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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

A look back

Historical articles from the Observer, compiled by @guardianlibrary. See also From the archive blog. For full content from 1791 onwards see our page on accessing past articles.

30 December 2017

  • Motorists queue for petrol during the oil crisis in 1973.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1973

    The oil crisis threatens to end the postwar boom

23 December 2017

  • A doctor listens to a man’s chest in a GP surgery in 1948.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1947

    Doctors debate whether to join the new National Health Service

16 December 2017

  • Margaret Thatcher on a visit to Cleveland in 1987.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1987

    The prime minister is – almost – defeated in the Commons after a Tory rebellion

9 December 2017

  • Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, which was eventually staged in Britain in 1958.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1956

    Pygmalion is taken off the British stage ahead of the musical version, My Fair Lady

2 December 2017

  • Ian Smith leaves 10 Downing Street after a meeting with Harold Wilson in 1965.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1966

    British and Rhodesian prime ministers Harold Wilson and Ian Smith meet to discuss Smith’s declaration of independence

25 November 2017

  • Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in Jerusalem in 1977.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1977

    Hopes for peace at last in the Middle East as Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem

18 November 2017

  • Judges mark the start of the legal year in October with a service at Westminster Abbey.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1970

    A renewed call for judges to be drawn from the ranks of solicitors, as well as barristers

11 November 2017

  • Rampton secure hospital in Nottinghamshire.Soham murders

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1980

    A report on an inquiry into Rampton secure hospital is released

4 November 2017

  • The Lords’ powers ‘are an essential safeguard of democratic rules and rights’.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1947

    Reforming the House of Lords

28 October 2017

  • Dog registration would ensure that responsibility for the animals would rest with their owners.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1990

    An Observer editorial urged MPs to support an environmental protection bill that would oblige dog owners to register their pets

21 October 2017

  • Anti-Vietnam war protesters in Washington DC on 21 October, 1967.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1967

    America talks up the threat posed by China as Vietnam war protests grow

14 October 2017

  • Iraqi soldiers celebrate during the war between Iran and Iraq.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1980

    The role of the US and the USSR in the Iran-Iraq conflict

7 October 2017

  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn receives his 1970 Nobel Prize in 1974, after his expulsion from Russia.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1970

    Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

30 September 2017

  • The former Labour prime minister Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government was dominated by Conservatives and he was vilified by the party he had once led.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1933

    The voices of Conservative disruption

23 September 2017

  • Jeremy Thorpe and members of his Liberal party in the 1970s.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1973

    Why are the Liberals winning so much support?

16 September 2017

  • President William McKinley in 1901.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1901

    US President William McKinley is assassinated

2 September 2017

  • Clement Attlee

    From the Observer files: this week in 1954

    The Observer
    Harm and good: Clement Attlee’s delegation returns from China

26 August 2017

  • A Soviet tank meets resistance on the streets of Prague, 21 August 1968.

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1968

    Soviet troops occupy Czechoslovakia

19 August 2017

  • ‘Thoughts will increasingly turn towards strengthening defence against atomic attack by the development of guided missiles.’

    From the Observer archive: this week in 1953

    The incalculable perils of war

12 August 2017

  • A special train taking the staff of the new Pakistan government from Delhi to Karachi, 7 August 1947.

    From the archive: this week in August 1947

    Bright hopes for the partition of India
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