my iPad mini won't show me my history. I've tried clearing cookies and shutting it off. what do i do?

IF you cleared History and Website Data, you erased the history from Safari. If you cleared cookies only by going to Settings>Safari>Advanced>Website Data>Show all sites and then deleted them in there, you should still be able to see your history,

Try closing Safari, then force restart the iPad.

Press the Home button two times quickly. You'll see small previews of your recently used apps. Swipe left to find the app you want to close. Swipe up on the app's preview to close it.

To force restart the device, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

You're not using Private mode are you? If the Safari toolbar is black with white letters you are in Private mode. Tap the Double squares icon in the upper right corner, then tap on Private in the next screen. Then tap Done when you are finished to go back to normal Safari mode..

Just to cover all bases are you looking in the right place ?