20th Century

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?

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Anita Anand (Image by Sukhi Dhanda).

Exclusive podcast Anita Anand on an orphan radicalised by the Amritsar massacre . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Police and railwaymen assist some of the 800 evacuee children as they leave Ealing Broadway station, London, for the country on 1st September 1939 (Photo by Getty Images)

Britain goes to war . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Cast of the Crown vs their real life counterparts. Top (right to left): actors Gillian Anderson, Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin. Bottom: Margaret Thatcher, Elizabeth II, Princess Diana. (Photos by Netflix/Getty Images)

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

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Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin: working-class warrior . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Victoria, Albert and their children admire the royal Christmas tree

Explore The 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

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Dominic Sandbrook

Exclusive podcast Dominic Sandbrook on the 1980s . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A meeting of early 19th century Freemasons in which the an apprentice or candidate is introduced to the lodge (Photo by Alamy)

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