Cold War

Trevor Barnes details the 1960s operation to uncover the infamous Portland Spy Ring – one of the most dangerous KGB espionage networks ever to operate in the UK. (Image by Getty Images)

Hunting down the Portland Spy Ring

Simon Hall explores why Fidel Castro’s visit to New York City in 1960 shaped the rest of the decade. (Image by Getty Images)

Castro and the trip that shaped the 1960s

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

A missionary preaches to the Native Americans of Massachusetts, c1650. By now, colonists were imposing their values on the indigenous population, encouraging them to dress like the English – and worship the English God. (Photo by Ian Tyas/Keystone/Getty Images)

Britain’s nuclear fears: preparing for armageddon

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