20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

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.

New Yorkers outside the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.

Why we should remember…The 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn.

Marie TharpGround-breaking cartographer.

Franz NopcsaHungarian adventurer and palaeontologist.

Tsiang Ting-fuChinese historian and diplomat.

Episode 6Political tensions in the 1970s and 80s.

Book cover of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four: to the future or to the past?.

An angry crowd of around 400 miners blockade National Coal Board boss Ian McGregor inside a colliery office at Ellinton Colliery, 22 February 1984

Your guide to the miners’ strike of 1984–85

Pioneering women pilots: from ballooning spectacles to flying escapades.

Your guide to George Orwell and his visions of dystopia.