20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

The Suez Crisis: everything you wanted to know.

Babies from a nursery are walked in a pram, c1953

A nation in numbers: 100 years of British life in 7 statistics.

Roland Philipps tells the story of Mathilde Carré

Traitor or triple agent? The WW2 spy Mathilde Carré.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, back to back

‘Two steps behind’: male royal consorts through history.

The Imperial State Crown

Second World War

Q&AWhere were the crown jewels kept during World War II?

Dan Jones on 1,000 years of British history.

Former US president Theodore Roosevelt stands on a boat with Cândido Rondon

History heroElla Al-Shamahi chooses Cândido Rondon (1865–1958).

Charles Sobhraj (centre) pictured in 2011, while trying to sue the Nepalese government for unlawful imprisonment

The real history of The Serpent: the true story of Charles Sobhraj

Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov

Vladimir Lenin and his lust for power

Stalin: the real victor of WW2.

Sending the first man into space.

A flapper shows off her hidden bottles of alcohol

The morning after: the impact of prohibition.

Traffickers on trial: the sensational case of Lydia Harvey.

German troops and a Georgian ‘volunteer’ in action in 1942 or 43.

Texel: Europe's last battle of the Second World War.

Tales of Irish emigration.

Kate VigursThe women of SOE in WW2 France.

The mystery of the vanishing lighthouse keepers.

Jayaben Desai salutes fellow pickets at the Grunwick film processing factory in 1977

The Grunwick protests: remembering the 1970s strike for migrant workers' rights.

Virginia Woolf, writer and critic. (Image by Getty Images)

Virginia Woolf: a brief guide to the writer's life.

Spy plane photos revealed that missile bases were being built on Cuba, prompting the crisis. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

What if...The Cuban Missile Crisis escalated?.

Learning the hard way: soldiers struggle to move a field gun through the Flanders mud. The key to victory in the west was the Allies’ ability to effect one of the “most consequential technologies and tactical transformations in the history of war,” says Nick Lloyd. (Photo by Getty Images)

Revolution on the western front.

The western front: a cauldron of innovation.

Professor Stephen Hawking in his office at the University of Cambridge, 2003

History heroBobby Seagull chooses Stephen Hawking (1942–2018).

The Cold War: everything you wanted to know.

A photograph of the battle of Moscow, 1942, first printed in Signal, a magazine published by the German Third Reich from 1940 to 1945. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Second World War

Operation Barbarossa: why Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union was his greatest mistake

A Red Cross worker in the United States, 1918

Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world.

Women 'take the air' in an attempt to ward off the Spanish Flu

"Far too little, too late": what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain?.

Adventure and archaeology in the golden age of Egyptology.

The women who fought back against Hollywood.

Spitfires under construction at the Vickers Supermarine works in Southampton, around 1940

The difficult birth of the Spitfire – and how the WW2 fighter almost missed the battle of Britain.