Friday 8 May 2015 was the anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day), marking seventy years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. The occasion was commemorated with a three-day weekend of remembrance and celebration, with events being held across the UK.

Breakfast cereals, self-raising flour, yeast, baking powder, jelly, custard powder, lentils, pickles, margarine and dried vegetables were all 'invented' during the twentieth century.

A collection of Winston Churchill's most famous quotes from the World War II period accompanied by a host of images, audio, video and suggested further reading.

During the First World War, Emmeline Pankhurst’s Suffragette movement turned its efforts away from violent protests towards encouraging women to contribute to the war effort. The war offered greater opportunities for women to work, replacing men who had been sent to the front line; they became drivers, plumbers, postwomen, clerks and land workers, as well as workers in dangerous munitions factories producing weapons and shells. And in the Second World War, many women served in the uniformed services, too, contributing in a more active way to the war effort. It's often felt that women's roles in both wars were instrumental in securing the eventual political and social liberation many enjoy today.

World War II saw the rationing re-introduced to Britain and, as the war progressed, food shortages became even more severe. Shortages in this period saw creative inventions such as carrot jam and also lead to spam becoming an iconic wartime symbol.

See Churchill making his speech, and receiving a standing ovation from his audience, at County Hall here https://wwwyoutubecom/embed/cRBGfYVOELk copyright: British Pathé...

Film footage of the Churchill’s enjoying a rare family holiday in the 1940s, possibly in Marrakech, during the Second World War https://wwwyoutubecom/embed/jf62-rocFd4 copyright: British Pathé...

The day after France fell to the Germans, Churchill made perhaps his finest speech of this period – commonly known now by its most famous phrase, ‘This was their Finest Hour’...

On 19 September 1940, Churchill ‘visits Defences’, ‘typifying Britain’s iron determination to destroy the blight of Nazidom’ – and Churchill’s ‘unflinching and inspiring energy makes him John Bull No 1’...