20th Century

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Director Peter Jackson in 2015 in Beijing, China (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Peter Jackson on the First World War . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Wreck of Fishing boat, Iceland. (Photo by Dreamstime)

Adventures in Iceland . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The Romanovs, 1913: Nicholas II with his wife and children. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Quiz The Romanovs . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A wedding portrait of the Duke and Duchess of York with their parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, and Queen Mary and King George V of England. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

8 unconventional royal wedding dresses in history

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Philippe Sands tells the story behind his new BBC podcast and Radio 4 series, Intrigue: The Ratline. (Photo by Jillian Edelstein/Camera Press)

The Nazi on the run . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Otto von Wächter, who went on the run after the Second World War.

Otto von Wächter: On the trail of the Nazi who disappeared

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Singer Paul Robeson rehearses at a piano in 1958. He had a unifying outlook, observing that

My history hero: Paul Robeson (1898–1976) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British troops go over the top of the trenches during the Battle of the Somme, 1916. The Somme was one of the bloodiest clashes of the First World War, causing more than one million casualties over five months. (Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

First World War

The First World War: Was it worth it?

Actors dressed as Tommies mark the centenary of the start of the battle of the Somme at Manchester Piccadilly station, July 2016. (Photo by Alamy)

First World War

Opinion: “The First World War centenary has been a lost opportunity”

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St Basil's Cathdral, Moscow. (Photo by Dreamstime)

The spy who changed the Cold War . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Crowds march through the streets of Chicago to hear Martin Luther King speak at the Illinois Rally for Civil Right on 21 June 1964

Seymour Hersh on the US civil rights movement and the Vietnam War . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The remains of a 1940 naval battle in Narvik, Norway – several battles between German and Norwegian forces took place in the Ofotfjord in the spring of 1940. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

The Navy and the battle for Britain in 1940

Men sealing cases of Rowntree’s Elect Cocoa, York, Yorkshire, 1893. (Photo by Borthwick Institute/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chocolate and empire: from the land where the cocoa grows

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William Beveridge was determined to fight the five

My history hero: William Beverage (1879–1963) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Protesters on the streets of Prague during the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968. Of all the history books Ian Kershaw has authored down the decades, his two wide-ranging volumes on modern Europe have proved the most difficult to write. (Photo by Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

The Library Ian Kershaw on the trials of writing modern history