20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Rewriting the past: the history that inspired Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

A Wall Street speculator tries to sell his car to passersby

Your guide to the Great Depression

Prisoners at Bergen-Belsen

Second World War

A brief history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank died

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

Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene: why do people want to believe she was a sinner and prostitute?

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. (Photo by Getty Images)

Yuri Gagarin: 8 things you (probably) didn’t know about the first man in space

Children in Auschwitz

Second World War

The Windermere Children: the remarkable stories of 300 child survivors of the Holocaust

Ramsay MacDonald, the first British Labour prime minister, pictured after the general election of 1931

A brief history of the Labour Party

Britons watch Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas message in 1958. (© Topfoto)

A brief history of the Christmas Speech

Steve McQueen stars in the 1963 film that turned the 'Great Escape' into a symbol of Allied pluck and ingenuity. (Image by Alamy)

The not-so Great Escape

Frances Griffiths poses with the fairies

Fairies, rabbit births and an 'ancient' tiara: what are the greatest historical hoaxes?

Okinawa: the battle and the bomb

American soldiers in Vietnam

The war that America could never win? Opposition, dissent and the Vietnam War

The US assault on Okinawa

The WW2 battle of Okinawa: the bloodiest assault of the Pacific War

Two American soldiers wait for the second wave of combat helicopters of the 1st Air Cavalry Division during Operation Pershing during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War defined America in the second half of the 20th century. (Photo by Patrick Christain/Getty Images)

Your guide to the Vietnam War – plus 7 surprising facts you might not know

Walt Disney uses a baton to point to sketches of Disneyland

The history of Disneyland: How Walt Disney created the 'Happiest Place on Earth'

Simon Wiesenthal, who became famous after World War II for his work as a 'Nazi hunter'. (Photo by: SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The real Nazi hunters: how the infamous escaped – and those who brought them to justice

Children play as air raid wardens during the Blitz in London

Q&AHow did WW2 affect schools in London?

PT Barnum and General Tom Thumb

The greatest show on earth? The myths of the Victorian freak show

The race to save Apollo 13

Rosa Parks (right) riding on a bus following the Supremacial segregation on Montgomery's public transit system. (Photo by Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)

History heroGabby Logan chooses Rosa Parks (1913–2005)

Photo of flu patients during the First World War

First World War

Q&AWhy was the 1918-19 pandemic known as Spanish Flu?

Misbehaviour at Miss World: what happened at the 1970 beauty pageant?

Shoppers crowd a Woolworths store in 1955

Q&AHas there always been panic buying? And when have people panic shopped through history?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their third son, Prince Edward, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of royal mothers and childbirth

17th September 1936: The British minister of health, Sir Kingsley Wood, watches nurses weighing newborn twins during a visit to Southmead Hospital in Bristol to see the work local authorities were doing for the maintenance and improvement of health and housing conditions. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Mum hacks: 5 tips for new mothers from history

Hadley Freeman.

Secrets of a 20th-century Jewish family: Hadley Freeman on her book House of Glass