Cold War

The Hughes Glomar Explorer was a salvage vessel disguised as a mining ship, designed to secretly recover Soviet sub K-129

Project Azorian: the Cold War CIA mission to snatch Soviet nuclear sub K-129 from the sea floor

American citizens Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, following their arrest by the FBI 1950. They were convicted of passing infomation to the Soviets and executed in 1953

The secrets and lies of Cold War spies

Dag Hammarskjöld

The mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld: a Cold War killing?

Ernest Bevin

Second World War

Ernest Bevin: working-class warrior

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall: everything you need to know

In need of some summer reading inspiration? Check out our list of favourite biographies, era-spanning epics and much else besides. (Photo by Goodluz/Alamy Stock Photo)

Summer reads 2020: the best history books to take on holiday (or staycation)

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface

The history of the moon landing: everything you need to know

President Kennedy gives a televised speech, 22 October 1962. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Cuban Missile Crisis: everything you wanted to know

A mushroom cloud produced by the explosion of a hydrogen bomb during Operation Ivy, an American nuclear test that took place in 1952. (SSPL/Getty Images)

How have nuclear weapons shaped global politics? 10 key moments in the post-war atomic world

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in a scene from the 1962 film 'James Bond: Dr. No' (Photo by United Artist/Getty Images)

The spies who inspired Bond

Astronauts being lifted from the Apollo 13 spacecraft after splashdown in the South Pacific,1970. (Photo by Alamy)

Apollo 13

A Burglar Looks In, Picture Post 1950. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Burglary: a modern history

B-17 bombers make their way to England to aid the British in WW2, April 1942. (Photo by Getty Images)

Second World War

From Allies to enemies

Setting a trap: East German soldiers construct the Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961. The barrier was an attempt to stop the flood of Germans fleeing from east to west – yet, as scores of audacious escape bids attest, it didn't entirely succeed. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Escape from East Berlin: an audacious bid to tunnel under the Berlin Wall

Richard Nixon gives a thumbs-up

Presidents under pressure: the resignation of Richard Nixon and the impeachment case against Trump