In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. Victory for the Luftwaffe in the air battle would have exposed Great Britain to invas…
The 1989 Hillsborough disaster was an incident that occurred during the FA Cup semi-final match on 15 April 1989 at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. The crush resulted in the deaths of 96 people and injuries to 766 others. The victims suffoc…
During the Second World War, Balham underground station was one of many deep tube stations designated for use as a civilian air raid shelter. At 20:02 on 14 October 1940, a 1400 kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above the northern…
The first monarch to be crowned after India’s independence from British colonial rule, the Queen visited India on three occasions. The first of those visits came in 1961, when she and her husband Prince Phillip toured the country’s biggest cities like Mumbai…
On 13 June 1981, Marcus Sarjeant joined the crowds for Trooping the Colour, finding a spot near the junction between The Mall and Horseguards Avenue. When the Queen came past riding her 19-year-old horse Burmese, Sarjeant quickly fired six blanks from his …
Bishopsgate, in the heart of the City of London, was the scene of a devastating IRA bombing. A news photographer was killed in the explosion and 44 people were injured; the damage cost £350 million to repair. The attack came just a year after the Baltic Ex…
It’s surprising that anyone could get so close to the king, considering that just six years ago Archduke Ferdinand had been assassinated by a man running up to his carriage, triggering World War One. The photograph shows King George V, the King-Emperor, driv…
First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercially for 27 years. With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph (2,180 km/h at cruise altitude), its unmistakable roar and sleek, sexy lines the Concorde became an icon of aviation history. Fo…
A Royal Air Force pilot getting a haircut and reading Greenmantle by John Buchan. There are so many interesting things about this photo, the colors, the apparent calmness of these two gents during wartime, the young pilot smoking a pipe and also the fact tha…
HMS Invincible was launched on 3 May 1977 as the seventh ship to carry the name. She saw action in the Falklands War when she was deployed with HMS Hermes and took over as flagship of the British fleet when Hermes was sold to India. On 25 February 1982, a…
Under British military escort, two German Luftwaffe crewmen, an Unteroffizier (Subordinate Officer, or Corporal) and an Oberleutnant (the highest ranking Lieutenant Officer) who bailed out over the English countryside and were taken as POWs during a bombin…
There's always been something romantic about football under lights. This striking photograph is captured as 62,000 fans fill the Arsenal Football Stadium in Highbury, North London to see Arsenal challenge the Glasgow Rangers. It is Arsenal's second match eve…
This picture was taken during the wedding of the Kaiser's daughter Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia. The wedding, an extravagant affair, took place on 24 May 1913 in Berlin. In a diplomatic gesture, Emperor Wilhelm invited almost his entire extended fam…
The Hyde Park and Regent’s Park bombings were one of the worst IRA atrocities on the British mainland, killing 11 soldiers and seven horses and leaving dozens injured. The bombs were detonated just a couple of hours apart on July 20, 1982, and timed to cau…
The appearance of German bombers in the skies over London introduced a new weapon of terror and destruction in the arsenal of twentieth century warfare. This concentrated direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centers began on 7 September 1940, …
In the strict world of British military protocol, there are even rules on how to faint with dignity. There are two main reasons why the guards of honor pass out: it can get pretty hot and they'll lock their knees. Usually, it's the combination of both that…
Thatcher is surrounded by troops on a visit to Goose Green in January 1983, where the Parachute Regiment had secured a crucial victory seven months earlier. The war was a turning point in her premiership. The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges called the…
A shell shocked soldier in a trench during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette during the Somme Offensive in September 1916. His eyes express the madness of the war. The soldier looks like he has gone insane from what he has seen. At that moment in time eve…
The photo was taken by the Irish photographer Colman Doyle. The original caption: "A woman IRA volunteer on active service in West Belfast with an AR18 assault rifle”. The IRA regularly conducted “show of arms” displays, showing off their modern and numero…
A British Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technical Officer approaches a suspect device at the junction of Manor Street and Oldpark Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Manor Street marked the line between protestant and catholic neighborhoods. The quotat…