20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Photo of Enoch Powell being escorted by police

The Rivers of Blood speech: what was it and how did it divide Britain?

Irish rugby fans in London for the international match between Ireland and England at Twickenham Stadium, 13 February 1937. (Photo by E Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Rugby warriors: the rugby-playing heroes of the First and Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Endurance, the ship of Ernest Shackleton

My history hero: Ernest Shackleton (d1922). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Fulbrook and Richard J Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks)

Legacies of the Holocaust. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Lady Sybil Grey, an indomitable Englishwoman who, as a nurse in Russia, led a field hospital and had a grandstand view of the February 1917 revolution that toppled the tsar. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Magazine)

The LibraryLady Sybil Grey: a lady in the line of fire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Petra Kelly. “Through sheer force of will, Petra Kelly put green politics on the map. Her success in Germany in the 1980s inspired green parties across the world to shake things up,” says Caroline Lucas. (Photo by Schulze-Vorberg/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

My history hero: Caroline Lucas chooses Petra Kelly (1947–92). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard Evans. (Photo by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Books interview with Richard J Evans: “For Hobsbawm, communism was a matter of life and death”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Duncan Grant's studio at Charleston. Despite its lack of creature comforts, the East Sussex farmhouse became the weekend hub of the Bloomsbury set. (Photo by Charleston House/Tony Tree)

History ExplorerThe story of the Bloomsbury set. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Queen Victoria, who during her reign curbed the use of the title HRH (His or Her Royal Highness) by restricting it to children of a sovereign (of either gender) and grandchildren of a sovereign (in the male line). (Photo by Glasshouse Images/Alamy Stock Photo)

The rise and fall of ‘Royal Highness’: a brief history of royal titles. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (L) fights Dick Tiger (R) in Madison Square Garden, New York, 1965 (Photo by Getty Images)

The story of the Hurricane. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend PMQs, after she suffered a major defeat in parliament over her Brexit deal, 16 January 2019. (Photo by Alberto Pezzali/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The historical significance of Theresa May’s Brexit defeat. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Frogmore Cottage

Your history guide to Frogmore Cottage

French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and husband Willy, photographed c1902. (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

Who was the real Colette?

The president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt and his staff gathered together in New York to find a solution to the economic crisis. 1935. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Icons: the game changers of the 20th century. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Nuremberg trials have not been universally praised. To some, the trials were a blown-up case of victors' justice. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

A brief guide to the Nuremberg Trials, where some Nazis faced justice after WW2

The "brilliant" Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse in 1935. (Getty Images)

My history hero: Walt Disney (1901-66). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c1935: Beatrice Shilling sits astride her Norton motorcycle. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

5 "bloody brilliant" 20th-century women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Oswald Mosley, English Fascist leader, ariving and receiving the Fascist salute from his followers, London, 1936 (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

Hunting Britain’s Nazis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain’s first self-service supermarket, Sainsbury’s in Croydon

A brief history of shopping. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In 1945 there were two million more ‘potential’ households than actual homes, in part exacerbated by the wartime damage to housing stock (Coventry, for example, lost one third of its homes in the Blitz). Here, displaced people in east London wait on the street. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A history of homelessness. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What if JFK had lived?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Dan Snow on shell shock.

Dan Snow on shell shock. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Women of the Sarah Caswell Angell chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, engaging in war work activities to assist the Allied cause during the First World War, 1918. During their sessions they knitted, made hospital garments, sewed for French children, and made aviators' vests. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

First World War

A–Z of the First World War

An American recruitment poster. “US forces showed an impressive ability to learn at speed,” says Nick Lloyd. (© Getty)

The great misconceptions of the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British troops in the trenches, Belgium, c1914–15. The horrors of the First World War lived long in the memories of its centenarian survivors. (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

The last survivors of the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

News of the end of World War I hostilities is joyfully received by the men of the 64th Regiment Infantry, 7th Division. Min de Jaueny, Moselle, France on November 11, 1918. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

The end of the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt exchanged almost 700 messages during the Second World War. (Illustration by Hugh Cowling for BBC History Magazine)

Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt: the big three’s war of words. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Combat helicopters fly over US troops during a search and destroy mission, South Vietnam. Despite their military might, argues Max Hastings, the Americans were doomed to fail during the Vietnam War. (Photo by Patrick Christain/Getty Images)

Max Hastings on Vietnam. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Helen Duncan, a 20th-century medium and spiritualist, allegedly summoned spirits draped in ‘ectoplasm’ – organic matter emitted from her body. In the 1930s she was denounced as a fraud, and in 1944 prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcra Act, which forbade conjuring spirits. (Photo courtesy of Ashmolean Museum/University of London)

Conjuring up the dead: Helen Duncan and her ectoplasm spirits. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

JFK prepares to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union. (Picture by Corbis/Getty Images)

Nuclear nightmare: the Cuban missile crisis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.