The 20th century, 1901 to 1945

8 stops46 facts

Two world wars, and between them a country learning to hear itself. The first begins with an assassination in 1914 and ends in 1918, with the Somme in the middle of it. Ireland is partitioned. The BBC broadcasts on radio for the first time in 1922, and in 1936 begins a regular television service before any country had one, with the Great Depression between them. Then it happens again: Poland, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Churchill in Downing Street from 1940, the Soviet Union and Pearl Harbour, and the landings in Normandy in 1944. It ends in 1945, in Europe first and then against Japan.

What is in this era

  1. The First World WarThe assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the Battle of the Somme, and the end of the war in 1918.
  2. The partition of IrelandHome Rule proposed in 1913, the Easter Rising, the treaty that split Ireland in two, and the republic declared in 1949.
  3. Between the warsThe BBC broadcasts on radio for the first time in 1922, the Great Depression follows, and a regular television service begins in 1936.
  4. The outbreak of the Second World WarHitler comes to power in Germany, German forces invade Poland, the army is evacuated from Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain is fought.
  5. From Churchill to VictoryChurchill becomes Prime Minister in 1940, the Soviet Union is invaded and Pearl Harbour is bombed in 1941, D-Day comes in 1944, and victory follows in 1945.
  6. Churchill, Rutherford and FlemingChurchill's decades in politics either side of the war, Rutherford's team splitting the atom, and Fleming's 1945 Nobel Prize for discovering penicillin.
  7. Churchill, Butler and DunkirkThe decades Churchill spent as an MP after the war, his death in 1965 and the 2002 vote for greatest Briton, the career of R A Butler, and the Dunkirk spirit.
  8. Battle of Britain and BlitzThe Spitfire and Hurricane winning the Battle of Britain, the night bombing campaign called the Blitz, the Manhattan Project, and MacLeod's insulin.

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