20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

New York City police watching agents pour liquor into a sewer

Wet vs Dry: how prohibition fractured America

Queen Victoria with Prince Albert and their children in 1846. After a painting by F Winterhalter. Victoria’s husband, Albert, “carved out for the crown a moral kind of authority as the nation’s first and model family,” says Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Retaining the royals: why has the British monarchy survived – and thrived?

American socialite Wallis Simpson

The vilification of Wallis Simpson: how Edward VIII's mistress was savaged by society

Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944

The liberation of Auschwitz, 75 years on: what happened and how do we remember the Holocaust?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ayatollah Khomeini

General ancient history

A brief history of Iran

David Bowie and Twiggy

David Bowie's life in pictures

Edvard Munch's painting 'Love and Pain'

The Vampyre stirs: 200 years of vampire entertainment

French prime minister Georges Clemenceau (left), US president Woodrow Wilson (centre) and British PM David Lloyd George at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. The treaty's provisions have been blamed for causing the Second World War. (Image by Topfoto)

First World War

Did the Versailles peace treaty trigger another world war?

Crowds protest in Tehran

Opinion: is Iran a nation at war with itself?

"A great social experiment”: a brief guide to prohibition

The long history of Brexit. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The two faces of Robert Mugabe

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

“Somewhere in between exploitation and empowerment”: James Norton on society osteopath Stephen Ward

The Trial of Christine Keeler. (Photo by BBC)

Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies: the women at the heart of the Profumo Affair

Mandy Rice-Davies (left) and Christine Keeler

Notes on a scandal: revisiting the Profumo Affair. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The birth of the modern world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mixed-race babies born after the Second World War

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini give a fascist salute

A dictator’s death: how Stalin, Hitler, Mao and other self-styled strongmen met their ends

Margaret Thatcher enters Downing Street

How to win an election: 25 general elections and where they were won – and lost

Rotten boroughs cartoon

9 general election curiosities through history

A voter in a British election in 1923.

A new political climate? The UK's long tradition of winter elections

Richard Nixon gives a thumbs-up

Presidents under pressure: the resignation of Richard Nixon and the impeachment case against Trump. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Asians in 1980s Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A family at the seaside in the 1960s.

In pictures: English life in the 1960s, photographed by Tony Ray-Jones

Lord Mountbatten at a desk

Lord Mountbatten: Did Prince Philip’s uncle attempt to lead a coup against Harold Wilson’s government?

Einstein on the run

Einstein on the run: when the brilliant scientist fled to England

The Mountbattens: success and scandal. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Lauren Bruner and Iyozo Fujita

Pearl Harbor: 5 frontline stories from people who were there

Rosa Parks rides an integrated bus

From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King: the boycott that inspired the dream