20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

The Mitford Sisters | Part Two: life of the week.

J Robert Oppenheimer (left), and Cillian Murphy

Is Oppenheimer a true story? Meet the real Robert Oppenheimer, ‘father of the atomic bomb’

The history of women's football: everything you wanted to know.

Live Aid: pop's Big Bang moment.

Diana Spencer, wearing a red top

What created the Diana phenomenon? The origin story of the ‘people’s princess.

A female agent serving in Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War.

Second World War

Step inside the covert WW2 spy network that trained women to kill with their bare hands

The Mitford Sisters | Part One: life of the week.

A collage of pictures shows a black woman wearing a spotty dress in the foreground to the right. To the left, an image of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by a police officer, with a bus and several slogans in the background

Suing for equality: how Sarah Mae Flemming began the legal fight against segregation.

Beyond the trenches: a new take on WW1.

Episode 2Was it possible to be neutral in World War One?.

Episode 3Beyond the trenches: untold stories of WW1.

Episode 1Did Franz Ferdinand's death really start World War One?.

Cold War-era President John F Kennedy leaves St Stephen Martyr Catholic Church in Washington DC — just hours before Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to withdraw missiles from Cuba, defusing the Cold War’s most dangerous standoff.

The CIA’s most unlikely Cold War weapon? A secret smuggling operation that terrified Soviet censors

A portrait of James Bond author Ian Fleming

Second World War

Think James Bond's pure fantasy? His creator's real WW2 missions were more outrageous than you'd believe

The People's Princess: why Diana captivated the world.

SOE: everything you wanted to know.

Michael Wood on the New Angel | "Few works of 20th-century art have such a distinguished list of past owners".

Nancy Mitford

The real Nancy Mitford: meet the bestselling novelist who betrayed her sister

Diana Mitord

The real Diana Mitford: society beauty and unabashed fascist

Unity Mitford

The real Unity Mitford: meet the high society British Nazi who was rumoured to have had Hitler's child

Unity Mitford, Diana Mitford and Nancy Mitford

The real Mitford Sisters: fascism, communism and Nazism collide in the true story behind Outrageous

How the Allies won WW2.

A historical reenactor, dressed as a member of the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War, takes a selfie with a phone. He is standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC; a Stars and Stripes flag is to his right.

What is Juneteenth, and why is it celebrated? A historian explains the significance of the holiday today.

Pauline Black and Billie Holiday

My history heroPauline Black chooses Billie Holiday.

Barmier than Bond: Ian Fleming's extraordinary wartime escapades.

CIA book smugglers of the Cold War.

Winston Churchill and Winston the Platypus

Second World War

Winston and the platypus: how a bizarre WW2 diplomacy mission to influence Churchill ended in death and tragedy

"These women transformed his understanding of the world": making Malcolm X.

The Third Reich's first genocide.

D-Day: the spearhead of the invasion.