20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Gone with the Wind: how a 1936 novel explains modern America.

David Attenborough with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, in a famous scene from 1979’s Life on Earth

BBC at 100The rise of natural history television and David Attenborough.

Oscar Wilde with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1893

From Oscar Wilde to David Irving: 9 landmark libel & defamation cases through history.

African-American double act Buck and Bubbles (Ford L Washington and John W Sublett) were part of a coterie of entertainers of colour broadcast on the BBC in the 1930s (Photo by UPI/Bettmann via Getty Images)

BBC at 100Mirroring Multicultural Britain.

Stalin’s library: inside the mind of a dictator.

Rosalind Franklin as seen in a 1956 photo

Why we should remember…Rosalind Franklin’s pioneering scientific career.

The partition of India: everything you wanted to know.

Episode 7Scandals break.

Sir Graham Brady (centre), chairman of the 1922 Committee, announces that Theresa May has survived an attempt by Tory MPs to oust her as party leader with a motion of no confidence

1922 CommitteeWhy are the Tory 'men in grey suits' so influential?.

Paratroopers over Dien Bien Phu

Dien Bien Phu: the battle that split Vietnam

Count von Stauffenberg

Why we should remember…The plot to assassinate Hitler and install a new German government.

The first Vietnam War.

An emu stares into the camera

Q&AWhat was the Emu War?

A painting showing a man and woman side by side with somber expressions. The man holds a pitchfork.

What great paintings sayAmerican Gothic By Grant Wood, 1930.

The origins of the Conservative Party can be traced to the ‘Tory’ group in parliament which emerged in the last quarter of the 17th century and, led by Lord Bolingbroke (pictured) and Robert Harley, held power during the final years of Queen Anne’s reign. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Why are they called Tories?A brief history of the Conservative Party.

Ross Kemp and Jesse Owens

My history heroRoss Kemp chooses Jesse Owens.

Marie Tharp stands at a table, drawing her map of the Atlantic Ocean's floor

15 minutes of fameJerry Brotton chooses Marie Tharp.

A black-and-white photograph of men walking down a road lined with shops. They are armed with guns

The Irish Civil War: 100 years on.

Britain’s century of political nightmares.

Newspaper front page with headline 'Gen. Ramey Empties Roswell Saucer'

Why we should rememberThe Roswell Incident.

15 minutes of fameRana Mitter chooses Tsiang Tingfu.

Laura Mvulu and Thelonius Monk

My history heroLaura Mvula chooses Thelonious Monk.

Montage of five British prime ministers: David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher

Prime ministersFive of the greatest downfalls of the past 100 years.

Protesters urge the government to help elderly people with their energy bills at Downing Street in 2022

Inflation then and nowBritain's century of boom and bust.

David Stirling: SAS hero or fraud?.

A brief history of US abortion law, before and after Roe v Wade

Woman wearing a bikini

Why we should rememberThe launch of the swimsuit that scandalised the world

A man walking past a pile of uncollected rubbish during the Winter of Discontent, 22 September 1978

Q&AWhat was the Winter of Discontent?

An overturned vehicle on tramlines as a blockage to traffic during the General Strike of 1926

A brief history of strike action.

From bohemian Brighton to military Plymouth: the LGBTQ history of four British cities.