BBC Radio Podcasts from Witness History

The Schengen Agreement

In 1985, five European politicians agreed to scrap border checks between their countries

Ronald Reagan’s ‘Tear down this wall’ speech

In 1987 the US President called on the Soviet Union leader to take down the Berlin Wall

Lonesome George: The celebrity tortoise

In 2012, Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his species died

The woman born in a prisoner of war camp

The Sino-Indian war in 1962, left a lasting legacy on Indian families of Chinese descent

World War Two’s Rome escape line

How an Irish priest saved thousands of allied prisoners of war and Jews in Rome in WW2

Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘utopian’ town

1948 saw the start of a “utopian” town of houses designed by America’s greatest architect

The discovery of the first exoplanets

In 1992, astronomer Alex Wolszczan discovered the first planets outside our solar system

Favela life: The diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus

In 1960, the diary of a poor Brazilian mum became an international bestseller.

The world’s largest model train set

In 2000, twins Frederik and Gerrit started building Miniatur Wunderland

Dolly Rathebe: South Africa’s first international film star

Jim Comes to Jo’burg, also known as African Jim, launched Dolly Rathebe’s career in 1949

The Battle of the Beanfield

In 1985, police and hippies clashed at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge, in England

The legacy of The Pirate Bay

In 2006 police raided the popular but controversial file-sharing website The Pirate Bay

Chinua Achebe’s revolutionary book Things Fall Apart

Achebe's English language novel from 1958 about life in Nigeria before colonialism

The Tragically Hip's final gig

In 2015 Canadian rockstar Gord Downie was given months to live, he went on one last tour

'I wrote the Champions League anthem'

The story of how one of the most iconic tunes in sport was created in 1992

Vivian Maier: Secret street photographer

The secret street photography of a US nanny in the 1950s and 1960s

The founding of Magnum Photos

On 22 April 1947, a group of famous war photographers founded the agency.

Martín Chambi: Peru's pioneering documentary photographer

Chambi's dramatic black and white photographs showed indigenous people in a new light.

Nigerian photographer’s iconic 'Hairstyles' series

J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, known as Nigeria’s top photographer gained international acclaim

Lunch atop a Skyscraper

In 1932, a photo was taken showing 11 ironworkers eating lunch at the top of a skyscraper

Sweden’s shocking sugar experiment

In the 1940s vulnerable hospital patients were fed sugar to see if their teeth decayed

Mexico’s soda tax: Confronting soft drink giants

In 2013 a new tax was approved in one of the world’s biggest consumers of fizzy drinks

The founding of the Warsaw Pact

On 14 May 1955, eight Soviet countries met to sign the Warsaw Pact.

Tesla and Edison: Electricity rivals

In 1915, two rival electricity pioneers were told they would share a Nobel Prize

Intervision Song Contest

In 1980, Finnish singer Marion Rung won Intervision, the USSR's answer to Eurovision

Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures from the Islamic State group

In 2015, Khalil Hariri risked his life to save centuries-old archaeology in Syria.

VE Day celebrations

The scenes of celebration in London on VE Day 1945

Sinking of the Lusitania

During World War One, the British ocean liner was sunk by a German submarine

The invention of the automatic electric rice cooker

In 1955, entrepreneur and engineer Yoshitada Minami, revolutionised rice cooking

Conclave: How a new pope is chosen

In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was elected to be the next head of the Catholic Church

Snake: Popularising mobile gaming

In 1998, the Snake game made its debut on mobile phones.

Ten countries join the EU in one night

On 1 May 2004, the European Union went through its biggest ever enlargement

The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War

The story of North Vietnam’s underground tunnel network in South Vietnam

Surviving the fall of Saigon in 1975

When South Vietnam fell, most people couldn’t escape

Doi Moi: Vietnam's economic miracle

Radical reforms introduced in 1986 lifted millions out of poverty

The death of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler's secretary recalls his last days in 1945

Staging Othello in apartheid South Africa

Dame Janet Suzman recalls directing Shakespeare's classic in 1987

Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke'

On 23 April 1985, Coca-Cola changed the secret formula of its fizzy drink

The creation of YouTube

In April 2005, the first video was posted onto YouTube

Exercise Tiger: Disastrous D-Day rehearsal

In April 1944, a German fleet sank two allied ships. Around 749 US servicemen died.

The origin of World Book Day

23 April 1996, saw the first World Book Day. It originated from a Spanish tradition

Clearing landmines in Cambodia

Aki Ra laid hundreds of landmines for the Khmer Rouge, but began clearing them in 1992

The Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia

In April 1975 the four-year rule of the brutal Khmer Rouge began in Cambodia

The invention of the white LED lightbulb

In 1993, a lightbulb moment led to the invention of the first white light emitting diode

The Bali Nine drug smuggling case

In 2005, nine Australians were caught trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia

Germany’s ‘Green Belt’

In December 1989, environmentalists met to secure the future of Germany’s ‘Green Belt’

Oklahoma City bombing

On 19 April 1995, a huge truck bomb killed 168 people in a US government building

Liberia’s women in white who helped end civil war

In 2003 the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace began protests calling for peace

The Reichstag fire

In February 1933, the home to the German Parliament in Berlin was burned down

The UN retreat from Somalia

In 1995, a United Nations mission to restore peace in Somalia ended in disaster

Resusci Anne: the world’s first life-saving resuscitation dummy

In May 1960 a Norwegian toy-maker unveiled a life-sized, life-like training manikin

JFK’s 1963 Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

The US President spoke at the newly constructed Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War

The Wonder Woman of DC Comics

In 1976 Jenette Kahn became the first female head of DC Comics, home of the superheroes

The invention of superglue

In 1951, Harry Coover noticed a chemical he was working with was sticking to everything

The 'ghost town' of Namibia

In 1908, the first Kolmanskop diamond was found. It's now abandoned, buried in the desert

The father of Ethio-Jazz

In 1966, Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke recorded a new genre of music, Ethio-jazz

Harold Riley’s 'one of a kind' portrait of Nelson Mandela

A specially commissioned portrait of Nelson Mandela by Harold Riley was unveiled in 2005

The suspicious death of Rear Admiral Durović

In 1991, a Yugoslav People’s Army commander died in mysterious circumstances

Goodluck Jonathan’s phone call that changed Nigeria

President Goodluck Jonathan's call to Muhammadu Buhari to concede election defeat in 2015

The Germanwings plane crash

General David Galtier who led the search operation recalls the 2015 crash

The visionary behind the European Space Agency

In October 2012, a visionary letter about the European Space Agency was sent into space

The historic handshake in space

In July 1975, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts met in space and shook hands

In event of moon disaster: 'The speech that never was'

Richard Nixon's contingency speech in case the moon landing astronauts never made it home

First spacewalk

On 18 March 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to spacewalk

The rocket that revived Brazil’s space programme

On 23 October 2004, Brazil launched its first rocket following a devastating accident

Bardo Museum attack in Tunisia

In March 2015, 22 people were killed when two gunmen stormed the building

The Gambia’s ‘Queen of Recycling’

In 1997, a Gambian woman started an environmental initiative

The Capitol Crawl

On 12 March 1990, hundreds of wheelchair users crawled up the steps of the US Capitol

King Kong: South Africa's first all-black musical

South Africa’s first musical with an all-black cast opened to critical acclaim in 1959

The invention of GPS

The Global Positioning System, also known as GPS, was created in the late 1970s

How bloodshed in Selma led to the US Voting Rights Act 1965

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was brought in to end racial discrimination

The Great Toyota War

In 1987, rugged pickup trucks provided a turning point in the decades-long war in Chad

The US invasion of Panama

In 1989, more than 20,000 US soldiers descended on the tiny Central American country

The invention of the shopping trolley

In 1937, American supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman wanted his customers to spend more.

The Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp

In 2015, thousands of migrants lived in a squalid camp in France known as the "Jungle"

Africa’s stolen Metis children

In 1953, Marie-José Loshi was forcibly taken from her family because of her skin colour

Surviving Chile's tsunami

In 2010, an earthquake struck the coast of Chile triggering a tsunami

Denmark’s Inuit children experiment

In 1951, 22 Inuit children from Greenland were sent to live with families in Denmark

The Nellie massacre

In 1983, an estimated 3,000 people were massacred in Assam, India

Discovering the structure of haemoglobin

Dr Max Perutz made one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century

Assassination of Malcolm X

In 1965, the controversial black leader, Malcolm X, was assassinated in New York

Murder at the Berlin Wall

In March 1974, Polish man Czesław Kukuczka was shot by a Stasi officer at the Berlin Wall

Bolivia’s first indigenous president

The election of Evo Morales in 2005 was a historic first for the South American country

Bo: The death of a language

In 2010, one of the oldest languages died after the death of its last remaining speaker

The world's longest kiss

In 2013, a Thai couple locked lips for 58 hours and 35 minutes in a world record attempt

Eva Peron: Argentina’s Evita

Eva Peron - or Evita - was an icon in 1940s Argentina, famous for her populist rhetoric

Paul Keating's Redfern speech

In 1992, Australia's Prime Minister addressed atrocities inflicted upon Indigenous people

Mary Fisher's 'A Whisper of Aids' speech

In 1992, Mary Fisher set out to fight the prejudice faced by those with HIV and Aids

Eisenhower's farewell address

In 1961, the US President ended his time in the White House with a famous speech

La Pasionaria: Heroine of the Spanish civil war

Dolores Ibárruri was dubbed La Pasionaria for her fiery speeches in the Spanish civil war

Heathers: The making of a cult classic

In 1989, dark comedy Heathers was released and changed the teen movie genre

The first global case of coral bleaching

In 1998, a strange phenomenon turned the world’s most colourful coral reefs deathly white

Cuban blindness

In the early 1990s, around 50,000 Cubans were struck down with sight loss

Oradour massacre

In June 1944, 642 people were killed in Oradour, France

Jacques Derrida: ‘Rock star’ philosopher

In 1966, the Frenchman upended philosophy with his theory of "deconstruction"

English TV lessons in China go primetime

An estimated 500 million people in China watched English lessons on television in 1981

1968 New York City teachers' strike

In 1968, more than 50,000 teachers went on strike in New York City, in the USA

Lithuania's 'wolf children'

In the aftermath of World War Two, children fled East Prussia in order to survive

The Baltic chain protest

On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain

The Milltown Cemetery attack

In 1988, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, three people were killed at a funeral

The launch of Windows 95

In 1995 Microsoft released a new operating system after a $300 million marketing campaign

Replacing the Panchen Lama

On 29 November 1995, China exerted its influence over Tibetan Buddhism's leadership

The murder of Maurizio Gucci

On 27 March 1995, the former head of the fashion house was shot dead in Milan, Italy

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway

In 1995, the doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo, launched a chemical attack on the Tokyo metro

Hunting the Unabomber

In September 1995, US newspapers controversially published a terrorist's manifesto.

Drum: Africa’s revolutionary magazine

The first African lifestyle magazine Drum, was first printed in 1951

'I wrote Schindler's List'

Thomas Keneally stumbled across the story of Oskar Schindler while buying a briefcase

Kobe earthquake

On 17 January 1995, an earthquake devastated the city of Kobe, in Japan

Confronting Betty Ford’s addiction

In 1978, former first lady Betty Ford sought help for addiction

Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal

In 1933, President Roosevelt enacted the New Deal to drag the US out of depression

The Bosphorus boat spotter tracking Russian military trucks

In 2015, ship spotter Yörük Işık saw Russian military trucks on a ship going to Syria

The mystery of Raoul Wallenberg

The Swedish diplomat saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War Two

The invention of the hotel key card

In the 1970s, Norwegian Tor Sornes invented the hotel key card

Charlie Hebdo attack

On 7 January 2015, 12 people were shot dead at a satirical magazine in France

Marie Kondo

In 2011, Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo's first book was published.

Creating Alexa

In 2000, two Polish students started creating a smart speaker which sounded human

Klaus Fuchs: Oppenheimer’s atomic spy

In 1950, Klaus Fuchs admitted passing top secret nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union

Robert Ripley and the ‘Believe It or Not’ empire

During the Great Depression, cartoonist Robert Ripley made millions from freaky facts

Indian Ocean tsunami - Aceh

In 2004, a deadly tsunami swept away entire communities around the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean tsunami - Tamil Nadu

On 26 December 2004, communities around the Indian Ocean were swept away by a tsunami

Dinner for One: How an English comedy became a German tradition

The sitcom Dinner for One, recorded in 1963, has become a German New Year's Eve tradition

'Kimchi war'

In the 1990s, a diplomatic dispute broke out between Japan and South Korea over kimchi

Chef to five presidents

Cristeta Comerford was the first woman and person of colour to the White House's top chef

When instant noodles came to India

A turning point in Indian culinary history

'I created MasterChef'

In 1990, the cookery programme MasterChef launched on BBC TV

Australian republic referendum

On 6 November 1999, voters in Australia were asked if they wanted to become a republic

Poland's bleak Christmas

In 1981, the communist government of Poland declared martial law to suppress civil unrest

Ceefax: the start of interactive television

In 1974, the BBC launched the world's first teletext service

Surviving Andes plane crash

In 1972, 16 people survived for two months in the Andes mountains after a plane crash

Peshawar school massacre

In 2014, one of Pakistan’s worst terror attacks took place at Peshawar Army School

The birth of reggaeton

In the 1980s, Leonardo Renato Aulder pioneered a movement in Panama with his friends

The handover of the Panama Canal

In 1999 the Panama Canal was handed over from US to Panamanian rule.

The Purple Heart Warriors

In WW2, a Japanese American troop was one of the most decorated army units in US history

Castro's Cuban revolution attempt

In 1953, Fidel Castro attempted to revolutionise Cuba by attacking military barracks

India’s 1998 nuclear tests

Nalini Malani made an artwork protesting against India's nuclear tests

Julia Gillard speaks out on sexism

In 2012, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a landmark speech on misogyny

The ‘Three Marias’

In 1974, a judge decided if three Portuguese women should be jailed for writing a book

The discovery that led to Covid vaccines

In 2005, Dr Katalin Karikó published research that eventually won her the Nobel Prize

Gloria Steinem: The start of Ms. Magazine

In 1972, Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine in the United States

The end of the US HIV travel ban

In 2010, a travel and immigration ban stopping people with HIV entering the US was lifted

The deepest man-made hole in the world

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists in Russia managed to dig a 12,000-metre deep hole

Thich Quang Duc: Buddhist monk who set himself on fire

In June 1963, Thich Quang Duc set himself alight in protest against the government

The Iran-Contra Affair

In 1986, Oliver North was accused of orchestrating the illegal sale of weapons to Iran

Strictly Come Dancing

Television extravaganza Strictly Come Dancing debuted in 2004 in the UK

Creation of the UFC

In 1993, a new sport was born. Its founders called it the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Lord of the Flies

It’s 70 years since William Golding’s acclaimed novel was published

Handover of Macau

In 1999, Macau was handed back to China after more than 400 years as a Portuguese colony

The Siege of Yarmouk

How the Syrian army turned one neighbourhood near Damascus into a bombed-out wasteland

Iran's secret Christian 'house churches'

Between 2002 and 2005, Naghmeh Panahi set up a network of 'house churches' in Iran

German naturists

The naturist movement began in Germany at the end of the 19th Century

Luana Mansilla: Changing gender aged six

In 2013, the gender of a six-year-old from Argentina was legally changed

India's capsule coal mine rescue

In November 1989, 65 miners were rescued from the Mahabir Coal Mine, in India

How Greece got rid of their king

In a 1974 referendum, the Greek people voted two to one in favour of becoming a republic

The Pakistan mountain massacre

In 2013, 11 people were killed by members of a militant group at Nanga Parbat base camp

The invention of the ‘Baby’ computer

In 1948, the first stored-program computer the ‘Baby’ was invented

The woman who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto

Polish aid worker Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in WW2

The Shah of Iran's party

In 1971, the Shah of Iran, celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian Empire

In exile from Iran

Former empress Farah Pahlavi and social scientist Rouhi Shafi speak about leaving Iran

Iran hostage crisis

In 1979, Barry Rosen was held hostage after the US embassy in Tehran was stormed

Siegfried and Roy tiger attack

In 2003, illusionist Roy Horn was attacked by a tiger live on stage.

Brazil’s electronic voting

In 1996, an electronic voting system in Brazil was used for the first time

The Ken Burns Effect

In 2002, the 'Ken Burns effect' was created.

Jean Batten: New Zealand’s record breaking aviator

Jean Batten was nicknamed the Queen of the Skies for her pioneering flights of the 1930s

The creation of Greenwich Mean Time

Experiments by John Flamsteed in the 17th Century led to the time zone being created

My dad created Dungeons & Dragons

In 1974, Gary Gygax created the fantasy roleplay game.

Bonga Kwenda: Music banned in Angola and Portugal

Outspoken supporter of Angolan independence, Bonga Kwenda was forced into exile in 1972

Ethiopia's 1984 famine

In 1984, a news report on a famine in Ethiopia led to a global fundraising campaign

I found the first dinosaur remains in Antarctica

In 1986, Argentinian geologist Eduardo Olivero discovered a new kind of Ankylosaurus

The fight to stop skin lightening in India

In 2013, Kavitha Emmanuel began campaigning to stop skin lightening in India

Eight years trapped on the Suez Canal in Egypt

After the Six Day War in 1967, 14 ships were stuck on the Great Bitter Lake

Dyke and Dryden: Cosmetic kings

In 1969, Dyke and Dryden started one the most successful black British businesses

Fleeing Afghanistan alone as a child

Dr Waheed Arian escaped poverty and war in Afghanistan to begin a new life in the UK

The Rose Revolution in Georgia

In 2003, demonstrators stormed the parliament building in Tbilisi, holding flowers

The Sunflower Movement

In 2014, more than 500,000 Taiwanese people protested against a new trade deal with China

'Robocops’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Handmade robots were installed in DRC's capital city Kinshasa to direct traffic

How the QR code was invented

In 1994 Japanese engineer Masahiro Hara designed a square of data, now known as a QR code

The world's first general purpose electronic computer

In 1946, one of the world’s first electronic computers was unveiled in the USA.

WABOT-1: The first humanoid robot

Scientists at Waseda University in Japan built the world's first humanoid robot in 1973

Eliza: When chatbots started

1966 saw the invention of Eliza, which is said to be the first chatbot

The longest plane hijacking in Latin America

In 1973, two men pretending to be Colombian guerrillas hijacked a plane for 60 hours

The speech that inspired the Law of the Sea

In November 1967, the Maltese diplomat, Arvid Pardo, gave a historic speech at the UN

South Africa’s nuclear weapons

In 1989, South Africa became the first country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons

Cambodia war crimes

Kerry Hamill mistakenly sailed into Cambodian waters and was killed by the Khmer Rouge

Kristallnacht: The night of broken glass

In 1938, the Nazis launched a violent anti-Jewish attack, known as Kristallnacht

The Estonia ferry disaster

In 1994 the Estonia ferry sank off Finland in one of Europe's biggest shipping tragedies

South Africa’s first inter-racial marriage

For almost 40 years, marriage between people from different ethnic backgrounds was banned

Arrested for "immorality" in South Africa

Dr Zureena Desai was arrested in South Africa for breaking the Immorality Act

Why Tupac was fired from Menace II Society

In 1993, the Hughes brothers released their debut movie

India's Mars Orbiter Mission

India placed a satellite into orbit around Mars on its first attempt in 2014

Designing the Google logo

Brazilian artist and designer, Ruth Kedar’s story of designing the Google logo.

The discovery of New Zealand’s first dinosaur

The discovery of New Zealand's first dinosaur by Joan Wiffen

India’s plague outbreak

In 1994, hundreds of thousands of people fled the city of Surat

Camouflaging Leningrad

In 1941, landmarks were painted and covered in the Russian city during World War Two

The invention of the CT scanner

In 1971, the CT scanner was invented by Allan Cormack and Godfrey Hounsfield

When Italy gave back Ethiopia’s stolen obelisk

The Axum Obelisk was looted by Italian soldiers in 1937 on the orders of Benito Mussolini

Abebech Gobena: Africa's 'Mother Teresa'

In 1980, Abebech Gobena founded an orphanage in Ethiopia to save children from starvation

Ardi: The oldest skeleton of a human ancestor

In 1994, a college student discovered a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton in Ethiopia

Emperor Haile Selassie in Bath

In 1936, the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie was exiled in Bath in the UK

Emperor Haile Selassie overthrown

In September 1974, a military junta launched a coup against Ethiopia's monarchy

Giant Gonzalez: from NBA star to WWE wrestler

Jorge Gonzalez was the first Argentinian in an NBA draft. How did he end up wrestling?

Apollo 13

In 1970, a Moon mission almost ended in tragedy after an explosion on board the spaceship

The end of the Irish marriage bar

Until 1973, married women in Ireland were banned from working in state jobs.

Ramesses II's 'mummy makeover'

In 1976, the mummy of Ramesses II was flown from Egypt to Paris for a makeover

I led the 'Umbrella' protests

In September 2014, Nathan Law led Hong Kong's 'Umbrella' Protests

The woman who spoke to the space station

Maggie Iaquinto was the first amateur radio enthusiast to contact Russian cosmonauts

Guatemala's disappeared

Jeremias Tecu's two brothers are among the thousands who disappeared in Guatemala

Waris Dirie

In 1987, Waris Dirie had her first photo-shoot and became a supermodel sensation

The writer of Mary Poppins

It's 60 years since the Disney film was released, based on writer PL Travers's book

Canada’s first UFO landing pad

In 1967, the town of St Paul built Canada's first alien UFO landing pad

Spain's La Tomatina

In 1945, a spat between teenage boys was the seed for the world's largest tomato fight

Argentina's five presidents in two weeks

In 2001, Argentina went through a remarkable political crisis

India’s first female bartender

The story of the woman who became known as India’s first female bartender

Nazis in Egypt

Egypt recruited thousands of Nazis after World War Two

The celebrity murder case that divided France

French actress Marie Trintignant was killed by the rock star Bertrand Cantat in 2003.

Saving lives after the 2002 Bali bombings

'Spray-on skin' was used to treat burns victims after bombings on the Indonesian island.

How the CIA caught 'Carlos the Jackal'

One of the world’s most wanted men had been on the run for decades.

Sukarno: The founding father of Indonesian independence

In 1945, the nationalist leader declared independence for Indonesia

The last ever Olympic art competition

From 1912 until 1948, you could win medals in art at the Olympic Games

Clara Nunes: Queen of Samba

The Brazilian singer who earned the title Queen of Samba

The first televised US presidential debate

In 1956, US presidential candidates sent female representatives to the first debate on TV

President Richard Nixon resigns

In 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign

Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority

In 1979, the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of US politics

Bush v Gore: The election decided in the Supreme Court

The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the most contested in history

The Situation Room photograph

The story behind the Situation Room photograph during the raid to kill Bin Laden in 2011

Ice Bucket Challenge

The ice bucket challenge became a worldwide phenomenon in 2014

The 1965 Freedom Riders of Australia

The students who challenged the discrimination of Australia's indigenous people

Finding a home for Bulgaria's dancing bears

In 1998, it became illegal to make bears dance in Bulgaria

Yazidi genocide: A rescue mission on Mount Sinjar

How Yazidis in Iraq fled to Mount Sinjar to escape genocide in August 2014

The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall

How punk rock band Die Toten Hosen secretly played a concert in East Berlin.

The first cold chain vaccination storage system

In 1974, Ghana pioneered a new system, to help immunise against serious diseases

Building the Moscow Metro

How the Moscow Metro was built using more than 10,000 Russian workers.

Olympics: Zamzam Farah at London 2012

Somali sprinter Zamzam Farah at the London 2012 Olympics

The first Olympic ‘mascot’

The creation of Shuss for the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France

The 1924 Paris Olympics

The last time Paris held the Olympic Games was 100 years ago in 1924

How Ayia Napa became a clubbing capital

In the 1990s, Ayia Napa, in Cyprus, went from quiet fishing village to party resort

The missing people of Cyprus

Between 1963 and 1974, more than 2,000 people in Cyprus went missing

Cyprus 2003: Crossing the ceasefire line

In April 2003, people in Cyprus crossed the ceasefire line for the first time in 29 years

Cyprus 1974: The Final Landing

In July 1974, Captain Adamos Marneros landed the last flight at Nicosia Airport in Cyprus

Cyprus 1974: The Greek coup

How a coup in Cyprus led to the division of the island’s communities

Arrested for playing football in Brazil

For nearly 40 years, women in Brazil were banned from playing football

Italy's 'poison ships'

In 1988, a ship carrying toxic waste arrived in Manfredonia, Italy

The 1968 Mexico City massacre

The massacre in Mexico City in October 1968, 10 days before the Olympics

The day Celia Cruz returned to Cuba

Cuban salsa singer Celia Cruz's only return to the island in 43 years of exile.

How the air fryer was invented

In 2006, Dutch inventor Fred van der Weij cooked up an idea for a new kitchen device

Conservative wipe-out in Canada

In Canada's 1993 election, the governing party was routed, ending up with just two seats

Fight the Power: The song that became an anthem of protest

In 1989, Public Enemy provided the soundtrack for Spike Lee's movie, Do The Right Thing

Georgia’s political crisis

In 1991, the newly independent country found itself on the verge of a civil war

Executed in Stalin’s Great Terror in Georgia

In the 1930s, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin executed hundreds of thousands without trial

Subway Art: The graffiti bible

In 1984, Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper released an iconic photography book

I designed Hello Kitty

In 1974, a Japanese artist created a character who is now worth more than $80 billion

The first CIA-backed coup in Latin America

President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala was overthrown in a revolt sponsored by the US

Dignitas: Founding an assisted dying society

In 1998, Swiss lawyer Ludwig Minelli set up the controversial organisation Dignitas

Sagrada Familia: Completing Gaudi’s vision

How architects carried on building Barcelona's basilica after the death of designer Gaudi

The expulsion of the Sudeten Germans

Sudeten Germans were expelled by the Czechoslovak government after World War Two

Kawarau Bridge: The first bungee jumping site in New Zealand

In 1988 AJ Hackett brought bungee jumping to paying customers

The first mega cruise ship

In 1988, the world’s largest passenger ship set sail on her maiden voyage from the USA

The beginning of Benidorm

How one man grew a sleepy Spanish town into one of the world’s biggest holiday resorts

How Cancún became a tourist destination

In 1969, Antonio Enríquez Savignac started building Cancún

The first budget transatlantic flights

In 1955, an Icelandic airline slashed the cost of flying across the Atlantic

Orelhão: Brazil's iconic egg-shaped telephone booth

In 1971, a Chinese architect called Chu Ming Silveira created Orelhão

Kielland disaster

In 1980, 123 men died when a platform capsized in Norway's biggest industrial disaster

The Irish shopworkers strike against apartheid

In 1984, 11 Dunnes store workers walked out after refusing to handle South African goods

Boko Haram massacre in Gwoza

In 2014, Boko Haram drove into Gwoza in Nigeria and began an assault that killed hundreds

Nato bombs Serbian state television headquarters

It's 25 years since Nato bombed the Serbian television headquarters in Belgrade

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at George Bush

Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at the President of the United States.

Saving lives on D-Day

Charles Norman Shay was honoured for saving men from drowning on Omaha Beach on D-Day

The woman whose weather report changed the date of D-Day

Maureen Flavin’s weather report forecast a storm and changed the course of WW2 history

Tetris: The birth of an all-time favourite

The game was created by a Russian and marketed by an American during the Cold War

‘Panda diplomacy’: China gifts pandas to Taiwan

Giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were sent to Taiwan from China as a gift in 2008

The commercial that changed advertising: 1984

Forty years ago, a revolutionary advert played at America’s Super Bowl

The Flint water crisis

In 2014, a city in Michigan was exposed to dangerous levels of lead in its water supply

The first Aboriginal MP

In August 1971, the first Aboriginal MP took his place in the Australian Senate.

The first ever quintuplets

Ninety years ago, five girls were born and exhibited to the world

Carlos Lamarca: From army captain to Brazil's 'most wanted'

Hero or traitor? Carlos Lamarca deserted the Brazilian army to fight the military regime

How Air Jordans were created

The story of how Nike signed basketballer Michael Jordan and launched Air Jordans

Imelda Marcos's famous shoe collection

In 2001, more than 700 pairs of Imelda Marcos’ shoes became museum exhibits in Marikina

Adi Dassler's sports shoe obsession

How an argument between the Dassler brothers led to the creation of Adidas and Puma

How a Brazilian flip-flop took over the world

Havaianas has become one of the country's most successful and best-known exports

Bata: Pioneering shoemakers

A Czech company called Bata pioneered assembly line shoemaking

When Cuban spy Ana Montes was caught

The story of Cuban spy Ana Montes who was arrested in 2001

Baghdad heavy metal

The story of heavy metal in Iraq during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein

How nuclear testing changed politics in French Polynesia

In 2004, protests against nuclear testing saw a change in how French Polynesia was ruled

The creation of the state of Israel

In 1948, the state of Israel was declared

The ‘Catastrophe’ for Palestinians

In 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes

Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal

The story of a princess, an Indian palace and a photograph which gained worldwide fame

How a billion Indians got a digital ID

The 2009 attempt to give all Indian citizens a unique digital ID

The pioneering eye surgery that led to Lasik

In 1963, Dr Jose Barraquer Moner performed the first eye surgery to fix short-sightedness.

East Germany's coffee from Vietnam

A thirst for caffeine led to an unusual global collaboration in the 1980s

Friends: The making of a smash hit

Behind the scenes on one of the biggest TV comedies of all time

The Channel Tunnel breakthrough

In 1990, the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France was connected

Ukraine's 'museum of corruption'

Ordinary people saw inside the home of Ukraine’s ousted president in February 2014

How to win friends and influence people

In 1936, Dale Carnegie wrote the self help book - How to Win Friends and Influence People

How the Milgram 'obedience' experiment shocked the world

The study aimed to test whether 'ordinary' people were capable of committing evil acts

Finding the victims of Stroessner's Paraguay

One man has dedicated his life to finding the victims of Paraguay's dictatorship

Oliver Tambo returns to South Africa from exile

Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa in 1990 after 30 years in exile.

Brenda Fassie: Madonna of the townships

Brenda Fassie was a popular South African pop star, dubbed the 'Madonna of the townships'

Sarah Baartman's 200-year journey back home

The campaign to return Sarah Baartman to South Africa nearly 200 years after her death

Soweto uprising: Children who marched against apartheid

In 1976, an uprising was sparked when demonstrating children were gunned down

South Africa's referendum on apartheid

The last whites-only vote in South Africa was held in 1992

Major Charity Adams and the Six-Triple-Eight

The first African-American woman to lead a World War Two battalion

Deadly Everest avalanche

In 2014, an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall killed 16 sherpas on Mount Everest

West Africa's Ebola virus epidemic

In 2014, Sierra Leone was devastated by Africa's biggest Ebola outbreak on record

The friendship train: Connecting India and Bangladesh

In 2008, India and Bangladesh were reconnected by train after 43 years

Egypt and the ‘Cairo 52’

In May 2001, 52 men were arrested in a gay nightclub floating on the River Nile

Hiroo Onoda, Japan’s last WW2 soldier to surrender

Hiroo Onoda spent 30 years fighting in the jungle, believing the war was still going on

St Teresa of Avila's severed hand

How General Franco kept the hand of St Teresa of Avila for spiritual guidance.

The Scream: A stolen masterpiece

In 1994, an undercover operation was launched to recover the Scream painting

How Lake Karla in Greece was drained

In 1962, Thessaly’s Lake Karla was drained by the Greek government

The 2010 Kampala bombings

Bombings in Uganda in 2010 killed 74. Many were football fans watching the World Cup

Bonus: The Black 14

The lives of 14 black American footballers are changed forever in a fight against racism

Sweden's Cinnamon Bun Day

In 1999, a delicious new tradition was born in Sweden's kitchens

The Bluetooth story

The story of how a Viking inspired wireless technology.

Sweden's pioneering paternity leave

Fifty years ago Sweden introduced gender neutral parental leave

The man who invented the seat belt

In 1958, Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars

Fifty years of Abba

In 1974, Swedish act Abba won the Eurovision song contest

Surviving the Rwandan genocide

April 1994 was the start of the Rwandan genocide. One hundred days of atrocities followed

The founding of Nato

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed to block the Soviet Union's expansion

Britain's first beach for nudists

In 1980, a seaside town opened a beach where people could strip off as they pleased

The Heimlich Manoeuvre

How the life-saving method to stop choking was developed

Britain's Mirpuri migration

In 1967, the Mangla Dam was built in Mirpur spurring a huge global migration

Wham! in China

How Wham! became the first Western pop act to perform in communist China

Discovering the Terracotta Army

In 1974, Chinese farmers stumbled upon an astonishing archaeological site

The 'comfort women' of World War Two

Hundreds of thousands of Asian women were forced into sex slavery in the 1930s and 1940s

Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

Thousands of people were sent to re-education camps during China’s cultural revolution

Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write

In 1958, Zhou Youguang introduced a new writing system in China

The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius

Vesuvius is famous for burying Pompeii but it last erupted in 1944, during World War II.

Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero

The forgotten story of Winifred Atwell, the pianist from Trinidad who broke sales records

Paraguay adopts its second language

How Guarani was officially recognised in Paraguay’s new constitution

Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate

In 1992 a student found a set of fossilised footprints from the earliest vertebrate

11M: The day Madrid was bombed

Nearly 200 died when Spanish commuter trains were bombed in 2004

MH370: The plane that vanished

Ghyslain Wattrelos' wife and two children were on MH370, the plane that disappeared.

Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda

In 2002, a nun was sent to northern Uganda to help those suffering from a bloody conflict

The Carnation Revolution in Portugal

In 1974, a 41-year regime was overthrown in a day

French child evacuees of World War Two

In World War Two, tens of thousands of children left Paris to escape the threat of bombs

Uruguay v the tobacco giant

In 2010, Uruguay was taken to court by a tobacco company for its trailblazing smoking ban

The Whisky War: Denmark v Canada

Beginning in 1984, a dispute over an island was marked by geniality, and bottles of booze

The discovery of the Lord of Sipan in Peru

In 1987, the looting of an ancient pyramid led to an extraordinary golden discovery

The lost Czech scrolls

The Torah scrolls stolen by the Nazis, rescued by an London Jewish community.

Crimea's Soviet holiday camp

The hugely popular Soviet holiday camp, Artek

Russia annexes Crimea

In 2014, Russia took over the Crimean peninsula

Whistler: Creating one of the world’s biggest ski resorts

In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympics

Columbus Lighthouse

A memorial for the ashes of Christopher Columbus opened in the Dominican Republic in 1992

Trans murder in Honduras

The 2009 murder of Vicky Hernandez forced recognition of transgender rights in Honduras

Icelandic women's strike

In 1975, 90% of all women in Iceland took part in a massive nationwide protest

The Soviet scientist who made two-headed dogs

Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov shocked the world with his two-headed dog experiments

Supermalt: The malt drink created after the Nigerian civil war

In 1972, a Danish brewery created Supermalt

The small Irish town known as ‘Little Brazil’

How Gort in the west of Ireland became home to so many Brazilians

The Juliet letters

Since the 1990s the Juliet Club has answered letters to the Shakespearian heroine

Patty Hearst: Rebel heiress

In 1974, a kidnapped socialite joined forces with her captors

The WW2 escape line that fooled the Nazis

In 1940 a rescue operation helped Allied servicemen escape from Nazi-occupied France

The Battle of Versailles: Catwalk clash of American and French fashion

In 1973 a fashion show was held in France which the media dubbed the Battle of Versailles

How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat helped end segregation in the United States

Lucha Reyes: Peruvian music star

She overcame poverty, health problems and racism to become one of Peru’s greatest singers

A young mother saved from death by stoning

In 2003, human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim defended Amina Lawal from death by stoning

Queen of the 'fro

In 1986, Charlotte Mensah went to work in the UK's first luxury Afro-Caribbean hair salon

First internet cafe

Cyberia, billed as the World's first internet cafe opened in London in 1994

The Arctic’s doomsday seed vault

In 2008, seeds began arriving at a frozen vault designed to save the world’s food supply

Brazil's Landless Workers Movement

In 1980, poor rural workers occupied land owned by the rich and violent clashes followed

Silenced by the Vatican

How Brazilian priest Leonardo Boff was punished for his writing on liberation theology

Jack Strong aka Ryszard Kukliński: Cold War traitor or hero?

During the Cold War a high-ranking Polish colonel passed Soviet secrets to the CIA

The Hungarian footballer executed for love

Sándor Szűcs was hanged for trying to escape communist Hungary with his lover

Wang Jingwei: China’s traitor or protector?

The national hero was branded a traitor for collaborating with Japan during World War Two

Axis Sally: World War II traitor who broadcast for the Nazis

Mildred Gillars became the first woman in American history to be convicted of treason.

Vidkun Quisling: Norway's traitor

In 1939, Vidkun Quisling asked Hitler to invade Norway.

Jamuna Tudu: The real life 'Lady Tarzan'

In the early 2000s, a woman known as ‘Lady Tarzan’ fought India’s so called timber mafia

Ibadan Zoo

Bob Golding turned Ibadan Zoo into one of Nigeria's biggest attractions in the 1970s

Tortured in Iran's Evin Prison

Protests after Iran's 2009 election caused one man to be interrogated for 118 days

The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

In 1975, unarmed Moroccans faced off against gun-carrying Spanish soldiers

The hunger-striking Bolivian president

In 1984, President Zuazo went on hunger strike, in an attempt to stabilise Bolivia

Gürtel scandal: Spain's Watergate

How one man's secret recordings revealed one of Spain's biggest corruption scandals

The first World Laughter Day

The first World Laughter Day took place in Mumbai, India in January 1998

Russian ballerina defects to the west

The Russian ballerina who defected to the west

The mystery of France's lost king

The fate of Louis-Charles, imprisoned in 1795, was for years shrouded in rumour

The world’s first lesbian couple to get married

In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise gay marriage

What the 1989 solar storm did to Quebec

In 1989, a huge solar flare ground life to a halt in Quebec

The Hindenburg airship disaster

In 1937, the Hindenburg burst into flames during mooring, killing 35 people on board.

The invention of the wingsuit

In 1999, skydiver Jari Kuosma developed the first commercial wingsuit

Discovery of the hole in the earth’s ozone

In 1985, news broke of a major environmental discovery: a hole in the earth’s ozone layer

Earth: A pale blue dot in the universe

In 1990, a space probe's photograph of Earth captured the enormity of space

Ken Hom's 'Chinese Cookery'

In 1984, Ken Hom taught TV audiences to cook Chinese food for the first time

The disputed history of pad Thai

Exploring the different theories behind the creation of pad Thai

Flavr Savr tomato: The world's first genetically-engineered food

In 1994, a tomato became the world's first genetically-engineered food on sale

Kiwi: How New Zealand hijacked China's fruit

How the Chinese gooseberry became the kiwi and one of New Zealand’s biggest exports

Inventing Nutella

How the chocolate and hazelnut spread was created in 1946

'The bad boy of Welsh politics'

In 1969, the singer Dafydd Iwan campaigned for official recognition of the Welsh language

Al Jazeera Three: Imprisoned in Egypt

There was an international outcry in 2014 when three journalists were imprisoned in Egypt

The mysterious death of Pablo Neruda

In 1973, the poet and prominent communist tried to flee persecution in Chile

The assassination of King Faisal

In 1975, the king of Saudi Arabia was shot by his nephew

Tsunami devastates Samoa

In 2009 a tsunami killed 149 people. Lumepa Hald tells the story of destruction and loss

The funeral of Nelson Mandela

In 2013, South Africa's first black president was buried in his ancestral village

Vatican citizen Emanuela Orlandi disappears

In 1983, a suspected kidnapping led to scandal

Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime

How the great poet kept writing even through the darkest days of Soviet history

Yeltsin speaks at the reburial of the Romanovs

In 1998, the Russian president condemned the Soviet violence that killed Tsar Nicholas II

Murder of the Romanovs

In 1918, the Russian royal family were killed by the Bolsheviks

The release of DOOM

In 1993, a controversial sci-fi video game called DOOM was released

‘The disappeared’ of Argentina

In 1977 a woman became one of thousands who disappeared from the streets of Buenos Aires

A Greek coup: The day the colonels took power

In 1967, army officers seized power in Greece in a US-backed coup

Thousands of Danish brains in plastic buckets

In 1945, a collection that would amass 9,479 brains was started

La Haine: The film that shocked France

How Mathieu Kassovitz's critique of policing shocked French society

World's first solar-heated home

In 1948, the Dover Sun House, in the US, was the first home to be heated by solar power

Tanzania adopts Swahili to unite the country

Tanzania's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the official language in the early 1960s

Cameroon’s mysterious lake deaths

In 1986, remote parts of Cameroon were turned into ghost villages overnight

The bird that defied extinction

In 1977, the white-winged guan was rediscovered in Peru after a century

Cabbage Patch Kids

Christmas 1983 saw frenzied shoppers buy three million Cabbage Patch Kids

The Mumbai attacks

In 2008, 10 gunmen killed more than 100 people in Mumbai’s busiest hot spots

The Paris heatwave

In 2003, Paris was overwhelmed by the hottest European heatwave for 500 years

Kennedy’s nail-biter election victory

In 1960, John F Kennedy became the youngest person to be elected United States president.

The invention of bubble tea

Chun Shui Tang tea house in Taiwan began selling bubble tea in 1987

The independence of Zambia

How Zambia became independent in 1964

Discovering the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion

In 2000 Franck Goddio made one of the greatest ever underwater discoveries

The Bolivian Water War

How Bolivians in the city of Cochabamba fought against the “leasing of the rain”

Rosalind Franklin: DNA pioneer

The scientist produced an X-ray photograph in 1952, that helped show the structure of DNA

Eyjafjallajökull: The volcano that stopped a continent

In 2010, a cloud of volcanic ash brought Europe’s planes back to earth

The invention of the EpiPen

How engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his team made the EpiPen, the lifesaving allergy device

The hippo and the tortoise

In 2004, a hippo and a tortoise became friends. Their story gained worldwide fame

Destruction of Mostar Bridge

On 9 November 1993 the historic bridge was destroyed during the Bosnian War

The Pakistani teens who became disco superstars

How Nazia and Zoheb Hassan changed South-East Asian pop with their album, Disco Deewane

Debbie McGee in Iran

Showbiz star, Debbie McGee describes being caught up in the Iranian revolution in 1978

Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire

More than 300 people died in Paraguay's capital in 2004

Freddie Mercury 'marries' Jane Seymour

The actress Jane Seymour shares what it was like being rock star Freddie Mercury's bride

Che Guevara’s daughter: A Cuban doctor in Angola

In 1986 Dr Aleida Guevara travelled from Cuba to treat children in communist Angola

Inventing the black box

In 1962 a prototype of the cockpit flight recorder was tested in Australia

The discovery of the HIV virus

In 1983, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris first discovered the HIV virus

The billion dollar bid to stop oil drilling in the Amazon

In 2010 a $3.6billion fund began to stop oil drilling in Ecuador’s Yasuni national park

Turkey: Gezi Park protests

In 2013 protests in Istanbul’s Gezi Park led to civil unrest across Turkey

'The streets of Harare were littered with money'

Professor Gift Mugano describes when Zimbabwe’s inflation hit 89.7 sextillion per cent

The 1993 MAD hijack

In 1993, a Nigerian Airways flight from Lagos to Abuja was hijacked

The 1980 Turkey coup

On 12 September 1980, the military took control of Turkey

The first Bosphorus Bridge

In 1973, the first bridge connecting Europe and Asia was completed

Osmondmania

Donny Osmond shares his memories of teen hysteria in 1973

Launching Lagos Fashion Week

Lagos Fashion Week was launched in 2011 putting Nigerian style on the global map

Mexico’s murdered women

In the 1990s, hundreds of young women were murdered in a Mexican border town

Rana Plaza building collapse

In 2013, an eight-storey building in Bangladesh collapsed killing more than 1,000 people

Cambodian peace walk

In 1992, Cambodia held its first peace walk aimed at uniting a country torn apart by war

Surviving an acid attack and changing the law

In 2013, acid attack survivors in India celebrated a landmark Supreme Court ruling

Kwame Nkrumah: Ousted from power

In 1966, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders was ousted from power

Theodosia Okoh: Designer of Ghana’s flag

Ghana's independence in 1957 was marked with a new flag designed by Theodosia Okoh

The 84-year-old primary school pupil

In 2004, Kenyan great grandfather Kimani Maruge became the oldest person to start school

Yinka Shonibare: Nelson's Ship in a Bottle

On 24 May 2010, artist Yinka Shonibare unveiled his sculpture, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle

Protectors of the Amazon

In 2003, the Sarayaku community began a legal battle against an oil company

The Amoco Cadiz oil spill

In 1978, a crude oil tanker was shipwrecked off the coast of France

Nigeria strikes oil

In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in Nigeria

The oilfield that changed Kazakhstan

In 1993 Kazakhstan partnered with Chevron and started drilling for oil

The oil crisis of 1973

In October 1973, Arab nations slashed oil production causing prices to sky rocket

The first cat cafe

In 1998, the world’s first cat cafe opened in Taiwan

The Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy

In 2013, a ship carrying more than 500 migrants sank off the coast of Lampedusa.

Kassandra: The peacekeeping telenovela in Bosnia

The Latin American soap opera Kassandra helped keep peace in Bosnia

Concorde's first flight

On 2 March 1969 Concorde took to the skies for the first time

Vietnam War: Stopping nuclear disaster

In 1975, physicist Wally Hendrickson prevented nuclear disaster in Vietnam

The year of the vuvuzela

Freddie 'Saddam' Maake tells the story of how he became known as 'Mr Vuvuzela'

Kenya: Nairobi shopping mall attack

In 2013, a Somali militant group attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi

The first person inside the 'Gates of Hell'

In November 2013, George Kourounis descended into the 'Gates of Hell'

Fighting for legal abortion in Italy

In 1978, campaigners won their fight to legalise abortion in Italy despite the opposition

Nazi eugenics

In 1933, Adolf Hitler ordered the sterilisation of people with disabilities

The Ramallah concert

In 2005, an orchestra made up of young Arab and Israeli musicians performed in Ramallah

The siege at the Church of the Nativity

The final days of one of the most dramatic sieges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Ariel Sharon visits al-Aqsa

In 2000, the Israeli opposition leader visited the al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Camp David Summit: How Middle East peace talks failed

President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt to end the conflict in the Middle East.

Oslo Peace Accords: The secret talks behind Middle East deal

How a couple in Oslo brokered peace in the Middle East

Victor Jara: killed in Chile's coup

The musician's widow recounts his murder at the hands of Chile's army in 1973

Organising Chile's 1973 military coup

On 11 September, General Augusto Pinochet deposed President Salvador Allende

Murder of Swedish politician Anna Lindh

In 2003, Swedish politician Anna Lindh was attacked and killed in Stockholm

Bi Kidude: Zanzibar's 'golden grandmother of music'

Bi Kidude was one of the first women from Zanzibar to sing in public without the veil

Arctic 30: Russian arrest of Greenpeace campaigners

In 2013, campaigners were arrested for protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic

Leaving China to study after the Cultural Revolution

We hear from one of the first students to study overseas after the Cultural Revolution

Saving Guadalupe from goats

An island expedition helped save Guadalupe's wildlife from extinction...and goats

Egypt's Rabaa massacre

In August 2013, the army killed hundreds of protestors in Cairo

North and South Korean leaders meet for the first time in decades

In June 2000, the first inter-Korean summit since the Korean War took place

The Bristol bus boycott

How a protest by black activists in 1963 led to the UK's first anti-racism laws

Women invade Dublin's male-only swimming spot

In 1974, women campaigned to swim at the Forty Foot in Dublin, Ireland

Celtic Tiger: Ireland's 'ghost estates'

How the collapse of Ireland's Celtic Tiger led to thousands of abandoned housing estates

The first Rose of Tralee

In 1959, the first Rose of Tralee festival was held in Ireland

How electricity came to rural Ireland

The Rural Electrification Scheme brought power to 300,000 homes in the Irish countryside

Easter Rising in Ireland

In 1916, a group of Irish rebels launched an armed revolt against British rule

The Wizard of Oz: The stolen ruby slippers

Ruby slippers used in the film 'The Wizard of Oz' were stolen in 2005.

Judy Garland: The final shows

The last performances of Judy Garland in January 1969

Returning Benin Bronzes

In 2004, a chance encounter in Nigeria led to the return of two looted art treasures

Iran: How the prime minister was overthrown in 1953

It's 70 years since the US-backed coup which brought the Shah of Iran to power in 1953

The boy who discovered a new species of human ancestor

Matt Berger tripped over a hominid fossil whilst exploring with his dad in South Africa

Jean-Michel Basquiat bursts onto the New York art scene

The success of graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's diamonds scandal

Journalist Claude Angeli broke the story that helped topple France's President in 1981

Sarajevo’s haven of peace

The Jewish charity that helped people in the Bosnian war during the siege of Sarajevo

The Great Train Robbery

In 1963, thieves held up a Royal Mail train on its journey from Glasgow to London

Brownie Wise: The creator of Tupperware parties

How Brownie Wise inspired an army of US housewives to sell Tupperware at parties

Dinosaur in court

In 2012 a dinosaur skeleton became the subject of a restraining order and a court case

Treehouse on the Berlin Wall

In 1982 a Turkish worker in Germany built a treehouse against the Berlin Wall

Birth of a new language

In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a new sign language

First dinosaur eggs identified in India

In 1982, Ashok Sahni discovered nests of dinosaur eggs for the first time in India

José Mujica: Prison break to president

Uruguay's former president recounts his revolutionary past as a member of the Tupamaros

Mr Bigg's: The birth of Nigeria's iconic takeaway

It’s been 50 years since Mr Bigg's was first launched in Nigeria

The 1960 coup against Haile Selassie

There was an attempt to overthrow the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie in December 1960

The Pope’s controversial Nicaragua visit

Pope John Paul II angered supporters of the Sandinista government during a 1983 trip

Brain: The first personal computer virus

In 1986 a computer virus was developed accidentally by two brothers in Pakistan

Escaping the Nazis in Greece

Yeti Mitrani and her family escaped deportation from Greece by the Nazis in 1943

The US singer who became the Soviet Union’s Red Elvis

In 1966, American Dean Reed was the first western rock star to tour the Soviet Union

The birth of Barbie

Ruth Handler created the Barbie doll which was first sold in 1959

Japan surrenders in China

The signing of the Japanese surrender documents at the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1945.

The ‘Barricades’ of Latvia

More than 500,000 people barricaded the streets of Riga in January 1991

Tamoxifen: Breast cancer ‘wonder drug’

How the drug tamoxifen became a global success in breast cancer treatment

Creating the first emoji

In 1999, Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita created a global phenomena - the first emoji

When disposable nappies were invented

The story of how disposable nappies were invented.

Inventing Rubik’s Cube

In 1974, a Hungarian architect, Ernő Rubik invented his bestselling puzzle

Invention of the ballpoint pen

In 1938 a Hungarian journalist László Bíró invented the ballpoint pen

A right royal night out

Princess Diana, Kenny Everett and Freddie Mercury went on a night out in London in 1988

When tourism came to the Maldives

In February 1972 the first group of tourists arrived in the Maldives

The National Health Service begins

The UK’s National Health Service started on 5 July 1948

Longest-serving democratically elected communist government

A democratically elected communist government came to power in eastern India in 1977

The trial of John Demjanjuk

In 1986, John Demjanjuk was accused of being ‘Ivan the Terrible’

I made Lady Gaga's meat dress

In 2010 Lady Gaga attended the MTV Video Music Awards in a dress made out of beef

The 'graveyard' for communist statues

Communist statues in Hungary's capital Budapest were moved to Memento Park in 1993

Sampoong department store disaster

On 29 June 1995 the Sampoong Department Store in South Korea collapsed killing 502 people

First reports of Ebola

Ebola's first documented outbreak emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976

JFK’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

On 26 June 1963, United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin

My dad played golf on the moon

In 1971 Alan Shepard played golf on the moon

The Empire Windrush arrives

On 22 June 1948, the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in England

Anti-gay police raid at Tasty nightclub

On 7 August 1994, police raided Tasty, a gay nightclub in downtown Melbourne, Australia

The Somali pilot ordered to bomb his own country

Somali fighter pilot Ahmed Mohamed Hassan faced a terrible choice in 1988

Uprising in East Germany

On 16 June 1953 East German workers went on strike in protest at Soviet rule

Ming Smith makes history at MoMA

MoMA bought photos from an African-American woman for the first time in 1979.

Sir Don McCullin’s photo of a US marine

In 1968, British photographer travelled to Vietnam for his second ever war assignment

Malick Sidibé: Mali’s star photographer

Malick Sidibé photographed life in Mali after its independence from France in 1960.

A Great Day in Harlem: The story behind the iconic jazz photo

In 1958, aspiring photographer Art Kane captured 57 jazz legends in one immortal image

Lee Miller in Hitler's bath

In 1945 the war correspondent Lee Miller was photographed in Adolf Hitler's bath

1955 Le Mans disaster

In June 1955, more than 80 people were killed and 100 injured at the Le Mans 24-hour race

Last communist march before Hitler

On 25 January 1933 the last legal communist march was held in Berlin

Facial reconstruction: From mummy to murder

In 1975, Richard Neave invented a method to rebuild the face of an Egyptian mummy

Inuit children taken from families

In 1960s, the Canadian government took academically gifted Inuit children from the homes

The first Indian woman to conquer Everest

In May 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to stand on top of the world

Tragedy on Everest

Michael Groom is one of the survivors of a tragic climbing expedition to Mount Everest

Mallory on Everest

In 1999 the body of legendary British mountaineer, George Mallory, was found on Everest.

Tenzing Norgay conquers Everest

In 1953, Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest

Edmund Hillary conquers Everest

In 1953 Edmund Hillary became the first human to reach the top of Mount Everest

The deadliest glacial avalanche in the world

On 31 May 1970, the Huascarán avalanche destroyed the town of Yungay, in Peru

Trying to unite Africa

On 25 May 1963, leaders of 32 newly-independent African nations came together

Chasing the world’s biggest tornado

In May 2013, the widest tornado ever recorded hit the US state of Oklahoma

Fikret Alić

In 1992, a photograph of a starving man in a Bosnian concentration camp stunned the world

The sergeants' coup in Suriname

Sixteen army sergeants seized power in the South American country in 1980

Pippi Longstocking

In Stockholm in 1941, Astrid Lindgren made up a story for her daughter about a young girl

Creating New Zealand's national walking trail

Geoff Chapple's vision was to create New Zealand's national walking trail

The Dambusters

Eighty years ago a daring raid destroyed dams in Germany's Ruhr Valley

German child evacuees of World War Two

Thousands of German children during World War Two were sent to camps in the countryside

Singapore executes Filipina maid

The execution of Flor Contemplacion caused a crisis between the Philippines and Singapore

World War II victory in North Africa

It is 80 years since the Allies in World War II declared victory in North Africa

Warsaw Ghetto uprising

In May 1943, the uprising in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw in Poland came to an end

The last commercial flight out of Kai Tak

In 1998, the last commercial flight left Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport

The sinking of the SS Tilawa: the ‘Indian Titanic’

Hundreds died when an passenger ship was hit by Japanese torpedoes in 1942

United States bomb the Chinese embassy in Belgrade

On 7 May 1999, US bombs damaged the embassy and relations between China and the West

The removal of Scotland's Stone of Destiny

In 1950, four young Scottish students took the 'Stone of Destiny' from Westminster Abbey

Last King of Bulgaria

In June 2001, Bulgaria’s former King Simeon II won the country’s parliamentary election

The 'execution' of Oliver Cromwell

In 1661 in England, the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up for ritual execution

Jean-Bédel Bokassa's coronation

Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself Emperor of the Central African Republic in 1977

The king under the car park

In 2012, the lost grave of King Richard III was found under a car park in Leicester

The fight to televise the Queen's Coronation

How BBC bosses battled with the government for the right to film inside Westminster Abbey

The Met Gala goes global

In 1995, Anna Wintour became chair of the Met Gala and changed it forever

Guatemala's outspoken bishop

Human rights campaigner Bishop Juan Gerardi was bludgeoned to death on 26 April 1998

Discovering the secrets of DNA

James Watson and Francis Crick published their discoveries about DNA on 25 April 1953

Althea McNish: 'I designed fabrics for the Queen'

In 1966, Althea McNish designed fabrics for the Queen's visit to Trinidad

The Russian man who pretended to be a dog

In 1994, Oleg Kulik posed as a dog to protest conditions in post-Soviet Russia

Smoky the World War II dog hero

In 1944, Bill Wynne adopted a Yorkie believed to be one of the first therapy dogs

Roselle the 9/11 guide dog

In 2001, Roselle helped his owner escape from the World Trade Center

The world's first labradoodle

In 1989, Wally Conron created the world's first labradoodle

The first dog in space

Laika orbited Earth in 1957

Richard Dimbleby describes Belsen

Richard Dimbleby was the first broadcaster to report from Belsen concentration camp

I led the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers

On 15 April 2013, two brothers set off bombs at the Boston Marathon

Mass grave at Sernyky

An archaeologist travels to Ukraine to excavate a mass grave from World War Two

The universal recycling symbol

In 1970, American student Gary Anderson designed a logo for recycled paper products

Emperor Tewodros II

In 1868, Tewodros II of Ethiopia prepared to make a last stand against the British army

The Good Friday Agreement referendum

In 1998, a referendum was held in Northern Ireland and Ireland on the Belfast Agreement

Beto Perez: 'I created Zumba by accident'

In 2001, Colombian born choreographer Beto Perez created Zumba and it was all by accident

Awaji Kannon: One of the world's tallest statues

In 1982, a Japanese businessman unveiled the World Peace Giant Kannon in Japan

Pan-European picnic

In 1989, a picnic was held as demonstration for European integration

Escaping national service in Eritrea

The story of one young Eritrean woman’s attempt to escape compulsory national service

A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time, written by Prof Stephen Hawking, was published in March 1988

The first photo sent from a phone

In 1997, French engineer Philippe Kahn shared the first ever photo from a mobile phone

Godfather of manicures

In 1975, Minh Nguyen left behind his macho military life and re-trained as a manicurist

How Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley

Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, describes the city's technology revolution

The windmill that revolutionised wind power

In 1978, a group of volunteers in Denmark built their own wind turbine to power a school

Keiko: Freeing 'Free Willy'

In 1998, Keiko the Hollywood killer whale was released back into the wild

The man who lived in an airport

From 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, from Iran, spent 18 years living in a Paris airport

DDLJ: India’s longest running movie

The longest running film in India was released in 1995

Alcatraz: The strangest escape

Three prisoners escaped from the maximum security US jail, Alcatraz in June 1962

Kieu Chinh: A real Hollywood story

In 1974, actress Kieu Chinh found herself on a farm cleaning up after chicken

Iraq War: US security guards killed my son

In 2007, private US Blackwater security guards opened fire on Iraqi civilians

Iraq War: The capture of Saddam Hussein

On 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by United States forces

Iraq War: 'Most wanted' playing cards

In April 2003, playing cards were given to US troops to help them identify Iraqi targets

Iraq War: Refugees escaping

In March 2003, millions of citizens tried to flee Iraq after the US invasion began

Iraq War: The beginning

In March 2003, the Iraq War began as the United States bombed the capital, Baghdad

From a goddess to a graduate

The journey from goddess to graduate in Nepal.

Monica McWilliams’ role in the Northern Ireland peace process

Monica McWilliams played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process

First all-women peacekeeping unit

In 2007, the UN deployed its first all-female contingent of peacekeepers in Liberia

Mexico's first female presidential hopeful

In 1982, Rosario Ibarra became the first woman to stand for president in Mexico

Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer

She received numerous Hugos and Nebulas - top writing prizes for sci-fi writing

Zoran Djindjic: The murder of Serbia's prime minister

In 2003, Serbia's prime minister was assassinated in Belgrade

The museum at the end of the world

In 1992, a zoologist opened one of the world's most remote museums, on an Atlantic island

Grenada's underwater sculpture park

In 2004, Jason deCaires Taylor built the worlds first underwater gallery in Grenada

Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps

In 2009, Rudolf Brazda returned to the former concentration camp he was in for being gay

Wounded Knee siege

Fifty years ago, indigenous American activists staged a protest against the US authorities

When the Queen 'jumped out of a helicopter'

For the 2012 London Olympic Games the Queen appeared to jump out of a helicopter

Families interned in WW2 China

A first-hand account of being sent to a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai as a child

The invention of Semtex

In 1958, Stanislav Brebera invented Semtex, a malleable and odourless plastic explosive

Seggae riots in Mauritius

Mauritian musician Kaya, died in police custody on 21 February 1999, sparking rioting

Battle for the capital: Bonn v Berlin

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany decided which city would be the new capital

First winter ascent of Everest

On 17 February 1980, the first people climbed Everest in winter

Discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb

In 1923 the sealed burial chamber of Tutankhamun was opened for the first time

'I developed Pokémon'

In February 1996, gamers in Japan were first introduced to Pokémon

First Danish queen for 600 years

In 1972, Denmark crowned its first queen in 600 years

'Hot Autumn': When Italy’s workers revolted

In 1969, Italy erupted as thousands of workers went on strike

'I told the world Pope Benedict XVI was resigning'

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope and Jews

In April 1986, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to a Rome synagogue

Pope John Paul I’s sudden death

Cardinal Albino Luciani became Pope John Paul I in 1978. He died 33 days later

Reforming the Catholic Church with Vatican II

In 1959, Pope John XXIII announced a council of all the world's bishops and cardinals

How a Pope is chosen

After the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI

The first black music station in Europe

In 1981, Leroy Anderson launched Europe’s first dedicated black music station

The assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye

In 1993, Burundi’s first democratically elected President was murdered

Columbia space shuttle disaster

The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003

Czechoslovakia's 'Velvet Divorce'

Two former Prime Ministers describe how they split Czechoslovakia in two in 1993

Palestine Post bombing

Mordechai Chertoff was the editor on the Palestine Post when it was bombed in 1948

Invention of the MP3

It took Karlheinz Brandenburg and his team more than a decade to perfect MP3 technology

Albert Pierrepoint: Britain's executioner

Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman

Smolensk air disaster

In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, crashed and killed everyone on board

Japanese death row guard

Yoshikuni Noguchi was a prison guard in Japan and witnessed the hanging of a prisoner

When Britain tried to censor the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Paul McLoone recalls the time he was the voice of Martin McGuinness

Swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy

In 2009 a vaccine designed to stop swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder

France's nuclear tests in Algeria

Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara

Kosovo’s house schools

In the 1990s a generation of Albanians got their education crammed into private homes

Europe's horse meat scandal

In 2013, horse meat was discovered in beef products across Europe

Miracle on the Hudson

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York

World’s first tidal power station

French President Charles De Gaulle opened the power station in 1966.

Galápagos Islands’ sea cucumber dispute

A demand for sea cucumbers set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists

Paul Robeson and the transatlantic phone line

In 1957, Paul Robeson used a new undersea phone line to perform a transatlantic concert.

Dutch North Sea flood

In 1953, a storm combined with high tides breached sea defences in the Netherlands

Plastics in oceans

In 1971 Edward Carpenter discovered plastic floating about in the Atlantic Ocean

Pussy Riot’s cathedral protest

In 2012, a punk protest took place in one of Moscow's main cathedrals

The man Pinochet wanted dead

In 1973, Miguel Enriquez led resistance against the dictatorship in Chile

When America banned silicone breast implants

In 1992, the US Government suspended all procedures involving silicone breast implants

Arctic African

Tété-Michel Kpomassie, ran away from his village in Togo and went to live in Greenland.

One team in Tallinn

In 1996, Scotland played in a football match where the opposition hadn't turned up

The birth of the Slow Food Movement

In 1986, protests against McDonalds in Rome led to an anti-fast food revolution.

Inventing instant noodles

In 1958 Japanese entrepreneur, Momofuku Ando, invented instant noodles

Malta's bread strike

In February 1977 the bakers of Malta went on an unprecedented strike

Inventing Chicken Manchurian

Chef Nelson Wang created Chicken Manchurian in 1975

Creating ciabatta bread

In 1982, rally driver Arnaldo Cavallari created ciabatta bread in Adria, in Italy

Chile mine rescue

In 2010, 33 miners were trapped underground for 69 days in the San José mine in Chile

Grozny siege

In December 1994, Russian forces began the siege of Chechnya’s capital Grozny

Colombia's 'false positives' killings

When Colombia's military murdered thousands of innocent civilians

The BBC broadcasting through the Iron Curtain

Transmitting independent broadcasts through the Iron Curtain between 1947 and 1991

Una Marson and the BBC Caribbean Service

The BBC's first black producer, Una Marson, and the beginnings of the Caribbean Service

Felix Baumgartner's huge leap

In 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from space back to earth

Soviet fashionista

Slava Zaitsev was the first designer to design high fashion pieces in the Soviet Union

Returning to District Six

Zahra Nordien returned to District Six decades after being expelled during apartheid

The Nazi occupation of Jersey

A woman who risked her life to hide a Russian prisoner during World War Two

Mongolian revolution

In 1990, a peaceful revolution brought democracy to Mongolia

Creating Teletubbies

The story of the inspiration behind one of the most popular kids TV shows of all time

'The Dismissal' of Gough Whitlam

In 1975, the Prime Minister was sacked in Australia's biggest constitutional crisis

The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

In 2005, the unarmed Brazilian man was shot dead by police in London

Demolishing the Babri Masjid

Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya

Quebec’s 1995 referendum

In 1995, the people of Quebec voted on whether to become independent from Canada

Miss World protest

In 1970, feminists stormed the stage at the Miss World pageant in London

The woman who smuggled HIV into Bulgaria in her handbag

Virologist Professor Radka Argirova was the first to test people for HIV in Bulgaria

The islands Japan and Russia can’t agree on

In 1947, thousands of Japanese people were taken from their island homes by Soviet troops

CrossFit: The fitness phenomenon that changed the industry

In 2000, an American personal trainer invented CrossFit

Mombasa terror attacks

Journalist Kelly Hartog describes the moment terrorists targeted Israeli tourists in Kenya

How cat's eyes were invented

In 1934, Percy Shaw invented cat's eyes, the reflective studs in the road

The corruption and sodomy trials of Anwar Ibrahim

In 1998, Anwar Ibrahim was arrested and then jailed a year later

When Sweden’s roads went right

In 1967, Swedish traffic swapped to driving on the right-hand side of the road

First women’s minister in Iran

Iran’s first ever minister for women’s affairs was appointed in 1975

The invention of the seat belt

In 1958, Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars

Qatar's first female published author

Kaltham Jaber's anthology of short stories was published in 1978

First Emirati female teacher

A young woman who became the first female teacher in the United Arab Emirates

Inventing robot camel jockeys

In 2003, a Qatari engineer came up with the idea for a robot jockey in camel racing

Burj Khalifa: Designing the world’s tallest building

The tallest building in the world opened in 2010

Formation of the United Arab Emirates

A new country, the United Arab Emirates, was formed in 1971.

The child evacuees of World War Two

The thousands of children moved out of UK cities away from the risk of German bombs

Māori protests stops South African rugby tour

Māori anti-racism activists disrupt the South African rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981

The assassination of Pim Fortuyn

It has been 20 years since the controversial Dutch politician was murdered

First rape crisis centres in the US

Activist Sue Lenaerts helped start up one of the first rape crisis centres in the US

Polynesian Panthers

Polynesians in 1970s New Zealand fight back against dawn raids by the police

Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme

In 1975, President Habyarimana introduced Umuganda, compulsory, weekly community work

Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher

Dame Carmen Callil, who died in October this year, founded a feminist publisher in 1972

Campaigning against sex-selection in India

A first-hand account of the 1980s campaign against the sex-selective abortion of girls

Albania’s Stalinist purges

In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a series of purges

The Little Black Book survival guide

In 1985, a guide was written for young black men in the US who were stopped by the police

Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's career-defining speech in 2012

Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan

In 2002, Amiera Osman Hamed was put on trial after being arrested for wearing trousers

Theatre siege in Moscow

It is 20 years since Chechen rebels took an entire theatre full of people hostage

The Iranian Revolution and women

We hear what life was like during, and after the Iranian Revolution in 1979

Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand

The first ever Congress of Indigenous People of the Archipelago of Indonesia in 1999

Founder of the Cuban National Ballet

In 1959, Cuba’s most famous ballet dancer formed Cuba’s National Ballet Company

Cuba's boxing ban

In 1962, Fidel Castro banned professional boxing in Cuba, causing some amateurs to defect

The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write

In 1961, Fidel Castro launched a campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown

The final days of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the Pentagon and the Kremlin

Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos

The CIA expert whose job was to interpret photographs of missiles in Cuba

Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers

How the leader of a labour movement became a US civil rights hero

Torturing strikers in South Korea

A strike for better work conditions became a divisive moment in South Korea's history

Disney animators' strike

In 1941, the animators at Walt Disney's studios went on strike for nine weeks over pay

UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’

In 1979, British gravediggers went on strike over pay

The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival

In 1959, Claudia Jones held a Caribbean party, planting the seeds for the famous carnival

The Harder They Come

Jimmy Cliff spoke about the film that brought reggae music to the world in 1972

The fall of Slobodan Milosevic

How the Yugoslavian president was forced from office in October 2000

The release of Gilad Shalit

Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was freed after being held hostage for more than five years

The funk and soul club that changed Manchester

Manchester’s first racially inclusive nightclub

Dassler brothers’ rift

Brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler would go on to create global firms Adidas and Puma.

The raising of the Mary Rose

King Henry VIII's warship, The Mary Rose, was raised from the seabed in October 1982

Castrating Pablo Escobar's hippos

Pablo Escobar's pet hippos were found roaming Colombian waterways in 2007

The power of Jomo Kenyatta

Death pardons and chasing diplomats with sticks

Festival of Light

The Nationwide Festival of Light held by Christians protested against societal changes

Iran-Iraq War begins

On 22 September 1980 the Iran-Iraq war began, one of the bloodiest in recent history

The first Pope to visit Africa

Popes rarely left the Vatican City in the 1960s, but in 1969, Pope Paul VI visited Uganda

Ancient fossils give new insight

A student discovered fossils in 1967 helping our understanding of the world's evolution

World War Two child evacuees in Britain

The thousands of children moved out of UK cities away from the risk of German bombs

The last days of Queen Victoria

Witness History looks back on Queen Victoria's last days in 1901

When the Queen opened Buckingham Palace

Queen Elizabeth II first opened her home to the paying public on 7 August 1993

Windsor Castle fire

How a fire devastated Queen Elizabeth II's weekend home in 1992

Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Derby

The Coronation Derby of 1953

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Two Maids of Honour at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II recall their memories

The car that charmed Brazil

How the Fusca charmed Brazil

The Candelaria child massacre

The murder of eight homeless children outside the Candelaria church in Rio De Janeiro

Building of Brasilia

How Brazil opened a modernist capital city in 1960

The murder that shocked Brazil

In 2002 investigative journalist, Tim Lopes, was brutally killed by a Brazilian drug gang

Doomed hero of Brazilian democracy

The death of Brazil's president-elect Tancredo Neves.

Mikhail Gorbachev: Release of Irina Ratushinskaya

The imprisonment and release of dissident poet Irina Ratushinskaya

Mikhail Gorbachev: Perestroika

Reform in the Soviet Union, known as Perestroika, was launched in 1987

Princess Diana dances with John Travolta

Princess Diana dances at the White House with the star of Saturday Night Fever

The 'Last Indian'

The story of a Native American called Ishi who spent decades in hiding

Marikana Massacre

On 16 August 2012, police shot dead 34 striking miners at a platinum mine in South Africa

India's onion election

In 1980 Indira Gandhi came into power in India, it became known as the "onion election"

The 'Nixon Shock' and the end of the Gold Standard

In 1971, the US president, Richard Nixon, abandoned the gold standard.

The Gay Games

The first ever Gay Games were held 40 years ago

Hundreds die in Darayya

The siege of the Darayya, Syria, in which hundreds of people died

Bulgaria's cash crisis

How an American economist helped save Bulgaria from financial collapse.

The Bard of Bengal

Rabindranath Tagore was one of India's greatest poets. He died in August 1941

The death of Jawaharlal Nehru

The death of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru

The last Viceroy of India

The daughter of the last British viceroy in India remembers the transfer of power in 1947

India's Partition - Part Two

Chandra Joashi was caught on the wrong side of the border during India's partition

India's Partition - Part One

Saleem was five when his family escaped to the new Muslim country of Pakistan in 1947

The nightclub that changed Ibiza

In June 1973, the nightclub Pacha opened in Ibiza and it changed the island forever

Discovering Hale Bopp

The Hale Bopp Comet was discovered in 1995 which resulted in advances in science

Indonesia's forest fires

Forest fires in Indonesia caused huge damage and a dense smog across South East Asia

Sweden’s pronoun battle

How campaigners fought to get ‘hen’ included in Swedish dictionaries.

The resignation of President Nixon

On 8 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to resign

The return of Asians to Uganda

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, he asked exiled Asians to return to Uganda.

The city shaped by Ugandan Asians

Some 10,000 Asians made Leicester their home after being expelled from Uganda in 1972.

The exodus of Asians from Uganda

In 1972, dictator Idi Amin announced that all Asians had just 90 days to leave Uganda.

When Asians were forced to leave Kenya

Many Asians migrated to Kenya in the early 20th century but were later forced to leave

Why Asians came to Uganda

In the early 20th century many South Asians migrated to Uganda in search of a better life

The Leaflet Bomber

In 1971 communist Bob Newland goes on a secret mission to South Africa to fight Apartheid

The Tangshan Earthquake

A deadly earthquake hit the city of Tangshan killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Inventing nicotine patches

Nicotine patches became available in the 1990s but their origins go back to the 1980s.

The Surkov leaks

In 2016, Ukrainian hackers leaked the emails of Vladimir Putin's aide, Vladislav Surkov.

Ukraine's Revolution on Granite

In 1990, a hunger strike led by Ukrainian students brought down the Soviet regime in Kyiv

Nigerian sitcom Papa Ajasco

In 1996, Wale Adenuga’s sitcom Papa Ajasco first hit Nigerian TV screens.

The Soviet James Bond

The most successful TV spy series in the USSR went on air in 1973.

Who shot JR?

The world's reaction to leading man JR, being shot in the American TV series, Dallas.

Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Indian Cookery’

A ground breaking Indian cookery programme broadcast on the BBC launched 40 years ago.

The school for telenovela stars

In 1987, in Mexico City, a TV station opened a school to train telenovela actors.

Fighting for the pill in Japan

The contraceptive pill was approved for use in the US in 1960, but in Japan it was 1999.

The man who invented the Pill

In 1951, Dr Carl Djerassi created the Pill's active ingredient from Mexican wild yams.

When Tunisia led on women's rights

Tunisia became the first country in the Muslim world to legalise divorce and abortion.

Poland's strict abortion law

In 1993 abortion laws were tightened up in Poland after the fall of Communism

How abortion was legalised in Great Britain

The campaign to allow abortion in Great Britain which resulted in a new law in 1967.

The US’s first gay election candidate

In 1961 the first openly gay person ran for public office in the United States.

How the smear test was invented

The discovery by Dr George Papanicolaou in 1928 which led to the smear test

Escaping Nigeria’s Civil War

One child's story of getting caught up in the Nigerian Civil War

Japanese university student riots

In 1968 and early 1969 Japanese students fought pitched battles with riot police

The Higgs Boson: A scientific discovery that explains how the universe works

The discovery of the Higgs Boson by scientists at CERN using the Large Hadron Collider

Hong Kong - Kowloon Walled City

The end of a unique way of life in one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Hong Kong: Abandoned children

The Chinese babies left on the streets of 1960s Hong Kong in the hope they'd be adopted

Hong Kong: The 5-19 football riot in China

The 5-19 football riot after Hong Kong won their World Cup qualifying match over China.

Hong Kong: Democracy campaigner

In 1997 Britain handed Hong Kong back to China but Emily Lau campaigned for democracy

Hong Kong: The handover

Chris Patten remembers the day Hong Kong was handed back to China from Britain

The UK's first official gay Pride March

The UK’s first official gay Pride march took place 50 years ago – on 1st July 1972.

Egypt's first democratic presidential election

In June 2012, Mohamed Morsi was elected in Egypt's first free presidential election.

The killing of Vincent Chin

In 1982 a Chinese-American man was murdered with a baseball bat by white men in Detroit

Robot Surgeon

In 1985 the first robot-assisted medical surgery took place in Vancouver, Canada

India's surrogacy capital

In 2003, fertility expert Dr Nayana Patel carried out her first surrogacy procedure.

Cambodia war crimes

In 2009 Rob Hamill came face-to-face with the man responsible for killing his brother

James Joyce and Ulysses

It's 100 years since one of the most influential novels of the 20th century was published

New York's LGBT High School

A school offering specialised education for LGBT students opened in the city in 1985

Vietnam's 'Napalm Girl'

It’s 50 years since Kim Phuc's village in Vietnam was bombed with napalm

Holy Cross school dispute

A violent sectarian dispute took place outside a school in Northern Ireland in 2001

The Gulabi Gang

Sampat Devi started a women's rights group in India which now has a national following.

How Sri Lanka's president survived a suicide bombing

A survivor of the 2006 suicide bombing attack shares their experience.

Saving Gabon's rainforest

How a network of national parks was set up to protect Gabon's forests in 2002

The Diary of Anne Frank

One of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust was published in June 1947

The assassination of Bobby Kennedy

The killing of the US presidential candidate remembered by a friend who was also shot

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

Two Maids of Honour at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II recall their memories

Sarin attack in Syria

How UN inspectors investigated a devastating chemical weapons attack in Ghouta in 2013

Life in the biggest Syrian refugee camp in the world

A Syrian family living in Za'atari Refugee Camp for nine years share their experiences.

Civil Rights activist Ida B Wells

How a pioneering African-American journalist campaigned against lynching in the US

The attack on Lod Airport

A survivor on how gunmen opened fire at an Israeli airport in 1972, killing 26 people.

Georgia O'Keeffe

One of the world's most famous woman artists remembered by her assistant

The World Festival of Black Arts

A landmark event for African artists was held in newly-independent Senegal in 1966

The museum of banned Russian art

How Igor Savitsky saved thousands of works from Stalin's censors, and started a museum

The last days of Frida Kahlo

The great Mexican artist remembered by a friend who lived with her at the end of her life

Meeting Picasso

A British art historian on becoming a friend of the great Spanish artist in the 1950s

The murder of Kelso Cochrane

How a street killing in 1950s London led to Britain's first race relations inquiry

Chasing the Marcos millions

The lawyer who's spent decades tracking the fortune of the former Philippines president

Shanghai at War

A first-hand account of living through the Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 40s

The first McDonald's in Moscow

The American fast-food chain was a huge hit when it opened in the Soviet Union in 1990

People Power in the Philippines

In 1986, four days of huge public protests brought down President Ferdinand Marcos

The war in Transnistria

The bloody conflict between Moldova and Russian-back separatists in the early 1990s

Eyjafjallajökull: The volcano that stopped Europe

How the eruption of a little-known Icelandic volcano grounded flights in Europe in 2010

China opens up to capitalism

How China's Communist rulers established the country's Special Economic Zones in May 1980

Soviet nuclear missile alert

The Soviet colonel who realised that a warning of a US nuclear attack was a false alarm.

Fighting for Uyghur rights in China

A first-hand account of taking on the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s

The chemistry of cannabis

How an Israeli scientist discovered the crucial compounds in the widely-used drug

Roe v Wade

How a young lawyer from Texas got the US abortion laws changed in 1973

Surviving the Falkands War

British soldier Simon Weston was severely burned in an Argentine attack in 1982.

The sinking of the Belgrano

An Argentine survivor remembers being torpedoed by the British during the Falklands War.

Algeria's rebel footballers

Algerian players secretly left their French clubs to form their own national team in 1958

The Algerians who fought for France

The bitter experiences of the fighters who opposed their own country's independence.

Algeria: The Massacre in Paris

How French police turned on Algerian demonstrators in Paris in 1961, killing dozens.

The War in Algeria: A French soldier's experience

A first-hand account of the brutal French tactics against Algerian independence fighters

Algeria’s Milk Bar Bomber

Zohra Drif targeted an ice-cream parlour in Algiers during the war of independence

The battle for Kinder Scout

How workers in Manchester fought for the right to walk in the nearby countryside.

Iranian revolution: The Kurdish uprising

A boy caught up in the forgotten battle for Kurdish autonomy in Iran in 1979

Britain's Soviet spy scandal

In 1971 during the Cold War, the UK expelled 90 Soviet diplomats suspected of spying.

Women's rights in Basra

How women in the southern Iraqi city were persecuted for "anti-Islamic" behaviour

Erasmus: Europe's student exchange scheme

The programme that's let millions of EU students live and study in other countries.

The World Wide Web

How the World Wide Web was created

How Tinder changed the dating game

How the dating app with the swipe revolutionised the world of online romance

Greece's Great Famine

How hundreds of thousands of Greeks starved to death under Nazi occupation.

The largest war crimes trial in history

The former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, went on trial at The Hague in 2002.

Nato intervenes in Kosovo

How the US and its allies backed air strikes against Serbian forces to stop atrocities.

The Great American Grain Robbery

How a catastrophic trade deal between the US and Moscow sparked a global food price shock

The handshake in Space

How Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts met up in space during the Cold War

The Soviet Afghan War Begins

The world held its breath in December 1979 as Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan

The Falklands War - an Argentine account

An Argentine conscript remembers his country's doomed military campaign in 1982.

Escaping a Maoist cult

Aravindan Balakrishnan ran a cult in London for 30 years; then two of its members fled.

Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers

How one of the Dutch artist's masterpieces was auctioned for a world record in 1987.

Afghanistan's women's newspaper

Aina-E-Zan, or Women's Mirror, was launched in 2002 at a time of hope for Afghan women.

Banksy’s first street art mural

It’s difficult to pinpoint the first major piece of Banksy street art, could this be it?

The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin

A decade ago protestors tried to stop the Russian leader tightening his grip on power

Soviet holidays in Crimea

Artek, on the Black Sea coast, was the Soviet Union's most popular children's camp.

Ukraine's Babi Yar massacre

The mass killing of Ukrainian Jews by Nazi Germany during World War Two.

The Budapest Memorandum

The security "assurances" offered to Ukraine after it gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster

In 1986, a reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine causing the worst nuclear accident ever.

The Shard

The building of the controversial London skyscraper, designed by Italian Renzo Piano.

Zaha Hadid's Cincinnati Arts Center

The ground-breaking building was the first American museum to be designed by a woman

Teheran's Freedom Tower

The vast monument built for the Shah, but now a centrepiece for protests in Iran.

Chandigarh: India's city of the future

How the modernist architect Le Corbusier designed a city for newly-independent India

The Frauenkirche - Dresden's symbol of war and reconstruction

The story of the painstaking project to rebuild Dresden's historic baroque church.

The Wages for Housework campaign

How feminists in Italy began an international campaign for payment for housework in 1972.

Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi

The Iranian human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003: Dr Shirin Ebadi

The Australian women who protested against the Vietnam war

The Fairlea Five were jailed in 1971 for campaigning against military conscription.

Russia's war in Georgia in 2008

First-hand accounts of Russia's battle with another former Soviet republic in 2008.

The takeover of NTV in Russia

How NTV journalists tried in vain to keep their station out of President Putin's control.

Boris Yeltsin's surprise resignation

How the Russian president quit and apologised to the nation in a New Year's Eve address.

Putin's war in Chechnya

An eyewitness account of the Russian invasion of the breakaway republic in 1999

Economic 'shock therapy' in Russia

Chaos and hardship hit Russia when free-market reforms were introduced overnight in 1992

The 2014 annexation of Crimea

A personal account of how Russia took over the Crimean peninsula in 2014

The death of Trayvon Martin

The black Florida teenager killed by a Neighbourhood Watch volunteer while buying sweets.

The Navajo Code Talkers in World War 2

The Native American soldiers who talked in a secret code, helping the Allies to victory

Nixon in China

The historic visit by the American president which normalised US relations with China.

The first sex worker strike

When 200 French sex workers took refuge in a church in Lyon, it started a movement.

The world's first civil union

In 1989, Denmark became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions

Bollywood's pioneering lesbian drama

"Fire" was one of the first films in Indian history to depict a lesbian relationship.

The Berlin Patient

Timothy Ray Brown was the first person in the world to be cured of HIV/AIDS.

"Don't ask, don't tell" in the US Armed Forces

For decades LGBT people in the US military had to keep their sexuality secret.

The first LGBT film in war-torn Yugoslavia

How the ground-breaking film "Marble Ass" was made amid war in the former Yugoslavia

The 1972 mass killings in Burundi

In 1972 Burundi’s Tusti led army massacred Hutu civilians following a Hutu led uprising

Ukraine's 'Maidan Revolution'

Throughout the winter of 2013/14 protesters camped out in the centre of Kyiv

Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik

How the Spaniard became a legend in the world of ultra-fashionable shoes.

The invention of Google Maps

How the revolutionary online mapping service was created in 2005.

The demise of the Soviet Union

How the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus plotted to break up the USSR in 1991.

The first Emirati female teacher

The trailblazing story of the first Emirati born teacher

The day the world looked up

In 2012 a rare astronomical event occurred when Venus flew past the Sun

The murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl

The reporter who was killed by Islamist extremists in Pakistan while investigating 9/11.

The Good Friday Agreement

The frantic last-minute negotiations that led to a peace deal for Northern Ireland.

IRA gun-running in America

How an undercover FBI agent bust an IRA gun-running operation in New York in 1981

Bloody Sunday

How British paratroopers opened fired on a civil rights march in Northern Ireland in 1972

British troops in Northern Ireland

The British army was sent to keep the peace in 1969; it stayed for nearly four decades.

A Cold War love affair

The story of a West German woman who crossed the Iron Curtain for love.

The first bicycle-sharing scheme

How a Dutch engineer invented a scheme to share bikes and cut pollution in the 1960s.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The story of Coretta Scott King’s campaign to have her late husband honoured in the US.

The rise of Boko Haram

How a small Nigerian Islamist group launched a brutal insurgency

The first silicone breast implants

How a Texas woman became the first in the world to have the popular cosmetic procedure.

Costa Concordia

The dramatic story of the cruise ship which sunk in the Mediterranean, killing 32 people.

Malick Sidibé: Mali's superstar photographer

How a Malian photographer's pictures of Mali's swinging '60s and '70s amazed the world.

Kazakhstan's nuclear legacy

The secret plan to clear a huge nuclear testing site after the fall of the Soviet Union.

India's freedom fighter: Subhas Chandra Bose

The man who campaigned against colonial rule, allying himself with Hitler during WW2

Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane: From professor to freedom fighter

The leader of Mozambique's fight against colonial rule remembered by his daughter

Marcel Proust

The great French writer remembered by one of his friends and by his faithful maid.

The end of Stalinist rule in Albania

In 1990 Albania’s communist government agreed to allow independent political parties.

The secret history of Monopoly

The true story of one of the world's most popular board games, Monopoly.

Lego

One of the world's most popular toys was invented in a small Danish town in 1958.

Tetris

In 1984 one of the most popular computer games ever was invented in Moscow.

Grand Theft Auto

The controversial action-adventure gaming series developed in Scotland in the 1990s.

Pong and the birth of computer games

The pioneering table tennis simulator which started the video games industry.

The home of Santa Claus

How Rovaniemi, a small town in Lapland, became the centre of Christmas tourism.

Bahrain's 2011 protests

In 2011 thousands of protestors occupied Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain’s capital.

The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi women who used social media to campaign against being banned from the roads.

Rudolf Nureyev defects

In 1961 the great ballet dancer stunned the world by defecting from the Soviet Union.

Tanzania's first elected albino MP

How Salum Barwany overcame discrimination and fear to make history in Africa

Bangladesh wins independence

An inside account of the moment Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971.

On the front line in Bangladesh

A Pakistani soldier's account of fighting in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

Rape as a weapon in Bangladesh

How Bengali women suffered appalling sexual violence during the war of independence.

The birth of Bangladesh

How Pakistan's first elections sparked civil war and the creation of a new country

The Bengali language movement

How a march in defence of Bengali galvanised demands for an independent Bangladesh.

The explosion heard by millions

In 2005 people across southern England woke up when a huge fuel depot exploded.

The Aldi kidnap

The abduction of Theo Albrecht, co-founder of the discount supermarket chain ALDI.

Spies or plane-spotters?

Why a group of British aircraft enthusiasts were arrested for spying in Greece in 2001.

The V2 rocket

How the Nazis secretly developed the first modern ballistic missile

Fighting 'virginity tests' in the Indonesian police

How an Indonesian policewoman campaigned to ban intrusive examinations of female recruits

Derek Jarman

The British experimental film-maker who spoke out about Aids in the 1980s.

South Africa and Aids drugs

How activists fought successfully for cheaper Aids treatment in South Africa.

AZT: The breakthrough treatment for Aids

How the first successful Aids drug was developed and approved in record time in 1987

The early days of HIV/Aids

The experience of a Ugandan-born woman diagnosed with HIV in the early days of the virus.

The Aids 'patient zero' myth

How Gaetan Dugas was mistakenly identified as the 'patient zero' of the Aids epidemic.

The assassination of the Mirabal sisters

Three sisters, all political activists, were murdered in 1960 in the Dominican Republic

Estonia’s internet ‘Tiger Leap’

Estonia started connecting all schools to the internet in 1996 ahead of other countries

The doctor who helped her mother to die

How a Dutch doctor’s euthanasia dilemma changed the world.

Europe's last smallpox epidemic

The virologist who helped tackle the last smallpox outbreak in Europe

The Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt

The story behind one of Klimt's most famous paintings

Sudan's October Revolution

How Sudanese civilian protesters first brought down a military regime in 1964

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

How a particular form of psychotherapy became popular for treating anxiety and depression

The capture of war criminal Radovan Karadzic

How Serbia finally caught one of Europe's most wanted men in Belgrade in 2008.

Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991

As the first Gulf War ended, retreating Iraqi forces set light to oil wells in the desert

Shoot: A milestone in performance art

In November 1971, Chris Burden asked a friend to shoot him in the name of art

The South African football star murdered for being a lesbian

How the killing of a female footballer got South Africa talking about ‘corrective rape’.

Spying in Berlin

At the height of the Cold War Berlin was known as the spy capital of the world.

Chanel No. 5

One of the world's most famous perfumes was launched in 1921

Britain's Black Schools

The alternative schools for black British children set up to counter racist attitudes.

When Eritrea silenced its critics

How a journalist tried to escape Eritrea's historic crackdown on critics and the press

The end of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising

On November 4th 1956 Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest crushing the anti-Soviet uprising

The enduring legend of Fu Manchu

The evil criminal mastermind Fu Manchu was a recurring film character for decades

Judgement at Nuremberg

It is 75 years since verdicts were delivered on leading German Nazis at Nuremberg

The miracle of walking

The doctor who revolutionised the treatment of 'club foot' - rejecting invasive surgery

Kilimanjaro: Africa’s disappearing glaciers

In the past 100 years, 90% of the glacial ice at the top of Kilimanjaro has disappeared

The child climate activist of the 1990s

Severn Cullis-Suzuki was 12 when she spoke to world leaders at the UN Earth Summit in Rio

How the world woke up to climate change

A scientist delivered a direct message to US politicians about climate change in 1988

The world's first environment conference

Countries first tried to tackle the damage humans are doing to the planet in 1972

Proving climate change: the 'Keeling Curve'

The US scientist who began recording carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in 1958

Britain’s lesbian families ‘scandal’

A media storm about lesbian mothers caused a heated national debate in 1970s Britain.

The Greenham Common women's peace camp

Throughout the 80s women protested against nuclear weapons which were held at the UK base

Polish refugees in Africa

How Polish women and children found refuge in African countries during WW2

The mysterious death of Samora Machel

Many suspected foul play when Mozambique's socialist leader was killed in a plane crash

The first transgender minister in the Church of England

Sarah Jones is the first person who had made a gender change to be ordained by the C of E

The doctor killed by an anti-abortion extremist

American anti-abortion extremists began killing doctors in the 1990s.

The Pakistani law that jailed rape survivors

In the 1980s, a horrific rape case galvanised the women's rights movement in Pakistan.

The story of 'Baby Jessica'

When a toddler fell down a well in Texas she became the centre of a media storm

Colin Jordan and the British Nazi rally

The teacher who formed Britain's Nazi party and the antifascists who fought against them.

Winning the Arabic Booker prize

Saudi author Raja Alem was the first woman to win the prestigious international award

Clyde Best - A black footballing pioneer

The Bermuda-born West Ham striker recalls the rampant racism in 1970s English football

The unlawful death of Christopher Alder

The black former soldier choked to death on the floor of a British police station in 1998

A Somali sailor in 1920s Britain

How Ibrahim Ismaa'il escaped poverty in Somalia to live in the British countryside.

Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

The stigma of growing up as a mixed race child in post-war Britain.

London's first black policeman

In 1967 Norwell Roberts became the first Black officer in the Metropolitan police

The Tanker War

Surviving a deadly attack on a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war

Petra Kelly and the German Greens

The radical German Greens reshaped the country’s political landscape in the early 1980s

'Mad cow disease' and CJD

In 1996 the UK government said there was a link between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans

Photographing Brazil's Yanomami

Claudia Andujar spent almost five decades taking unique photos of the remote Amazon tribe

The rise of the Taliban

How the Afghan fighters first came to power in the 1990s

Kenya: Westgate Mall attack

Gunmen attacked a Nairobi shopping centre, the siege lasted four days in September 2013

James Bond on screen

As the latest James Bond film hits cinema screens we look at the appeal of the franchise

The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

How one of Vladimir Putin's critics was killed in London with a radioactive substance

Mexico's miracle water

People flocked from all over the Americas to central Mexico in search of healing water

Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis

The journalist who revealed the affair between the Greek shipping magnate and JFK's widow

The Peter Principle

Why promotion leads to incompetence

Christiania: Copenhagen’s hippy commune

Copenhagen’s Christiania commune was created as a radical social experiment.

The earthquake that devastated Haiti

In 2010 the Haitian capital was hit by a catastrophic earthquake

The lost king of France

When DNA solved a two hundred year old French royal mystery. Did the king die or escape?

The Attica prison rebellion

One prisoner's memories of a dramatic siege in a high security jail in the USA.

9/11: The backlash against American Muslims

In the aftermath of September 11th, American Muslims faced increased discrimination

America attacks Afghanistan

Just a month after 9/11, the US launched airstrikes against the Taliban and al-Qaeda

With the president on 9/11

How the White House chief-of-staff broke the news of 9/11 to President George W Bush.

The killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud

Two days before 9/11, al-Qaeda killed a key Afghan leader in a suicide bombing.

The warnings before 9/11

Throughout 2001 the US administration was being given warnings a terror attack was coming

North Korea's founding father

How Kim Il-sung came to power in communist North Korea

The businessman who defied the Mafia

How an anti-Mafia businessman paid the ultimate price for standing up to organised crime

Surviving the fall of Saigon

When South Vietnam fell in 1975, most could not escape.

The first modern electric car

The first mass-produced modern electric car was launched by GM in 1996

Nigeria's 'War Against Indiscipline'

A campaign to make life in Nigeria more orderly in the 1980s

Syria's rebel poet

Nizar Qabbani is one of the Arab world’s most famous poets but his legacy is contested

Campaigning for Mexico's women with disabilities

Activist Maryangel Garcia-Ramos on the struggle faced by Mexico's disabled women

My father survived the sinking of the Titanic

How six Chinese sailors were rescued from the Titanic, but then faced racism in America.

John Maynard Keynes

The remarkable man who transformed 20th century economics and changed our world.

When The Queen met Ceaușescu

It was the first time a communist leader had been given a full state visit to the UK

Saddam Hussein's foreign hostages

A British Muslim family was among hundreds of foreign nationals held hostage in Iraq

India's secret freedom radio

When Gandhi was jailed in 1942 activists launched a secret radio station for independence

US withdrawal: The fall of Saigon

The desperate scramble to evacuate US personnel and locals at the end of the Vietnam war

The man who coined the term genocide

The Holocaust survivor who coined the term genocide and spent his life trying to stop it

Inside an East German jail

Vera Lengsfeld was imprisoned by the communist authorities in East Germany in 1988

East Germany's nudists

The communist regime restricted many things in the GDR but not the freedom to go naked

Exiled from East Germany: Wolf Biermann

East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in 1976

Escaping from East Berlin

East Germans used all sorts of methods to escape from communism across the Berlin Wall

The building of the Berlin Wall

In August 1961, East Germany began building the wall that symbolised Cold War Europe

Gay activism in 1990s India

Pawan Dhall helped form the Counsel Club, one of India's first gay support groups

Afghanistan's battle of the airwaves

When the Taliban fell in 2001 Afghans could listen to music and news again

Escaping Nigeria’s Civil War

Patti Boulaye recalls frightening times as a 13-year-old girl in the Biafran War in 1967.

Chipko: India’s tree-hugging women

How a grassroots environmental movement won its fight against deforestation in India

Dorothy Butler Gilliam: American news pioneer

The first African American woman to be hired as a reporter by the Washington Post

The Tsunami and Fukushima

How an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan and triggered a nuclear emergency in 2011

Fighting for the pill in Japan

Why did it take so long for the oral contraceptive pill to be legalised in Japan?

The soldier who never surrendered

A Japanese soldier hid in the jungle in Guam for nearly 30 years after World War Two

The birth of Karaoke

The man who invented the Karaoke machine speaks to Witness History

Japan's Bullet Train

Japanese railways launched the fastest train the world had ever seen in October 1964

When war came to Darfur

How a 13-year-old boy's life was changed by the war in Darfur in Sudan

Surviving Norway's day of terror

Lisa Husby recalls running for her life from far-right extremist Anders Breivik

The Battle of Gondar

In 1941, Italian colonial rule in Africa ended after a last stand by Mussolini's soldiers

Domestic violence in Brazil

In 2006 Brazil passed the ground-breaking 'Maria da Penha law' to tackle domestic abuse

England's summer of riots

How six weeks of race riots gripped towns in northern England in 2001

When the Taliban took Kabul

Taliban fighters first took control of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul in 1996

Jane Goodall and chimpanzees

How a young Englishwoman followed her dream to study chimpanzees in Africa

Prisoner of the Cultural Revolution

Kim Gordon and his parents were locked up for two years in a hotel in China in the 1960s

The race for the jet engine

Inspiration, rejection and war - a personal account of the invention of the jet engine

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

In July 1985 the Greenpeace boat was bombed in New Zealand by French secret agents

The first World Romani Congress

Roma people from all around Europe met up in England in 1971

The famine in North Korea

After the fall of the Soviet Union communist North Korea suffered a famine in the 1990s

Britain's wartime gold

When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939 it had to find somewhere to keep its wealth

Cuba's blindness epidemic

Up to 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss in the early 1990s

China's trailblazing foreign students

We hear from one of the first students to study overseas after the Cultural Revolution

The Chinese Communist Party

A small group of revolutionaries founded the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921

The Syrian playwright who challenged the regime

A play staged in Damascus undermined official propaganda after the 1967 Six Day War

Zimbabwe's mass UFO sightings

Around 60 children said they saw 'aliens' near their school playground in September 1994

The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'

For decades LGBT people in the US military had to keep their sexuality secret

China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages'

Thousands of gay men and lesbians in China hold fake marriages to avoid family pressure

The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'

How the sexually explicit journals of a 19th-century English lesbian came to light

Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire

In 1992, a group of LGBT Ivoirians stormed the office of a national newspaper

The Stonewall Inn

How a protest outside New York's Stonewall Inn inspired the modern gay rights movement.

China's 'Economic Miracle'

Massive economic growth has been possible because of migrant labour, but at what cost?

The Trabant

The iconic East German car that dominated the roads of communist Central Europe

The police rape interview that shocked Britain

The documentary that changed the way British police treated women reporting rape.

Mindfulness for the masses

Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.

The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race

Why an activist removed the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state house grounds

The Fall of Madrid

How the Spanish capital fell to General Franco's forces in 1939, ending a civil war

The elections that Hamas won

Palestinians voted to elect a new government in 2006. The outcome surprised everyone.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

The emotional first performance at the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962

Tunisia’s legal brothels

For decades, Tunisia has had a system of legal brothels.

When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981

How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic

In the 1990s, the Swiss tried radical new policy ideas, including heroin on prescription

Afghanistan's poppy problem

Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehab centre in 2010

When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers

The Peruvian Air Force shot down a light plane carrying American missionaries in 2001

The killing of Pablo Escobar

The Colombian drug lord was shot dead by police in December 1993

The war on drugs

President Richard Nixon was the first US President to try to wipe out illegal drug use

The Tulsa Race Massacre

In 1921, a white mob destroyed an affluent African-American neighbourhood.

Rock concert for Chernobyl

The first charity rock concert ever held in the USSR raised money for Chernobyl survivors

Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend

Amilcar Cabral led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa

The first Arab woman pilot

Egyptian Lotfia Elnadi made history when she gained her pilot licence in 1933

The strike that shocked India

The Indian railway workers’ strike of 1974 prompted mass arrests and a state of emergency

Fighting forced marriage in war

Why a court in Sierra Leone ruled that forced marriage was a crime against humanity.

Saving the world's wetlands

Iran hosted the first convention to save the world's wetlands in1971.

Striking in South Korea in 1980

Strikes and protests against South Korea's military government came to a head in May 1980

When Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa compound

The Israeli politician visited the compound containing one of Islam's holiest sites

China's Democracy Wall

How a brick wall in Beijing became a beacon for those calling for change

The trial of South Africa’s 'Dr Death'

The trial of a South African doctor accused of multiple murders under Apartheid.

The Jewish exodus from Iraq

How two thousand Jews fled persecution in the summer of 1971, helped by Iraqi Kurds

Legalising contraception in Ireland

Contraception wasn't easily accessible in traditionally Roman Catholic Ireland until 1985

Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline

In 1955 Christopher Mayhew MP took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline for a TV experiment

The Great Wine Fraud

The story of wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan, and the French winemaker who exposed him.

Ursula Le Guin

The pioneer of feminist science fiction and creator of the Earthsea fantasy series

The IRA hunger strikes

Republican prisoner Bobby Sands died in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland on May 5 1981

How Amsterdam became the cannabis smoking capital of Europe

How Amsterdam became the home of cannabis coffee shops.

The killing of Osama Bin Laden

The man behind the 9/11 attacks was killed by US special forces on 2 May 2011

The battle of Tora Bora

How US special forces lost bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan in December 2001

The Nairobi US Embassy bombing

A survivor's account of the al-Qaeda attacks in East Africa in 1998 which killed hundreds

Meeting Osama bin Laden

One man's story of his journey to talk to the Al-Qaeda leader in 1996

The siege of Mecca

In 1979 Islamist militants took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam

The first space shuttle mission

How the space shuttle Columbia revolutionised manned space exploration

How the NRA became a US political lobbying giant

How the National Rifle Association turned into a US political lobbying colossus.

The Raymond Davis Incident

How a shooting in the streets of Lahore brought US-Pakistani relations to the brink

The return of Blue Lake

How an ancient Native American sacred lake was finally returned to the Taos Pueblo people

The Eichmann trial

In April 1961 the Nazi official who ran holocaust death camps was put on trial in Israel

China's 'Kingdom of women'

An ancient matrilineal society which doesn't believe in marriage and where the women rule

The vultures saved from extinction

South Asian vultures started dying in huge numbers in the 1990s but no one knew why.

Fighting for Castro at the Bay of Pigs

Hear from a Cuban who fought against the US-backed exiles that invaded Cuba in April 1961

How a worm helped explain human development

The nematode worm c. elegans has enabled all sorts of discoveries about human biology

The US Supreme Court's first woman justice

In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman judge at America's top court

Discovering the Jet Stream

Air raids and balloon bombs - the strange story behind the discovery of the Jet Stream

From Leningrad to St Petersburg

How the people of Russia's second city dropped the great communist leader's name

David Attenborough's first expedition

The BBC programme that launched the career of the famous nature broadcaster

Mexico's female serial killer

Juana Barraza was found guilty of murdering at least eleven elderly women in Mexico city

The women who reclaimed the night

How women in England took to the streets to protest against a serial killer

Black Jesus

In 1967 an African American church minister began preaching that Jesus was black.

Kidnapped on an orchid hunt

How two Englishmen were seized by Colombian rebels while crossing the lawless Darien Gap

Mrs Thatcher’s ground-breaking Soviet TV interview

How Mrs Thatcher shook up the Soviet media with a landmark interview in Moscow.

When the prisoners ran the prison

Prisoners at Walpole maximum security prison were in charge for three months in 1973

Anorexia nervosa

The death of the singer, Karen Carpenter, showed how devastating the illness could be.

South Africa takes on big pharma

The fight between Big Pharma and South Africa over the right to import cheap drugs.

The woman who got America talking about sex

Dr Ruth Westheimer first became popular on a radio show in New York in the early 1980s

Jamaica’s ‘drug lord’

The hunt for the Jamaican drug lord which left dozens of civilians dead

The Ulster Workers' Strike

Protestant workers went on strike in Northern Ireland in 1974

The dirtiest chess match in history

How the 1978 World Chess Championship was overshadowed by allegations of dirty tricks

Mars-500 isolation experiment

Why six men were locked inside a spacecraft on earth for 520 days

Alva Myrdal - the woman who made modern Sweden

The story of Swedish social reformer, Alva Myrdal, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1982

Paris is Burning

The groundbreaking film about drag queens and LGBTQ+ people in New York

The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles

Melina Mercouri, actress turned politician, requested the marbles be returned to Greece

Jane: The underground abortion network

How feminists ended up performing abortions for women in 1960s America

Cixi: China's most powerful woman

She was the power behind the Chinese throne for decades

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring

In 2011 women were at the forefront of protests calling for a change in power in Egypt

Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech

How the historic speech in March 1946 came to symbolise the beginnings of the Cold War

The Sharpeville massacre

In 1960, South African police shot dead 69 black protestors, sparking worldwide outrage

When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home

How 11 people died when explosives were dropped on a house by a police helicopter

Refugee Island

How a tiny Pacific Island became a limbo for asylum seekers

The world's deepest dive 11km down

Don Walsh was the first to go to the very bottom of the deepest part of the ocean in 1960

The WW2 airman from Sierra Leone

Johnny Smythe was one of very few West Africans to fly with Britain's airforce during WW2

The fall of Kwame Nkrumah

How one of Africa's most famous independence leaders was overthrown in 1966

Ireland's bank bailout

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis Ireland had to borrow billions

Acid rain

How the world woke up to the threat from acid rain

Mary Wilson

The American singer died on 8th February 2021

Free breakfasts with the Black Panthers

How the revolutionary black rights organisation started serving breakfast to children

The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

The story of a woman who played a largely unsung role in countless medical breakthroughs

Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part two

The story of Britain's forgotten slave owners and the people they enslaved

Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part one

How researchers in London uncovered the story of Britain's forgotten slave owners

How US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter in the first Gulf War

More than 400 civilians died when US bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in Baghdad

A Ghanaian nurse's story

Nurses from outside the UK form a vital part of the country's medical workforce

The paper that helped the homeless

The 'Street News' paper was sold by homeless people in New York at a profit to earn money

Gay and lesbian support for the British miners' strike

In 1984 a group of lesbians and gay men organised to support striking coal-miners.

Francis Bacon in the archives

The painter Francis Bacon was known for his disturbing images and bohemian lifestyle

DES Daughters

A medical scandal which affected millions of women around the world

General Robert E Lee: US Civil War rebel

Lee was charged with treason, so why did Congress reinstate his citizenship in 1975?

Drugs in the Vietnam War

How a heroin epidemic among US troops in Vietnam caused panic in the military

The Burma uprising of 1988

People took to the streets of Burma, or Myanmar, to protest against military rule in 1988

The Moscow State Circus

The biggest circus in Soviet Russia opened in Moscow in April 1971.

The first Eurostar from England to France

The driver of the first train to take passengers from London to Paris remembers

The anthem of the Arab Spring

How a singer in Tunisia helped inspire young protestors all over the Middle East in 2011

Libya's Arab uprising

In 2011 protests soon turned into an armed revolt seeking to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi.

Yemen's 2011 uprising

Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt young Yemenis took to the streets in January 2011

Syria in the Arab Spring

The moment that hundreds of thousands of Syrians demanded change in 2011.

Egypt's Facebook Girl

How social media was used to organise against Egypt's government before the Arab Spring

Fighting for justice for India's Sikhs

Anti-Sikh violence flared in India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984

Kenya's pioneering publisher

Dr Henry Chakava made it his life's mission to publish in African languages.

The Turner Diaries - America's manual of hatred

The white supremacist novel by William Pierce which has been blamed for inciting violence

Hitler's beer hall putsch

Adolf Hitler made his first attempt to take power in Germany in 1923

Landing on Titan

The remarkable mission to explore one of the moons of Saturn in 2005

Cornelia Sorabji: India's first woman lawyer

She was the first to graduate from Oxford and was a pioneer for women lawyers in Britain.

Puerto Rican attack at the US Capitol

How independence campaigners opened fire in Congress in 1954, wounding five US law-makers

When Spain's parliament was stormed

Armed Civil Guards took MPs hostage in Spain's parliamentary chamber in 1981

The book that warned 2020 would bring disaster

The book describing a sudden uncontrollable downturn that was ignored by governments.

Sequencing the Ebola virus genome

When the deadly Ebola virus broke out in West Africa scientists in the USA set to work

The 'strike' in space

How three astronauts on the Skylab space station fell out with mission control

Buddhists and death row

How criminals facing the death penalty in the USA found peace

The oldest song in the world

Deciphering the 3,500 year-old song discovered on a clay tablet in Syria

Saving the Great Barrier Reef

In the 1960s the Queensland government wanted to mine and drill for oil on the reef

Le Corbusier and Chandigarh

The modernist architect Le Corbusier agreed to build a 'city of the future' in India

The building of the Aswan Dam

One of the largest dams in the world, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed in 1970

UNESCO and race and tolerance

How UNESCO fought racism and advocated tolerance.

It's a Wonderful Life

A former Hollywood child star remembers filming the classic Christmas movie in 1946.

Studio Ghibli - Japan's Oscar-winning animators

The early days of the studio which brought Japanese animation to a global audience

Satyajit Ray - India's master of film

An actor's memories of working with the Bengali director on the classic Apu trilogy

The Sound of Music

The real story behind the heart-warming musical released in 1965

The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin's classic satirical film about Adolf Hitler was released in 1940

The GDR's Namibian children

At Christmas 1979 hundreds of Namibian children were taken to East Germany

The blockade of Gibraltar

How a Spanish blockade of the disputed British territory ended in December 1982.

British reality TV is born

The first British fly-on-the-wall documentary series aired on the BBC in 1974.

The birth of Bangladesh

Pakistan's first democratic elections led to the creation of a new country, Bangladesh

White Christmas

American entertainer Bing Crosby made 'White Christmas' one of the defining songs of WW2

The return of the beaver

Why beavers were officially reintroduced to the UK 400 years after they were wiped out

Neanderthal cave mystery

A remarkable discovery in a cave at Bruniquel in southern France in 1990

Chief Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Prize for Peace

Albert Luthuli was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The pioneer of 'Mountain Filming'

How a German filmmaker, Arnold Fanck, shot films high in the mountains in the 1920s

The life and work of Chester Himes

The African-American crime writer Chester Himes first found widespread success in France

The V1 flying bomb

How the first of the Nazi's new "revenge weapons" terrorised Londoners in WW2

The slaves who defeated Napoleon

The first successful slave uprising in modern times, it prompted the abolition of slavery

France's Muslim headscarf ban

A law banning religious clothing from French state schools came into effect in 2004

Iraq's pioneering feminist

Dr Naziha Al-Dulaimi was the first woman to hold a ministerial office in the Arab world

How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991

In 1991 a Tigrayan-led rebel movement took power in Addis Ababa ending years of war

The fight for disabled rights in the UK

The wheelchair warriors who brought London to a standstill to make their point

Rwanda at the Paralympics

In 2012, Rwanda's sitting volleyball team became their country's first Paralympians

India's campaign for disability rights

How activists forced through the first law to help tens of millions of disabled Indians

Britain's little blue disability car

For decades disabled people in the UK were offered tiny, three-wheeled cars for transport

Helen Keller

The deaf and blind American writer who became famous around the world

When the Egyptian president went to Israel

Why Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to visit Israel in November 1977

Our Bodies, Ourselves

The story of a radical book about women’s health and sexuality.

America's WW2 refugee camp

How nearly a thousand Jewish refugees were housed in an old fort near New York during WW2

The world's first woman premier

In 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first woman Prime Minister

Captured by Somali pirates

Captain Colin Darch and his crew were held hostage by pirates for 47 days in 2008

The 'good enough' mother

Donald Winnicott helped mothers understand babies through psychoanalysis in the 1940s.

When Pluto lost its planet status

An international committee of astronomers agreed Pluto wasn't really a planet in 2006

World War One in Africa

Rare recordings of African veterans of WW1 in East Africa

Makaton - the signing system that changes lives

The creation of a communication system for people with learning difficulties in the 1970s

The Guerrilla Girls

The women who launched an anonymous poster campaign against sexism and racism in art.

The church that rose from the rubble

Reconstructing Dresden's historic baroque church.

The 1945 Pan-African Congress

How a meeting in Manchester shaped the post-war struggle against colonialism

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

The Israeli PM was shot by an extremist opposed to the peace process on November 4th 1995

'I just wanted to be white'

Growing up as a black child in post-war Germany

The sex musical that wowed New York and London

In 1969 a theatrical revue called Oh Calcutta opened. It featured male and female nudity.

With the president on 9/11

How former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card broke news of 9/11 to President Bush

Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority

How US religious conservatives organised in the 1970s to get Republicans elected.

The Watergate scandal

The investigation that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Shirley Chisholm - the black woman who tried to be president

The pioneering politician who launched a run for the US presidency in 1972.

When JFK won the US presidency

The US election of 1960 was a close race between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

Nasa's pioneering black women

The mathematicians who worked behind the scenes on the American space programme

The missing victims of apartheid

How a South African team is searching for those who disappeared during apartheid rule

The Cutter Incident

How mistakes with the initial production of polio vaccine made thousands of children ill.

Joan Littlewood, 'mother of modern British theatre'

The working class woman who shook up the British theatre establishment

Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs

In the grip of a drugs crisis, the country took a radical approach in 2001.

Saddam Hussein's big movie project

Behind the scenes at the Iraqi-funded, Clash of Loyalties

The US Voting Rights Act of 1965

The landmark legislation was introduced to ensure the rights of African Americans to vote

The last of the Kazakh herders

Many of the nomadic herders in Kazakhstan left the USSR and moved to China in the 1920s

The end of the Lebanese Civil War

On October 13th 1990 the fifteen year long conflict in Lebanon finally came to an end

The launch of CNN

1980 saw the launch of the first TV station dedicated to 24 hour news.

The Battle of Lewisham

How anti-racists stopped a far-right march in South London in 1977.

Desmond's - a sitcom that changed Britain

The story of our times told by the people who were there.

Fighting racism on the dancefloor

New laws were used to stop clubs from banning black and ethnic minority people in 1978

Britain's first black woman headteacher

Yvonne Conolly was made head of a London primary school in 1969.

The voyage of the Empire Windrush

A ship carrying hundreds of migrants from the Caribbean set sail for Britain in 1948

The house by the lake

The summer house by a lake which witnessed much of Germany's 20th century history

Operation Breakthrough: Fighting to save three whales

Three gray whales got caught in the ice off Alaska in October 1988

The founding of Google

In 1998 the world's most popular search engine was launched by two PHD students

The Mafia trial of Italy’s former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

A trial which shone a light on links between Italian politicians and the Mafia

The death of Gamal Abdel Nasser

The charismatic Egyptian president dominated Arab politics for almost two decades

Bush v Gore: The 'hanging chads' US election of 2000

The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest and most contested in history

Blackwater killed my son

How US private security guards opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, killing 17 people

When Nelson Mandela went to Detroit

Shortly after his release from prison the South African freedom fighter toured the USA

How Liberia wrote off its debts

Hoe Liberia negotiated to write off billions of dollars of debt.

The Galileo project

A mission to study the planet Jupiter finally came to an end on 21st September 2003

The mothers of Argentina's disappeared

The women who began protesting after their children were taken away by soldiers

Tank Man

A photo of a man confronting a tank in China caught the world's imagination in 1989

The Mau Mau struggle against British rule

In the 1950s rebels took up arms to rid Kenya of colonial rule

Resisting 'Europe's last dictator' in Belarus

Exiled dissident Nikolai Khalezin on the origins of the protest movement in Belarus

Why the US rejected universal healthcare

After WW2 US President Harry Truman argued for healthcare for all but his plan failed.

Banning alcohol in an Indian state

Punyavathi Sunkara recalls how the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh banned alcohol in 1995.

The birth of Reddit

In 2005 two young graduates created one of the internet's most popular websites.

The Dawson's Field hijacking

Barbara Mensch recalls how she was hijacked and held in Jordan in 1970

Haiti's cholera outbreak

Haiti was cholera-free until UN peacekeepers brought it to the Caribbean country in 2010

Care in the Community

In the 1990s Britain closed down many of its long-stay hospitals and asylums

The Cape Town bombings

In the late 1990s there were more than 150 bomb attacks in the South African city

The birth of the Sony Walkman

The portable tape player that brought music-on-the-move to millions was launched in 1979

Flying through a volcano

How a British Airways jumbo jet flew through a volcanic ash cloud and survived

Inventing James Bond

How author and former intelligence officer Ian Fleming created the British super-spy

Who has the right to vote in America?

The decision that quashed a key part of an electoral law designed to protect black voters

St Kilda

The remote Scottish islands whose last inhabitants were evacuated in August 1930

Occupy Wall Street

How former policeman Ray Lewis joined the anti-inequality demonstrations in New York

America's first woman combat pilot

How Jeannie Leavitt became the first woman to fly a US Air Force fighter plane in 1993.

Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer

The trades union activist and politician who fought for Nigerian independence.

The siege at Ruby Ridge

An 11-day standoff between a fugitive and the US government ended with three people dead.

The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution

How Beate Sirota Gordon got wording on gender equality into Japan's post-war constitution

The Guatemalan syphilis scandal

How American doctors carried out secretive STD experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s

The first modern asthma inhaler

Millions of people’s lives have been saved and improved by the metered dose inhaler.

The lost King of England

How archaeologists discovered the lost grave of King Richard III under a car park

Surviving Saddam

The memories of a young Iraqi woman who grew up in the dictator's inner social circle

The invention of the modern ventilator

How a polio epidemic in Denmark in 1952 led to the invention of the modern ventilator

Scoring a victory for women's rights in Turkey

How Turkish campaigners forced a radical change in the law on crimes against women

Beirut's Hotel War

How the Lebanese Civil War came to Beirut's luxury hotel district in 1975.

Bremen’s Elephant Statue

How the German city addressed its colonial past by rededicating a famous monument

Radar and World War Two

How British women operated secret radar technology during World War Two

The atomic bombs dropped on Japan

Atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945

The battle of Midway

How a huge naval battle between aircraft carriers changed the war in the Pacific

The internment of Japanese Americans

During World War Two thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to prison camps

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

A first-hand account of the surprise strike on a US naval base in December 1941.

The death of Heinrich Himmler

The leading Nazi was caught by British troops shortly after WW2 had ended in Europe

Benidorm and the birth of package tourism

The story of the mayor who created one of the world's biggest holiday resorts.

Adrift for 76 days

A remarkable story of survival, alone in a life-raft adrift in the Atlantic ocean

Australia's 'Black Saturday' bushfires

How 400 separate bushfires burnt their way across Victoria, Australia in 2009.

The writer who put Latinos centre stage

Remembering the pioneering Cuban-American playwright and agony aunt, Dolores Prida

The fastest vaccine ever developed

How a five-year-old girl helped her father create a record-breaking vaccine

The first safe house for Afghan women

Mary Akrami set up the first refuge for women fleeing violence and abuse in Afghanistan

The struggle to save Borneo's rainforests

When logging threatened the rainforests of Sarawak, local communities fought back

The Million Man March

On 16th October 1995 hundreds of thousands of black American men marched on Washington DC

The man who tried to kill Hitler

On 20th July 1944 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg put a bomb under Adolf Hitler's desk

South Korea's 1980s prison camps

A so-called Social Purification project led to thousands of citizens being imprisoned

The scandal of Liverpool's missing Chinese sailors

How the British city forced out Chinese seamen who'd served during World War Two.

Returning Ethiopia's looted history

The Stele of Axum, a 4th century Ethiopian treasure, was returned by Italy in 2005

How Club Med changed holidays

Holidaymakers arrived at the first Club Med resort in Majorca in summer 1950

The fight for women's prayer rights in Israel

A Jewish feminist group's campaign to pray freely at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

The 1960s report that warned the USA was racist

A US government report into the riots of 1967 blamed white racism for creating ghettos

The death of Frida Kahlo

In July 1954 the great Mexican artist died after years of illness. She was just 47.

Montreal's 'Night of Terror'

When the city's police force went on strike there was looting and rioting in the streets.

The unlawful death of Christopher Alder

The black former soldier choked to death on the floor of a British police station in 1998

The doctor who discovered how cholera spread

How Dr John Snow found out the cholera bug was spread through contaminated water in 1854.

How South Africa banned skin-lightening creams

In 1990, South Africa banned skin-lightening creams containing hydroquinone

The lost Nazi-era art trove

How a secret collection of art missing since Nazi rule was found in Germany in 2012

Quarantined in a TB sanatorium

The life of a nine-year-old girl quarantined in a TB sanatorium for 4 years in the 1950s

The Rolling Stones drugs trial

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went on trial for drugs offences in June 1967

Jana Andolan – Nepal’s people power movement

A people’s movement brought an end to Nepal’s absolute monarchy in 1990.

Russia’s bitter taste of capitalism

Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the sudden market reforms of early 1992.

The Chilean economy and its 'Chicago Boys'

Thinkers trained in free-market economics in Chicago shaped Chile after its military coup

Tanzania's socialist experiment

In the 1960s Tanzania tried out a new form of socialism called Ujamaa

South Korea's economic miracle

How a poor, war-ravaged nation became a global economic powerhouse

The New Deal

How the USA used public spending projects to battle through the Great Depression

The ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ anti-racist exercise

A teacher decided to separate pupils according to eye colour to teach them about racism.

The friendship train

The passenger train service between India and Bangladesh was resumed after 43 years.

Sex trafficking and peacekeepers

Whistle-blowers implicated UN peacekeepers in sex trafficking in Bosnia in the late 90s

Beethoven's role in China's Cultural Revolution

Chairman Mao banned all classical music in 1966, but some musicians defied the order.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages of Grief

The remarkable Swiss psychiatrist who changed the way we think about dying.

Three Strikes Law

One man's experience of the controversial US law that saw thousands locked up for life

Rodney King and the LA riots

People rioted in Los Angeles after police who had assaulted a black man were acquitted

Black basketball pioneers - Texas Western

How an all-black college team overturned racist assumptions about basketball in the USA

The 16th Street church bombing

Four young black girls were killed in a racist attack on a church in Alabama in 1963

Brown v the Board of Education

A landmark case about racial segregation in the USA.

The portable defibrillator

How Northern Irish doctor Frank Pantridge revolutionised heart-attack treatment.

The origin of the WHO

How the cold war helped shape the creation of the WHO and what role China played.

How Christo wrapped the Reichstag

The artist who delighted post-Cold War Berlin by wrapping its greatest monument

The Zanzibar Revolution

Just one month after gaining independence there was an uprising in Zanzibar in 1964.

The start of eco-tourism

How Costa Rica's Monteverde cloud forest reserve became a major tourist site

Ann Lowe - African American fashion designer

Ann Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress but for years few people knew her name

Winston Churchill's doctor

Winston Churchill's personal doctor published his memories of the British leader in 1966

The Gwangju massacre

The South Korean army crushed a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju on 27 May 1980

The book that changed the way we eat

The book that highlighted the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet

Britain's World War Two crime wave

How criminals from looters to con artists thrived in London during the Blitz.

Explaining autism

One scientist's ground-breaking work that revolutionised our understanding of autism

The first 3D printer

The creator of the 3D printer had no idea how revolutionary this technology might become.

Kowloon Walled City

How Hong Kong’s city within a city was torn down in 1993.

The Miami riots

After four white policemen were acquitted of killing a black man - Miami rioted in 1980

Sweden's fishy submarine scare

Could farting fish have triggered Sweden's Cold War submarine hunts?

Confessions of a Prince

How Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands broke his silence to reveal a love child

Fighting for the pill in Japan

It took until 1999 for Japanese women to be allowed to take the contraceptive pill.

The first 24-hour children's helpline

When a free helpline for kids was set up it showed just how widespread child abuse was

The liberation of the Channel Islands

The only part of the British Isles to be occupied during WW2 was liberated in May 1945

VE Day

VE Day saw Londoners celebrate the end of the Second World War in Europe.

The Soviet occupation of Berlin

After Germany's surrender to Allied forces in May 1945, Soviet soldiers occupied Berlin

The battle for Berlin

Eyewitness accounts of the final battle for the capital of Nazi Germany in 1945

The death of Hitler

First-hand accounts of Hitler's death from the BBC's archives

The Wehrmacht exhibition that shocked Germany

An exhibition about the German army’s role in WW2 caused a scandal in 1995.

Hiroshima's trees of hope

Trees which survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima are still growing in the Japanese city

The Galapagos sea cucumber dispute

How fishermen and conservationists battled in the species-rich waters of the archipelago

The assassination of the UN's first Middle East mediator

The first Middle East mediator, Count Bernadotte, was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948

The 1957 flu that killed a million people

In 1957 a new strain of flu emerged in East Asia and quickly spread around the world

Waria warriors - the fight for trans rights in Indonesia

The transgender Indonesians who fought for their rights in the 1970s and 1980s

Tennessee Williams on the BBC

The great American playwright revealed a lot about himself in BBC interviews

The Brompton Manley Ventilator

The development of a ventilation system that was a precursor to modern ventilators.

Edhi: Pakistan's 'Angel of Mercy'

Abdul Sattar Edhi built one of the biggest welfare charities in the world

The last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade

A woman who died in the US in 1940 was captured and enslaved in West Africa as a child

The Deepwater Horizon disaster

A deadly explosion on a drilling rig led to an environmental disaster in the US

A space crash

Michael Foale was on board the Mir space station when a resupply vessel crashed into it.

When Skylab fell to Earth

The space station which was meant to break up and fall into the sea but instead hit land

The last men on the Moon

In 1972 the American space agency NASA carried out its final Moon mission

The first iPhone

The touchscreen smartphone changed mobile technology for ever.

Nasa's female aquanauts

The women who led the way in America's space programme by spending two weeks underwater

The unlikely pioneers of online shopping

How a 72-year-old grandmother started online shopping before the internet

The Trojan Room coffee pot

The world's first webcam went online in 1993. Its camera was focused on a coffee pot.

The Homebrew computer club

A group of Californian computer enthusiasts first began meeting to share ideas in 1975.

Being a Chinese Muslim

It has never been easy to practice a religious faith in communist China

The Swedish warship restored after 300 years

A Swedish warship, Vasa, sank in the 17th century but was raised from the seabed in 1961

Avenging the Amritsar Massacre

A former British governor of Punjab was shot in 1940 as revenge for killings in Amritsar

The trembling giant

Could the biggest living organism on earth be a colony of quaking aspen trees?

Britain's first woman judge

Rose Heilbron was a trailblazer for women in the legal profession in Britain.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt

In 1985 activists made a giant quilt to commemorate those killed by AIDS in the USA.

The Cheonan sinking

On March 26th 2010 a South Korean naval ship sank after an explosion - 48 sailors died

The Saudi bombardment of Yemen

In March 2015 Saudi Arabia and its allies began an intense aerial bombardment of Yemen

Sequencing the 1918 influenza virus

Over 50 million people are thought to have died from influenza around the world in 1918

The Chinese cure for malaria

How scientists in the 1970s discovered an anti-malarial drug using a traditional remedy.

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope

How NASA put an orbiting observatory into space in 1990.

The 'I Love You' computer virus

How a virus created by a Filipino college dropout sparked global panic in May 2000

The Major and the VW Beetle

How a British army officer saved Hitler's Volkswagen Beetle at the end of World War Two

Red Hollywood

Former actress Marsha Hunt remembers the anti-Communist witch-hunt of the late 1940s.

The fight to make sexual harassment a crime

The story of a landmark ruling for women's rights in the United States.

Marburg virus

A deadly new disease infected laboratory workers in a small town in West Germany in 1967.

The SARS epidemic

How the world battled a deadly respiratory disease in 2003.

The polio vaccine

Scientists in the US led by Dr Jonas Salk develop an effective vaccine against polio

The Ebola virus

The first documented outbreak of the deadly disease occurred in the 1970s in Zaire

The 'Spanish' flu

In 1918 an extremely deadly form of influenza killed millions around the world

Battling Soviet psychiatric punishment

One man's stand against the psychiatric abuse of political dissidents in the Soviet Union

Strikers in saris

How South Asian women workers won the support of the British trade unionist movement

The petrol that was poisoning children

The EU finally banned lead in petrol in 2000 - decades after the US, Canada and Japan.

Womenomics in Japan

Japan faces a demographic time-bomb. Could the answer be Womenomics?

Freeing American prisoners from Iran

The diplomacy behind the release of three US citizens who unknowingly hiked into Iran.

The last smallpox outbreak

Thousands of people died in the world's last major smallpox epidemic in India in 1974.

The rebel nuns who left their convent behind

A group of Californian nuns left their convent and set up their own community in 1970

The first mobile phone call

The American inventor who made the first mobile phone and the first mobile phone call

An Antarctic mystery

Human remains were found on a remote island in Antarctica in 1985 but whose were they?

Saving Antarctica

A 1980s campaign to preserve Antarctica for science.

Saddam Hussein's 'Supergun'

Building the largest gun in the world for Saddam Hussein's Iraq

Fighting oil pollution with art in Nigeria

"Battle Bus" was a sculpture in memory of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa

How meditation changes your brain

In 2002, a landmark study on Buddhist monks showed that meditation can alter the brain.

The Pale Blue Dot

How the Voyager space probe captured a famous image of Earth as it left the Solar System.

The Rules: A dating handbook

The best-selling dating handbook was published on Valentine's Day 1995

The best-seller Fear of Flying

Erica Jong's best-selling book about sex, creativity and love, published in 1973

Diary of life in a favela

A shocking account of the realities of the slums of São Paulo

The man who first published Harry Potter

The man who spotted the potential of the boy wizard books in 1996

Chairman Mao's Little Red Book

How the thoughts of China's communist leader became an unexpected global best-seller

The release of Nelson Mandela

The day that South Africa's anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was freed

The Native American casino boom in the US

How a small Californian tribe won the right for Indian communities to host gambling.

Witnessing the birth of a new language

In the 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language

Cixi: China's most powerful woman

The Empress Dowager Cixi ruled for 47 years until her death in 1908.

London's first black policeman

Norwell Roberts endured years of racist abuse within the Metropolitan police

The Treaty of Rome

The document which formed the basis for what is now the European Union was signed in 1957

The first self-made female millionaire

Madam C. J. Walker was born to former slaves and created a black beauty business.

The ancient oak tree that taught the world a lesson

A tree in Kew Gardens survived the storm of 1987 and revolutionised gardening.

Reforming India's rape laws

The overhaul of India's rape laws followed the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi.

The Way Ahead group: Modernising the Royal Family

The Way Ahead group was set up in the 1990s to make Britain’s monarchy more relevant

The frozen zoo

Since 1975, San Diego Zoo has been deep-freezing cell samples from rare species

The discovery of whalesong

In the 1960s whales were being hunted to extinction.

Silent Spring: A book that changed the world

Silent Spring examined the effect of pesticides on the environment

How the dodo died out

A flightless bird, the dodo was extinct just decades after being discovered by Europeans

The mystery of the disappearing frogs

How scientists discovered that a deadly fungus was killing off amphibians.

The killing of Osama Bin Laden

The US tracked down the al-Qaeda leader to a city in northern Pakistan in 2011

The story of George Stinney Jr

How a 14-year-old boy became the youngest person executed in the USA in the 20th century

The woman who negotiated peace with a rebel group

The female negotiator who agreed a deal with Muslim rebels in the Philippines.

Storming the Stasi HQ

After the fall of the Berlin Wall East German citizens stormed the secret police HQ

Britain's National Trust

How some of the great stately homes of Britain were saved from demolition and decay

The battle for Fallujah

A US Marine's account of the massive operation against Iraqi insurgents in 2004

The Computers for Schools revolution

In 2009, Uruguay became the first country to give every schoolchild a laptop computer.

The murder of environmentalist Chico Mendes

The killing of the man who'd become a powerful symbol of the fight to save the Amazon

The exodus of Kashmiri Hindus

In January 1990 over 100 000 Hindus fled the Kashmir valley

German atrocities in Poland during WW2

The memories of a survivor of Nazi atrocities in the final months of the war in Europe

East Germany's punks

How the communist secret police, the Stasi, tried to crush a youth subculture.

Desmond's: A sitcom that changed Britain

Desmond's was the most successful black sitcom in British TV history

The book that predicted an end to civilisation

The Limits to Growth was published in 1972 and suggested global decline from 2020

Negotiating an end to El Salvador's civil war

The UN's top negotiator Alvaro de Soto recalls his part in bringing peace to El Salvador

The Chippendales

The male stripper troupe was founded in Los Angeles in 1979

Vietnam war: Surviving the 'Christmas bombing' campaign

In December 1972 the US military launched its heaviest bombardment of Hanoi.

Cirque du Soleil

The ground-breaking circus was formed by a group of street performers in Quebec in 1984.

The secret history of Monopoly

The true story of one of the world's most popular board games, Monopoly.

The invasion of Afghanistan

On 24 December 1979 Soviet troops started pouring into Afghanistan

Fighting cancer

Pioneering work in the 60s into combination chemotherapy to try to find a cure for cancer

The creation of Abuja

Why Nigeria built a brand new capital city from scratch.

Bee crisis: Colony Collapse Disorder

Why the mysterious loss of honey bees in the US triggered a global panic.

The Romanian revolution

In December 1989 a wave of protests finally deposed communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu

Women and the Sabarimala temple

How Indian women fought for the right to be allowed into a Hindu holy site

Black GIs during World War Two

How soldiers who had been relegated to support roles were asked to volunteer for combat

The attack on India's parliament

In December 2001 armed men attacked India's parliamentary compound in broad daylight

The killing of Amadou Diallo

When New York police shot a young immigrant 41 times, thousands took to the streets

The IRA siege at Balcombe Street

In December 1975, the IRA took a middle-aged couple hostage in Central London.

The battle of the Louvre pyramid

How Paris was eventually won round to the Louvre museum's great glass pyramid

The Cuban writer who defied Fidel Castro

In 1990 Reinaldo Arenas died of Aids in New York, leaving behind a powerful autobiography

Jaslyk – Uzbekistan’s infamous prison

A prison camp in the Uzbek desert became notorious for torture and human rights abuses.

The British sculptor who won over the world

Henry Moore revolutionised sculpture by creating immense works and setting them outside.

Shackleton

How a doomed Antarctic expedition in 1914 became a legendary story of survival

The killing of Pablo Escobar

The Colombian drug trafficker was shot dead by police on December 2nd 1993

The first confirmed case of HIV in America

Robert R was a teenager who died of an undiagnosed illness in Missouri in 1969

Handing back Uluru

In 1985 Australia's famous natural landmark Uluru was returned to aboriginal ownership

From cakes to computers

How the Lyons catering company pioneered LEO, the first electronic office system

India's economic revolution

In the 1990s India began to open up its state-controlled economy

The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking

American scientist Dennis Klatt pioneered synthesised speech using his own voice.

Exploring Arabia's Empty Quarter

How Wilfred Thesiger travelled in one of the world's harshest environments in the 1940s.

The man who got Delhi on track

India's capital city built a Metro to tackle its traffic and air pollution problems

I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests

Lucia Cerna was the only witness to a murder that shocked El Salvador in November 1989

The 'Woman in Gold'

How one of Klimt's most famous paintings was returned to the family who'd owned it

The first Tasers

Why Los Angeles police began using a new weapon in the early 1980s.

The first Indian to win Miss World

Reita Faria was the first Indian to win the Miss World beauty competition in 1966

The Love Canal disaster

How the Love Canal neigbourhood in the US came to symbolise the dangers of toxic waste

The demolition of the Babri Masjid

How Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in India prompting months of communal violence

Cap Anamur: A rescue that led to jail

Why a captain was arrested after saving shipwrecked Africans in the Mediterranean in 2004

Memories of Wilfred Owen

The British war poet's younger brother Harold Owen spoke to the BBC in the 1960s

The concert that rocked the Berlin Wall

The 1987 rock concert that led to the first shouts in East Berlin of 'the wall must go'

The Bhagalpur blindings

How Indian police tortured petty criminals, blinding them permanently

Britain's secret propaganda war

How sex, jazz and 'fake news' were used to undermine the Nazis in World War Two

A ground-breaking change to treating breast cancer

How a Canadian oncologist proved the effectiveness of breast-conserving surgery

Iran hostage crisis: the humanitarian delegation

How Iranian students invited a group of Americans to Iran to meet the hostages

Saving the Great Barrier Reef

The 1960s campaigners who fought the government to save the world's biggest coral reef.

'Jane' - the underground abortion service

An underground feminist network performed illegal abortions in 1960s Chicago.

The Algerians who fought with France

When Algeria won independence in 1962 thousands of local French allies faced persecution

The Paris hotel that hosted Holocaust survivors

The Hotel Lutetia became a reception centre for French Holocaust survivors after WW2

Margaret Thatcher's anti-Europe speech

The British Prime Minister started expressing doubts about the European Union in 1988

The fall of the Berlin Wall

The border between communist East Germany and the West opened on November 9th 1989

The Leipzig demonstrations

The Berlin Wall fell just a month after mass protests in the East German city of Leipzig

East German refugees in the Prague embassy

Thousands of East Germans sought refuge in the West German embassy in Prague in 1989.

The reburial of a Hungarian hero

The body of Imre Nagy who had led the Hungarian Uprising was reburied in 1989

The legalisation of Solidarity

The Polish trade union organisation was banned by the communists until April 1989

Wangari Maathai Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist

Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai fought to save forests and protect human rights

Britain's worst nuclear accident

A reactor caught fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in the north of England in 1957

The man who fed the world

Dr Norman Borlaug’s pioneering work on disease-resistant grains saved millions.

Mexico City slashes car use

How Mexico City cut its dangerously high air pollution levels

Proving climate change: The Keeling curve

An American scientist began recording carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in 1958

Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

The stigma of growing up as a mixed race child in post-war Britain

The Bristol bus boycott

How British black activists fought for employment rights in the 1960s

The Notting Hill riots

Inter-racial violence broke out in west London in the summer of 1958

The first black woman MP in Britain

In 1987 Diane Abbott became the first black woman to be elected to the British Parliament

Learie Constantine - fighting racism in the UK

The great West Indian cricketer who fought against racism in the UK

China opens up to capitalism

How China's Communist rulers established the country's first Special Economic Zones

The 1967 Hong Kong riots

How workers and students filled the colony's streets, pressing for an end to British rule

Mao's Cultural Revolution

We hear from one man who took part in China's brutal Cultural Revolution.

My memories of Chairman Mao

China's legendary Communist leader in the words of an American who knew him well

The birth of the People's Republic of China

On 1 October 1949 Chairman Mao declared China a communist state

The death of a matador

The fatal goring of the legendary bullfighter Francisco Rivera Pérez - "Paquirri".

The Large Hadron Collider

In September 2008, the world's biggest science experiment was switched on.

Fighting the Islamic State group online

How one historian living in Mosul took aim at the Islamic State group on the internet.

Being black in Nazi Germany

Theodor Wonja Michael was a child when Hitler came to power in Germany.

The Sound of Music on Broadway

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was performed on stage before it became a movie.

Sir Anthony Blunt - Soviet spy

The distinguished art historian was exposed as a former Soviet spy in the autumn of 1979.

CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia

The first book in CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series was published in autumn 1950

Free breakfast with the Black Panthers

The revolutionary Black Panther Party provided free breakfasts for local schoolchildren.

The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'

Until 2011 LGBT service people in the US armed forces had to keep their sexuality secret

An Ethiopian war hero

Ethiopia sent soldiers to fight alongside the United Nations during the Korean War

Magellan and the first voyage around the world

In 1519, the Portuguese explorer set off on the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war

How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa.

India's affirmative action controversy

Why guaranteeing government jobs to lower caste Hindus led to weeks of student protests.

The TV series Friends

One of the most successful TV comedy shows of all time hit US screens in September 1994

The coup, the president and the embassy

How the deposed Honduran president spent months holed up in the Brazilian embassy

The businessman who defied the Italian Mafia

In 1991 Libero Grassi was killed in Sicily for publicly refusing to pay protection money.

The Holocaust denial trial

The libel case that put history itself in the dock in 2000

Inside lunar astronaut quarantine

Apollo 11's doctor tells how NASA tried to protect Earth from possible lunar alien life

The first all-women peacekeeping unit

The UN deployed its first all-female peacekeepers in Liberia in 2007.

The outbreak of World War Two

On September 1st 1939 German troops invaded Poland. Cameraman Douglas Slocombe was there.

The paedophile identified by his hands

The first conviction of a paedophile using hand analysis.

Nina Simone moves to Liberia

The great African-American jazz singer moved to West Africa in 1974.

The Kindertransport children who fled the Nazis

How thousands of unaccompanied children were sent to safety by their desperate parents

Mexico's murdered women

How young women began disappearing in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez in 1993

The murder of black teenager Emmett Till

In 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was brutally murdered in Mississippi

The death of Brazil's Getulio Vargas

How the influential Brazilian leader took his own life rather than submit to the military

The return of the wolf

Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone decades after they were wiped out in the US.

I helped liberate Paris from the Nazis

A former member of the French resistance remembers the drama of August 1944

Finding El Salvador's missing children

The search for hundreds of children kidnapped by the Salvadoran army during the civil war

The first human Cyborg

In 1998 a transponder was implanted into the body of British scientist, Kevin Warwick.

Dr Seuss: the man who taught America to read

The Dr Seuss books revolutionised reading in America in the 1950s.

Catching 'Carlos the Jackal'

How the CIA tracked down one of the world's most wanted men

The warnings before 9/11

Throughout 2001 the US authorities were given warnings that a terror attack was imminent

The daily disposable contact lens

How the contact lens became cheap enough to throw away after a day

The division of Kashmir

The October 1947 crisis which led to the partition of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The Yangtze Incident

How a British warship escaped from Chinese Communists on the Yangtze river in 1949

British troops take to the streets of Northern Ireland

In August 1969 the British Army was deployed on the streets of Londonderry

Criminals in the community

How Britain pioneered Community Service as an alternative to prison in the 1970s

Under the North Pole

In 1958 the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travelled under the North Pole.

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'

How thousands of French families fled from Algeria as it won independence

The invasion of Kuwait

Thousands of Iraqi troops and tanks began pouring into Kuwait on 2 August 1990

The Warsaw uprising

On August 1st 1944, Polish resistance fighters rose up against German occupying forces

The anti-nuclear protesters who won

The eight year protest campaign which stopped a nuclear plant at Wackersdorf in Germany.

The treasures of Sutton Hoo

A huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold was discovered in southern England in 1939.

The death of David Kelly

The weapons inspector's death deepened the row over the UK's part in the invasion of Iraq

Humanity's earliest ancestor

A fossilised skull found in Chad is thought to be the earliest-known ancestor of humans

When Tunisia led on women's rights

When Tunisia introduced divorce, abortion and votes for women ahead of much of the world.

The Chappaquiddick Incident

The car accident involving US Senator Edward Kennedy which left a young woman dead

LGBT 'cooperative' marriages in China

How LGBT people in China started arranging fake marriages to hide their sexuality

Mamma Mia!

The story of the hit musical Mamma Mia! from the woman who created it

The Beagle 2 mission to Mars

A failed attempt to search for signs of life on Mars

Apollo 13

The Moon mission that almost ended in tragedy after an explosion on board the spaceship.

The Moon Landing

In July 1969, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the Moon.

Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut

The Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to be sent into space

Laika, the first dog in space

The Russian stray was the first dog to be sent into orbit around the earth

Kenya's ivory inferno

How a dramatic bonfire in Nairobi National Park highlighted the threat from poaching

Cuba executes top military officers

Four army officers were sentenced to death for drug trafficking by the Castro government

The Common Cold Unit

The remarkable UK research centre where thousands went on holiday to catch a cold

China puts tampons on sale

Women in China got access to tampons for the first time in 1985

The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'

The secret diaries of 19th-century Englishwoman Anne Lister, the 'first modern lesbian'

The indigenous fight to stop nuclear waste disposal

How a group of senior, indigenous Australian women fought to save their land.

The launch of the Walkman

The advent of music on the move in July 1979

Surviving Cambodia's 'Killing Fields'

The Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, starting their four year genocidal rule.

Germans kidnapped by Nicaragua's rebels

Two German left-wing activists recall their ordeal as hostages of Nicaragua's Contras

The US judge accused of sexual harassment

How Supreme Court nominee Judge Clarence Thomas was publicly accused of sexual misconduct

Defending a British serial murderer

The lawyer of serial killer Rosemary West recalls the gruesome details of the case

The Stonewall Riot

How a protest outside New York's Stonewall Inn inspired the modern gay rights movement.

The Anfal genocide

Saddam Hussein's war on the Kurds in the 1980s

Catch-22

The story behind Joseph Heller's acclaimed, satirical anti-war novel which sold millions

The fat acceptance movement

The National Association to Aid Fat Americans, NAAFA, held its first meeting in June 1969

The yoga teacher and the violinist

How violinist Yehudi Menuhin and yoga teacher BKS Iyengar helped bring yoga to the West

Sister Lotus - early Chinese online star

Sister Lotus was an unlikely online celebrity because she was famous for being ordinary.

The assassinaton of Medgar Evers

The American civil rights activist and war hero who was murdered in 1963 in Mississippi.

Carl Gustav Jung

One of the most influential figures in psychoanalysis died in June 1961

The death of Neda Soltan

How a young woman became a symbol of anti-government protest in Iran

The first gay marriage in the USA

One gay couple in Minneapolis had a same-sex wedding back in the 1970's

How America 'lost' China

How an American war hero was sent to stop China becoming communist and failed.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Reichstag

How a huge public art project entranced post-Cold War Berlin

The first anti-psychotic drug

How a 1950s drug helped revolutionise the treatment of mental illness

The end of the war in Kosovo

Hundreds of thousands of Kosovans fled when NATO began bombing former Yugoslavia in 1999

The Gurkha soldiers fight for equality

A Nepalese regiment of the British army won the right to settle in Britain in 2009.

Broadcasting D-Day

How the BBC reported the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, 6 June 1944

The Little Prince

The mystery surrounding the death of the author of the world famous children's tale

D-Day

Eyewitness accounts of the Allied landings in Normandy during WW2 on 6 June 1944.

Vikings in York

Archaeologists uncovered perfectly preserved domestic Viking life in York in the 1970s

Six Degrees - the first online social network

Andrew Weinreich founded the first online social network in 1997.

Behind the scenes on Sesame Street

The inside story of one of the most popular children's TV shows ever made

Tiananmen Square escape

Dan Wang was the most wanted student leader after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Bokassa's massacre of the children

How protests by young people led to Jean-Bédel Bokassa's fall from power in C.A.R

The death of Jawaharlal Nehru

The man who led India to independence died on May 27th 1964

The Acid Survivors Foundation

The Bangladesh charity dedicated to treating the survivors of acid attacks.

How environmental campaign group Greenpeace was formed

The story of how environmental campaign group Greenpeace was formed

Fighting Uganda's anti-gay laws

When MPs tried to toughen the laws against homosexuality, LGBT activists took a stand.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

The Chicxulub impact crater was discovered in 1978.

Walking the Great Wall of China

Three friends set off on an epic trek along the Great Wall of China in May 1984

Hitler's stolen children

During WW2 the Nazis abducted blonde blue-eyed children to build an Aryan master race

China's One Child policy

The Chinese Communist Party started ruthlessly enforcing birth control in the early 1980s

The final days of Sri Lanka's civil war

How the army finally crushed Tamil Tiger rebels after 25 years of bloody civil war

Predicting the financial crash

The economists who predicted the 2008 financial crash but whose warnings were ignored

The Karakoram highway

The road between Pakistan and China took 20 years to complete

Strictly Come Dancing

One of the most successful TV formats in the world started back in May 2004

The war on drugs

The first 'war on drugs' was launched by US President Richard Nixon in 1971.

The Bauhaus

The groundbreaking school of art and design was founded in 1919

The siege of Dien Bien Phu

The French surrender at the siege of Dien Bien Phu ended their colonial rule of Vietnam

Jack Ma: The founder of Alibaba

The Chinese billionaire set up his online shopping site in 1999

The Malayan Emergency

The struggle against a Communist insurgency in Malaya in the 1950s

The sinking of the Belgrano

The Argentine ship was sunk by a British submarine during the Falklands war

The Arctic African

Why a boy ran away from West Africa to live in the Arctic in the 1960s.

Rupert Brooke

The English poet whose death at the start of World War One was mourned by millions

Ellen comes out

Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on primetime American television in April 1997.

The al-Yamamah arms deals

A record series of arms sales by the UK to Saudi Arabia began in the 1980s

Sri Lanka: A journalist's editorial from the grave

The assassination of newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga, in 2009 shocked the world

South Africa's first free elections

After Apartheid all South Africans regardless of race finally won the right to vote.

Britain's first vegans

The Vegan Society was established in 1944 by British 'non-dairy vegetarians'

Nato bombs Serbian TV

A survivor from the April 1999 bombing in Belgrade that killed 16 people.

The Columbine massacre

13 people were killed and more than 20 injured in the school shooting on April 20th 1999

How organic farming started

Worries about the industrialisation of farming post-WW2 led some farmers to go organic.

Auto-destructive art

Gustav Metzger and the birth of the radical new art form in the 1960s

The first play on Broadway written by a black woman

'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansberry had an almost exclusively black cast too.

Dennis Tito - the first space tourist

In April 2001 an American multi-millionaire paid Russia to send him into space

Chinese restaurant syndrome

In the 1960's American diners began to worry that Chinese food was making them ill.

The rise of Hindu nationalism

The consolidation of the BJP as one of the major powers in Indian politics.

The man who invented wingsuits

The wingsuit is the ultimate in extreme sports clothing, for BASE jumpers and skydivers

The Amritsar Massacre of 1919

In April 1919 British Indian troops opened fire on protestors in the city of Amritsar

The man who made Marilyn Monroe dance

Choreographer Jack Cole had a huge influence on musical theatre and Hollywood films

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou's iconic memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1969

Abolishing the army

Costa Rica dissolved its Armed Forces after a brief civil war in 1948

The warship lost for more than 300 years

The discovery of a 17th century Swedish warship, the Vasa, in near perfect condition

EMDR: the eye-movement therapy

A therapy which seems to work for post-traumatic stress was developed in the late 1980s

Patty Hearst the rebel heiress

In April 1974 the heiress announced she supported her kidnappers' beliefs

Mindfulness for the masses

Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.

The secret Nazi past of Kurt Waldheim

How former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim's secret Nazi past was exposed

Around the world in 20 days

The record-breaking balloon flight

Drama in the British parliament

Prime Minister Jim Callaghan's desperate attempts to survive a no-confidence vote in 1979

The first home pregnancy test

A female designer working for a pharmaceutical company came up with the idea in the 1960s

The rise of Viktor Orban

Viktor Orban, now the populist Hungarian Prime Minister led a democratic movement in 1988

Autism and the MMR vaccine

How a British doctor misled the world by linking the MMR vaccine with autism.

The discovery of the Aztec Moon Goddess

How an accidental discovery in Mexico led to the uncovering of the Aztecs´ Great Temple.

The first democratic elections in the USSR

Soviet citizens voted in democratic elections for the first time in March 1989.

The millionaire Nazi war criminal

How the Dutch art collector Pieter Menten was exposed as a war criminal in the 1970s

How Little America was built in Afghanistan

In the 1950s, US engineers were sent to Afghanistan to build a dam.

Slaughterhouse-Five

In March 1969, American author Kurt Vonnegut published his cult anti-war novel.

China's breakthrough malaria cure

Chinese scientists used ancient traditional medicine to find a cure for malaria.

Lenin and the deadly mushrooms

A spoof TV show persuaded some Russians that Lenin took too many hallucinogenic mushrooms

The fall of Singapore

Life under Japanese occupation in Singapore during World War Two.

Britain's first female black headteacher

Yvonne Conolly was appointed head of Ringcross Primary school in North London in 1969

The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles

Melina Mercouri asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles removed by Lord Elgin.

Speaking out against my abuser: Daniel Ortega

How Nicaragua's president was accused of sexual abuse by his step-daughter

The creation of the Barbie doll

Hear from the woman who created the most famous doll in the world.

Britain's first Muslim woman in government

Sayeeda Warsi was appointed to the coalition government's Cabinet in May 2010

Happy Beer Day!

On March 1st 1989 Icelanders were allowed to buy beer for the first time in decades

Asama Sanso: Japanese hostage crisis

Armed left-wing extremists fought off Japanese police in the mountains in February 1972

Sucked out of a plane

Nine people died when a cargo door opened mid-flight over the Pacific in February 1989

Swine flu shuts down Mexico City

A highly infectious virus appeared in Mexico in 2009 and rapidly spread round the world

Venezuela's oil bonanza

The boom and bust years of "Saudi" Venezuela in the 1970s

How science ended the search for Josef Mengele

A panel of scientists went to Brazil to identify the remains of the infamous Nazi in 1985

The men who tried to warn us about smoking

When doctors said cigarette smokers were dying prematurely the UK government did little.

The curse of Agent Orange

One woman's battle against the toxic legacy of the Vietnam War

The Columbia space shuttle disaster

The US space shuttle disintegrated on its way back to Earth on February 1, 2003.

The true story of Roma

The student massacre in México portrayed in Alfonso Cuarón's award-winning movie.

Maastricht: The birth of the European Union

In 1992 European ministers signed a treaty towards greater economic and political unity.

Confessions of a Soviet alcoholic

How a homeless Russian drunk wrote a secret classic

British Cameroons' historic referendum

The 1961 vote lies at the heart of the violent conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone region

Women Airline Pilots

Two of the first female airline pilots in the US remember their struggle

Iceland Jails Its Bankers

The man who jailed 40 top bankers in Iceland after the 2008 global credit crunch

The Bombardment of Baghdad

The people of Baghdad faced death when the US and its allies began their invasion of Iraq

Disney Goes to Europe

The first Disney theme park in Europe took years of negotiations to get off the ground.

The Soweto Uprising

A former schoolgirl remembers the demonstration that sparked an uprising in South Africa.

The Capture of Che Guevara

How the Marxist revolutionary was captured and killed in Bolivia.

The Death of Hitler

A first-hand account of Hitler from one of his secretaries who was there at the very end

Women and the Iranian Revolution

Many women supported Iran's 1979 Revolution but some later became disillusioned

Iran Hostage Rescue Mission

The US sent special forces to try to rescue hostages from their Embassy in Tehran in 1980

Iran Hostage Crisis

Barry Rosen was one of the Americans held hostage for 444 days in Tehran.

Ayatollah Khomeini Returns From Exile

In February 1979 an Islamic revolution began when Iran's exiled religious leader returned

Musicians of the Iranian Revolution

How Iran's state employed musicians started recording revolutionary songs.

The Publisher Who Tried to Change the World

Virago Press opened as a feminist publisher in 1972 to promote women's writing

Vatican II: Reforming the Catholic Church

Pope John XXIII wanted to modernise the Catholic Church, reforms took place in the 1960s.

The Carry On Films

The British comic film franchise which found fans around the world

India's First Call Centre

In the late 1990s a businessman started a new industry in India

The Case of Dr Crippen

How one of the most notorious murderers in Edwardian London was captured

The Thames Whale

In January 2006, millions of Londoners were entranced by the appearance of a whale.

Strikers In Saris

South Asian women led a strike against poor working conditions in a British factory.

Mexico's Miracle Water

Thousands of people flocked to the village of Tlacote hoping to be cured by magical water

Judy Garland's Final Shows

The world famous singer's final performances were in London in January 1969

'Fat is a Feminist Issue'

Susie Orbach's book led people to rethink body-image from a feminist perspective

Diary of Life in a Favela

The poor black single mother who stunned Brazil with a book about her life in 1960.

When Stalin Rounded Up Soviet Doctors

Hundreds of Soviet doctors were imprisoned or shot in the last year of Stalin's rule.

Fidel Castro Takes Havana

The end of the US-backed dictator and the start of communist rule in Cuba in January 1959

The Doomsday Seed Vault

In 2008, the first global seed vault was opened to safeguard the world's crops

Vikings in North America

The Canadian discovery that proved Vikings had crossed the Atlantic 1000 years ago

Ceausescu's 'House of the People'

The vast building that symbolised the excesses of Romania's brutal former dictator

Barbara Cartland - Queen of Romance

The romantic fiction writer is thought to have sold hundreds of millions of books

Brazil's Marijuana Summer

In 1987 thousands of tin cans full of marijuana washed up on the beaches in Rio.

Rebels Rout The Army In El Salvador

The storming of the El Paraiso base by Marxist rebels in December 1983.

When Animals Go To War

In December 1943, a British charity created gallantry medals for animals serving in war.

Trautonium: A Revolution in Electronic Music

Meet the trautonium, the early electronic instrument promoted by the Nazis.

UFO Sightings: The Rendlesham Forest Incident

At Christmas 1980 strange objects and lights were seen over a military base in England.

Scotland's Stone of Destiny

On Christmas Eve 1950 four students took the 'Stone of Destiny' from Westminster Abbey

Stopping The 'Shoe Bomber'

How a passenger helped subdue shoe-bomber Richard Reid on an American Airlines flight.

The Woman Who Wrote Mary Poppins

Writer PL Travers created a children's classic when she invented a magical nanny.

Hacking The First Computer Password

Scientists at MIT in the 1960s had to share computer time - but some people wanted more.

Theatre in the Sahara

Theatre director Peter Brook led a troupe of actors across the Sahara desert in 1972

China and Japan at War

Japanese troops reached the Chinese city of Nanjing in December 1937.

The US Apologises for Wartime Internment

Japanese Americans win an apology and compensation for World War II internment.

Englandspiel: The Deadly WW2 Spy Game

How Britain sent dozens of Dutch agents to their deaths in Nazi-occupied Netherlands

Cicely Saunders And The Modern Hospice Movement

The British woman who revolutionised the treatment of dying patients around the world.

Apollo 8

How the first mission to orbit the Moon captured the world's imagination in December 1968

When China Joined the WTO

China had to open up its strict communist system to join the World Trade Organisation

Angela Merkel's Rise to Power

Angela Merkel rose to power in German politics after the fall of her mentor, Helmut Kohl.

Adopted By The Man Who Killed My Family

Ramiro Osorio Cristales was five when his family was massacred by the Guatemalan army.

The Armenian Earthquake

A catastrophic earthquake hit northern Armenia on December 7th 1988, hear from a survivor

The Coronation of Jean-Bédel Bokassa

On 4 December 1977 Jean-Bédel Bokassa was crowned Emperor of the Central African Republic

Berlin's Rubble Women

At the end of WW2 much of Germany's capital had been destroyed. Women helped clear it up.

Norway's EU referendum

In November 1994, Norwegians voted in a referendum not to join the European Union

The Discovery of Dinosaur Eggs

The fossil find in 1923 in Mongolia helped to prove that dinosaurs hatched their young.

The man who inspired Britain's first Aids charity

In 1982, Terrence Higgins became the first known British victim of HIV/AIDS.

The Antarctic Whale Hunters

Memories of the bloody Antarctic industry which left whales on the brink of extinction.

The Destruction Of Iraq's Marshlands

When Iraq's marshes became a hiding place for rebels, Saddam Hussein destroyed them.

The USSR Opens Up to the West

Four years after Stalin's death, Moscow threw a festival for 30,000 foreign students.

The Last Days of Yasser Arafat

The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in November 2004

The Story Behind The Man Who Shot JFK

What did Lee Harvey Oswald do for two years in the Soviet city of Minsk?

The 'Braceros', America's Mexican Guest Workers

How hundreds of thousands of Mexicans were hired to work legally in US farms.

The Funeral of the Duke of Wellington

Recorded memories of the funeral in 1852 of the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon.

Britain's Little Blue Disability Car

For decades disabled people in the UK were offered tiny, three-wheeled, turquoise cars

Japanese Murders in Brazil

Fanatics killed Japanese immigrants who accepted that Japan had surrendered in WW2.

The Shah in Exile

Iranians stormed the US embassy in Iran in November 79 after America allowed in the Shah

Jewish in Imperial Russia

A young woman's rare account of Jewish life in imperial Russia.

How The Brazilian Dictatorship Made My Father Disappear

Writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva remembers the day his father was taken by the military.

WW1: Revolution in Germany

Eyewitness accounts of the collapse of Germany in the final weeks of war in November 1918

Women Nurses during World War One

Thousands of women volunteered for war work during WW1. Hear archive from one of them.

African Troops during World War One

Thousands of East Africans were conscripted to fight for Britain and Germany during WW1

The Battle of Passchendaele

It was one of the battles which symbolised the horror and futility of WW1

A Kristallnacht story

Nora Krug investigated Nazi attacks in her German hometown on 9 November 1938

Why I Slapped the German Chancellor

In November 1968 a young activist hit Germany's leader to draw attention to his Nazi past

Princess Margaret And The War Hero

How a love affair between the Queen's sister and Captain Peter Townsend gripped Britain.

Life With America's Black Panthers

Memories of the radical African American leader, Eldridge Cleaver.

The KGB's Whistleblower

KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin's top secret archive was smuggled to Britain in 1992

The Day Nigeria Struck Oil

An eyewitness account of a discovery that changed Nigerian history

When Russia's Richest Man Was Jailed

Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003

The Arrest in London of Augusto Pinochet

The former ruler of Chile, Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998

Desmond Tutu Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Apartheid South Africa's outspoken critic Bishop Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize

When Belgium Banned Coca-Cola

When Belgian teenagers got sick they blamed Coca-Cola but the truth was more mysterious

The Pergau Dam Affair

In 1993 news broke about development aid linked to a British arms deal.

Brazil's Hidden War in the Amazon

How a small guerrilla group tried to start a revolution in the Brazilian jungle.

The 1973 Oil Crisis

In October 1973 an Arab oil embargo caused prices to rocket.

Fighting Mount Etna

How the Italian authorities diverted the stream of molten lava from the Etna volcano.

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Murdered while head of the Roman Catholic church in El Salvador, he is being made a saint

Austria at War

The story of a young Austrian woman who survived World War Two and the allied occupation

The Nazi Black Book

During WW2 Germany listed the people it wanted to arrest should Britain fall to the Nazis

Anti-traveller Riots in Sweden

In 1948 violence broke out against Romany-speaking traveller people in Sweden

Reform of the House of Lords

How Britain's Labour government tried to kick the aristocrats out of Parliament

Howl: The Poem That Revolutionised US Writing

How Allan Ginsberg's reading in San Francisco in 1955 started the "Beat Generation".

The Soviet Union's Fashion Revolutionary

Slava Zaitsev created the first high fashion collections in the USSR.

The Invention of Artificial Skin

How a chemist and a surgeon found a way of helping burns to heal.

The Street Battle That Rocked Brazil

A clash between students in 1968 paved the way for a hardening of military rule.

Racial Equality in Britain - Learie Constantine

The former West Indies cricketer took a London hotel to court in 1943

The Bridge Which United Sweden and Denmark

The bridge which connected neighbours across the water and inspired a TV hit worldwide.

Fighting in the Iran-Iraq War

The war lasted for 8 years and is thought to have left over a million people dead.

The Creation of the Cervical Cancer Vaccine

The scientific breakthrough that saved the lives of thousands of women

Isadora Duncan - Dance Pioneer

Sometimes called the 'Mother of Modern Dance'

The South African Army In Lesotho

South Africa sent 600 soldiers into Lesotho to quell political unrest in September 1998

Brazil's Nuclear Accident

Hundreds of people were contaminated when a disused radiotherapy machine was scrapped.

The Arnhem Parachute Drop

In 'Operation Market Garden' thousands of Allied troops parachuted into Nazi-held Holland

The Battle of Algiers

The film that tells the true story of the Algerians' fight for their capital Algiers

The Cuban Five

The case of five Cuban spies arrested in Miami in September 1998

The Fifteen Guinea Special

The train signaled the end of the steam age on Britain's main-line rail network in 1968

The Truth About Crop Circles

Thought to be left by UFOs the phenomena was resolved when two men came forward in 1991.

How I Survived a Fire on a Plane

One young man was the only passenger to survive a fire on a plane - find out how.

The Killing of Steve Biko

The brutal death in custody of the anti-Apartheid activist in September 1977.

Appeasement

In September 1938 Neville Chamberlain tried to negotiate with Hitler over Czechoslovakia.

The Ship that Dumped America's Waste

How campaigners fought to stop the 'Khian Sea' from off-loading tons of US waste abroad

WWI: The Hundred Days Offensive

First-hand accounts of the Allied offensive that finally brought the bloody war to an end

From Leningrad to St Petersburg

In a hugely symbolic act Leningrad returned to its historic name of St Petersburg in 1991

Living Under Gaddafi

A military coup in Libya in September 1969 brought Muammar Gaddafi to power.

The Battle for Brick Lane

In 1978 the racist murder of a young Bengali galvanised an immigrant community in London.

The First MRI Scan

Dr Raymond Damadian attempted the first magnetic resonance scan of a human body.

Surviving the "Death Railway"

A prisoner of war describes the deadly conditions building the bridge over the River Kwai

The Mine Disaster That Devastated Post-War Italy

How an accident at Marcinelle in Belgium killed more than 100 Italian migrant workers.

The Lake Nyos Disaster

The mysterious death of villagers and livestock in north-western Cameroon

Hitler's League Of German Girls

An elderly German recalls her years as a leader in the Hitler Youth for girls.

Benidorm

The story of the mayor who created one of the world's biggest holiday resorts.

Hitler's Architect

Albert Speer was Hitler's architect. We talk to a journalist who interviewed him.

Baba of Karo

The groundbreaking autobiography of a woman who grew up in 19th century Nigeria

USSR Wages War on Alcohol

Sales of alcohol in the USSR were limited in 1985 in a bid to fight drunkenness.

Prague Spring

The student who appealed for the world's help when Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia

The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis

A bank robbery, a three-day car chase and a journalist who got too close to the story.

The Invention of Instant Noodles

The creation in 1958 of a new product that would revolutionise mealtimes worldwide.

When TV Came To South Africa

Apartheid South Africa finally launched the country's first TV service in 1976.

Photographing Martin Luther King and His Family

Moneta Sleet, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

Vera Brittain: Anti-Bombing Campaigner

During WW2 the feminist and writer Vera Brittain spoke out against the bombing of Germany

Israel's Secret Peace Envoy

In August 1994 Yitzhak Rabin became the first Israeli leader to visit Jordan

The Azeri-Armenian Village Swap

How two villages, Armenian and Azeri, managed to avoid ethnic violence by swapping homes

The First CIA Coup in Latin America

Guatemala's president was ousted from power by army officers backed by the CIA in 1954.

The Search for Iran's Nuclear Programme

In 2003 Iran agreed to let the IAEA into the country to inspect its nuclear facilities.

The Retirement Home For Dancing Bears

The Bulgarian sanctuary that cares for bears once forced to dance.

Shambo The Sacred Bull

How a bull's health led to a stand-off between monks and the Welsh government in 2007.

WW1: Britain's Conscientious Objectors

Thousands went to prison for refusing to join Britain's war effort.

Women At West Point

In July 1976, female cadets were admitted to the US Military Academy for the first time.

Winston Churchill's Election Defeat

In July l945 Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill was ousted in a general election

The Whitewashing of Zimbabwe's Ancient History

The contentious history of the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe - finally revealed.

The Kitchen Debate

When two Cold War leaders argued about living standards in their countries.

South Korea's Summer Of Terror

How thousands of suspected communist sympathisers were killed in South Korea in 1950.

A Vet Remembers The Hyde Park Bombing

Two IRA bombs in London parks killed 11 military personnel and 7 horses on 20th July 1982

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in July 1968

The Bombing of the King David Hotel

The attack by an armed Jewish group on British HQ in Palestine that left 91 dead.

The Virgin Lands Campaign

To fight food shortages in the 1950s the USSR embarked on a major agricultural project

The Killing of the Russian Tsar

The Russian Tsar and his family were shot in a cellar in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918

Italy's 'Ghost Shipwreck'

How journalists located the wreck of a boat that capsized killing nearly 300 migrants

The Spiegel Affair

How a magazine article about West Germany's defence strategy led to a government crisis.

Smiling Buddha: India's First Nuclear Test

How India secretly developed and exploded its first atomic device in 1974

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Published in 1958 the Nigerian writer's first novel revolutionised African fiction.

Kosovo: 'Madeleine's War'

Ex-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on why she argued for Nato action in Kosovo

Playgrounds Made of Junk

Post-war Britain saw a rise in "adventure playgrounds" born out of bomb-sites

The Toilet

The controversial art installation which upset Russians but is now seen as a masterpiece

Flight 655: When The US Shot Down An Airliner

All 290 on board were killed when a US warship downed an Iranian passenger jet in 1988

The Search For Deep Throat

In July 2005, the most famous informant in American history Deep Throat revealed himself

The President and the Gun Lobby

Former President George Bush Senior's public row with the National Rifle Association.

Whiskey On The Rocks

The Cold War stand-off when a Soviet submarine was stranded on a Swedish rock.

The SARS Emergency

Early 2003 saw a medical emergency sweep across the world.

Veronica Guerin - Dying for the Story

The Irish journalist murdered for her work exposing drug barons in the 1990s

The King of Lampedusa

How 4,000 Italian troops surrendered to a young Jewish pilot from London, during WW2.

How the World Woke Up to Global Warming

James Hansen got US politicians to listen to his warnings about climate change in 1988.

Demoted For Being Gay

When the Israeli Army punished Colonel Uzi Even for being gay, he fought back.

Wittenoom: An Australian Tragedy

How a town built around an asbestos mine made its residents fatally ill.

Bata the Shoemaker's Revolution

Bata, a Czech company, pioneered assembly line shoemaking

The Battered Child

The American doctor who forced the medical profession to face up to child abuse.

The Death of Kim Il-sung

The founding father of communist North Korea died in July 1994.

The Unified Korean Table Tennis Team

How ping pong brought together athletes from bitter rivals North and South Korea.

The GI Who Chose China

After the Korean war ended a few American prisoners chose to try life under communism.

The Beginning of the Korean War

North Korean communist troops invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950.

Korea Divided

The Korean peninsula was split between North and South at the end of World War Two.

The Execution of Adolf Eichmann

Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was executed in the early hours of June 1st 1962

The Death of General Sani Abacha

Nigeria's military ruler died suddenly in June 1998.

The 1968 Belgrade Student Revolt

In June 1968, students in Belgrade rebelled against Yugoslavia's 'market socialism'

The Assassinaton Attempt that Sparked a Middle East War

In 1982, a Palestinian gunman attacked the Israeli ambassador to London, Shlomo Argov

Couch to 5K

The birth of the running programme that got millions off their sofas and out jogging

Lyuba the Baby Mammoth

How a herdsman found the perfectly preserved body of a 42,000-year-old baby mammoth.

Isaac Asimov and Science Fiction

The American writer and scientist considered one of the greats of Science Fiction.

Free Health Care For All

In 1948 Britain launched the National Health Service, NHS

The Thalidomide Trial

Executives of the German company that made the drug Thalidomide went on trial in May 1968

The First Bicycle Sharing Scheme

In the mid 1960s a Dutch engineer came up with a scheme to share bikes and cut pollution.

The BBC at Caversham

For 75 years the BBC ran a monitoring service based in an English stately home.

Shoah the Film

Shoah, Claude Lanzmann's epic nine-hour film on the Holocaust was released in spring 1985

Lesbian Protest on BBC News

On 23 May 1988 a group of lesbian activists invaded a BBC TV news studio as it was on air

Pakistan's Theatre Revolution

The launch of Ajoka, the group which pioneered theatre for social change in Pakistan.

President Suharto Resigns

On May 21st 1998 the president of Indonesia resigned after 31 years in power.

Defusing Nuclear Bombs: The Goldsboro 'Broken Arrow'

How Lt. Jack ReVelle disarmed two thermonuclear bombs which crashed in North Carolina.

Look Back in Anger

The play Look Back in Anger changed British theatre when it was staged in 1956

May 1968 Paris Riots

A riot policeman's view of the violence which swept through France in 1968.

The First Montessori Nursery

In 1907 Italian doctor, Maria Montessori, radically changed the way young children learn.

The Dambusters Raid

The famous British raid on German dams during World War Two.

The Walker Spy Ring

In 1985 members of the US spy ring were arrested for selling Navy secrets to the USSR.

The First Foetal Surgery

On the 10th May 1981 a baby was born after a successful operation while in the womb.

The Last King of Bulgaria

Bulgaria's former King Simeon II wins the country’s parliamentary election in 2001.

Africa United

How 32 newly-independent nations came together to plan the future of their continent.

The First Diagnosis of Autism

The condition was first described in 1943 by child psychiatrist Leo Kanner in the USA

When Margaret Thatcher Came to Power

The British politician was the first woman elected to lead a Western European country.

WW2: Prisoner on the High Seas

A surprise attack, a ship lost, a crew captured - memories of a merchant navy veteran

Takeshi's Castle

A new sort of game show started on Japanese TV in May 1986

The Children's Crusade

Thousands of black children protested on the streets of Birmingham Alabama in May 1963.

A New Approach to Shakespeare

The Royal Shakespeare Company opened in Britain in 1961 and changed theatre forever.

Pablo Picasso

The great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died in April 1973; hear from someone who knew him

Scottish Prison Experiment

A special unit in a Glasgow jail began offering art therapy to violent prisoners in 1973.

The Oslo Peace Talks

How secret negotiations in Norway led to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Swimming The Bering Strait

How an American swimmer crossed the "Ice Curtain" between the USA and the Soviet Union.

World War One: The Red Baron

Veterans remember the famous German air ace who was killed in April 1918

Earth Day

In 1970, 20 million Americans came out to demonstrate for a sustainable environment.

The Last Keeper of the Light

The island of Skellig Michael has lighthouses, and a striking role in Star Wars films.

Rebuilding the Site of the Twin Towers

How a team of architects were given the responsibility to repair New York's skyline.

World War One: Germany's Spring Offensive 1918

Germany launched a huge offensive on the Western Front in a last gamble to win the war.

The Shooting of Rudi Dutschke

The German student leader was shot in April 1968, leading to protests in West Berlin.

The Soviet Spy Scandal

In 1971 during the Cold War, the UK expelled 90 Soviet diplomats suspected of spying.

The Zimbabwe Massacres

Robert Mugabe sent troops to put down opposition supporters in western Zimbabwe in 1983.

The First Frozen Embryo Baby

Zoe Leyland was born in Australia on April 11th 1984 after her mother's IVF treatment.

Woodfall Films

The film company which changed British cinema.

The Emergency Rescue Committee

The Emergency Rescue Committee helped save intellectuals and artists from the Nazis

Vietnam War: The Battle for Hue

Communist forces overran the key city in 1968 triggering one of the war's biggest battles

2001 A Space Odyssey

Actor Keir Dullea recalls starring in Stanley Kubrick's ground-breaking sci-fi movie

Russia's Bitter Taste of Capitalism

Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the rapid market reforms in early 1992.

The UNAbomber

How the UNAbomber Ted Kaczynski was caught after his brother turned him in

The Invention of Semtex

The Czech plastic explosive that was once undetectable to security services

The Good Friday Agreement

The deal which brought peace to Northern Ireland after decades of violence.

Mapping the Ocean's Secrets

Marie Tharp's discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge proved the theory of plate tectonics

The 'Oasis of Peace'

The story of Wahat al-Salam, Neve Shalom where Jews and Arabs live side by side in peace.

Sarajevo: Singing for Peace

How a multi-faith choir brought together survivors of the Bosnian civil war.

First Women on the London Stock Exchange

The women who broke tradition shocking London's top-hatted stockbrokers.

Who Killed Luis Colosio?

The murder of a presidential candidate that shocked Mexico.

The Skull Valley Sheep Kill

Did a nerve agent kill 6,000 sheep close to a US military testing site in 1968?

Radiocarbon Dating of the Turin Shroud

In 1988 scientists performed a carbon dating test on the Shroud of Turin.

A Brief History of Time

Physicist Stephen Hawking's best-seller, A Brief History of Time, was published in 1988

Elvis in the US Army

How the 'King' of Rock'n'Roll became a GI in 1958 and served during the Cold War

Latvia's Controversial Waffen-SS Fighters

In 1998 Latvian Waffen-SS veterans marched to remember a battle against the Soviets.

Tancredo Neves - Doomed Hero of Brazilian Democracy

How the politician who led Brazil to democracy died before taking office as president.

The Battle of the Airwaves in Latin America

How the BBC began Spanish and Portuguese broadcasts to fight the Nazis in the Americas

Surviving The My Lai Massacre

One of the worse US military atrocities took place during the Vietnam war.

The Moscow Show Trials

An eyewitness account of Stalin's purge of top Soviet leaders during the Great Terror.

Changing the Alphabet in Azerbaijan

After independence Azerbaijan changed from Russian Cyrillic script to Latin letters.

Marie Stopes: Birth Control Pioneer

The first birth control clinic in Britain was opened in London in 1921 by Dr Marie Stopes

The Life and Thought of Hannah Arendt

The life and thought of the leading 20th-century political thinker, Hannah Arendt

Deaf Rights Protest

Students at the world's first deaf-only University demand a deaf college President.

World War One: Russia at War

How Russia's disastrous war on the Eastern Front became a catalyst for revolution

China's Barefoot Doctors

How China's barefoot doctor scheme revolutionised rural healthcare.

M*A*S*H

The last episode of the iconic TV series broadcasts to record audiences across the US.

The Killing of Olof Palme

The Swedish Prime Minister was shot dead on a Stockholm street on February 28th 1986.

The Angel of the North

The huge steel sculpture that has become an icon for the north-east of England.

The Last Smallpox Outbreak

In India in 1974 thousands of people died in the world's last major smallpox epidemic

David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

One of the biggest novels of the late twentieth century was published in February 1996.

The Boy in the Bubble

David Vetter was born with a disease which meant he lived inside a plastic bubble

Jimmy Swaggart's Fall From Grace

How one of America's most successful televangelists was caught with a prostitute

Ghana Must Go

Over a million African migrants, most of them Ghanaian, had to leave Nigeria in 1983

The Furies Collective: Lesbian Separatists

A group of US feminists set up a commune to live entirely without men in 1971.

Leonardo's Lost Notebooks

In 1967 two long-lost notebooks of the artist Leonardo da Vinci were discovered in Spain

Women's Rights In Iran

Iran's first ever Minister for Women's Affairs was appointed in 1975.

Hull's 'Headscarf Revolutionaries'

The British fishermen's wives who fought for better safety standards in their industry

The Bombing Of Korean Flight 858

In 1987, 115 people died in an attack ordered by North Korea to disrupt the Olympic Games

Spying On South Africa's Nuclear Bomb

Renfrew Christie was jailed and tortured for passing details of the bomb to the ANC

The Munich Air Disaster

The 1958 plane crash that killed eight of Manchester United's famous "Busby Babes" team.

Women in Britain get the right to vote

On 6th February 1918, women in Britain were given the right to vote for the first time

Bringing Nazi Leader Klaus Barbie To Justice

The extradition to France of the man known as 'the butcher of Lyon'

Banning The Belt

How two Scottish mothers forced the UK government to end corporal punishment in schools

The Roots of the Rohingya Crisis

The complex history behind the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.

Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive

How a surprise attack became a turning point in the Vietnam war

The Bloody Sunday Shootings

Tony Doherty recalls the murder of his father by British troops in Northern Ireland

The "Godfather of Gospel Music"

Thomas A Dorsey is credited with developing Gospel music into a global phenomenon.

The Invention of the Lego Brick

How one of the world's most popular toys was invented in a small Danish town in 1958

The Vege-Burger

How one of the mainstays of vegetarian cuisine was launched in 1982

Salvador Dali

The life and times of the great surrealist artist, Salvador Dali

The Capture of the USS Pueblo

A US spy ship was caught by North Korean forces in the Sea of Japan on 23 January 1968.

Francis Bacon's Studio

How an influential painter's studio was moved in its entirety from London to Ireland.

My 10-Year Battle to Adopt in Guatemala

How Guatemala's changes in law scuppered Ruth Sheehan's attempt to adopt a baby boy

The Writer With Cerebral Palsy Who Made History

Christopher Nolan became the first severely disabled person to win the Whitbread prize.

Eisenhower's Farewell Address

American president Dwight Eisenhower's great farewell address

South Africa's Truth And Reconciliation Commission

After Apartheid, South Africans tried to come to terms with their brutal past.

How British Women Helped Win World War One

For the first time women were encouraged to join the workforce to help win the war

Reaching out After World War Two

German children were invited to stay in the English town of Reading after WW2 had ended

When France said 'Non' to Britain joining the EEC

In 1963, France stopped Britain from joining the European Economic Community, now the EU

The Algerian Massacres

The story of one atrocity in Algeria's battle with radical Islamists in the 1990s

The First iPhone

The touchscreen smartphone changed mobile technology for ever.

The Boy Who Stayed Awake For Eleven Days

California high school student Randy Gardner set a world record in 1964.

Iran Student Protests 1999

A young man became an unwitting symbol of the anti-government protests

I Hijacked A Plane To Save My Children

How one woman fled Brazil's military dictatorship with her kids on a hijacked plane.

Spelling Bee - The Children's Competition that Grips America

The first child of South Asian background to become America's Spelling Bee champion.

Boris Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation

On New Year's Eve 1999 the Russian President went on TV and said he was leaving office.

"Spend, Spend, Spend" - The Miner's Wife Who Won Big

How Viv Nicholson became a celebrity in Britain after winning the football pools in 1961.

Voyager: Around The World On One Tank of Fuel

How two pilots became the first to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling

The Climbers of Leningrad

Mountaineers risked their lives to camouflage landmarks in the Russian city during WW2.

The First Kwanzaa

The African-American winter holiday was invented in Los Angeles in 1966.

Trivial Pursuit

The game has become a holiday tradition with families around the world.

To Kill A Mockingbird

One of the most successful American films of all time was released at Christmas 1962.

BR Ambedkar

The Indian independence leader and campaigner for Dalit rights died in December 1956.

The Exam That Changed China

The return of university entrance exams showed the Cultural Revolution had really ended.

The Development of WiFi

Australian scientists were central to the development of wifi.

Somalia's Islamic Courts Union

How the Islamic movement brought a brief moment of peace to Mogadishu after years of war

The Disappearance of Harold Holt

The Australian Prime Minister went for a swim on December 17th 1967 - and never came back

Otis Redding

The great soul singer who was killed in a plane crash in December 1967

The Great London Smog

Thousands died as a thick polluted fog engulfed London in 1952

The Unsung Hero of Heart Surgery

The African-American lab technician whose surgery helped save millions of babies..

Hypnotising Saddam's Son

How an American hypnotist went to Iraq to treat Uday, the eldest son of Saddam Hussein.

Art in Revolutionary Russia

Avant-garde art flourished in Russia after the 1917 revolution but was later suppressed

The Discovery of Whale Song

Whales were being hunted to extinction until a biologist realised they could sing.

Finland Wins Independence From Russia

In December 1917 Finland became an independent country for the first time.

Britain's withdrawal from South Yemen

In 1967 Britain's departure from Aden leads to the creation of an independent South Yemen

Mount Rushmore

Construction on one of America's most famous monuments started in 1927.

Science City in Siberia

Thousands of scientists moved to deepest Siberia to dedicate their lives to research.

The Poisoning of Litvinenko

Former colonel in the Russian secret service Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London.

The Prestige Oil Disaster in Spain

How thousands of volunteers cleaned up after a huge environmental disaster in 2002

The Audacious Plot to Kill a Colonel

How El Salvador's leftist rebels led a top army officer into a deadly trap

The Case of Alger Hiss

The conviction of diplomat Alger Hiss was one of America's most notorious spy cases

The Exile of Wolf Biermann

East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in November 1976.

Toy Story - The First Digitally-Animated Feature Film

It was a box-office hit and a revolution in the world of animated films.

The Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem

The president of South Vietnam was overthrown and murdered in a coup in November 1963.

The Man Who Prosecuted Charles Manson

Charles Manson's followers murdered 9 people on his orders. But how to prove his guilt?

The Siege of Mecca

In 1979 Islamic militants took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam

Botswana's Diamonds

Huge diamond deposits were first discovered in the Kalahari desert in Botswana in 1967

The 'Disappeared' of Lebanon

Searching for the thousands who went missing during Lebanon's brutal civil war.

The Windmill Theatre

A British national institution closed in 1964.

The British Love Affair with Curry

Indian restaurants first became popular in the UK in the 1950s.

The Exploding Whale

The story behind one of the most famous viral videos ever.

World War One: Ordinary Lives

Recordings of two people who felt the cost of war both on the battlefield and at home

Laika the Space Dog

The Russian street dog was the first living creature to orbit the Earth.

The Russian Revolution: The Bolsheviks Take Control

Eyewitness accounts of the Russian Revolution of 7 November 1917

Osama Bin Laden's Last Interview

Osama bin Laden spoke to journalist Hamid Mir as US-led forces closed in after 9/11.

The Naked Ape

The book that revolutionised the way we look at human behaviour.

The Case That Saved Sex on the Internet

In 1997 the US Supreme Court ruled against censoring sex on the internet.

Oscar Niemeyer's Forgotten Masterpiece

In the Lebanese city of Tripoli there is an exceptional architectural site.

Martin Luther's 95 Theses

How German monk Martin Luther started a religious revolution

The Murder of Brazil's Leading Journalist

Journalist Vladimir Herzog was killed in detention by the secret police in October 1975.

A Literary Love Affair

How Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir met and fell in love in Paris in October 1929

The Death of Dele Giwa

An eyewitness to the assassination of the famous Nigerian journalist Dele Giwa in 1986

The Fake IDs That Saved Jewish Lives

How tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews escaped the Nazis by using false papers.

Private Eye

A new satirical magazine called Private Eye was published in London in October 1961.

Romania's Abortion Ban

Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu made abortion illegal in October 1966.

The 43 Group: Battling British Fascism

How British Jewish ex-servicemen fought fascists on the streets of Britain after WW2

The Mysterious Death of Samora Machel

The socialist leader of Mozambique was killed in a plane crash and many were suspicious.

Moscow Theatre Siege

Svetlana Gubareva recalls her ordeal when Chechen rebels seized a Moscow theatre in 2002.

The Death of JG Farrell

The writer drowned off the south-west coast of Ireland in 1979.

Cuban Missile Crisis: the Governments

In October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis took the world to the brink of nuclear war

Testifying Against OJ Simpson

Ron Shipp was a close friend of OJ Simpson's but decided to testify against him in court.

Saving Italy's Art During WW2

Italy's great works of art were threatened by bombing and looting during World War Two.

Lluis Companys - Martyr of Catalan Nationalism

The Catalan leader who was executed by a Spanish fascist firing squad in October 1940.

The Death of Che Guevara

Felix Rodriguez recalls his part in the killing of the Marxist revolutionary in Oct 1967.

Matthew Shepard: A killing that changed American law

The murder of a gay student shocked Americans and helped reform US hate crime law

The first black American at Ole Miss

In 1962 the first black American was enrolled at Mississippi University amid riots

Israel Withdraws From Gaza

One woman's account of life on the front-line of Israel's occupation of Gaza.

The Raising of the Mary Rose

King Henry VIII's favourite warship sank in a naval battle in 1545.

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

Shortly before the Islamic revolution in Iran, a very modern museum opened in the capital

The Sudden Death of Pope John Paul I

Just 33 days into his reign, Pope John Paul I died unexpectedly in September 1978.

A Bitter Divorce: When Guinea said "No" to France

How Guinea became the first French West African colony to declare independence in 1958.

Walking the Great Wall of China

It took 508 days to complete the first expedition along the entire length of the wall.

Britain's Land Girls

Thousands of women and girls worked on farms throughout WW2 to produce much needed food.

Steve Biko: Black Consciousness Leader

The activist had died in South African police custody. He was buried on September 25 1977

The Cross Border Horse Race

A showdown on the American/Mexican border on September 14th 1958.

Roselle - The 9/11 Guide Dog

The inspiring story of how a Labrador led her blind master out of the World Trade Center.

Australia's Rabbit Plague

Rabbits infested huge swathes of the Australian countryside in the 1940s and 1950s.

Shark Attack Survivor

When Rodney Fox survived the jaws of a Great White Shark it inspired him to study them.

The Transatlantic Locust Plague

Millions of African locusts invaded the Caribbean having flown 5,000 kilometres non-stop.

Sabra and Shatila - A Massacre in Lebanon

A doctor working in Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon recalls the massacre there

The German Schoolboy Arrested for Writing a Letter

Karl-Heinz Borchardt was arrested at the age of 18 by East German secret police.

The Hippydilly Squat

A group of hippies occupied a sixty-room mansion in central London in September 1969.

The Collapse of Northern Rock

Panicked run on bank signals the start of the financial crisis in the UK

Nok Terracottas: Nigeria's Ancient Treasure

When West African tin miners unearthed evidence of a lost civilization

France's Last Guillotine

The last man to be executed by guillotine in France was a Tunisian, Hamida Djandoubi.

BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

When the principal singer collapsed, a member of the audience took over his role.

Biosphere 2: Building A New World

Eight scientists sealed themselves inside a giant greenhouse for an ambitious experiment.

The Fairy Photos

How two girls' photos convinced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that fairies exist.

Jamaica's Worst Train Accident

A survivor recalls the Kendal train crash in September 1957 when more than 200 died.

The Funeral of Princess Diana

Diana's brother Earl Spencer remembers the emotional speech he made at her funeral.

The Birth of eBay

The online auction site first went live in 1995.

George Orwell and Animal Farm

Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of Joseph Stalin.

The Revolutionary Head Scan

The summer of 1983 saw a major breakthrough in the treatment of facial deformities.

Notting Hill Race Riot

The racial disturbances in west London which shocked Britain in 1958.

The Rostock-Lichtenhagen Riots

A home for asylum seekers was set on fire in the German city of Rostock in August 1992

Medicine In World War One

Veterans tell the story of how medical care dealt with the horrors of WW1

The Discovery of Botox

How an ophthalmologist and a dermatologist discovered that a toxin could stop wrinkles

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials

A German court put Nazi war criminals on trial 20 years after the end of World War Two

Rabindranath Tagore

The "Bard of Bengal" died on August the 7th 1941.

The Division of Cyprus

In August 1974, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus for a second time cutting the island in two

The Buenos Aires Herald

The English-language newspaper was credited with standing up to Argentina's dictatorship.

Nike and the Sweatshop Problem

In the 1990s Nike got a bad name after being linked to sweatshops in Asia.

Germany's Nudists

How East Germans went naked on the beaches despite official communist party disapproval.

Reagan's Bombing Joke

"We begin bombing in five minutes" said the US President in 1984. But he was only joking

Florence Nightingale

The "lady with the lamp" died on August 13th 1910.

The Calcutta Killings of 1946

Exactly a year before Indian independence there were deadly riots in the city of Calcutta

The Murder of Naji al-Ali

The acclaimed Palestinian cartoonist was gunned down in London in 1987