Exhibits

Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance transformed the Indian independence movement and provided a model for social change that inspired movements from the American Civil Rights struggle to anti-apartheid campaigns.

On 20 July 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon, fulfilling a decade-long national commitment and marking one of the defining moments in the history of exploration.

From Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat in 1955 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Black Americans and their allies forced the United States to live up to its founding promise of equality.

The Tang Dynasty, which ruled China from 618 to 907 CE, is regarded by historians as one of the highest points of Chinese civilisation, a cosmopolitan golden age of poetry, art, trade, and religious diversity.

In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor of a unified China, creating the administrative framework of a country that has endured for over two thousand years and beginning the construction of the Great Wall.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived in Australia for at least 65,000 years, making their culture the oldest continuous civilisation on Earth, built around a profound spiritual connection to Country.

Over three thousand years, Polynesian navigators settled the entire Pacific Ocean using only the stars, ocean swells, wind patterns, and the behaviour of birds and sea creatures, achieving one of the greatest feats of exploration in human history.

Between 1096 and 1291, European Christians launched eight major military expeditions to capture and hold Jerusalem, a series of wars that left a complex legacy of religious conflict, cultural exchange, and political transformation.

From a small principality in northwestern Anatolia, the Ottoman Empire grew to rule three continents for six centuries, controlling the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa at the height of its power.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal sent its ships further into the unknown than any European nation before, charting the coasts of Africa, reaching India by sea, and opening the age of global commerce.

Rome began as a small city on the Tiber and grew into an empire that ruled the entire Mediterranean world for five centuries, leaving behind a legacy in law, language, architecture, and governance that shapes the modern world.

The Berlin Wall, built overnight in August 1961, became the most potent symbol of the Cold War's division of the world. Its fall on 9 November 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet era.