The Beginning of World War Two
Germany invaded Poland on the 1st September 1939, fairly confident that Britain and France would continue their policy of appeasement. But the British and French prime ministers, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, issued Adolf Hitler with ultimatums demanding the withdrawal of his troops, which when ignored led to their joint declaration of war on September 3rd.

In this photo, two policemen and a crowd of spectators watch the clock of Big Ben in London as it strikes 11 o'clock. This sounded the end of Germany's deadline to withdraw from Poland, and the beginning of World War II. Six years later, on the 2nd September 1945, Japanese officials signed the act of unconditional surrender, finally bringing to an end the world's most deadliest war. Over 70 million people, mostly civilians, are thought to have died.