20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Winston Churchill pictured in July 1964, a few months before his 90th birthday – a milestone that he marked with tears. The prime minister would cry at everything from suffering pets and march-pasts to dying friends and poetry recitals. (Picture by PA Images)

Churchill: the ‘cry-baby’ war hero.

Prinsesstårta. (Photo by Samantha Nott)

Historical recipePrinsesstårta (Princess cake).

Ben Macintyre on Agent Sonya – the greatest female spy in history.

Ada Blackjack: how the 'female Robinson Crusoe' escaped death in the Arctic.

Krystyna Skarbeck, also called Christine Granville

History heroMichael Morpurgo chooses Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952).

London burns behind Tower Bridge on 7 September 1940

Second World War

Days of destiny: 5 key dates in the Battle of Britain

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren

The marriages of Queen Victoria’s grandchildren: how the dynasty shaped Europe

A suffragette march

The Suffragettes: everything you wanted to know.

Dag Hammarskjöld

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

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?.

London during the Blitz - the systematic night-time bombing of the British by the Luftwaffe in 1940 - 1941. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rationing, school closures and 'Blitz spirit': how did people cope in WW2?.

Exclusive podcastAnita Anand on an orphan radicalised by the Amritsar massacre.

Britain goes to war.

The Crown S4 cast: which real historical figures feature in season four of Netflix’s royal drama – and what did they really look like?

Rjukan Hydro Plant

Spying in WW2: how wartime espionage was just as dramatic as fiction.

Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin: working-class warrior.

Victoria, Albert and their children admire the royal Christmas tree

ExploreThe history of Christmas

A portrait of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler

Second World War

Why did WW2 happen?

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump: a president without precedent?.

Floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, outside Kensington Palace. (Photo by Liba Taylor/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Princess Diana's death: when grief gripped a nation.

King George VI and his eldest daughter, Elizabeth

The death of King George VI: what happened?

Queen In New Zealand, 1970

In pictures: Queen Elizabeth II on tour.

Exclusive podcastDominic Sandbrook on the 1980s.

The story of the Freemasons.

Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as dictator from 1939 to 1975, raises his arm in salute

Francisco Franco: is it accurate to call the Spanish dictator a fascist?

People gather around the Mona Lisa painting after its return in January 1914

Mona Lisa heist: how do you steal the world's most famous painting?.

The history of seduction.

The then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taking part in the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, 19 October 2016. Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was “rigged” against him. (Photo by Joe Raedle/AFP/Getty Images)

A brief history of election “rigging” in the United States.

Male and female militia fighters on the march at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, July 1936. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Spanish Civil War: everything you wanted to know.

Historian Peter Caddick-Adams

Exclusive podcastPeter Caddick Adams on whether D-Day could have failed.