban
Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London by Matthew Beaumont
The Scottish Nation: A Modern History by Tom Devine
Magazines and Journals; History Today has been on the go since 1951; Smithsonian is the magazine of the American Smithsonian Institute and has a large History section; National Geographic History Magazine; History Scotland Magazine; BBC History Revealed.
Podcasts; The British History Podcast is very popular; as is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History; the BBC offer a range of accessible History podcasts including Making History, You're Dead To Me and In Our Times; as you would expect from Malcolm Gladwell his Revisionist History podcast is very clever; Oxford University offer a range of History podcasts which are very academic in nature.
YouTube Channels; Timeline World History feature some of the best history content from TV around the world; The Great War is a whole channel dedicated to WW1; Epic History has a large following; as does Invicta; whilst The History Channel feature some of their TV content online.
Video; The Gresham College lectures (History category) are certainly worth a watch, but like no other subject, History forms the basis of literally thousands of documentaries. You will find them everywhere that you can watch TV, but some recommended titles include; Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution (Holocaust, available on Netflix); Rise Up: The Movement That Changed America (US Civil Rights); Fire in the Blood (AIDS epidemic, available on Netflix); 9/11 The Falling Man (9/11 attack media coverage); Once Upon a Time in Iraq (Second Gulf War, BBC, series); Cold War (major 24 part CNN documentary series on the Cold War, available online and on Amazon Prime); The Vietnam War (a 10 part Ken Burns series); They Shall Not Grow Old (WW1 documentary by Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson).
Competitions; Peterhouse College at Cambridge University offer the Vellacott History Prize which is an essay competition; St Hugh's College, Oxford, offer the Julia Wood Prize which is an essay competition; Trinity College, Cambridge, offer the Robson History Prize which is an essay competition; Robinson College at Cambridge offer an open essay competition that you could enter a History essay to; The John Locke Institute run an essay competition with a History category; Minds Underground run a History essay competition; Dukes Education offer an open essay competition; The New College of the Humanities offer a History Essay Competition with an attractive prize.
Events or Activities; You could deliver a school assembly on a historic issue for example your school's experience of WW1/WW2, the anniversary of the equality act/LGBT legislation/votes for women, a major event that happened where you live. You could start a History society and meet to discuss articles, videos or a podcast that you have all read/watched/listened to. You could incorporate History in another subject you do such as a Drama piece or English essay/piece of creative writing. You could make a video to teach younger pupils about a topic from History.