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General Modern

Photo of Ginger Rogers

Q&AWhen did people start wearing sunglasses?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the Conservative party

Behind the newsWhy PMs get the push. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A refugee family in a camp in Pakistan after the partition of British India in 1947

Enduring trauma: the legacy of partition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What to read nextThe latest history books reviewed

Reverend Spencer Parsons, head of the Chicago branch of the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS), an interfaith group dedicated to helping women obtain abortions before 'Roe v Wade'

The American clergy who helped women get abortions before Roe v Wade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A British poster dated 1917 designed by Bert Thomas. (Photo by Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)

A brief history of smoking

Flames and smoke are seen billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, 15 April 2019. Yet despite the devastation, the fire is “not the worst chapter in its 850-year history”, argues Dr Emily Guerry. (Patrick Anidjar/AFP/Getty Images)

Notre-Dame fire"It's extraordinary what has survived"

The origins of the Conservative Party can be traced to the ‘Tory’ group in parliament which emerged in the last quarter of the 17th century and, led by Lord Bolingbroke (pictured) and Robert Harley, held power during the final years of Queen Anne’s reign. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Why are they called Tories?A brief history of the Conservative Party. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Montage of five British prime ministers: David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher

Prime ministersFive of the greatest downfalls of the past 100 years. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Benjamin Franklin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Treaty of Paris 1783: how to negotiate an exit. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Woman wearing a bikini

Why we should rememberThe launch of the swimsuit that scandalised the world

An overturned vehicle on tramlines as a blockage to traffic during the General Strike of 1926

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

The life and death of Elvis Presley

October 1876: General Nelson Miles talking with Chief Sitting Bull after the army's defeat at Little Bighorn

The battle of Little Bighorn: what happened at 'Custer's last stand'?

Historian Joyce Lee Malcolm

Joyce Lee Malcolm on gun ownership in America“Why is the right to be armed such an emotional one for Americans? No police force can protect everyone, or even any one, all of the time”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Elizabeth II, in March 2022 - the year of her platinum jubilee (Photo by Getty Images)

Britain's golden jubilees: from George III to Elizabeth II. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of Jean Thurel, a French soldier whose life spanned three centuries

Jean Thurel: the oldest soldier in history?

A customer shops for a pistol at Freddie Bear Sports sporting goods store in Tinley Park, Illinois

The historians’ view: what are the real issues in the US gun control debate?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at dusk

9 places where British astronomy flourished. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Trailblazers of black British theatre. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Peter Caddick-Adams

Peter Caddick-Adams on the laws of war“Russian politicians and military figures behind the awful events unfolding in Ukraine will, one day, be brought to justice”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Training of young Rwandan Hutu on the road to Kigali, 27 June 1994

Genocide: what can we learn from history?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Polish coat of arms on red background

Poland and Ukraine’s shared history: how dreams of nationhood endure. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Picture of a court jester

10 April Fools pranks through history that went wrong. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Oxford boat on the Thames during first ever Boat Race between between the Oxford and Cambridge university boat clubs, 1829.

Oxford v Cambridge: A history of the boat race

Peter Caddick-Adams

Peter Caddick-Adams on the history of neutrality“As many nations found to their cost in the 20th century, declaring neutrality and it being respected are two different matters”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A young woman sat in front of a mirror applies lipstick, 1967

The price of beauty: the dangerous cosmetics used until the 20th century

The 30th Annual Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1958. (Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

13 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars

Picture of a 19th-century bloomer costume

Q&AWhen did women start wearing trousers?

President Bill Clinton laughs at Boris Yeltsin's joke during a joint news conference in Hyde Park, New York, October 1995

“We missed a precious window”: why did America and Russia squander an opportunity for peace in the 1990s?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.