Joe Davis dominated the tournament over its first two decades, winning the first 15 world championships before he retired undefeated after his final victory in 1946.

The distinctive World Championship trophy, topped by a Greek shepherdess figurine, was acquired by Davis in 1926 for £19 and continues in use to this day.

Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan have each won seven times to jointly hold the record of most world titles in the modern era.

[13] The same pair met in the 1930 final, played for the first time at Thurston's Hall in London, with Davis winning 25–12,[14] with a day to spare and made a new record break of 79.

[23] In the period from 1935 to 1940, nearly all World Championship matches were played there and with good attendances the professionals could make some money from their share of the entrance charges.

[49] The finalists for the 1947 championship, Fred Davis and Walter Donaldson, agreed to delay the final until the autumn so that it could be played at the rebuilt Thurston's Hall.

[69] Pulman won two further challenge matches played at Burroughes Hall, beating Rex Williams in October 1964,[70] and Davis again in March 1965.

In the semi-finals, defending champion Alex Higgins lost 9–23[85] to Eddie Charlton while Ray Reardon beat John Spencer 23–22.

John Spencer beat defending champion Ray Reardon 13–6 in the quarter-finals,[94] and met Canadian Cliff Thorburn in the final.

The 1979 championship was won by Terry Griffiths who had only turned professional seven months prior to the tournament, and needed to win two qualifying matches to reach the Crucible.

[100] Canadian Bill Werbeniuk made a break of 142 in his quarter-final match against John Virgo, equalling the championship record set by Rex Williams in South Africa in 1965.

Several changes were made to accommodate the extra matches, including a reduction in the number of frames played in the final, to a maximum of thirty-five.

[103] He won a close match 10–8 against Jimmy White in the first round and defeated three past world champions to meet fourteenth seed Doug Mountjoy in the final.

This was the break that gave the World Championship one of its most iconic words of commentary, "oh, good luck mate" on the final black, courtesy of Jack Karnehm.

[115]: 60 In 1992, Jimmy White became the second player to make a maximum break in the world championship, during his 10–4 first round win over Tony Drago.

[115]: 63  Defending champion John Parrott beat Eddie Charlton 10–0, the first[115]: 62  of only two whitewashes in the Crucible era (the second being by Shaun Murphy over Luo Honghao in 2019).

James Wattana, from Thailand made history in 1993 - becoming the first Asian player to reach the semi-finals, where he lost to Jimmy White.

Ronnie O'Sullivan made the fastest maximum break in snooker history in 1997 - in the first round of the championship - taking just five minutes and eight seconds.

Stephen Hendry won his seventh and final world title at the 1999 tournament, the most in the modern era until being equalled by Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2022.

Shaun Murphy came back from 7–12 down to win his quarter-final match against Matthew Stevens,[119] but lost in the deciding frame of his semi-final to Mark Selby.

[122][123] The 2010 Championship was won by Neil Robertson who beat qualifier Graeme Dott 18–13 in the final, becoming the fourth non-U.K. winner of the title after Horace Lindrum, Cliff Thorburn and Ken Doherty.

Mark Selby and Marco Fu set a new record for the longest frame of snooker ever played at the Crucible, seventy six minutes eleven seconds.

In a high-quality and tightly contested semi-final, defending champion Mark Selby beat Ding Junhui 17–15 in a repeat of the previous year's final.

[138] Ronnie O'Sullivan made a record 28th consecutive appearance at the Crucible and won the championship for the sixth time, beating Kyren Wilson 18–8 in the final, and collecting prize money of £500,000.

[143] O'Sullivan defeated Trump 18–13 in the final to win his seventh world title, equalling Hendry's modern-era record.

[146] During the 2023 event, play in a first-round match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was suspended when a male protester wearing a Just Stop Oil T-shirt ran into the arena, climbed onto the table and covered it in an orange powder.

[148][149] Luca Brecel became the first continental European to win the title, having never previously won a match at the Crucible; after close victories in the first two rounds (over Ricky Walden 10–9 and Mark Williams 13–11), he overturned a 10–6 deficit to beat O'Sullivan 13–10 in the quarter-finals, pulled off an even bigger comeback from 14–5 down to beat Si Jiahui 17–15 in the semi-final, and finally defeated Selby 18–15 in the final to win his first world title.

In the 1950s, the BBC occasionally showed snooker on black and white television, including 30-minute programmes of the 1953 and 1955 finals, with commentary by Sidney Smith.

For some years, commentary was primarily by Ted Lowe, Clive Everton and Jack Karnehm although John Pulman, Vera Selby and others were used.

Since 2003, Eurosport has provided coverage of the snooker season, with commentators including Philip Studd, David Hendon, Joe Johnson and Neal Foulds.