20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Britain’s secret Jewish commandos. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prisoners exercise and play sport in the courtyard of the Fleet Prison, circa 1872

Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain

Fern RiddellSex: Lessons from History. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

QuizHow well do you know your warships?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tulsa race massacre: A man surveys the wreckage of homes in the Oklahoma city of Tulsa, June 1921. Two days of racist violence and destruction left what had been one of the United States’ wealthiest black communities in ruins

The 1921 Tulsa race massacre: the worst single incident of racial violence in US history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why are we living longer than our ancestors?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The crew of SMS King in its home port following the battle of the Skagerrak, June 1916. (Photo by A Renard/ullstein image via Getty Images)

First World War

Jutland: the battle that won the First World War

Alan Turing

Second World War

Your guide to Alan Turing: the man, the enigma

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Episode 6: Winston Churchill. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What the Stasi did next. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

US NATO Army on training in Germany

Able Archer 83: the Nato war-game that nearly spelled nuclear disaster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Apartheid road sign

Your guide to apartheid in South Africa. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The rise and fall of Britain’s motor city. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Italian prisoners of war being escorted under armed guard to work on a farm, September 1941. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Second World War

Prisoners of war in Britain during WW2: where were they held?

Blackface: a brief history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Episode 4: Harold Wilson. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Once allies, Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm (sitting to his left) had a colossal falling out over ideology

The Night of the Long Knives: the bloody purge that secured Hitler's power

The Vietnam War: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soldiers from the Women's Royal Army Corps

Second World War

A brief guide to VE Day

British prime minister Clement Attlee reading a document in his office, 27 July 1946. (Photo by Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Clement Attlee: Labour's postwar leader

The changing shape of slimming clubs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Who was Britain’s Greatest Prime Minister? Episode 3: Clement Attlee. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How close to nuclear war did the Cuban Missile Crisis get?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prohibition: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Festival of Britain official programme. The event was held in 1951 on London's South Bank

The 1951 Festival of Britain: banishing the gloom of postwar Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain’s great postwar party. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Alcohol is poured away into a New York sewer during the prohibition era, c1920

QuizProhibition: how much do you know about the US ban on booze?

Young civil rights activists sit in defiance at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter in Oklahoma City, 1958

Jim Crow in the United States: a brief guide to the racial segregation laws

Happier days: The tsar and his family pose for a portrait in c1910, years before he was swept from power and murdered. Maria, Olga and Tatiana (left to right) are at the back. Alexandra and Nicholas are seated with Alexey at their feet. Anastasia is far right. (Photo by Getty Images)

The last days of the Romanovs: could George V have saved the family?

In their own words: the team behind Apollo 11 describe the 1969 mission to the Moon. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.