20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

London crowds celebrating the signing of the armistice at the end of the First World War.

First World War

Armistice Day: what does it commemorate? Why are poppies worn? Plus 4 more things you need to know

Lord Lucan: the vanishing earl.

Video podcastHow Stalin won WW2.

Charlotta Bass, the first black woman to be nominated to the US Vice Presidency

Charlotta Bass: the first woman of colour to run for US vice president

The Blitz: everything you wanted to know.

The Korean War: everything you wanted to know.

A vessel at sea comes across the mythical ghost ship The Flying Dutchman

General History

Seven of history's most disturbing ghost ship stories that will haunt your dreams

Imperial spectacle: inside Britain's 1924 'Empire Exhibition'.

Croydon Aerodome, pictured in 1926. Two years earlier, Matthews’ threat to sell his ‘Death Ray’ to a French party had sparked a dash to this airfield by investors determined to stop him. (Photo by Getty Images)

Amazing livesHarry Grindell Matthews: the strangely inventive mind behind the aerophone and Death Ray.

Video podcastWhy did people kill for Hitler?.

Why did people kill for Hitler?.

Emily Anderson. (Illustration by Cat O’Neil)

Amazing livesEmily Anderson: the secret life of Britain's most senior female wartime codebreaker.

Police chase demonstrators during the 1936 battle of Cable Street

When Mosley's fascists took on East End London and lost: the Battle of Cable Street explained

A hidden history of black civil rights

The suffragettes: masters of PR.

Former Soviet Colonel Stanislav Petrov at his home in 2004.

The Soviet soldier who saved the world: how did Stanislav Petrov prevent nuclear Armageddon?

King George V crosses a river in Nepal, 1912. “Historians have moved the discussion on empire in all sorts of directions over many years,” says Bronwen Everill. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

The challenge of writing histories of the British empire.

WSPU founder Emmeline Pankhurst (centre) at a 1915 march calling for women to be used in ammunition manufacture (Photo by Kemsley/NCJ Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

From china cups to letter bombs: how suffragettes got out the message of votes for women.

Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "I wish that there was no need for specialist history months".

Congo, Cold War & CIA plotting: the 1961 assassination that shook Africa

Video podcastThe Iranian embassy siege: an SAS hostage drama in London.

The Iranian embassy siege: an SAS hostage drama in London.

George Orwell in front of a BBC microphone.

George Orwell: the indomitable life of the writer who confronted totalitarianism

Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "We mustn’t overlook the toll of surfacing traumatic histories".

Former British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald sitting behind a desk

Where does the term ‘champagne socialist’ come from?

Deeds Not WordsThe suffragette story.

Gulag doctors: saving lives in Stalin's prison camps.

German tank at the battle of Kursk, 1943. (Photo by Roger Viollet via Getty Images)

Second World War

The 1943 battle of Kursk: was it the biggest tank battle in history?

Kichenware displayed in Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery 1930 Edition (Photo by De Luan/Alamy Stock Photo)

Counter revolution: how the kitchen changed in the 20th century.

George Orwell

George Orwell: life of the week.