Cold War - Getty Images

Cold War

Black-and-white portrait of a young John F Kennedy in US Navy uniform, facing forward.

Second World War

JFK's brother was destined for the presidency. Then a tragedy struck that changed American history

A collage-style image shows King Charles III and Donald Trump in formal evening dress on the left, set against a blended backdrop of the US and UK flags and a 19th-century painting. To the right, Queen Elizabeth II, wearing a tiara and turquoise gown, raises a glass in a toast with President Gerald Ford, while smaller historical figures appear in the background.

Pageantry and politics: a history of British royal visits to the US. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Composite image of the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor alongside control room panels and workers monitoring instruments.

40 years on from the world’s worst nuclear disaster, what's Chernobyl really like today?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black-and-white photo of a bearded man in military attire speaking with armed soldiers, overlaid with the flags of the United States and Cuba

The Bay of Pigs Invasion: was this CIA fiasco JFK's worst embarrassment?

A bald man in a dark suit and tie sits at a dinner table, looking slightly to his right. Behind him, another person stands holding a bottle with a visible label, as if serving or presenting it. The setting appears to be a formal meal or official gathering.

This secret speech gave people heart attacks: when Khrushchev denounced Stalin. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A low-angle photograph of a large rocket standing upright on a launch platform, framed by tall metal towers on either side. The rocket is white with a prominent orange central tank and is mounted on a mobile launcher above rail tracks. The sky is clear and bright blue, and small vehicles and structures around the base emphasise the scale of the launch site.

8 weird stories from the Space Age: from hungry tortoises to gorilla suits

A military pilot seated inside an aircraft with a Nato emblem overlaid across the image.

Nato is in crisis. Can history predict what happens next?

An older man wearing round glasses, a bow tie, and an academic-style robe stands behind a cluster of microphones, delivering a public speech

Churchill vs Stalin: did this one speech cause the Cold War?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winston Churchill wearing round glasses and a bow tie reads from a document during a speech.

Winston Churchill created the special relationship. Could Donald Trump kill it?

A group of boys from the BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies stand in tall grass on a tropical island, some holding sharpened wooden spears. Their clothes and faces are smeared with dirt, and they look ahead with wary, hardened expressions, palm trees and a rocky outcrop rising behind them.

What inspired the darkness of Lord of the Flies? The disturbing history behind the novel

A composite image of US President Franklin D Roosevelt in front of the US and Latin American national flags.

Second World War

In the aftermath of WW2, why did FDR’s Latin American experiment end in abject failure?

Churchill and de Gaulle: a strange relationship. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Francisco Franco: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Robert McNamara: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The summer that changed everything for the Kennedys. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The librarian who stole KGB secrets. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

On 27 May 1954, Sir Winston Churchill addresses a meeting of the Women’s Conservative Association. Nearly a decade after leading Britain through the Second World War, the prime minister remained a commanding figure in British politics and public life.

Second World War

It was Operation Unthinkable: Churchill's "impossible" plan to start World War 3

Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

America in Korea: a failed occupation?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How the Cold War made the modern world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In a televised address on 15 August 1973, President Richard Nixon proclaimed his innocence in the Watergate affair and urged Americans to reject efforts to exploit the scandal. This photograph was taken after the broadcast, as cameras were barred during the speech.

Watergate is the ultimate American conspiracy – but what if we’ve been misunderstanding it all along?

Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

J Robert Oppenheimer (left), and Cillian Murphy

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

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

CIA book smugglers of the Cold War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A pink tissue box with a white tissue coming out of it

From Operation Snuffles to Killer Kleenex: the forgotten history of the secret Cold War experiments in Antarctica has just been uncovered

Could the US have won the Vietnam war?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A character from Atomfall in front of the Windscale nuclear facility.

Britain’s worst nuclear disaster: the Windscale fire of 1957

My history heroJames Coomarasamy chooses Andrei Sakharov. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Several men stand around a table in a submarine

Whiskey on the Rocks: the real story behind Soviet submarine S-363’s Cold War grounding