20th Century - Getty Images

20th Century

Vera Brittain, who worked as a nurse during the First World War and went on to become one of the leading writers of the interwar years. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Love, loss and distorted memories

A soldier and workers are depicted gazing in admiration at North Korea’s first premier, Kim Il-sung, in a propaganda poster. The Kims’ dynastic personality cult shows no signs of diminishing. (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Why North Korea went nuclear

President Ronald Reagan throwing a football from his desk in the Oval Office. (Photo by Mary Anne Fackelman-Miner/White House/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Opinion: the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan

Reinhard Heydrich’s brutality was shocking, even by Nazi standards. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Killing Hitler's hangman: the dramatic story of Reinhard Heydrich's assassination

A female computer programmer demonstrates a new computer in the 1960s.

The changing role of women in British computing

3 of the most famous royal weddings in history

A portrait of actress Nell Gwynn, longtime mistress to King Charles II.

From Nell to Meghan: 10 romances between actors and royals

My history hero: Aled Jones chooses Freddie Mercury (1946–91). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The future Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace following their wedding, 20 November 1947. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Royal wedding traditions through history: etiquette, menus and the dress code

Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV

When royals marry ‘commoners’: a brief history

The burial mask of Tutankhamun. From the moment Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in The Valley of Kings in 1922, rumours swirled that a curse would fall on those who disturbed the Boy King's eternal slumber. (Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images)

Q&AHow many people are supposed to have died from the curse of Tutankhamun's tombs?

A still from the 2017 film Viceroy's House

Raj nostalgia: reconsidering the stories through which we view empire

The Entebbe raid. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Four police officers, members of the Bow Street Horse Patrol, pose for a photograph with a horse.

The rise of the Great British 'bobby': a brief history of Britain's police service

Second World War

5 facts about the Bevin Boys

Were the suffragettes terrorists?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Fremantle's High Street, with 19th-century buildings.

My favourite place: Western Australia

Kinder Scout

History explorer: The fight for the right to ramble. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bay of Pigs invasion: Kennedy’s Cuban catastrophe

Pathologist Thomas Harvey holds the brain of Albert Einstein in a jar, Kansas, 1994. Harvey, the on-duty pathologist during the eminent physicist's autopsy, removed Einstein’s brain and kept most of it stored in two glass jars, refrigerated inside a beer cooler, for more than 20 years. (Photo by Michael Brennan/Getty Images)

Q&AWhat happened to Einstein's brain?

A badge promoting the Tufty Club, an organisation launched by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to educate children on road safety, 1941. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Safety first: 20th-century health and safety messages

A poster produced for the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) promoting express rail travel to the Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool

The great escape: Britain's love affair with the seaside holiday

TimelineKey moments in the American civil rights movement

The Vietnam War on film. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The real history behind ‘The Crown’ with Robert Lacey

A badge featuring American civil rights activist Martin Luther King

The global legacy of Martin Luther King

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

Designer duo, husband and wife Robin and Lucienne Day, 1955. The pair “were perhaps the greatest British man and wife design team there has ever been”, says Wayne Hemingway. (Photo by Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo)

My history hero: Robin Day (1915–2010) and Lucienne Day (1917–2010). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Martin Luther King waves to supporters on the Mall in Washington DC during the March on Washington, 28 August 1963. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

Martin Luther King's unfinished dream: the historians' view

Creating the SAS. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.