The early days of the European Union - a podcast by BBC World Service

The hurried signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 which led to greater European unity, plus 1992 - when the British royal family started to reform its role after a year of scandal and disaster. Also on the programme, the horrific gang rape which prompted India to rethink its laws, the storm that helped British tree experts make an important scientific discovery and the woman born to slaves who became the first self-made female millionaire.

Photo: European leaders at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images

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