Podcasts by Witness History
History as told by the people who were there.
Further podcasts by BBC World Service
Podcast on the topic Geschichte
All episodes
Anna Akhmatova: the poet who defied a regime from 2023-12-13T10:00
The great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova lived through some of the darkest chapters of Soviet history, but never stopped writing even though the communist regime repeatedly tried to silence her. Listen
Yeltsin speaks at the reburial of the Romanovs from 2023-12-12T10:00
In 1998, Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin shocked the nation with a last-minute decision to speak at the reburial of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, 80 years after their murder.
“We must ...
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Murder of the Romanovs from 2023-12-11T10:00
As civil war raged in Russia, on 17 July 1918, the imprisoned royal family were told they were to be taken to a place of refuge.
But the move was a trick and half an hour later Tsar Nichol...
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The release of DOOM from 2023-12-08T10:00
In December 1993, the release of a new video game captivated gamers around the world. It was called DOOM.
Set on a Martian military base overrun by zombified soldiers and demons, DOOM saw...
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‘The disappeared’ of Argentina from 2023-12-07T10:00
Between 1976 and 1983 in Argentina, the military ruled the country. Thousands of mainly young, left-wing Argentinians went missing.
Known as 'the disappeared', they were taken to detentio...
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A Greek coup: The day the colonels took power from 2023-12-06T10:00
On 21 April 1967, a group of right-wing army officers seized power in Greece to prevent the election of a social democratic government led by veteran politician George Papandreou.
The dic...
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La Haine: The film that shocked France from 2023-12-04T08:50
In 1993, film director Mathieu Kassovitz started work on what would become a cult cinema classic, La Haine.
La Haine would follow three friends from a poor immigrant neighbourhood in the P...
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World's first solar-heated home from 2023-12-01T10:00
In December 1948, a family of Hungarian refugees moved into the world's first home to be heated entirely by solar power.
What made the Dover Sun House, in Massachusetts, United States, eve...
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Tanzania adopts Swahili to unite the country from 2023-11-30T10:00
After Tanzania, then called Tanganyika, became independent from Britain in 1961, the country's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the national language to unite its people.
Walter Bgoya ...
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The bird that defied extinction from 2023-11-28T10:00
In 1969, a Peruvian farmer called Gustavo Del Solar received an unusual assignment - finding a bird called the white-winged guan that had been regarded as extinct for a century.
After year...
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Cabbage Patch Kids from 2023-11-27T10:00
In 1983, all hell broke loose when a new toy hit stores in the United States.
Cabbage Patch Kids were so popular that people were getting injured when they tried to buy them.
But...
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The Mumbai attacks from 2023-11-24T10:00
On 26 November 2008, 10 gunmen from the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba carried out coordinated attacks on Mumbai's busiest hotspots including the Taj and Oberoi hotels, a train ...
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The Paris heatwave from 2023-11-23T10:00
In August 2003 Europe was hit by the hottest heatwave for hundreds of years. Tens of thousands of people died.
Not built to withstand two weeks of extreme heat, Paris turned into a deat...
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Kennedy’s nail-biter election victory from 2023-11-22T10:00
On 22 November 1963, United States President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Lucy Williamson looks back to 8 November 1960, when Richard Nixon and JFK went toe to toe at ...
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The invention of bubble tea from 2023-11-21T10:00
In 1987, a tea shop in Taiwan named Chun Shui Tang began selling pearl milk tea, or bubble tea, as it’s often called.
It would revolutionise the tea-drinking world.
Ben Henderson s...
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The independence of Zambia from 2023-11-20T10:00
In 1964, Zambia became a republic. It was the ninth African state to leave British colonial rule.
Simon Kapwepwe was one of the leaders in the fight for independence, along with his childh...
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Discovering the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion from 2023-11-17T11:10
In 2000, the pioneering underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio made one of the greatest ever submerged discoveries.
He found evidence that the remains he had found off the coast of Egypt w...
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The Bolivian Water War from 2023-11-16T10:00
The Bolivian Water War was a series of protests that took place in the city of Cochabamba in 2000 against the privatisation of water.
People objected to the increase in water rates and id...
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Rosalind Franklin: DNA pioneer from 2023-11-15T10:00
In 1951, Rosalind Franklin began one of the key scientific investigations of the century. The young British scientist produced an X-ray photograph that helped show the structure of DNA, the mole...
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Eyjafjallajökull: The volcano that stopped a continent from 2023-11-14T10:00
In 2010, a previously little-known Icelandic volcano erupted twice, sending a huge plume of volcanic ash all over Europe.
The ash cloud grounded flights for days, causing disruption for m...
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The invention of the EpiPen from 2023-11-13T10:00
In the 1970s, engineer Sheldon Kaplan and his colleagues were tasked with creating an auto-injector pen to be used by US soldiers needing a nerve agent antidote.
The Pentagon called it the...
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The hippo and the tortoise from 2023-11-10T10:00
Following the devastating tsunami of 2004, a baby hippo named Owen was rescued from the sea off the coast of Kenya.
He was taken to Haller Park in Mombasa, home of a 130-year-old giant tor...
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Destruction of Mostar Bridge from 2023-11-09T10:00
On 9 November 1993, one of Bosnia's most famous landmarks, the historic bridge in Mostar, was destroyed by Croat guns during the Bosnian war.
Built by the Ottomans in the 16th Century, th...
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The Pakistani teens who became disco superstars from 2023-11-08T10:00
In the 1980s, a brother and sister from Pakistan topped the charts in countries all over the world with their dancefloor filler, Disco Deewane.
Nazia and Zoheb Hassan were the first teenag...
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Debbie McGee in Iran from 2023-11-07T10:00
In 1978, British showbusiness star, Debbie McGee was a dancer with the Iranian National Ballet Company.
Debbie was living in the capital, Tehran, at the start of the Iranian revolution. Listen
Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire from 2023-11-06T10:00
In August 2004, more than 300 people died when a supermarket caught fire in Paraguay's capital, Asunción.
It is seen as the country's worst peacetime disaster.
Tatiana Gabaglio escap...
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Freddie Mercury 'marries' Jane Seymour from 2023-11-03T12:48
On 5 November, 1985 some of the world's top designers and music stars joined together in a special event at London’s Royal Albert Hall to raise money for drought-hit Ethiopia.
The rock sta...
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Che Guevara’s daughter: A Cuban doctor in Angola from 2023-11-02T10:00
In 1986 Dr Aleida Guevara, the daughter of revolutionary icon Che Guevara, went to Angola to work as a paediatrician.
Dr Aleida was one of a number of medics Fidel Castro’s Cuban governmen...
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Inventing the black box from 2023-11-01T10:00
On 23 March 1962, a prototype of the first cockpit flight recorder, the black box, was tested in Australia.
In the early 1950s, fuel scientist David Warren, who worked in the Australian ...
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The discovery of the HIV virus from 2023-10-31T10:00
In 1983, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris became the first to identify the HIV virus. It was a vital step in fighting one of the worst epidemics in modern history, AIDS.
The Pa...
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The billion dollar bid to stop oil drilling in the Amazon from 2023-10-30T10:00
In 2010, a $3.6billion fund was launched to stop oil drilling in the most biodiverse place on the planet: the Yasuni national park in Ecuador.
The Yasuni covers 10,000 square kilometres of...
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Turkey: Gezi Park protests from 2023-10-27T09:00
In 2013, environmental protests in Gezi Park, Istanbul led to civil unrest across Turkey.
For one protestor, a post he made on social media led to a dramatic outcome.
Memet Ali Alabo...
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'The streets of Harare were littered with money' from 2023-10-26T09:00
In November 2008, Johns Hopkins University calculated Zimbabwe’s year-on-year inflation rate as 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000% – one of the worst cases of hyperinflation in history.
Profe...
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The 1993 MAD hijack from 2023-10-25T09:00
On 25 October1993, a Nigerian Airways flight from Lagos to Abuja was hijacked by four teenagers calling themselves the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD).
They demanded the r...
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The 1980 Turkey coup from 2023-10-24T09:00
On 12 September 1980, the army took control in Turkey.
It was not the first time they had done so. It was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous havi...
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The first Bosphorus Bridge from 2023-10-23T13:23
In 1973, the Bosphorus Bridge was completed connecting Europe and Asia.
The suspension bridge was the first of three spanning the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey.
Wayne Wright ...
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Osmondmania from 2023-10-20T09:00
On 21 October 1973, American heartthrobs The Osmonds were met by hysterical crowds when their plane landed at London's Heathrow Airport.
A surge by some of the 10,000 fans caused a viewin...
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Launching Lagos Fashion Week from 2023-10-19T09:00
In 2011, models, stylists and fashionistas gathered for Lagos Fashion Week’s debut which would put Nigerian style on the global map.
Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to laun...
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Mexico’s murdered women from 2023-10-18T09:00
In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez.
Hundreds were reported to have been kidnapped and killed.
Some of the first victims weren’t disc...
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Rana Plaza building collapse from 2023-10-17T09:00
In April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed.
More than 1,000 people died and many others were injured.
The b...
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Cambodian peace walk from 2023-10-16T09:00
In 1992, the first peace walk was held in Cambodia aimed at uniting a country torn apart by years of conflict.
Buddhist monks, Cambodian refugees and aid workers set out on the 415 km jou...
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Surviving an acid attack and changing the law from 2023-10-13T09:00
In 2013, India's Supreme Court made a landmark ruling aimed at transforming the lives of acid attack survivors.
It followed a campaign led by Laxmi Agarwal, who at the age of 15 was burned...
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Kwame Nkrumah: Ousted from power from 2023-10-12T09:00
In February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana.
While he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a co...
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Theodosia Okoh: Designer of Ghana’s flag from 2023-10-11T09:00
In March 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence and a new flag was unveiled marking a fresh start for the former British colony known as the Gold Coast. ...
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The 84-year-old primary school pupil from 2023-10-10T09:00
In 2004, Kimani Maruge became the oldest man to start primary school when he enrolled at the Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Kenya.
The 84-year-old student was a former soldier who had fou...
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Yinka Shonibare: Nelson's Ship in a Bottle from 2023-10-09T09:00
On 24 May 2010, artist Yinka Shonibare unveiled Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.
The piece was the world’s largest ship in a bottle, but it was...
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Protectors of the Amazon from 2023-10-06T09:00
In 2003, an oil company entered the indigenous Sarayaku community’s territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of oil.
Neither the government nor the firm had consulted the community be...
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The Amoco Cadiz oil spill from 2023-10-05T08:44
In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France.
The supertanker split, releasing more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.
It was the largest oil spil...
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Nigeria strikes oil from 2023-10-04T09:00
In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Nigerian village Oloibiri.
It marked the start of a huge oil industry for Nigeria but came at a cost for villages in the Niger D...
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The oilfield that changed Kazakhstan from 2023-10-03T09:00
In the wake of the USSR breaking up, Kazakhstan was wrestling with the challenges of independence; hyperinflation, the economy collapsing and food shortages.
But three-and-a-half kilometre...
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The oil crisis of 1973 from 2023-10-02T09:00
In October 1973, Arab nations protested the American support of Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria by slashing oil production, causing prices to sky rocket.
Dr Fadhil Chalabi was de...
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The first cat cafe from 2023-09-29T09:00
The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998.
It started with just five street cats.
For the first few months they hardly had any visitors. Then a film crew made a T...
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The Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy from 2023-09-28T09:00
On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.
It was one of the worst migrant shipwrec...
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Kassandra: The peacekeeping telenovela in Bosnia from 2023-09-27T09:00
In the early 1990s, the soap opera or telenovela craze was sweeping the world. One of the most popular was Kassandra made in Venezuela, about a girl switched at birth and raised in a travelling ...
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Concorde's first flight from 2023-09-26T09:00
On 26 September 1973, Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic.
The droopy-nosed plane took to the skies for the first time four yea...
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Vietnam War: Stopping nuclear disaster from 2023-09-25T09:00
In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the United States...
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The year of the vuvuzela from 2023-09-22T09:00
The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup.
It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying instrument'. Freddie 'Saddam' Maake clai...
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Kenya: Nairobi shopping mall attack from 2023-09-21T09:00
In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
They took hundreds of people hostage during the siege which lasted f...
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The first person inside the 'Gates of Hell' from 2023-09-20T09:00
In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert.
He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater.
The crater is a burning natural gas f...
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Fighting for legal abortion in Italy from 2023-09-19T09:00
In 1978, campaigners won their long fight to legalise abortion in Italy. Emma Bonino and other members of the Radical Party went on hunger strike and were even jailed, after helping women access...
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Nazi eugenics from 2023-09-18T09:00
In July 1933, the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed 'The Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases'.
It required the sterilisation of Germans with physical and...
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The Ramallah concert from 2023-09-15T09:00
In August 2005, an unusual orchestra performed an extraordinary concert in the city of Ramallah.
The West-Eastern Divan orchestra was founded in 1999 by Israeli conductor, Daniel Barenboim...
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The siege at the Church of the Nativity from 2023-09-14T09:00
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is on the site believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
But in 2002, it was at the centre of one of the most dramatic sieges of ...
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Ariel Sharon visits al-Aqsa from 2023-09-13T09:00
Rioting broke out in 2000 after the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a controversial visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city.
In 2012, Mike Lanchin spoke to...
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Camp David Summit: How Middle East peace talks failed from 2023-09-12T09:00
In 2000, President Bill Clinton led a major effort to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The two sides were brought together at the leafy presidential retreat in Maryland. The Israeli l...
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Oslo Peace Accords: The secret talks behind Middle East deal from 2023-09-11T09:00
In September 1993, a peace agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinians after months of secret negotiations.
The historic handshake between Chairman of the Palestinian Liberati...
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Victor Jara: killed in Chile's coup from 2023-09-08T09:00
On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's President Salvador Allende in a military coup.
Thousands of people were tortured and killed in the months after the coup, inc...
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Organising Chile's 1973 military coup from 2023-09-07T09:00
On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet deposed Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, in a violent military coup.
Hermógenes Pérez de Arce was a politician and...
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Murder of Swedish politician Anna Lindh from 2023-09-06T09:00
In 2003, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in a department store in the middle of Stockholm.
The 46-year-old member of the ruling Social Democratic party, was tippe...
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Bi Kidude: Zanzibar's 'golden grandmother of music' from 2023-09-05T09:00
In the 1980s, Bi Kidude burst onto the international music scene, when she was in her 70s. She was one of the first women from Zanzibar to sing in public without wearing the veil, in the traditi...
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Arctic 30: Russian arrest of Greenpeace campaigners from 2023-09-04T09:00
On 14 September 2013, the Arctic Sunrise - a ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace - embarked on an Arctic expedition.
Its aim was to disrupt the first day of drilling on a ...
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Leaving China to study after the Cultural Revolution from 2023-09-01T09:00
Launched in 1966 by Communist leader Mao Zedong, the Cultural Revolution plunged China into a decade of chaos. The education of millions of young people was disrupted and China was cut off from ...
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Saving Guadalupe from goats from 2023-08-31T09:00
In 2000, an expedition to the Mexican island of Guadalupe launched a fight to save its ecosystem from being eaten by goats.
Russian whalers had introduced the goats to the island in the 19...
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Egypt's Rabaa massacre from 2023-08-30T09:00
On 14 August 2013, Egypt's army killed hundreds of protestors in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square.
They were protesting against a military coup that had taken place a month earlier, in whi...
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North and South Korean leaders meet for the first time in decades from 2023-08-29T09:00
In June 2000, a historic meeting took place between South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il.
This was the first inter-Korean summit since the Korean War, a...
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The Bristol bus boycott from 2023-08-28T09:00
Sixty years ago, there was a boycott of local bus services in the English city of Bristol. The bus company had specified that it did not want to employ black bus drivers.
The boycott ende...
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Women invade Dublin's male-only swimming spot from 2023-08-25T09:00
The Forty Foot is a famous sea swimming spot in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin. For hundreds of years, only men had the privilege of bathing in its deep, icy waters – naked if they chose.
... Listen
Celtic Tiger: Ireland's 'ghost estates' from 2023-08-24T09:00
In 2006, Michele Burke and her fiancé William were looking forward to moving into their dream home in the picturesque town of Killaloe, in Ireland.
But when Ireland's economic boom - know...
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The first Rose of Tralee from 2023-08-23T09:00
In 1959, Tralee, in Ireland, hosted a festival to promote the town and build Irish connections around the world.
It became known as the Rose of Tralee and is now one of Ireland’s oldest a...
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How electricity came to rural Ireland from 2023-08-22T09:00
In May 1948, Canon John Hayes flicked a switch and brought electricity to the parish of Bansha, in Ireland.
The village was the first in County Tipperary to be connected to the grid, unde...
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Easter Rising in Ireland from 2023-08-21T09:00
At Easter 1916, a small army of Irish rebels attempted to start a revolution against British rule.
They held out for more than a week against a massive British military response.
Sim...
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The Wizard of Oz: The stolen ruby slippers from 2023-08-18T09:00
The ruby slippers from the 1939 movie 'The Wizard of Oz' are some of the most treasured film memorabilia of all time. There are thought to be four pairs from the film that have survived.
...
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Judy Garland: The final shows from 2023-08-17T09:00
Judy Garland ended her long and glitzy stage and screen career at a London theatre club in January 1969. She was booked for five weeks of nightly shows at the 'Talk of the Town', but by that tim...
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Returning Benin Bronzes from 2023-08-16T06:00
In 2004, a chance encounter in Nigeria led to the return of two of the country’s ancient artworks, the looted Benin Bronzes.
The treasures were among thousands stolen from Benin City by th...
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Iran: How the prime minister was overthrown in 1953 from 2023-08-15T09:00
The coup of 1953 changed the course of Iranian history. The USA - with British help - overthrew a nationalist prime minister and installed the Shah in power.
In 2010, Alan Johnston heard ...
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The boy who discovered a new species of human ancestor from 2023-08-14T09:00
On 15 August 2008, nine-year-old Matt Berger tripped over a fossil that would lead to one of the most important discoveries in the history of human evolution.
The young adventurer had been...
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Jean-Michel Basquiat bursts onto the New York art scene from 2023-08-11T09:00
In the early 1980s, the young black graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York art world by storm. Soon, his paintings were selling for huge sums of money, but he would die before th...
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Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's diamonds scandal from 2023-08-10T07:30
In 1979, French journalist Claude Angeli and his colleagues discovered Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French President, received gifts of diamonds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ...
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Sarajevo’s haven of peace from 2023-08-09T09:00
After the collapse of former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1992. More than a quarter of a million people lived under almost constant bombardment...
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The Great Train Robbery from 2023-08-08T09:00
On 8 August 1963, a gang of thieves held up a British Royal Mail train on its journey from Glasgow to London.
They stole more than £2 million.
It was the biggest ever raid on a Bri...
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Brownie Wise: The creator of Tupperware parties from 2023-08-07T09:00
In the 1950s, self-made businesswoman Brownie Wise transformed the fortunes of Tupperware by inspiring thousands of housewives to sell it at parties.
Her methods for motivating staff inclu...
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Dinosaur in court from 2023-08-04T09:00
In 2012 a dinosaur skeleton became the subject of both a restraining order and a court case.
Mongolian palaeontologist, Dr Bolortsetseg Minjin helped stop the dinosaur falling into the han...
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Treehouse on the Berlin Wall from 2023-08-03T09:00
In the 1980s, a Turkish worker in Germany, Osman Kahlin, provoked controversy when he turned a patch of disputed land against the Berlin Wall into a makeshift farm.
The land was owned by ...
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Birth of a new language from 2023-08-02T09:00
In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own.
It was a remarkable achievement, which allowed experts a unique insight into how human c...
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First dinosaur eggs identified in India from 2023-08-01T09:00
In 1982, nests of dinosaur eggs were identified for the first time in India.
They were found in Jabalpur, on a historic fossil site and former British military cantonment.
The eggs...
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José Mujica: Prison break to president from 2023-07-31T07:30
In the 1960s and '70s, José Mujica was a leading member of a notorious left-wing militant group in Uruguay called the Tupamaros. He survived multiple bullet wounds, torture, and executed a darin...
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Mr Bigg's: The birth of Nigeria's iconic takeaway from 2023-07-28T09:00
It’s been 50 years since a popular Nigerian fast food chain which later became known as Mr Bigg's was first launched.
The restaurants began as coffee shops in department stores in the 196...
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The 1960 coup against Haile Selassie from 2023-07-27T09:00
In December 1960, there was an attempt to dethrone the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and replace him with his son.
While the emperor was out of the country, the crown prince was taken ...
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The Pope’s controversial Nicaragua visit from 2023-07-26T09:00
In 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Nicaragua as part of an eight-day tour of Central America.
His trip came at a time of heightened tensions between the ruling Sandinista revolutionaries a...
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Brain: The first personal computer virus from 2023-07-25T09:00
'Welcome to the dungeon' was the message that flashed up on computer screens in 1986.
This was thought to be the first virus for personal computers and became known as 'Brain'.
'Brai...
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Escaping the Nazis in Greece from 2023-07-24T09:00
The Greek city of Thessaloniki, or Salonica, was once known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.
It was previously home to a large and thriving Sephardi Jewish population whose ancestors had b...
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The US singer who became the Soviet Union’s Red Elvis from 2023-07-21T09:00
In 1966, at the height of the Cold War, American singer Dean Reed became the first western rock and roll star to tour the Soviet Union.
His visit was such a success that over the next two...
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The birth of Barbie from 2023-07-20T09:00
The first Barbie doll was sold in 1959.
It took Ruth Handler, who created it, years to convince her male colleagues that it would sell.
The plastic creation sold 350,000 in the firs...
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Japan surrenders in China from 2023-07-19T09:00
In the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire.
The one in China was held at the Forbidden City in Beijing bringing an end to eight years o...
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The ‘Barricades’ of Latvia from 2023-07-18T09:00
In January 1991, more than half a million people protested in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. They wanted to stop Soviet troops taking over important landmarks, so they built barricades and ca...
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Tamoxifen: Breast cancer ‘wonder drug’ from 2023-07-17T09:00
The story of how tamoxifen went from a failed contraceptive pill, to being used to prevent and treat breast cancer around the world.
It was the first ever targeted cancer drug.
Lau...
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Creating the first emoji from 2023-07-14T09:00
In 1999, Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created the first emoji.
The umbrella was one of 176 original images, featuring weather, transport signs, numbers and emotions.
When disposable nappies were invented from 2023-07-13T09:00
In 1947, after the birth of her third child, Valerie Hunter Gordon, from Surrey, in England, decided she was sick of the drudgery of cloth nappies.
She came up with a solution – a reusabl...
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Inventing Rubik’s Cube from 2023-07-11T09:00
In 1974, a Hungarian architect, Ernő Rubik invented his very popular puzzle.
Nearly 50 years later, more than 450 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide.
In 2015, Ernő told...
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Invention of the ballpoint pen from 2023-07-10T09:00
In 1938, László Bíró, a Hungarian journalist, invented the ballpoint pen, because he was sick of smudging the ink from his fountain pen.
Inspired by the rollers of the printing press at hi...
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A right royal night out from 2023-07-07T09:00
The tale of an extraordinary night at a legendary British gay pub.
Princess Diana, disguised as a man, along with star broadcaster Kenny Everett and Queen singer Freddie Mercury enjoyed a ...
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When tourism came to the Maldives from 2023-07-06T09:00
In 1972 the first tourists arrived in the Maldives.
They stayed in humble lodgings in three houses, looked after by young Maldivians including Ahmed Naseem, Mohamed Umar Maniku and their f...
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The National Health Service begins from 2023-07-05T09:00
On 5 July 1948, the UK’s National Health Service began as part of a series of reforms with the aim of supporting and protecting Britain's citizens from the “cradle to the grave”.
The archi...
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Longest-serving democratically elected communist government from 2023-07-04T09:00
In 1977 what was to become the world’s longest-serving democratically elected communist government came to power in eastern India.
Poverty and absolute rule by the central government led t...
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The trial of John Demjanjuk from 2023-07-03T09:00
In 1986 a car factory worker from the United States was accused of being ‘Ivan the Terrible’, a notorious concentration camp guard at Treblinka during the Holocaust.
John Demjanjuk was ext...
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I made Lady Gaga's meat dress from 2023-06-30T09:00
On 12 September 2010 Lady Gaga, won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
She accepted the award in a dress made entirely out of beef.
13 years later Franc Fernandez, t...
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The 'graveyard' for communist statues from 2023-06-29T09:00
The Hungarian city of Budapest's communist statue 'graveyard' opened on 29 June 1993.
Statues representing communism were not destroyed, instead they were relocated to a specially designe...
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Sampoong department store disaster from 2023-06-28T07:00
On 29 June 1995, the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea, collapsed due to structural failures.
The disaster killed 502 people and injured more than 900. It provoked national o...
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First reports of Ebola from 2023-06-27T09:00
In 1976 in a small Belgian missionary hospital in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, people were dying from an unknown disease which caused a high temperatur...
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JFK’s Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech from 2023-06-26T09:00
United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963.
It galvanised the world in support of West Berliners who had been isolated by ...
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My dad played golf on the moon from 2023-06-23T09:00
Alan Shepard played golf on the moon in 1971.
He became the first and only person to enjoy the sport on the lunar surface.
The astronaut golfer’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley was...
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The Empire Windrush arrives from 2023-06-22T09:00
The Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in England on 22 June 1948 with 802 people on board from the Caribbean.
The former passenger liner's arrival on that misty June day is now regarded as...
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Anti-gay police raid at Tasty nightclub from 2023-06-21T09:00
In the early hours of 7 August 1994, police raided Tasty, a gay nightclub in downtown Melbourne, Australia. On the hunt for drugs they strip-searched more than 450 people in a raid that laste...
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The Somali pilot ordered to bomb his own country from 2023-06-20T09:00
At the end of May 1988, rebels from the Somali National Movement launched a series of lightning attacks on cities in northern Somalia - the area that today is the self-declared republic of Somal...
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Uprising in East Germany from 2023-06-19T09:00
East German workers went on strike in protest at Soviet rule on 16 June 1953.
Demonstrations spread throughout the country but were soon crushed by communist troops. Martial law followed. ...
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Ming Smith makes history at MoMA from 2023-06-16T08:00
In 1979, The Museum of Modern Art, (MoMA) purchased photographs from an African-American woman for the first time in its history.
Ming Smith was famous for capturing her subjects with slo...
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Sir Don McCullin’s photo of a US marine from 2023-06-15T09:00
In 1968, British photographer Sir Don McCullin travelled to Vietnam for his second ever war assignment.
His graphic photographs of the fighting made his reputation and influenced public o...
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Malick Sidibé: Mali’s star photographer from 2023-06-14T09:00
The Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé, is one of Africa’s most celebrated artists.
His most famous photographs show black and white scenes of young people partying in the capital Bamako ...
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A Great Day in Harlem: The story behind the iconic jazz photo from 2023-06-13T09:00
It's 65 years since aspiring photographer Art Kane persuaded 58 of the biggest names in jazz, including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk to line up for a photo outside a townhous...
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Lee Miller in Hitler's bath from 2023-06-12T09:00
Vogue's war correspondent Lee Miller found herself in Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment when the news broke that he was dead.
Earlier that day, she and fellow photographer David Scherman had...
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1955 Le Mans disaster from 2023-06-09T09:00
On 11 June 1955, more than 80 people were killed and 100 injured at the Le Mans 24-hour race.
A car driven by Pierre Levegh crashed into the crowd of around 300,000 causing the deaths. Listen
Last communist march before Hitler from 2023-06-08T09:00
On 25 January 1933 the last legal communist march was held in Berlin.
Just a few days later Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
Soon the Communist Party was banned and the Naz...
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Facial reconstruction: From mummy to murder from 2023-06-06T09:00
In 1975, British forensic artist Richard Neave used a pile of modelling clay, two prosthetic eyes and a woman’s wig to reconstruct the face of an Egyptian mummy.
It was to be the start of...
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Inuit children taken from families from 2023-06-05T09:00
In the early 1960s, the Canadian government launched an experimental programme to take academically promising Inuit children from their homes to be educated in Canada’s cities.
The aim wa...
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The first Indian woman to conquer Everest from 2023-06-02T09:00
As a child, Bachendri Pal never dreamt of conquering mountains but a chance meeting with a climber changed all that.
She applied for a mountaineering course and was chosen to be part of In...
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Tragedy on Everest from 2023-06-01T09:00
Michael Groom is one of the survivors of a tragic climbing expedition to Mount Everest in Nepal.
In 2010, Jonny Hogg spoke to Michael Groom about the moments that went badly wrong when a ...
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Mallory’s body discovered on Everest from 2023-05-31T09:00
In 1999 the body of the legendary British mountaineer, George Mallory, was found on Mount Everest.
Mallory disappeared on the mountain in 1924 together with his fellow climber Andrew Irvi...
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Tenzing Norgay conquers Everest from 2023-05-30T09:00
Sherpa Tenzing Norgay had tried to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, six times before his successful climb with Edmund Hillary in 1953.
His son, Jamling Norgay, spo...
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Edmund Hillary conquers Everest from 2023-05-29T09:00
On 29 May 1953 Edmund Hillary, climbing with sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to reach the summit of Everest.
The two men instantly became famous all over the world.
...
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The deadliest glacial avalanche in the world from 2023-05-26T09:00
On 31 May 1970, the Huascarán avalanche, caused by the Ancash earthquake, destroyed the town of Yungay, in Peru.
Only 400 people, out of a population of 18,000, survived.
A clown, n...
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Trying to unite Africa from 2023-05-25T09:00
On 25 May 1963, leaders of 32 newly-independent African nations came together for the first time in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
At stake was the dream of a united Africa.
In ...
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Chasing the world’s biggest tornado from 2023-05-24T09:00
On 31 May 2013, a huge tornado hit an area close to El Reno in the US state of Oklahoma.
It was the widest tornado ever recorded and produced extreme winds of more than 400 kilometres an h...
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Fikret Alić from 2023-05-23T09:00
In August 1992, a shocking photograph of a starving, emaciated man behind a barbed wire fence of a Bosnian concentration camp stunned the world.
The picture, taken from an ITN TV report ...
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The sergeants' coup in Suriname from 2023-05-22T09:00
In 1980, a group of 16 army sergeants, led by Dési Bouterse, seized power in the small South American country of Suriname, overthrowing the government in a swift and violent coup d’état.
...
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Pippi Longstocking from 2023-05-19T09:00
In Stockholm in 1941, Astrid Lindgren made up a story for her seven-year-old daughter, Karin, about a young girl who lived alone and had super-human strength.
Karin named her Pippi Långst...
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Creating New Zealand's national walking trail from 2023-05-18T09:00
In 2011 a 3,000 km long walking trail was opened in New Zealand.
Geoff Chapple had spent years lobbying for the creation of Te Araroa. He’d written articles in newspapers and tested out r...
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The Dambusters from 2023-05-17T09:00
In the early hours of 17 May 1943 a bold World War II attack destroyed two dams in the Ruhr Valley in Germany's industrial heartland, causing 1,600 casualties and catastrophic flooding which ham...
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German child evacuees of World War Two from 2023-05-16T09:00
Beginning in 1940 thousands of German children were evacuated to camps in the countryside to avoid the bombs of World War Two.
These camps were seen as safe places where they could continu...
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Singapore executes Filipina maid from 2023-05-15T09:00
In 1995, the execution of Flor Contemplacion caused protests, a government resignation and a diplomatic crisis between the Philippines and Singapore.
Flor, who worked in Singapore, was co...
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World War II victory in North Africa from 2023-05-12T09:00
Peter Royle, 103, endured a month of solid fighting in the hills outside of Tunis in 1943. Eventually the Allies prevailed and took more than 250,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. They de...
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Warsaw Ghetto uprising from 2023-05-11T09:00
In May 1943, the uprising in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw in Poland came to an end.
The Germans had crushed the uprising and deported surviving ghetto residents to concentration camps.
... Listen
The last commercial flight out of Kai Tak from 2023-05-10T09:00
In 1998, one of Hong Kong’s best known landmarks, Kai Tak airport, closed after 73 years. Kai Tak, which was built between the mountains and the city, was world-famous for its unique landing a...
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The sinking of the SS Tilawa: the ‘Indian Titanic’ from 2023-05-09T07:00
On 23 November 1942, in the middle of the Second World War, a ship called the SS Tilawa was carrying more than 950 passengers and crew from India to East Africa when it was sunk by Japanese torp...
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United States bomb the Chinese embassy in Belgrade from 2023-05-08T07:00
In 1999, NATO carried out a bombing campaign in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War.
On 7 May, five American bombs hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people and damaging rela...
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The removal of Scotland's Stone of Destiny from 2023-05-05T09:00
On Christmas Eve 1950, four young Scottish students took the 'Stone of Destiny' from Westminster Abbey in London.
The symbolic stone had been taken from Scotland to England centuries earli...
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Last King of Bulgaria from 2023-05-04T09:00
In June 2001, more than half a century after being driven into exile by communists, Bulgaria’s former King Simeon II made a dramatic comeback by winning the country’s parliamentary election. Listen
The 'execution' of Oliver Cromwell from 2023-05-03T09:00
In 1661 in England, following the restoration of the monarchy, the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up for ritual execution.
Cromwell had overthrown King Charles I and ruled as Lord Protec...
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Jean-Bédel Bokassa's coronation from 2023-05-02T09:00
Jean-Bédel Bokassa crowned himself Emperor of the Central African Republic in a lavish ceremony on 4 December 1977.
He'd already been president for several years since taking power in a mi...
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The king under the car park from 2023-05-01T09:00
In 2012, archaeologists from the University of Leicester discovered the lost grave of King Richard III under a car park in Leicester in the English East Midlands.
Richard was the King of ...
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The fight to televise the Queen's Coronation from 2023-04-28T09:00
Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953 was a watershed moment for television as millions watched the ceremony live.
But it nearly never happened as the UK Government initially refused to ...
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The Met Gala goes global from 2023-04-27T09:00
The Met Gala takes place annually on the first Monday in May.
In 1995, Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour chaired the huge fashion celebration for the first time that takes place at New...
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Guatemala's outspoken bishop from 2023-04-26T09:00
On 26 April 1998 leading human rights campaigner, Bishop Juan Gerardi, was attacked and killed in his home, just two days after presenting the conclusions of a major investigation into abuses co...
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Discovering the secrets of DNA from 2023-04-25T09:00
James Watson and Francis Crick first published their discoveries about the structure of DNA on 25 April 1953.
Their findings were to revolutionise our understanding of life.
We hear...
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Althea McNish: 'I designed fabrics for the Queen' from 2023-04-24T08:00
In 1966, the artist Althea McNish designed fabrics for the Queen's tour of the West Indies when she visited Trinidad and Tobago.
Althea, who was born in Trinidad and moved to England in 19...
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The Russian man who pretended to be a dog from 2023-04-21T09:00
In 1994, Russian conceptual artist Oleg Kulik posed naked, pretending to be a guard dog, attacking passers by in Moscow.
He was protesting conditions in post-Soviet Russia. He claimed Rus...
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Smoky the World War II dog hero from 2023-04-20T08:00
In 1944, Bill Wynne who was serving with the U.S. Army during World War II, adopted a tiny Yorkshire terrier called Smoky.
When Bill caught dengue fever and was sent to hospital, his fri...
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Roselle the 9/11 guide dog from 2023-04-19T09:00
After the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, a New York guide dog called Roselle was hailed as a hero for helping her owner safely down 78 flights of stairs and away from the Twin Towers before they c...
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The world's first labradoodle from 2023-04-18T09:00
In 1989, Australian dog breeder Wally Conron was tasked with finding a suitable dog for a blind woman in Hawaii whose husband was allergic to pet hair.
By breeding together a poodle and a...
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The first dog in space from 2023-04-17T09:00
Laika the Russian stray was the first dog to orbit the Earth. She was sent into space on a flight in 1957 which had been timed to mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. She died after o...
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Richard Dimbleby describes Belsen from 2023-04-14T09:00
The BBC’s Richard Dimbleby was the first reporter to enter the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
His report describing the unimaginable horror he found was for many listeners ar...
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I led the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers from 2023-04-13T09:00
On 15 April 2013, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off two bombs at the Boston Marathon and killed three people.
After the attack they disappeared, only to resurface three days ...
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Mass grave at Sernyky from 2023-04-12T09:00
In 1990, archaeologist Richard Wright flew half way around the world to unearth a mass grave in Sernyky, Ukraine as part of an Australian Nazi war crimes investigation.
The site contain...
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The universal recycling symbol from 2023-04-11T09:00
In 1970, American architecture student Gary Anderson won a competition, to mark the first Earth Day on 22 April, to design a logo for recycled paper products.
His design of three arrows in...
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Emperor Tewodros II from 2023-04-10T08:00
Emperor Tewodros II is one of the towering figures of modern Ethiopian history.
He tried to unify and modernise Ethiopia but his reign was also marked by brutality.
He faced a risin...
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The Good Friday Agreement referendum from 2023-04-07T09:00
On 22 May 1998, a referendum was held in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland asking voters if they supported the Good Friday Agreement.
In both, the majority of the electorate vot...
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Beto Perez: 'I created Zumba by accident' from 2023-04-06T08:00
In 2001, Colombian born choreographer Beto Perez created Zumba, a fitness craze which would go on to become a global phenomenon. The aerobic workout was inspired by Latin dance moves including...
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Awaji Kannon: One of the world's tallest statues from 2023-04-05T09:00
In 1982, a Japanese businessman unveiled one of the tallest statues in the world called the World Peace Giant Kannon in Awaji Island, Japan.
At 100 metres tall, the statue was visible fro...
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Pan-European picnic from 2023-04-04T09:00
In 1989, a picnic was held on the border between Austria and Hungary, as a demonstration for peace and European integration.
It prefigured the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union and...
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Escaping national service in Eritrea from 2023-04-03T09:00
In 2002, the Eritrean government extended its programme of compulsory national service to make it open-ended.
Instead of serving 18 months as the government had originally decreed, most s...
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A Brief History of Time from 2023-03-31T09:00
A Brief History of Time, the best-selling book written by the renowned theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking, was published in March 1988.
In this programme first broadcast in 2018, L...
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The first photo sent from a phone from 2023-03-30T09:00
On 11 June 1997, French software engineer Philippe Kahn shared the first ever photo from a mobile phone.
It was of his newborn daughter, Sophie.
He created a prototype of a camera ...
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Godfather of manicures from 2023-03-29T09:00
In November 1975, Vietnamese Navy commander Minh Nguyen, left behind his macho military life and retrained as a manicurist. He migrated from Vietnam to the United States during the fall of Saigo...
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How Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley from 2023-03-28T07:00
The city of Bengaluru in southern India, previously called Bangalore, is renowned for its huge technology companies and buzzy start-up culture.
But, 50 years ago it was a technological ba...
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The windmill that revolutionised wind power from 2023-03-27T09:00
In 1978, with energy prices rocketing due to the oil crisis, a group of volunteers in Denmark took matters into their own hands and built a wind turbine to power the town's school.
They c...
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Keiko: Freeing 'Free Willy' from 2023-03-24T09:00
In 1998, Keiko became the first ever killer whale to be released back into the wild after a life of captivity.
Keiko shot to fame as the star of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster, Free Willy....
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The man who lived in an airport from 2023-03-23T10:00
In 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, from Iran, flew into Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris intending to transfer onto a flight to London.
But he wasn’t allowed to board, as he didn’t have a ...
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DDLJ: India’s longest running movie from 2023-03-22T09:00
In 1995, Bollywood film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was released to critical acclaim.
It premiered at the Maratha Mandir cinema in Mumbai. It's been screened there every day since then f...
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Alcatraz: The strangest escape from 2023-03-21T10:00
In June 1962 three prisoners escaped from the maximum security US jail on the island of Alcatraz.
They achieved this using a homemade raft, papier-mâché and... spoons.
In 2013, Ashle...
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Kieu Chinh: A real Hollywood story from 2023-03-20T10:00
In 1974, legendary Vietnamese actress Kieu Chinh found herself on a farm in Canada cleaning up after chicken.
She had narrowly escaped the fall of Saigon and a jail sentence in Singapore ...
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Iraq War: US security guards killed my son from 2023-03-17T10:00
It has been 20 years since the start of the Iraq War.
On 16 September 2007, private security guards employed by the American firm Blackwater opened fire on civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Sq...
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Iraq War: The capture of Saddam Hussein from 2023-03-16T10:00
It has been 20 years since the start of the Iraq War.
On 13 December 2003 the deposed president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was captured by US forces.
Muwafaq al Rubaie was asked to hel...
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Iraq War: 'Most wanted' playing cards from 2023-03-15T10:00
It has been 20 years since the start of the Iraq War.
In April 2003, the US military unveiled a set of playing cards to help troops identify the most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's gov...
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Iraq War: Refugees escaping from 2023-03-14T10:00
It has been 20 years since the start of the Iraq War.
Millions of citizens attempted to flee the country after America and its allies invaded in March 2003.
One of those people was B...
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Iraq War: The beginning from 2023-03-13T10:00
It has been 20 years since the start of the Iraq War.
In March 2003, the United States launched its invasion, dropping bombs on Iraq's capital Baghdad.
For Iraqis it marked the begi...
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From girl to goddess to financial analyst from 2023-03-10T12:25
In 2000, when Chanira Bajrycharya was just five years old, she was chosen to be a Kumari - a child goddess in Nepal.
For the next 10 years, she remained inside her Kumari house, receiving ...
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Monica McWilliams’ role in the Northern Ireland peace process from 2023-03-09T10:00
Monica McWilliams played one of the most pivotal roles in the Northern Ireland peace process.
She spent two years at the negotiating table which finally resulted in the Good Friday Agreem...
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First all-women peacekeeping unit from 2023-03-08T08:50
In 2007, the UN deployed its first all-female contingent of peacekeepers in Liberia in West Africa.
The country was still recovering from its long civil war when the Indian policewomen ar...
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Mexico's first female presidential hopeful from 2023-03-07T08:50
In 1982, human rights campaigner Rosario Ibarra became the first woman and first political outsider to stand for president in Mexico.
Her presidential bid was a direct challenge to the cou...
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Octavia E. Butler: Visionary black sci-fi writer from 2023-03-06T10:00
In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing.
From a young age she dreamed of writing books, but faced many challeng...
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Zoran Djindjic: The murder of Serbia's prime minister from 2023-03-03T10:00
Zoran Djindjic, the prime minister of Serbia, was assassinated on 12 March 2003. He was murdered by an associate of former president, Slobodan Milosevic.
Gordana Matkovic served in Djindji...
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The museum at the end of the world from 2023-03-02T10:00
In 1992, the late zoologist Nigel Bonner opened one of the world's most remote museums, the South Georgia Whaling Museum, on South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. Listen
Grenada's underwater sculpture park from 2023-03-01T10:00
In 2004 Jason deCaires Taylor started building the world's first underwater gallery.
He wanted to attract divers away from fragile coral reefs, so he submerged life-sized, human cement mod...
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Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps from 2023-02-28T10:00
In 2009, Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known survivors of the Pink Triangles, returned to the former site of Buchenwald concentration camp where he’d been imprisoned during World War Two, for b...
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Wounded Knee siege from 2023-02-27T10:00
Fifty years ago, indigenous American activists staged a historic protest against the US authorities.
A siege began which lasted for two months and resulted in the violent deaths of two tri...
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When the Queen 'jumped out of a helicopter' from 2023-02-24T10:00
How did an estimated 900 million people come to witness Her Majesty the Queen apparently parachuting from a helicopter with James Bond?
Frank Cottrell-Boyce who wrote the scene for the ope...
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Families interned in WW2 China from 2023-02-23T15:25
Despite facing malnutrition, starvation and disease, Christopher John Huckstep's father set up a school in the Japanese internment camp where his family was sent in 1943.
Herbert Huckstep ...
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The invention of Semtex from 2023-02-22T10:00
In 1958, Stanislav Brebera invented Semtex.
It was a malleable, odourless and stable plastic explosive which became the choice weapon for those seeking to spread terror.
In 2018, Ma...
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Seggae riots in Mauritius from 2023-02-21T09:00
Mauritian musician Kaya, who pioneered a new genre called seggae, fusing reggae and sega, died in police custody on 21 February 1999.
His death sparked three days of rioting. People believ...
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Battle for the capital: Bonn v Berlin from 2023-02-20T10:00
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany had to decide which city would be the new capital.
The contenders were the West German city of Bonn and the East German city of Berlin and the tw...
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First winter ascent of Everest from 2023-02-17T10:00
On 17 February 1980, the first people climbed Everest in winter.
John Beauchamp hears from Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki from Poland who were the men who did it.
It was at the ...
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Discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb from 2023-02-16T10:00
On 16 February 1923, the sealed burial chamber of ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh Tutankhamun was opened for the first time.
Mike Gallagher takes us back to the Valley of the Kings an...
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'I developed Pokémon' from 2023-02-15T10:00
On 27 February 1996, gamers were first introduced to characters Pikachu, Eevee, and Charmander when the first Pokémon games were released in Japan.
Known as Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket...
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First Danish queen for 600 years from 2023-02-14T10:00
In January 1972, King Frederick IX of Denmark died after a short illness at the age of 72.
He was succeeded by his daughter Margrethe who became the first Queen of Denmark in 600 years. Listen
'Hot Autumn': When Italy’s workers revolted from 2023-02-13T10:00
In 1969 and 1970, thousands of workers in Italy went on strike, protesting against low pay and poor working conditions. It became known as the ‘Hot Autumn’.
Renzo Baricelli represented tyr...
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'I told the world Pope Benedict XVI was resigning' from 2023-02-10T10:00
On 11 February 2013, Benedict XVI shocked the world by becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to quit. All other popes in the modern era had held the position from election until death. Listen
The Pope and Jews from 2023-02-09T10:00
In April 1986, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to a Rome synagogue.
It was aimed at healing centuries of deep wounds between Jews and Catholics.
Giacomo Saban, who welcomed t...
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Pope John Paul I’s sudden death from 2023-02-08T10:00
Cardinal Albino Luciani became Pope John Paul I on 26 August 1978. He died unexpectedly 33 days later.
He was discovered in the early morning lying on his bed, a collection of sermons in h...
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Reforming the Catholic Church with Vatican II from 2023-02-07T10:00
In January 1959, Pope John XXIII announced a council of all the world's Catholic bishops and cardinals in Rome.
It led to sweeping reforms, including allowing Mass to be said in languages...
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How a Pope is chosen from 2023-02-06T10:00
Following the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005. He was elected after four ballots of the papal conclave.
The late Cardinal Cor...
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The first black music station in Europe from 2023-02-03T10:00
In 1981, Rita Marley’s brother Leroy Anderson aka Lepke launched the Dread Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), Europe’s first dedicated black music station.
Frustrated by the lack of airtime f...
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The assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye from 2023-02-02T10:00
In July 1993, Melchior Ndadaye became Burundi’s first democratically elected president.
He was also the first president to come from the country’s Hutu majority.
For decades up to th...
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Columbia space shuttle disaster from 2023-02-01T10:00
The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003.
It had been in use since 1981.
Iain Mackness spoke to Admiral Hal Gehman who was given the job o...
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Czechoslovakia's 'Velvet Divorce' from 2023-01-31T10:00
30 years ago this month, Czechoslovakia split into the separate states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
It was a rare instance of a state separating without a single life being lost. T...
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Palestine Post bombing from 2023-01-30T10:00
Mordechai Chertoff was the foreign editor on the Palestine Post (precursor to the Jerusalem Post) when it was bombed on 1 February 1948.
He tells Lucy Williamson how, despite the attack, ...
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Invention of the MP3 from 2023-01-27T10:00
Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg from Germany spent more than a decade developing MP3 technology, which was developed to convert audio into digital form.
He had been working on it since 198...
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Albert Pierrepoint: Britain's executioner from 2023-01-26T10:00
Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Albert Pierrepoint was responsible for the execution of some of Britain's...
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Smolensk air disaster from 2023-01-25T10:00
In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing everyone on board.
It was one of the most tragic moments in modern Polis...
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Japanese death row guard from 2023-01-24T10:00
Yoshikuni Noguchi spent time as a guard in one of the prisons in Japan that would carry out the death penalty, and witnessed the hanging of a condemned prisoner in 1971, before going on to becom...
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When Britain tried to censor the Troubles in Northern Ireland from 2023-01-23T10:00
Frontman of punk-rock band The Undertones, Paul McLoone, recalls the “weird, slightly funny, slightly sad, slightly surreal” time he was the voice of IRA commander-turned-politician, Martin McGu...
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Swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy from 2023-01-20T10:00
In 2009, hundreds of teenagers’ lives were changed forever, when a vaccine designed to protect them against swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder.
It affected people in various c...
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France's nuclear tests in Algeria from 2023-01-19T10:00
Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara.
High levels of radioactivity, and a failure to safely dispose of nuclear waste, have left a dangerous le...
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Kosovo’s house schools from 2023-01-18T10:00
In 1990s Kosovo, a generation of Albanians received their education crammed into thousands of private homes.
When Slobodan Milosevic’s Serb nationalist regime forcibly evicted them from s...
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Europe's horse meat scandal from 2023-01-17T10:00
In 2013, horse meat was discovered in Irish beef burgers. The scandal snowballed and within six weeks horse meat was found in beef products in more than a dozen European countries.
The st...
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Miracle on the Hudson from 2023-01-16T10:00
On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York, after geese struck both its engines shortly after take off.
All 155 people on board survived.
Rache...
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World’s first tidal power station from 2023-01-13T10:00
The world’s first tidal power station is on the estuary of the River Rance in France.
It was opened in 1966 by President Charles de Gaulle and has been capturing the natural power of the ...
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Galápagos Islands’ sea cucumber dispute from 2023-01-12T10:00
A boom in demand for sea cucumbers in Asia in the 1990s set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists in the waters off the Galápagos Islands, where the protein-rich ocean creat...
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Paul Robeson and the transatlantic phone line from 2023-01-11T10:00
In September 1956, a telephone cable called TAT-1 was laid under the Atlantic Ocean, making high-quality transatlantic phone calls possible for the first time.
Eight months later in May 1...
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Dutch North Sea flood from 2023-01-10T10:00
In 1953, a winter storm combined with high tides breached sea defences in the Netherlands, more than 1,800 people drowned.
Ria Geluk, remembers the once-in-a-lifetime flood.
In this ...
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Plastics in oceans from 2023-01-09T10:41
In 1971, marine biologist Edward Carpenter made a shocking discovery finding small bits of plastics floating thousands of miles of the east coast of America in the Atlantic Ocean.
More t...
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Pussy Riot’s cathedral protest from 2023-01-06T10:00
In February 2012, Diana Burkot and other members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot protested inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour against the church and its support for Russian pr...
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The man Pinochet wanted dead from 2023-01-05T10:00
After the 1973 military coup in Chile, Miguel Enriquez led resistance against the dictatorship. The secret police were ordered to track him down and assassinate him.
His wife Carmen Casti...
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When America banned silicone breast implants from 2023-01-04T10:00
On 6 January 1992, the US Government ordered a suspension of all procedures involving silicone breast implants. More than 2,000 women had complained of poor health and pain after receiving impla...
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Arctic African from 2023-01-03T10:00
Tété-Michel Kpomassie grew up in West Africa but he was obsessed with the Arctic. When he was 16 years old he ran away from his village in Togo determined to reach Greenland.
It took him e...
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One team in Tallinn from 2023-01-02T10:00
In 1996, Scotland took to the field for a football World Cup qualifying tie in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn. The only problem was that there was no opposition on the other side.
P...
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The birth of the Slow Food Movement from 2022-12-30T10:00
In 1986, thousands of people gathered in the middle of Rome to protest against the opening of Italy’s first McDonalds fast food restaurant. One of the opponents to the opening of McDonalds was j...
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Inventing instant noodles from 2022-12-29T10:00
In August 1958, the Japanese entrepreneur, Momofuku Ando, came up with the idea of a brand new food product that would change the eating habits of people across the world.
In 2018, Ashley...
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Malta's bread strike from 2022-12-28T10:00
In February 1977 the bakers of Malta went on an unprecedented strike.
It sent shock waves through the Maltese people who couldn’t imagine life without their favourite food… bread.
Be...
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Inventing Chicken Manchurian from 2022-12-27T08:50
Chef Nelson Wang created his signature dish Chicken Manchurian in 1975. It was the birth of modern Indo-Chinese cuisine which went on to become hugely popular around the world.
He went on...
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Creating ciabatta bread from 2022-12-26T10:00
In 1982, rally driver Arnaldo Cavallari created ciabatta bread in Adria, in northern Italy.
His family owned a flour mill and he wanted to invent a loaf to rival the French baguette.
Chile mine rescue from 2022-12-23T10:00
On 5 August 2010, 33 miners were trapped underground after a rockfall in the San José copper and gold mine in Chile.
They were rescued 69 days later.
Rachel Naylor speaks to one of t...
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Grozny siege from 2022-12-22T10:00
In December 1994, Russian forces began the siege of Chechnya’s capital Grozny.
Dr Aslan Doukaev was a university teacher when the first Chechen war started.
In this programme first...
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Colombia's 'false positives' killings from 2022-12-21T10:00
In 2008, it was revealed that Colombia’s army had been executing civilians and pretending they were rebels killed in the country’s ongoing civil war. At least 4,600 innocent people were murdered...
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The BBC broadcasting through the Iron Curtain from 2022-12-20T10:00
It is the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service. Broadcasting to countries behind the Iron Curtain without a free or independent media between 1947 and 1991 was arguably the service’s finest...
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Una Marson and the BBC Caribbean Service from 2022-12-19T10:00
To mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service, we trace the development of the Caribbean Service.
Its beginnings go back to the early 1940s when the BBC’s first black producer, Una...
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Felix Baumgartner's huge leap from 2022-12-16T10:00
In October 2012, skydiver and former Austrian paratrooper Felix Baumgartner was watched live by millions as he ascended into the stratosphere in a helium balloon. He then jumped an estimated 38k...
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Soviet fashionista from 2022-12-15T10:00
Slava Zaitsev was the first designer to create high fashion collections in the Soviet Union.
He tells Dina Newman about the challenges he faced working under communism.
This program...
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Returning to District Six from 2022-12-14T08:50
When Zahra Nordien was forced out of District Six in Cape Town in 1977, she vowed to one day return.
She was one of the 60,000 people who were forcibly removed from the neighbourhood beca...
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The Nazi occupation of Jersey from 2022-12-13T10:00
Shopkeeper Louisa Gould risked her life to hide a Russian prisoner who had escaped from the Nazis during the German occupation of Jersey in World War Two. She was later betrayed and died in Ra...
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Mongolian revolution from 2022-12-12T10:00
In 1990, a peaceful revolution brought democracy to Mongolia after almost 70 years of Soviet backed rule.
University lecturer Ganbold Davaadorj was one of the lead figures in bringing tog...
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Creating Teletubbies from 2022-12-09T10:00
It’s 1994 and the BBC is looking for a brand-new children’s TV series.
TV producer Anne Wood decides she’s going to make a show aimed at an audience that’s never had programmes made for i...
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'The Dismissal' of Gough Whitlam from 2022-12-08T10:00
In November 1975, the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was controversially sacked by an unelected official in the country's biggest constitutional crisis.
Many Australians were o...
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The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes from 2022-12-07T10:00
On the 22 July 2005, unarmed Brazilian man Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by anti-terrorism police in London.
He was shot because he was mistaken for terrorist Hussain Osman who had...
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Demolishing the Babri Masjid from 2022-12-06T10:00
Hindu extremists demolished a 16th century mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya in December 1992 prompting months of communal violence across India.
Photojournalist Praveen Jain witnessed...
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Quebec’s 1995 referendum from 2022-12-05T10:00
In October 1995, the people of Quebec went to the polls to decide whether the province should declare independence from Canada.
Kevin Caners hears the first-hand testimony of Jean-Françoi...
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Miss World protest from 2022-12-02T10:00
In 1970, feminists stormed the stage at the Miss World pageant in London.
They were protesting against the objectification of women.
Sally Alexander was one of the young protesters...
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The woman who smuggled HIV into Bulgaria in her handbag from 2022-12-01T10:00
In 1985, at the height of the Cold War, Bulgaria was a strictly controlled communist dictatorship.
It was also facing a wave of infection and death caused by a mysterious new virus. The a...
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The islands Japan and Russia can’t agree on from 2022-11-30T10:00
In 1947, thousands of Japanese families were expelled from their island homes by Soviet troops. They were taken from the Northern Territories, also known as the Southern Kurils, after the Soviet...
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CrossFit: The fitness phenomenon that changed the industry from 2022-11-29T10:00
In 2000, an American personal trainer invented CrossFit.
They now have gyms around the world and hold an annual international competition.
Rachel Naylor speaks to two-time world cha...
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Mombasa terror attacks from 2022-11-28T10:00
In 2002, journalist Kelly Hartog was on a press trip in Mombasa, in Kenya, when suicide bombers drove a car packed with explosives into the hotel where she was staying.
The attack killed ...
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How cat's eyes were invented from 2022-11-25T10:00
In 1934, the late Percy Shaw almost crashed while driving home from the pub on a foggy night in West Yorkshire, in England.
He was saved when his headlights were reflected in the eyes of ...
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The corruption and sodomy trials of Anwar Ibrahim from 2022-11-24T10:00
On 20 September 1998, the former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, was arrested and charged on suspicion of committing fraud and sodomy.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malays...
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When Sweden’s roads went right from 2022-11-23T10:00
In September 1967, all Swedish traffic had to change the habit of decades and swap to driving on the right-hand side of the road.
It brought them into line with most of the rest of Europe ...
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First women’s minister in Iran from 2022-11-22T10:00
Iran’s first ever minister for women’s affairs was appointed in 1975.
Mahnaz Afkhami was the first person in the Muslim world to hold that position. While she was in that role, the govern...
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The invention of the seat belt from 2022-11-21T10:00
In 1958, the late Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars.
It's estimated to have saved more than one million lives around the world.
Rachel Naylor...
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Qatar's first female published author from 2022-11-18T10:00
In 1978, Kaltham Jaber published her first book – a collection of short stories. She is an assistant professor and acclaimed writer from Qatar. Her success as an author came just two decades aft...
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First Emirati female teacher from 2022-11-17T10:00
It was rare for women in what is now the United Arab Emirates to go to school in the 1960s.
At the time, the future country was a collection of emirates under British protection. The Shei...
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Inventing robot camel jockeys from 2022-11-16T10:00
In 2003, a Qatari engineer came up with the idea for a robot jockey, to replace child jockeys in camel racing.
Two years later, the robot was approved for use. The tiny gadgets, which wear...
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Burj Khalifa: Designing the world’s tallest building from 2022-11-15T10:00
The tallest building in the world opened in 2010. There was a glitzy firework display to celebrate the occasion.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is nearly three times the ...
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Formation of the United Arab Emirates from 2022-11-14T10:00
A new country, the United Arab Emirates, was formed in 1971. It’s a federation of seven states that has grown from a quiet backwater to one of the Middle East’s most important economic centres. ...
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The child evacuees of World War Two from 2022-11-11T10:00
The 1 September 1939 was Kitty Baxter’s ninth birthday, it was also the day her life and millions of other people’s changed with the beginning of World War Two.
Kitty was among the hundre...
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Māori protests stops South African rugby tour from 2022-11-10T10:00
In 1981, the South African rugby tour of New Zealand was disrupted by Māori anti-racism campaigners who invaded pitches.
They wanted to highlight the injustice of apartheid in South Afric...
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The assassination of Pim Fortuyn from 2022-11-09T11:00
It has been 20 years since one of the most controversial politicians in Europe was assassinated just days before a general election. On 6 May 2002, Pim Fortuyn was shot dead by an animal rights ...
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First rape crisis centres in the US from 2022-11-08T10:00
1972 was a time of feminist action in the US. People were talking more openly about rape and sharing their experiences. It led to rape crisis centres being set up, which offered support for wome...
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Polynesian Panthers from 2022-11-07T15:00
In the early 1970s, New Zealand’s government cracked down on Polynesian migrants who had overstayed their work permits.
They carried out what became known as the Dawn Raids, when police r...
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Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme from 2022-11-04T10:00
In 1975, President Juvénal Habyarimana introduced Umuganda in Rwanda, where citizens had to help with community projects like planting trees and building schools, every Saturday morning.
R...
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Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher from 2022-11-03T10:00
Dame Carmen Callil, who died in October this year, founded feminist publisher Virago Press in 1972 to promote women’s writing.
In this programme first broadcast in 2019, she tells Claire ...
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Campaigning against sex-selection in India from 2022-11-02T10:00
Over the last 50 years an estimated 46 million girls have been aborted in India.
The cultural preference for boys and the development of pre-natal sex determination tests like ultrasound ...
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Albania’s Stalinist purges from 2022-11-01T10:00
In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a new series of purges against government ministers and officials, following numerous purges in previous decades.
Those acc...
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The Little Black Book survival guide from 2022-10-31T10:00
In 1985, Carol Taylor wrote a survival guide for young black men in the Unites Stated who were stopped by the police.
Her son, Laurence Legall, tells Ashley Byrne the story of the small a...
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Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech from 2022-10-28T09:00
In October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard made an impromptu speech in the Australian parliament setting out the misogyny she endured for years as a prominent female politician.
Ten ye...
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Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan from 2022-10-27T09:00
In 1991, a law was introduced in Sudan which was used to control how women acted and dressed in public. It resulted in arrests, beatings and even deaths during the 30 years it was in place.
... Listen
Theatre siege in Moscow from 2022-10-26T09:00
It is 20 years since heavily-armed Chechen rebels took an entire theatre full of people hostage.
They threatened to kill them all if the Russian government didn't call off the war in Chec...
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The Iranian Revolution and women from 2022-10-25T09:00
Many women supported Iran’s 1979 revolution against the monarchy but some later became disillusioned.
Islamic rules about how women dressed were just one of the things that women objected...
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Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand from 2022-10-24T09:00
In 1998 President Suharto of Indonesia resigned after more than thirty years of military rule. It meant people from indigenous communities were finally free to speak out after years of being ign...
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Founder of the Cuban National Ballet from 2022-10-21T09:00
We go back to 1959 when Cuba’s most famous ballet dancer Alicia Alonso turned her back on a successful career on the world stage and returned home to form Cuba’s National Ballet Company.
...
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Cuba's boxing ban from 2022-10-20T09:00
Earlier this year, Cuba lifted a 60-year ban on professional boxing, which Fidel Castro imposed in 1962.
Before then, amateur boxers who wanted to turn pro, had to risk everything in orde...
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The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write from 2022-10-19T09:00
In 1961, Fidel Castro launched a nationwide campaign aimed to eradicate illiteracy in Cuba.
An ‘army’ of volunteers known as brigadistas equipped with books and pencils travelled across ...
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Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown from 2022-10-18T09:00
Jo Fidgen hears what was happening in the Pentagon and the Kremlin in the final days of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev finally offered to withdraw the ...
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Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos from 2022-10-17T09:00
In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Jo Fidgen spoke to American Intelligence officer Dino Brugioni who played a crucial role as the crisis unfolded....
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Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers from 2022-10-14T10:00
In the 1960s, a wave of strikes and protest marches by Mexican-American farm workers inspired Latinos across the US.
The movement was led by Cesar Chavez - a man now regarded by his commu...
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Torturing strikers in South Korea from 2022-10-12T09:00
Park Heongjun takes us back to May 1980, when a strike in the city of Gwangju became one of the most divisive moments in South Korea’s history and led to the imprisonment of activist Bae Ok Byou...
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Disney animators' strike from 2022-10-11T09:00
Walt Disney cartoonists went on strike for nine weeks in 1941. They were led by Art Babbitt, Disney’s top animator who created Goofy.
The picket line was remarkable for its colourful artwo...
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UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’ from 2022-10-10T09:00
In 1979, British public sector workers went on strike over pay. Among those taking industrial action were gravediggers.
But the media, politicians and even their own families turned again...
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The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival from 2022-10-07T09:00
On 30 January 1959, the late Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones held a Caribbean party in St Pancras Town Hall in London, planting the seeds for the famous carnival.
She wanted to bring Ca...
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The Harder They Come from 2022-10-06T09:00
In 1972, a low-budget Jamaican film and its legendary soundtrack helped popularise reggae music in the world.
Ben Henderson speaks to one of the most famous reggae artists ever, Jimmy Cli...
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The fall of Slobodan Milosevic from 2022-10-05T10:00
On 5 October 2000, protests in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade spiralled into an attack on the parliament building. Hours later President Slobodan Milosevic stood down. Mark Lowen spoke to Srdja...
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The release of Gilad Shalit from 2022-10-04T09:00
On 18 October 2011, Israeli solider Gilad Shalit was freed after spending over five years in captivity in Gaza.
His release was part of a controversial prisoner exchange which saw more th...
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The funk and soul club that changed Manchester from 2022-10-03T10:00
In 1962, Nigerian man Phil Magbotiwan opened a brand new nightclub in Manchester, England.
In part because of his own personal experiences of racism, Phil wanted to create somewhere where...
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Dassler brothers’ rift from 2022-09-30T09:00
In 1948, brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler who lived in a small German town fell out. They went on to create globally renowned sportswear firms Adidas and Puma.
Adi Dassler played a crucial r...
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Iranian revolution: The Kurdish uprising from 2022-04-21T07:50
The story of a boy caught up in the forgotten war for Kurdish autonomy in Iran in 1979. During the Iranian revolution, Kurdish groups had joined the struggle to end the rule of the Shah. They wante...
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Britain's Soviet spy scandal from 2022-04-20T09:00
In 1971 during the Cold War, the UK expelled 90 Soviet diplomats suspected of spying. They'd been allowed into Britain in an attempt to improve relations, but it was later discovered that they'd be...
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Women's rights in Basra from 2022-04-19T09:00
In 2006 after the US-led invasion of Iraq, women in the southern city of Basra were persecuted by militant Islamists forcing them to cover up, stay at home, and adopt an ultra-conservative Islamic ...
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Erasmus: Europe's student exchange scheme from 2022-04-18T10:53
Since 1987, million of students have been able to live and study in other countries in Europe thanks to the Erasmus student exchange programme. The scheme was the result of 18 years of campaigning ...
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The World Wide Web from 2022-04-15T09:00
The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by a young British computer scientist called Tim Berners-Lee. It's been called one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and has revolutionised the w...
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How Tinder changed the dating game from 2022-04-14T09:00
It’s 10 years since the dating app Tinder was set up. It sparked a revolution in online romance by offering singletons a swipe function and the possibility of viewing the profiles of potential soul...
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Greece's Great Famine from 2022-04-13T09:00
In 1941, Greece was occupied by Germany and its allies. The economy quickly collapsed and food shortages spread across urban areas with terrifying speed. By the winter of that year tens of thousand...
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The largest war crimes trial in history from 2022-04-12T09:00
In 2002 the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, went on trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague on war crimes charges relating to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Th...
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Nato intervenes in Kosovo from 2022-04-11T09:00
When war broke out in Kosovo in 1998, Nato intervened with air strikes to prevent atrocities by Serbian forces. The late Madeleine Albright was then the US Secretary of State and the main proponent...
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The Great American Grain Robbery from 2022-04-08T09:00
With fears rising that the war in Ukraine might spark a big rise in global food prices, we're going back 50 years to the story of how a drought in the bread basket of the Soviet Union led to a cata...
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The handshake in Space from 2022-04-07T09:00
In 1975, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts met up in space and shook hands. Millions watched on TV as the two spacecraft docked together and the door between the ships opened. The handshak...
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The Soviet Afghan War Begins from 2022-04-06T09:00
In late December 1979, the world held its breath as thousands of Soviet troops were sent into Afghanistan. Moscow said the troops would be there six months, to help bring peace to the country. In f...
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The Falklands War - an Argentine account from 2022-04-05T09:00
In our second programme on the Falklands War, Witness History hears from an Argentine soldier who fought in the conflict. Miguel Savage recalls the atrocious weather conditions faced by Argentine c...
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Escaping a Maoist cult from 2022-04-01T09:00
In 2013, three women escaped from a cult that had been based in an ordinary house in Brixton, South London, since the 1970s. The cult was led by Aravindan Balakrishnan, a former student at the Lond...
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Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers from 2022-03-31T09:00
Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was sold at auction at Christie's in London in March 1987 for 39.9 million dollars - then a world record and more than double the previous top price paid for an artw...
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Afghanistan's women's newspaper from 2022-03-30T09:00
Aina-E-Zan, the first women's newspaper in Afghanistan, was launched in 2002. Edited by Shukria Barazkai, the newspaper covered women's rights issues in depth, as well as criticizing the warlords w...
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Banksy’s first street art mural from 2022-03-29T09:31
World-renowned street artist Banksy started spray-painting the walls of his home city of Bristol in the 1990s. It is widely believed that his first large mural was a piece called Mild, Mild West pa...
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The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin from 2022-03-28T09:00
Starting in late 2011, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to try to stop what they saw as a power grab by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The demonstrators wanted to stop what they ...
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Soviet holidays in Crimea from 2022-03-25T10:00
Artek, on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, was the Soviet Union's most popular holiday camp. Thousands of children visited every year. Maria Kim Espeland went there in the 1980s. She spoke to...
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Ukraine's Babi Yar massacre from 2022-03-24T10:00
During World War Two, Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany and on 29th September 1941, the organised massacre of Ukrainian Jews began. In the capital Kyiv, most of the victims were taken to a ravin...
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The Budapest Memorandum from 2022-03-22T10:00
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited the Soviet-era atomic weapons on its soil and became - for a few years - the world's third biggest nuclear power. After months of ten...
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The Chernobyl nuclear disaster from 2022-03-21T09:00
In April 1986 a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, in the USSR, causing the worst nuclear accident ever. Sergii Mirnyi was in charge of a monitoring unit which measur...
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Zaha Hadid's Cincinnati Arts Center from 2022-03-17T09:00
When the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati opened to the public in 2003 it wowed both the public and critics. With its undulating curves and galleries that interlock, it was the first major pr...
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Teheran's Freedom Tower from 2022-03-16T10:00
A vast new monument was opened to the public in Tehran in early 1972. It was called Shahyad and was dedicated to centuries of Iranian royalty. After the Islamic revolution of 1979 the monument's na...
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Chandigarh - India's city of the future from 2022-03-15T10:00
After the trauma of Partition in 1947, India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru persuaded the maverick Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, to build a new capital city for the province of Pun...
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The Frauenkirche - Dresden's symbol of war and reconstruction from 2022-03-14T09:00
In 2005 Dresden’s Lutheran church, the Frauenkirche, opened its doors to the public for the first time in 60 years. The Frauenkirche in the East German city of Dresden was destroyed in 1945 by Brit...
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The Wages for Housework campaign from 2022-03-11T10:11
They called it "The only work you never retire from, the only work you never get paid for" and in 1972 the Italian Marxist Feminist group Lotta Feminista tried to change that. Inspired by the work ...
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Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi from 2022-03-10T10:25
In 2003, human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi became the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Six years later, she was forced into exile from Iran. Dr Ebadi has...
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The Australian women who protested against the Vietnam war from 2022-03-09T10:00
Five Australian women made front-page news when they were sent to Melbourne's Fairlea Prison for protesting against the Vietnam War in 1971. The women were part of the Save Our Sons movement, whic...
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Russia's war in Georgia in 2008 from 2022-03-04T11:40
In August 2008, Russia went to war with another former Soviet republic, Georgia. The conflict began after Georgia attempted to recapture the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which had fought a se...
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The takeover of NTV in Russia from 2022-03-03T09:00
NTV, the only nationwide independent TV channel in Russia, was taken over in April 2001. It lost its independence despite a vigorous protest campaign mounted by its staff. In 2017, Dina Newman spok...
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Boris Yeltsin's surprise resignation from 2022-03-02T09:00
On New Year's Eve 1999 the Russian President went on TV and announced he was leaving office. Tired and emotional, he apologised to the people for the state of the country. Boris Yeltsin's departure...
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Putin's war in Chechnya from 2022-03-01T08:50
When Vladimir Putin was appointed prime minister in August 1999, he was a political unknown. He quickly made his name by ordering Russian Federation forces to re-take control of the breakaway repub...
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Economic 'shock therapy' in Russia from 2022-02-28T09:00
President Vladimir Putin came onto the Russian political scene in 1999 after a decade of chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This included a disastrous experiment with free market ref...
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The 2014 annexation of Crimea from 2022-02-25T10:28
In 2014, Russia annexed the strategic Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Although Crimea was also home to a large Russian naval base, the annexation was seen by Kyiv and the world as illegal. The cris...
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The death of Trayvon Martin from 2022-02-24T10:00
In February 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a member of a Neighbourhood Watch group who claimed he was acting suspiciously. The unarmed black teenager was returning to a gated com...
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The Navajo Code Talkers in World War 2 from 2022-02-23T09:00
In World War 2, US Marines fighting in the Pacific needed to be able to communicate securely on the battlefield. Early in the war, the Japanese had been able to decode some of their encrypted messa...
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Nixon in China from 2022-02-22T10:12
It is 50 years since US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in February 1972. The visit - which included a meeting with Chairman Mao - normalised relations between the two countries f...
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The first sex worker strike from 2022-02-21T09:30
In 1975 hundreds of French sex workers took refuge in churches across France to protest against police harassment, in their first ever collective action. The strike began at Saint Nizier church in...
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The world's first civil union from 2022-02-18T09:00
In 1989, Denmark became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions. In 2014, Farhana Haider spoke to Ivan Larsen and Ove Carlsen, who were one of the first couples to sign on the dotted line
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Bollywood's pioneering lesbian drama from 2022-02-17T10:15
The Bollywood film "Fire" was the first in Indian history to depict a lesbian relationship. Released in 1998, the movie sparked a row over censorship and then a wider debate about LGBT rights in a ...
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The Berlin Patient from 2022-02-16T10:00
In the 1990s, doctors in Berlin began a cutting-edge treatment programme that led to a patient being cured of HIV/AIDS. The so-called "Berlin patient" was Timothy Ray Brown: he was suffering from l...
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"Don't ask, don't tell" in the US Armed Forces from 2022-02-15T09:00
LGBT servicemen and women in the US armed forces had to keep their sexuality secret until the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy was repealed in 2011. Lieutenant Colonel Heather Mack served under the p...
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The first LGBT film in war-torn Yugoslavia from 2022-02-14T08:50
How the ground-breaking film "Marble Ass" was made amid the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Petra Zivic talks to acclaimed Serbian director Zelimir Zilnik about his film which played a role in t...
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The 1972 mass killings in Burundi from 2022-02-11T08:50
In late April 1972, Hutu rebels launched an insurgency in the south of Burundi with the aim of overthrowing the Tutsi led government. They brutally murdered government officials and civilians, targ...
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Ukraine's 'Maidan Revolution' from 2022-02-10T09:08
Throughout the winter of 2013/14 protesters built barricades and camped out in the centre of Kyiv demanding change. The focus was the Maidan, Kyiv's central Square of Independence. The demonstrato...
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Shoe designer Manolo Blahnik from 2022-02-09T10:00
How a young designer from the Canary Islands became one of the most famous shoe-makers in the world. Manolo Blahnik was studying art and set design in Paris when in 1969 he was introduced to the ed...
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The invention of Google Maps from 2022-02-08T09:00
In 2005, a revolutionary online mapping service called Google Maps went live for the first time. It introduced searchable, scrollable, interactive maps to a wider public, but required so much compu...
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The demise of the Soviet Union from 2022-02-07T10:00
In December 1991 the leaders of three Soviet Republics - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus - signed a treaty dissolving the USSR. They did so without asking the other republics, and against the wishes of...
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The first Emirati female teacher from 2022-02-03T09:00
In the 1960s, it was extremely rare for women in what is now the United Arab Emirates to go to school. At the time the future country was a collection of Emirates under British protection. The Truc...
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The day the world looked up from 2022-02-02T09:00
In June 2012 one of the solar system’s rarest of astronomical events took place, when it was possible to see the planet Venus fly past the face of the Sun. It appears when the orbits of Earth and V...
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The murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl from 2022-02-01T10:00
In February 2002 a videotape was released by extremists in Pakistan showing the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter. Daniel Pearl had been investigating the 9/11 attacks. He was kidnapped in...
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The Good Friday Agreement from 2022-01-28T09:53
In 1998, the political parties in Northern Ireland reached a peace agreement that ended decades of war. But the Good Friday Agreement, as it became known, was only reached after days of frantic las...
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IRA gun-running in America from 2022-01-27T08:50
How an undercover FBI agent bust an IRA gun-running plot in New York in 1981. We hear from retired FBI agent, John WInslow, who posed as a gun dealer to infiltrate a network of Americans supplying ...
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The Grand Hotel Bombing from 2022-01-26T09:00
In October 1984, Margaret Thatcher survived a bomb attack on the hotel where she was staying on the south coast of England. Five people were killed and more than 30 others injured in the explosion,...
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Bloody Sunday from 2022-01-25T09:00
On 30 January 1972 British troops opened fire on a civil rights march in Northern Ireland. Thirteen people were killed that day, which became known as Bloody Sunday. Tony Doherty was nine years old...
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British troops in Northern Ireland from 2022-01-24T10:00
In August 1969 the British Army was first deployed in Northern Ireland. Their job was to keep the peace on the streets of Londonderry where sectarian violence had broken out. To begin with the sold...
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A Cold War love affair from 2022-01-21T11:06
The East German authorities built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to keep their people in. Thousands had been streaming westwards. But a few people went the other way. Frauke Naumann was one of them. She g...
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The first bicycle-sharing scheme from 2022-01-20T10:43
In the mid-1960s a Dutch engineer called Luud Schimmelpennink came up with a scheme to share bikes, and cut pollution. He collected about ten old bicycles, painted them white and left them at diffe...
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day from 2022-01-20T09:00
This week Americans have been observing the Martin Luther King Jr Day national holiday, which marks the birthday of the late civil rights leader. The campaign to have Dr King formally recognized in...
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The rise of Boko Haram from 2022-01-17T08:50
How a small Nigerian Islamist group launched one of the deadliest insurgencies in Africa. In 2002, a new radical sect emerged in Maiduguri in north eastern Nigeria led by a charismatic preacher, Mo...
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The first silicone breast implants from 2022-01-14T09:11
30-year-old Texan Timmie Jean Lindsey was the first woman in the world to have silicone breast implants. In 1962, she was offered the operation free of charge by two pioneering surgeons. It's gone ...
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Costa Concordia from 2022-01-13T09:00
Costa Concordia hit submerged rocks off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012, leaving a fifty-metre-long gash in the hull. More than four thousand passengers and crew were on board. Ian and...
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Malick Sidibé: Mali's superstar photographer from 2022-01-12T10:04
The Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé, is one of Africa’s most celebrated artists. His most famous photographs show black and white scenes of young people partying in the capital Bamako in the joy...
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Kazakhstan's nuclear legacy from 2022-01-11T10:06
After its independence, Kazakhstan had to deal with the legacy of being one of the centres of the Soviet Union's huge nuclear arsenal and nuclear weapons industry. There were particular concerns ab...
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India's freedom fighter: Subhas Chandra Bose from 2022-01-10T09:30
In 2022, India is holding a series of events to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of the independence campaigner, Subhas Chandra Bose. Unlike Mahatama Ghandi, Bose believed violence agai...
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Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane: From professor to freedom fighter from 2022-01-06T09:58
On February 3rd 1969, Eduardo Mondlane - the founder of FRELIMO, Mozambique’s Liberation Front against Portuguese colonial rule - was assassinated in a bomb attack in Tanzania. Mondlane started o...
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Marcel Proust from 2022-01-05T09:00
In 2022, France is marking the centenary of the death of the novelist Marcel Proust, the author of the 20th century masterpiece Remembrance of Things Past. In this archive edition of Witness Histor...
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The end of Stalinist rule in Albania from 2022-01-04T09:00
In 1990 Albania’s communist government agreed to allow independent political parties following a wave of protests. Lea Ypi was an 11 year old schoolgirl at the time and watched events with constern...
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The secret history of Monopoly from 2021-12-31T09:00
In 1904, a left-wing American feminist called Lizzy Magie patented a board game that evolved into what we now know as Monopoly. But 30 years later, when Monopoly was first marketed in the United St...
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Grand Theft Auto from 2021-12-29T09:00
A new action-adventure computer game - designed in Scotland - became a surprise global hit in 1997. But Grand Theft Auto also courted controversy and sparked debate over violence and drugs in video...
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Pong and the birth of computer games from 2021-12-27T09:00
In 1973, a video game was invented which would change the way we play. An on screen version of table tennis, Pong was initially only played in arcades. But later a home version was created which ga...
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The home of Santa Claus from 2021-12-24T09:00
Rovaniemi, a small town in Lapland, is home to dozens of Christmas tourist attractions and is widely considered the unofficial home of Santa Claus. The town had to re-invent itself after being flat...
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Bahrain's 2011 protests from 2021-12-23T09:30
In 2011, thousands of protestors occupied Pearl Roundabout near the centre of Bahrain’s capital, Manama. Many of them were from the country's Shia religious majority. They were demanding political ...
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The right to drive in Saudi Arabia from 2021-12-22T16:20
In 2011, cybersecurity expert Manal Al-Sharif helped found the Women2Drive movement. It was designed to force the Saudi Arabian government to overturn its ban on women driving cars - one of the man...
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Rudolf Nureyev defects from 2021-12-21T13:55
In 1961 the great ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev stunned the world by defecting from the Soviet Union. Nureyev escaped his KGB minders at an airport in Paris - with the help of French dancer Pierre L...
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Tanzania's first elected albino MP from 2021-12-20T08:50
How opposition politician Salum Barwany overcame discrimination and fear to become the first albino elected to office in Tanzania in 2010. Albinism is a genetic condition caused by a lack of the pi...
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Bangladesh wins independence from 2021-12-17T09:55
In December 1971, Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan after nine months of war. Dr Kamal Hossain, a leading political figure, was jailed during the conflict and only released shortly after t...
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On the front line in Bangladesh from 2021-12-16T08:54
When Bangladesh fought for independence from Pakistan, thousands of Pakistani troops were sent to fight in what was then called East Pakistan. In 1971, Shujaat Latif was sent to the town of Jassore...
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Rape as a weapon in Bangladesh from 2021-12-15T13:47
During the war of independence in Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistani troops and their local collaborators used systematic rape as deliberate tactic. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of Bengali ...
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The Bengali language movement from 2021-12-13T09:40
In February 1952 thousands of people marched in Dhaka in defence of the Bengali language. Eight of the protesters were shot dead by police. It became known as Bangladesh's Language Movement Day. We...
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The explosion heard by millions from 2021-12-10T08:50
In 2005 thousands of tonnes of petrol ignited at a fuel depot 40 kilometres North-West of London. The explosion was the largest in the UK since the end of the WWII. The blast, which severely damage...
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The Aldi kidnap from 2021-12-09T08:50
The abduction of Theo Albrecht, who co-founded the discount supermarket chain ALDI with his brother Karl. The brothers shunned publicity and there were few photos of them. So, when two armed men co...
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Spies or plane-spotters? from 2021-12-08T09:00
In November 2001 a group of British aircraft enthusiasts were arrested and put on trial in Greece. Unfamiliar with their hobby, the Greek authorities had assumed they must be spies. The plane-spott...
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The V2 rocket from 2021-12-07T08:50
Using eyewitness accounts from the BBC archives, we hear how the Nazis developed the world's first modern ballistic missile that killed thousands during World War Two. The Nazi rocket scientist Wer...
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Fighting 'virginity tests' in the Indonesian police from 2021-12-06T09:00
In the early 2000s, Sri Rumiati, a brigadier-general in the Indonesian police, began campaigning against intrusive examinations of female recruits to her force. Rumiati had experienced a so-called ...
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Derek Jarman from 2021-12-03T09:00
One of the first high-profile artists to speak openly about having Aids was the British experimental film-maker, Derek Jarman. Jarman had made his name in the 1970s by directing Sebastiane, the fir...
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South Africa and Aids drugs from 2021-12-02T09:00
At the end of the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa were still dying from HIV/Aids because effective drug treatments were prohibitively expensive for a developing country. Unde...
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AZT: The breakthrough treatment for Aids from 2021-12-01T09:00
In 1987 the first successful drug treatment was developed for Aids. AZT went from initial test to approval in just over two years - at the time it was the fastest approval in US history. Claire Bow...
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The early days of HIV/Aids from 2021-11-30T09:00
The HIV virus was first identified by medical experts in a journal article in 1981. In the early days of the epidemic, carriers of the virus were stigmatised and treatment was in its infancy. Alan ...
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The Aids 'patient zero' myth from 2021-11-29T09:00
In the early days of Aids, a misunderstanding made one man the face of the epidemic. Canadian air steward Gaetan Dugas developed the symptoms of HIV/Aids in the early 1980s, but a misreading of sci...
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The assassination of the Mirabal sisters from 2021-11-26T09:00
The three Mirabal sisters were leading figures in the Dominican Republic's opposition movement against the dictator, General Rafael Trujillo. Patria, Maria Teresa and the most prominent of the thr...
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Estonia’s internet ‘Tiger Leap’ from 2021-11-25T09:05
Estonia started connecting all its schools to the internet very early. In 1996 less than two percent of the world’s population had access to the web but Estonia’s initiative, known as ‘Tiger Leap’ ...
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The doctor who helped her mother to die from 2021-11-24T09:00
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise voluntary euthanasia: although the new law was ground-breaking, it was based in part on the result of a dramatic criminal ...
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Europe's last smallpox epidemic from 2021-11-23T09:30
Eighteen million people were vaccinated against smallpox in the former communist Yugoslavia in only a month and a half in 1972. The mass vaccination campaign succeeded in containing the last smallp...
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The Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt from 2021-11-22T09:30
'The Woman in Gold' was one of Gustav Klimt's most famous paintings. It was a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, but it was taken from her family by the Nazis and only returned to them after a long leg...
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Sudan's October Revolution from 2021-11-18T08:50
A first-hand account of how Sudanese civilian protesters first brought down a military regime in 1964. The protests began after a student was shot and killed by police during a confrontation at the...
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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy from 2021-11-17T09:30
How a particular form of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, became a common treatment for anxiety and depression. CBT was first developed by Professor Aaron T Beck in the USA. It has bee...
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The capture of war criminal Radovan Karadzic from 2021-11-16T10:00
In 2008, one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives, the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested in Belgrade for war crimes. Karadzic had been in hiding for more than a decade, pretend...
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Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991 from 2021-11-15T18:00
After the end of the Gulf War in 1991, retreating Iraqi forces set light to oil wells in the desert. Specialist firefighters were drafted in by the Kuwaiti government to help put them out. Simon Wa...
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Shoot: A milestone in performance art from 2021-11-15T09:30
In November 1971 a young American artist decided to get a friend to take a shot at him - in the name of art. His name was Chris Burden and the shooting would go down in the history of performance a...
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The South African football star murdered for being a lesbian from 2021-11-11T09:00
Eudy Simelane was a star of the South African women's national football team and a gay rights activist. In 2008, she was pursued by a group of men after leaving a pub close to her home in the towns...
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Spying in Berlin from 2021-11-10T09:00
At the height of the Cold War the German city of Berlin was known as the spy capital of the world. Spies were operating on both sides of the Berlin Wall as tensions between democratic West Germany ...
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Chanel No. 5 from 2021-11-09T10:00
In 1921, one of the most famous perfumes in the world was launched in France. Chanel No. 5 was created for Coco Chanel, the fashion designer and good-time girl, who wanted something modern and fres...
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Britain's Black Schools from 2021-11-08T09:30
In 1960s mainstream schooling in Britain was failing many black immigrant children. A disproportionate number were being sent to schools for those with low intelligence. Black educationalists like...
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When Eritrea silenced its critics from 2021-11-05T08:50
In 2001, the Eritrean government suddenly arrested prominent critics and journalists, and shut down the country's independent press. None of those detained have been seen since. Eritrea, once haile...
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The end of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising from 2021-11-04T09:30
On November 4th 1956 Soviet tanks rolled into the Hungarian capital Budapest, crushing the country's short-lived popular uprising against Soviet rule. Nick Thorpe spoke to Miklos Gimes who was just...
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The enduring legend of Fu Manchu from 2021-11-03T09:30
The evil criminal mastermind Fu Manchu was a recurring character in Hollywood films for decades. He epitomised racist stereotypes about China and the Chinese which shaped popular thinking in the We...
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Judgement at Nuremberg from 2021-11-02T09:00
It's 75 years since verdicts were delivered on leading German Nazis at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg for their instrumental role in the Second World War and the killing of millio...
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The miracle of walking from 2021-11-01T09:30
An American doctor, Ignacio Ponseti, revolutionised the treatment of children born with 'club foot' - where their feet are turned in and under, and which had previously been treated with surgery. H...
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Kilimanjaro: Africa’s disappearing glaciers from 2021-10-29T08:10
The mountains of East Africa are losing their glaciers. At 5,895 metres, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the continent, but it has lost about 90% of its glacial ice in the past 100 years, an...
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The child climate activist of the 1990s from 2021-10-28T08:30
Long before Greta Thunberg, there was 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki, the girl who stood in front of world leaders and implored them to take action to save our environment. Speaking at the 1992 U...
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How the world woke up to climate change from 2021-10-27T08:30
Professor James Hansen finally got US politicians to listen to his warnings about climate change in June 1988 after years of trying. He and fellow NASA scientists had first predicted global warming...
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The world's first environment conference from 2021-10-26T08:30
The first international conference on the problems of the environment took place in Stockholm in 1972. It didn't concentrate on climate change but on the damage that was being done to animals and f...
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Proving climate change: the 'Keeling Curve' from 2021-10-25T08:30
A young American scientist began the work that would show how our climate is changing in 1958. His name was Charles Keeling and he started meticulously recording levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. He...
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Britain’s lesbian families ‘scandal’ from 2021-10-22T08:00
In January 1978 a London newspaper revealed how several British lesbians had conceived babies using donor sperm with the help of a respected gynaecologist. The doctor hadn’t broken any laws in prov...
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The Greenham Common women's peace camp from 2021-10-21T08:10
The anti-nuclear weapons protest was the biggest women-led movement in the UK since the Suffragettes. It began in 1981 when Ann Pettitt from Wales organised a women-led peace march from the Welsh c...
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Polish refugees in Africa from 2021-10-20T08:30
During World War Two, close to 20,000 Polish people found refuge in Africa. They arrived after surviving imprisonment in Soviet labour camps and a harrowing journey across the Soviet Union to freed...
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The mysterious death of Samora Machel from 2021-10-19T08:30
When the socialist leader of Mozambique and some of his senior advisers were killed in a plane crash on the border with South Africa, many were suspicious. It was 19 October 1986 and the two countr...
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The first transgender minister in the Church of England from 2021-10-18T08:30
Sarah Jones is the first person who had undergone a gender change to be ordained in the Church of England. She has been talking to Phil Marzouk about her journey towards the priesthood. She says th...
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The doctor killed by an anti-abortion extremist from 2021-10-15T08:00
In America, there are few issues as controversial as abortion. It’s a major fault line that runs through society, dividing families and even influencing elections. In the 1980s and 1990s, some grou...
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The Pakistani law that jailed rape survivors from 2021-10-14T08:00
Under legislation known as the Hudood Ordinances introduced in 1979, a nearly blind teenage girl who'd been raped by two men and then became pregnant, was jailed herself for having sex outside marr...
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The story of 'Baby Jessica' from 2021-10-13T08:30
Eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure fell down a well-shaft while playing with other children in Texas in October 1987. It took almost three days to free her, and as the rescue effort got underway th...
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Colin Jordan and the British Nazi rally from 2021-10-12T08:12
In 1960s Britain extreme right-wing groups were on the rise. A schoolteacher called Colin Jordan led a Nazi rally in Trafalgar Square in central London. He openly praised Hitler and called for Bri...
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Winning the Arabic Booker prize from 2021-10-11T07:58
Saudi author Raja Alem was a voracious reader from an early age and thanks to her liberal-minded father, grew up immersed in books. She was in her early teens when she began to write novellas and t...
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Clyde Best - A black footballing pioneer from 2021-10-08T09:00
Bermuda-born Clyde Best came to England as a teenager in 1968 and went on to play for West Ham United alongside the likes of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Best made a name for himself as a talented ...
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The unlawful death of Christopher Alder from 2021-10-07T08:00
In 1998, Christopher Alder, a black former soldier, choked to death in handcuffs on the floor of a British police station. CCTV footage showed the 37-year-old father-of-two gasping for air as offic...
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A Somali sailor in 1920s Britain from 2021-10-06T09:00
In the early 20th century, many Somali seafarers made their way to Britain on merchant ships, establishing communities in cities such as Cardiff. One of them, Ibrahim Ismaa'il, made his way to the ...
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Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies' from 2021-10-05T08:00
During World War Two, tens of thousands of African-American US servicemen passed through the UK as part of the war effort. The black GIs stationed in Britain were forced by the American military to...
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London's first black policeman from 2021-10-04T09:00
Norwell Roberts joined the Metropolitan police in 1967. He was put forward as a symbol of progressive policing amid ongoing tensions between the police and ethnic minorities in the capital. But beh...
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The Tanker War from 2021-10-01T07:50
In November 1987, the Romanian cargo ship, the Fundulea, was attacked by an Iranian gunboat in the Persian Gulf. It was just one of hundreds of merchant ships hit by missiles or mines in the Gulf d...
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Petra Kelly and the German Greens from 2021-09-30T07:00
In the early 1980s in West Germany, a radical new political party was on the rise. Die Grünen - the Greens - championed protecting the environment, scrapping nuclear power plants and nuclear missil...
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'Mad cow disease' and CJD from 2021-09-29T08:10
In 1996 the UK government said there was a link between BSE in cattle and Variant CJD in humans. It's believed that more than 100 people contracted the debilitating and ultimately fatal disease af...
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Photographing Brazil's Yanomami from 2021-09-28T07:58
In 1971 photographer Claudia Andujar began documenting the lives of a remote indigenous tribe in the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Claudia went on to take thousands of unique images of Yanomami men, wom...
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The rise of the Taliban from 2021-09-27T09:45
The Taliban first started to gather support in the south of Afghanistan in the early 1990s. By September 27th 1996 they had taken control of the country's capital Kabul. Journalist and writer Ahmed...
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Kenya: Westgate Mall attack from 2021-09-24T08:15
Gunmen from the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Nairobi taking hundreds hostage. The group claimed it was in retaliation for Kenyan military action against them in so...
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James Bond on screen from 2021-09-23T08:30
As the 25th James Bond film hits cinema screens we look at the lasting appeal of the franchise. The original author, Ian Fleming, died in the 1960s but other writers took on the challenge of keepin...
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The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko from 2021-09-22T08:14
Alexander Litvinenko was a former colonel in the Russian secret service and a critic of Vladimir Putin's government. He fled to London seeking political asylum in 2000. In November 2006 he was poi...
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Mexico's miracle water from 2021-09-21T08:30
Thousands of people flocked to the village of Tlacote in central Mexico in 1991. They hoped to be cured by 'magical' water after rumours spread about its healing powers.Maria Elena Navas spoke to E...
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Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis from 2021-09-20T09:00
In the late 1960s, the widow of President Kennedy had a secret romance with Aristotle Onassis, who was then the richest man in the world. Simon Watts spoke to Nico Mastorakis, a Greek journalist wh...
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The Peter Principle from 2021-09-17T07:50
In 1969 a satirical book, The Peter Principle, suggested that promotion led to incompetence. Written by a Canadian Professor of Education, Dr Laurence J. Peter and playwright Raymond Hull, the book...
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Christiania: Copenhagen’s hippy commune from 2021-09-16T08:00
In 1971 a group of squatters, artists and activists took over a disused military barracks on the edge of Copenhagen. They established a self-governing hippy commune called Freetown Christiania, aft...
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The earthquake that devastated Haiti from 2021-09-15T17:18
In 2010 the Haitian capital and surrounding areas were hit by a catastrophic earthquake. Much of Port Au Prince was flattened and more than a hundred thousand people were killed. Amid the destructi...
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The lost king of France from 2021-09-14T10:23
King Louis XVI of France and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were killed during the French Revolution. Their son and heir was said to have died in prison in 1795 but did he in fact escape? The 10-year...
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The Attica prison rebellion from 2021-09-13T08:30
In September 1971 prisoners in a high security jail in the USA turned on their guards taking 42 people hostage. After 4 days of negotiations, armed police retook the jail. By the time the siege end...
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9/11: The backlash against American Muslims from 2021-09-10T08:00
In the Aftermath of the Al Qaeda attacks against America on September 11th 2001, many Muslims living in the US had their allegiance to America questioned. In the days after 9/11 all over America h...
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America attacks Afghanistan from 2021-09-09T09:00
In October 2001, just a month after the 9/11 attacks, the first airstrikes against Afghanistan began in what the US and its allies called Operation Enduring Freedom. The country was being targeted ...
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With the president on 9/11 from 2021-09-08T10:00
The al-Qaeda attacks against America took place on the morning of September the 11th 2001. The news was broken to the US President, George W Bush by his Chief of Staff Andrew Card, as he was on a v...
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The killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud from 2021-09-07T08:00
On the 9th of September 2001 the Afghan fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud who led the opposition to Taliban rule, was killed by a suicide bomber. Just two days later, Al Qaeda carried out their attacks i...
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The warnings before 9/11 from 2021-09-06T08:30
Throughout 2001 the US authorities were being given warnings that a terror attack was imminent. A Congressional Commission, FBI officers and the CIA were all worried. There were even specific warni...
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North Korea's founding father from 2021-09-03T08:30
When World War Two ended and the Korean peninsula was divided, Soviet soldiers occupied the North, and US soldiers occupied the South. So how did one man, Kim Il-sung, take control of communist No...
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The businessman who defied the Mafia from 2021-09-02T08:30
Palermo businessman Libero Grassi published an open letter in Sicily’s main newspaper denouncing the Mafia for constantly demanding extortion payments. Grassi was hailed as a hero, but his public r...
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Surviving the fall of Saigon from 2021-09-01T07:50
When South Vietnam fell in 1975, most could not escape. In the last days, the US airlifted its remaining personnel and some high ranking Vietnamese officials - but millions were left behind to awai...
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The first modern electric car from 2021-08-31T08:00
This electric car revolution is finally on the horizon: many car manufacturers have promised to make only electric vehicles in the near future, in response to the climate emergency. But the first ...
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Nigeria's 'War Against Indiscipline' from 2021-08-27T08:30
Muhammadu Buhari's military government launched an unusual campaign to clean up Nigeria in August 1984. Under the policy, Nigerians were forced to queue in an orderly manner, to be punctual and to ...
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Syria's rebel poet from 2021-08-26T07:50
The Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani was one of the most influential and famous Arab cultural figures of the 20th century. His enduring legacy has become contested territory in the conflict that has torn ...
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Campaigning for Mexico's women with disabilities from 2021-08-25T07:58
In the mid 2000s disability campaigners in Mexico were stepping up their efforts to secure changes in laws and attitudes in their country. They faced indifference from politicians and business lead...
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My father survived the sinking of the Titanic from 2021-08-24T08:00
When the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, roughly 700 passengers survived by escaping in the ship's lifeboats. Among them were six Chinese sailors travellin...
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John Maynard Keynes from 2021-08-23T07:50
The economist John Maynard Keynes transformed 20th century economic policy. Considered one of the great minds of his age, his seminal work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, soug...
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When The Queen met Ceau?escu from 2021-08-20T08:10
Nicolae Ceau?escu was the first communist leader to be given a full state visit to the UK, but it was controversial from the outset. The Romanian president was a known dictator who ran a brutal reg...
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Saddam Hussein's foreign hostages from 2021-08-19T08:00
In August 1990 following the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighbouring Kuwait hundreds of foreign nationals were held hostage by the Iraqi government. Among them were the Rahims, a ...
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India's secret freedom radio from 2021-08-18T08:36
When Indian independence leaders, including Gandhi, were jailed in 1942, activists set up a secret radio station to carry the message of rebellion against British rule. Among the campaigners who wo...
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US withdrawal: The fall of Saigon from 2021-08-17T08:30
The last remaining US forces pulled out of Vietnam on April 30th 1975 as communist North Vietnamese troops took control of the country. There was a desperate scramble to evacuate US personnel and s...
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The man who coined the term genocide from 2021-08-16T08:00
Genocide has a long and grim history, but until the 1950s, the mass extermination of a people or a group was an atrocity without a name, a definition or an international law against it. One man did...
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Inside an East German jail from 2021-08-13T08:30
Vera Lengsfeld was a prominent human rights activist in East Germany who was arrested and jailed for taking part in a peaceful protest. She was sent to Hohenschönhausen, the main political prison o...
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East Germany's nudists from 2021-08-12T08:30
For years Germans have been bathing nude at the beach. Many are members of a naturist movement called the FKK, which was banned under the Nazis and faced official disapproval during the early years...
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Exiled from East Germany: Wolf Biermann from 2021-08-11T08:30
East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in November 1976, causing an international outcry. Wolf Biermann was stripped of his GDR citizenship while on tour in West German...
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Escaping from East Berlin from 2021-08-10T08:30
How a young West German student helped East Berliners escape communism at the height of the Cold War. Volker Heinz told Robin Lustig how he worked with a Syrian diplomat to smuggle people across th...
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The building of the Berlin Wall from 2021-08-09T09:00
In August 1961, communist East Germany began building the Berlin Wall, which divided the city for nearly three decades and became a symbol of the Cold War. Simon Watts introduces the memories of Ge...
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Gay activism in 1990s India from 2021-08-06T07:58
In the early 1990s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in India, a group of gay men and lesbian women set up the Counsel Club in the city of Kolkata. It was one of the first queer supp...
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Afghanistan's battle of the airwaves from 2021-08-05T08:30
When the US led invasion of Afghanistan ousted the repressive Taliban regime in 2001, it was no longer illegal to listen to music or news on the radio. Afghan businessman Saad Mohseni returned to ...
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Escaping Nigeria’s Civil War from 2021-08-04T08:00
When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped. We bring you one child...
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Chipko: India’s tree-hugging women from 2021-08-03T08:00
The 1970s were a time of rapid development in the Indian Himalayas. New roads had recently been built, allowing logging companies greater access to the region’s vast, remote forests. Local people m...
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Dorothy Butler Gilliam: American news pioneer from 2021-08-02T08:00
In 1961, the Washington Post newspaper hired an African American woman as a reporter for the first time. Dorothy Butler Gilliam was only 24 when she got the job. At the time there were hardly any w...
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The Tsunami and Fukushima from 2021-07-30T07:50
Remembering the earthquake and tsunami which devastated Japan and triggered a nuclear emergency in 2011. Max Pearson, who reported from Japan at the time, presents eyewitness accounts of the disast...
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Fighting for the pill in Japan from 2021-07-29T08:30
After decades of campaigning in Japan, the pill was finally legalised in 1999. In contrast, the male impotency drug Viagra was approved for use in just six months, and legalised before the contrace...
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The soldier who never surrendered from 2021-07-28T08:30
In January 1972 a Japanese soldier was found hiding in the jungle on the Pacific island of Guam. He had been living in the wild there for almost 30 years unaware that World War Two had ended. His n...
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The birth of Karaoke from 2021-07-27T08:30
Daisuke Inoue was playing keyboards in a band in Kobe, Japan, when he invented the Karaoke machine in 1971. He had a customer who wanted to impress business clients by singing along to his favourit...
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Japan's Bullet Train from 2021-07-26T08:30
On 1 October 1964, the fastest train the world had ever seen was launched in Japan. The first Shinkansen, or bullet train, ran between Tokyo and Osaka, and had a top speed of 210km per hour. Lucy B...
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When war came to Darfur from 2021-07-22T07:50
In the early 2000s, rebels in Sudan's Darfur region took up arms against the government. In response, the Khartoum regime launched a scorched earth campaign along ethnic lines. The Sudanese militar...
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Surviving Norway's day of terror from 2021-07-21T07:58
On 22 July 2011 Norway suffered its worst terror attacks in recent history. A far-right extremist, Anders Breivik, launched a bomb attack on government offices in Oslo, and then, two hours later, a...
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The Battle of Gondar from 2021-07-20T09:00
In 1941, Italian colonial rule in East Africa ended when Mussolini’s soldiers made a dramatic final stand in the northern Ethiopian town of Gondar. After a bloody battle, General Guglielmo Nasi sur...
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Domestic violence in Brazil from 2021-07-19T08:30
Ground-breaking legislation came into effect in Brazil in 2006. For the first time the courts were ordered to recognise different forms of domestic violence. The 'Maria da Penha law' was named aft...
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England's summer of riots from 2021-07-16T08:00
In the summer of 2001 race riots gripped towns in the north of England. They began in Oldham in late May 2001, spreading to Burnley in June, and Bradford in July. All had their own specific local ...
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When the Taliban took Kabul from 2021-07-15T08:30
Taliban fighters first took control of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul in late September 1996. They imposed their strict interpretation of Islam on Afghans, outlawing music and TV, banning the edu...
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Jane Goodall and chimpanzees from 2021-07-14T08:30
In the 1960s a young Englishwoman made a discovery that changed our understanding of animal behaviour. Jane Goodall was living among wild chimpanzees in Tanzania when she observed them using sticks...
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Prisoner of the Cultural Revolution from 2021-07-13T08:30
As a schoolboy in communist China, Kim Gordon took part in huge rallies to praise Chairman Mao. But when Mao's so-called Cultural Revolution began to target intellectuals and foreigners, Kim's Brit...
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The race for the jet engine from 2021-07-12T07:50
Using eyewitness recordings from the BBC archive we hear from the pioneers of the jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain, about the struggle to develop a revolutionary new engine in the 1...
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The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior from 2021-07-09T08:30
On 9 July 1985 the Greenpeace campaign ship was bombed by French secret agents in Auckland, New Zealand. One environmental campaigner was killed and the Rainbow Warrior was sunk. Claire Bowes heard...
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The first World Romani Congress from 2021-07-08T11:51
Roma people from all over Europe met in England for a conference in 1971. The Roma, who migrated from India over a thousand years ago, often used to be called gypsies. Many Roma led a travelling li...
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The famine in North Korea from 2021-07-07T08:30
Communist North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union which had been one of the country's main supporters. Hundreds of thousands of people died of ...
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Britain's wartime gold from 2021-07-06T08:30
When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939 it had to find somewhere to keep its money. Because of the risk of invasion, a decision was made to send the country's gold reserves to Canada. Vincent...
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Cuba's blindness epidemic from 2021-07-05T07:58
As Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis in the early 1990s, leading to severe food shortages and malnutritiion, some 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss. But health offi...
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China's trailblazing foreign students from 2021-07-02T07:00
China has the largest number of overseas students in the world but when students first started venturing out of Communist China it was still a country feeling the aftereffects of the Cultural Revol...
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The Chinese Communist Party from 2021-07-01T08:30
A small group of revolutionaries formed the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921. Led by Chairman Mao, they fought their way to power in the world's most populous nation and have stayed in control ...
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The Syrian playwright who challenged the regime from 2021-06-29T08:30
An experimental play staged in Damascus in 1971 undermined official Syrian propaganda. Simply by stating that the Arab nations had been defeated by Israel during the Six Day War its author, Sadalla...
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Zimbabwe's mass UFO sightings from 2021-06-28T08:10
It was one of the most reported UFO sightings in recent history. Local people in the quiet rural town of Ruwa in Zimbabwe reported a 'strange craft' and lights in the sky. Around 60 children said...
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The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell' from 2021-06-25T08:30
LGBT servicemen and women in the US armed forces had to keep their sexuality secret until the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy was repealed in 2011. Lieutenant Colonel Heather Mack served under the p...
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China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages' from 2021-06-24T08:30
LGBT people in China sometimes arrange fake marriages to hide their sexuality. Homosexuality is not illegal in China but there is discrimination against LGBT people. In 2005 Lin Hai set up a websit...
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The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack' from 2021-06-23T08:30
The discovery of the diaries of 19th-century Englishwoman Anne Lister, who wrote in secret code about her love affairs with women and has been called the first modern lesbian. A landowner and a bus...
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Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire from 2021-06-22T10:20
Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire has a buzzing LGBT scene and the country is regarded as one of the more tolerant nations in West Africa. In this Witness History, Josephine Casserly speaks to Barbara, a t...
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The Stonewall Inn from 2021-06-21T08:30
In June 1969, the gay community in New York responded to police brutality and harassment by rioting outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. For several days there were battles with the poli...
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China's 'Economic Miracle' from 2021-06-18T08:10
Since the 1980s China has witnessed massive economic growth. It’s become known as the 'world’s factory'. The driving force behind much of it has been a vast migrant workforce of millions of peopl...
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The Trabant from 2021-06-17T08:30
The iconic East German car dominated the roads of communist Central Europe for decades. The Trabant was made out of resin and cotton waste, had a two-stroke engine and its design remained virtually...
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The police rape interview that shocked Britain from 2021-06-16T08:30
When the BBC broadcast a documentary called 'A Complaint of Rape' in 1982 the public was shocked. It was part of a fly-on-the-wall series about the police in which officers were filmed aggressive...
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Mindfulness for the masses from 2021-06-14T07:00
In 1979 scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn opened the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, pioneering a meditative approach to treat pain and depressio...
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The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race from 2021-06-14T07:00
In June 2015 an American anti-racist activist climbed a flagpole on the South Carolina state house grounds to take down the Confederate flag. The protest followed the killing of 9 black people at a...
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The Fall of Madrid from 2021-06-11T09:00
In 1939, the Spanish capital, Madrid, finally fell to the fascist forces of General Franco – spelling the end of a brutal Civil War in which hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians were kille...
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The elections that Hamas won from 2021-06-10T16:52
Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem voted in legislative elections in 2006. The Islamist Hamas movement stood against the Fatah party for the first time - and won. It was an ou...
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Benjamin Britten's War Requiem from 2021-06-09T09:00
Regarded as one of the most important pieces in 20th Century English music, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was first played in the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962. The original had been dest...
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Tunisia’s legal brothels from 2021-06-08T08:00
For decades, Tunisia has had a system of legal, state-regulated brothels. But in the last ten years they have been under attack and many have been forced to close. Josephine Casserly has been talk...
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When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor from 2021-06-07T07:58
On 7 June 1981 Israeli fighter jets launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor located outside Baghdad, killing 11 people. The French-built reactor was still under construction and th...
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How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic from 2021-06-04T08:00
In the 1990s, Switzerland decided to tackle one of Europe's worst drugs epidemics by trying radical new policy ideas including providing safe-injection rooms for addicts and even prescribing pure h...
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Afghanistan's poppy problem from 2021-06-03T08:30
Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehabilitation centre in 2010. Having helped her own brother to quit his heroin addiction she wanted to help others. More than 80% of the world's...
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When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers from 2021-06-02T08:30
In April 2001 the Peruvian Air Force mistakenly shot down a small passenger plane as it flew over the Amazon jungle. The Peruvians believed the aircraft was carrying drugs. Onboard was a group of A...
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The killing of Pablo Escobar from 2021-06-01T08:30
The Colombian drug trafficker, once one of the richest men in the world, was shot dead by police in December 1993. He had been on the run from the authorities for over a year. Jordan Dunbar has bee...
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The war on drugs from 2021-05-31T08:30
The first 'war on drugs' was launched by US President Richard Nixon in 1971. He described drug abuse as a 'national emergency' and asked Congress for nearly four hundred million dollars to tackle t...
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The Tulsa Race Massacre from 2021-05-28T08:08
Greenwood was a flourishing and prosperous black neighbourhood of Tulsa, often referred to as Black Wall Street. But in May 1921, a white mob descended on the district, destroying homes, businesse...
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Rock concert for Chernobyl from 2021-05-27T08:10
On May 31st 1986 a small group of musicians staged the first charity rock concert ever held in the USSR. It was organised in less than two weeks to raise money for the victims of the Chernobyl disa...
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Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend from 2021-05-26T07:50
In the 1960s and 70s, Amilcar Cabral led the armed struggle to end Portuguese colonial rule in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde in West Africa. Cabral was an unusual rebel leader. He was an agricultura...
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The first Arab woman pilot from 2021-05-25T07:58
Despite opposition from her father, Lotfia Elnadi was determined to realise her dream to fly. With her mother's consent, she secretly took flying lessons from an English instructor at a small airfi...
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The strike that shocked India from 2021-05-24T08:30
When one and a half million Indian railway workers went on strike for 20 days in 1974 it brought the country to a halt. Essential food, goods and workers were unable to reach their destinations. De...
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Fighting forced marriage in war from 2021-05-21T08:00
In 2009 a war crimes trial in Sierra Leone ruled that forced marriage was a crime against humanity. It was the first time a court had recognised that charge. The ruling came in a trial of three reb...
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Saving the world's wetlands from 2021-05-20T08:30
Iran hosted a meeting to save the world's wetlands in 1971. The Ramsar Convention - named after the village on the Caspian Sea where it was originally signed - is seen as the first of the modem glo...
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Striking in South Korea in 1980 from 2021-05-18T07:30
There were strikes and student protests across South Korea in May 1980. The military government responded with a brutal crackdown in the city of Gwangju and elsewhere striking workers faced arrest ...
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When Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa compound from 2021-05-17T08:30
The controversial Israeli opposition leader visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jersualem's old city in 2000. His appearance was followed by an upsurge in violence between Palestinians and Israe...
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China's Democracy Wall from 2021-05-14T08:10
How a brick wall in Beijing became a beacon for those calling for change. But when Wei Jingsheng posted an essay demanding democracy in 1978, he was arrested and imprisoned for 18 years. He's been...
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The trial of South Africa’s 'Dr Death' from 2021-05-13T08:00
The trial of a South African doctor accused of multiple murders under the Apartheid regime. Wouter Basson, nicknamed 'Dr Death' by the country’s media, was alleged to have run a secret chemical and...
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The Jewish exodus from Iraq from 2021-05-12T07:58
In the summer of 1971 around 2,000 Iraqi Jews were forced to flee the country following persistent threats and persecution. The Jewish community in Iraq dated back to the Babylonian times, but by t...
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Legalising contraception in Ireland from 2021-05-11T08:30
Contraception wasn't easily accessible in Ireland until 1985. Activists spent years fighting for the right to control their fertility but faced opposition from the Roman Catholic church which tradi...
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Why a British MP was filmed taking mescaline from 2021-05-10T07:50
# Warning: This programme contains scenes of drug use # In 1955, a British member of parliament, Christopher Mayhew, took the hallucinogenic drug mescaline and had his experience filmed by the BBC...
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The Great Wine Fraud from 2021-05-06T08:00
In the early 2000s, Rudy Kurniawan was a newcomer to the hedonistic world of wine auctions in the US. He quickly became well-known for his warm and friendly manner and his profligate spending on w...
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Ursula Le Guin from 2021-05-05T09:00
The American writer, Ursula Le Guin, was one of the most influential authors of the second half of the 20th century, publishing 20 novels in genres from science fiction to young adult. Le Guin pion...
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The IRA hunger strikes from 2021-05-04T06:30
In 1981 the British government was faced with prisoners dying on hunger strike in a jail in Northern Ireland. The Irish republican activists were demanding to be treated as political prisoners not ...
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How Amsterdam became the cannabis smoking capital of Europe from 2021-05-03T08:00
How Amsterdam became the home of cannabis coffee shops .The Mellow Yellow Café set a pattern in 1973 of attracting customers, which hundreds of others would follow. Although selling and smoking the...
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The killing of Osama Bin Laden from 2021-04-30T07:30
The US tracked down the al-Qaeda leader to a city in northern Pakistan in May 2011. Special operations troops were sent to capture or kill Bin Laden in a top secret raid in the dead of night. The A...
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The battle of Tora Bora from 2021-04-29T08:05
When the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001, the hunt for Osama bin Laden began in earnest. One American in particular led the search. He was CIA commander, Gary Berntsen, who ha...
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The Nairobi US Embassy bombing from 2021-04-28T07:50
In August 1998, more than 200 people were killed in co-ordinated bomb attacks on two US embassies in East Africa. They were among the first major attacks linked to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda ...
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Meeting Osama bin Laden from 2021-04-27T08:30
When the Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan agreed to go and interview Osama bin Laden in 1996 he was apprehensive. By the time he reached the Al-Qaeda leader's mountain hideout - he was shake...
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The siege of Mecca from 2021-04-26T08:30
In 1979 Islamist militants seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. Hundreds were killed as Saudi security forces battled for two weeks to retake the shrine. The mili...
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The first space shuttle mission from 2021-04-23T07:50
On 12th April 1981, the space shuttle Columbia made history becoming the first ever reusable space craft to fly into orbit. It marked the start of a 30-year shuttle programme which revolutionised t...
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How the NRA became a US political lobbying giant from 2021-04-22T08:00
The National Rifle Association represents gun owners in the USA. In 1977 it faced a turning point when its members revolted against the organisation’s leadership to concentrate on political lobby...
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The Raymond Davis Incident from 2021-04-21T08:00
In 2011, an American man shot dead two people in the streets of Lahore. The crisis that ensued saw accusations of espionage and US-Pakistani relations brought to the brink. For Witness History, J...
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The return of Blue Lake from 2021-04-20T08:00
In 1970, the Republican president Richard Nixon signed a bill returning a sacred lake to the people of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. The lake, and surrounding land, had been taken from the Taos people...
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The Eichmann trial from 2021-04-19T08:30
In April 1961, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official in charge of concentration camps, was put on trial in Israel.The trial helped reveal the full details of the holocaust in which millions of European...
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China's 'Kingdom of women' from 2021-04-16T08:10
The Mosuo community in China’s Himalayan foothills is matrilineal, so a family’s ‘bloodline’, inheritance and power is passed down through the female side. There is no such thing as marriage and m...
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The vultures saved from extinction from 2021-04-15T08:00
South Asian vultures started dying in huge numbers in the 1990s but no one knew why. They were on the verge of extinction before scientists worked out what was killing them. Bob Howard has been he...
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Fighting for Castro at the Bay of Pigs from 2021-04-14T07:58
On April 17 1961 a group of Cuban exiles launched an invasion of communist-ruled Cuba in a failed attempt to topple Fidel Castro. After 72 hours of fighting many of the invaders were captured or k...
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How a worm helped explain human development from 2021-04-13T08:30
After the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA in the 1950s, South African biologist Sydney Brenner was searching for a model animal to help him tease out the genes involved in human beha...
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The US Supreme Court's first woman justice from 2021-04-12T08:00
In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman judge to be appointed to the US Supreme Court. She was nominated by newly-elected Republican president Ronald Reagan, who'd made the pledge to ap...
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Discovering the Jet Stream from 2021-04-09T07:50
The Jet Stream is formed by powerful high-altitude rivers of air which circle the globe and help determine our climate. The existence of these winds was first documented in Japan in the 1920s, but ...
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From Leningrad to St Petersburg from 2021-04-08T08:30
As the communist system in the former Soviet Union was collapsing in 1991, the people of Leningrad voted to drop Vladimir Lenin's name abandoning the city's revolutionary heritage and returning to ...
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David Attenborough's first expedition from 2021-04-07T08:00
In 1954, the BBC broadcast a new television programme in Britain. It was called Zoo Quest and it launched the career of a man who has since brought the natural world into millions of homes around t...
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Mexico's female serial killer from 2021-04-06T07:58
Former female wrestler Juana Barraza was found guilty in March 2008 of murdering at least eleven elderly women in Mexico city over a period of seven years. Barraza, who became known as the "little ...
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The women who reclaimed the night from 2021-04-05T09:06
How women in the North of England took to the streets in the late 1970s to protest against a serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. Police advised them to stay indoors to avoid being attacked b...
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Black Jesus from 2021-04-02T08:30
On Easter Sunday 1967 the Reverend Albert Cleage renamed his church in Detroit the Shrine of the Black Madonna. He preached that if man was made in God's image there was little chance that Jesus wa...
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Kidnapped on an orchid hunt from 2021-04-01T10:19
In March 2000, two young English travellers, Tom Hart-Dyke and Paul Winder, were kidnapped by Colombian guerrillas while attempting to cross the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap region on the borde...
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Mrs Thatcher’s ground-breaking Soviet TV interview from 2021-03-31T08:00
How Mrs Thatcher shook up the Soviet media with a landmark interview in Moscow in 1987 focusing on nuclear disarmament. It was broadcast unedited and helped bring in the era of “glasnost.” Bob How...
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When the prisoners ran the prison from 2021-03-30T07:59
In March 1973 guards went on strike at Walpole maximum security prison in the US state of Massachussetts, and the prisoners took over. For the next three months the inmates, organised in the Nation...
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Anorexia nervosa from 2021-03-29T08:30
The American singer, Karen Carpenter, died in 1983 of anorexia nervosa. She was one half of a world famous brother and sister duo called The Carpenters. She was aged just 32. Up until then anorexia...
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South Africa takes on big pharma from 2021-03-25T09:00
At the end of the 1990s, tens of millions of people across Africa had been infected with HIV and in South Africa hundreds of thousands of people were dying from AIDS. People were demanding cheaper...
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The woman who got America talking about sex from 2021-03-24T09:30
Dr Ruth Westheimer first became popular on a radio show in New York in the early 1980s. Her frank and open approach to giving advice on all sorts of different questions about sex soon made her a TV...
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Jamaica’s ‘drug lord’ from 2021-03-23T09:00
The Jamaican government issued a warrant for the arrest and extradition of the drug lord Christopher Coke, otherwise known as “Dudus” in May 2010. The United States wanted him extradited to face c...
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The Ulster Workers' Strike from 2021-03-22T09:30
An early attempt at power-sharing in Northern Ireland ended after protestant workers went on strike and bomb attacks killed dozens in the Republic of Ireland in 1974. Matt Murphy has been hearing ...
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The dirtiest chess match in history from 2021-03-19T10:00
In 1978, the World Chess Championship between the Soviet champion and convinced communist, Anatoly Karpov, and the dissident and defector, Viktor Korchnoi, turned into one of the most infamous clas...
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Mars-500 isolation experiment from 2021-03-18T08:50
In 2010, six men were locked inside a simulated spacecraft on earth for 520 days. It was part of an experiment to see how humans would cope if cooped up together for the duration of a potential tri...
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Alva Myrdal - the woman who made modern Sweden from 2021-03-17T09:00
In 1982, the Swedish social reformer, writer and diplomat, Alva Myrdal, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on nuclear disarmament. She was only the 7th woman in history to win the award...
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Paris is Burning from 2021-03-15T09:00
The documentary Paris is Burning was released in 1991 The award winning film showed a glimpse of the thriving underground ballroom and drag scene in New York City in the 1980s and the black and Lat...
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The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles from 2021-03-11T14:01
Melina Mercouri, famous actress turned politician, visited Britain in 1983 as Greek Minister of Culture and made the first official request for the return of the Parthenon marbles. The marbles were...
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Jane: The underground abortion network from 2021-03-10T09:30
A group of feminists working under the name “Jane” carried out underground abortions in 1960s Chicago – when abortions were still illegal in most of the US. Initially they gave abortion counsellin...
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Cixi: China's most powerful woman from 2021-03-09T15:08
The Empress Dowager Cixi ruled China for 47 years until her death in 1908. But it wasn't until the 1970s that her story began to be properly documented. She'd been vilified as a murderous tyrant, b...
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The women of Egypt's Arab Spring from 2021-03-08T08:00
In 2011 Egyptians took to the streets calling for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had been in power for nearly 30 years. Their uprising was part of a wave of pro-democracy pr...
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Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech from 2021-03-05T08:50
In March 1946, the UK's former wartime leader, Winston Churchill, gave a historic speech which would come to symbolise the beginnings of the Cold War. Churchill had lost power following a crushing ...
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The Sharpeville massacre from 2021-03-04T10:00
In March 1960, the South African police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people and injuring nearly 200 more. The massacre outraged black South Afr...
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When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home from 2021-03-03T08:58
On 13 May 1985 a police helicopter dropped explosives on a house in residential Philadelphia, in an attempt to end a stand-off with radical black activists from an organisaton called MOVE. Fire spr...
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Refugee Island from 2021-03-02T09:00
In 2001, boats carrying hundreds of, mainly Afghan, refugees arrived on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. This marked the beginning of the “Pacific Solution” – a policy by the Australian governmen...
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The world's deepest dive 11km down from 2021-03-01T09:30
Don Walsh was the first to go to the very bottom of the deepest part of the ocean in 1960 in a specially designed submarine, the Bathyscaphe Trieste. The water pressure was 800 tonnes per square in...
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The WW2 airman from Sierra Leone from 2021-02-25T09:30
Johnny Smythe was one of very few West Africans to fly with Britain's air force during WW2. Recruited in Sierra Leone in 1941 he was trained as a navigator and flew 26 missions on RAF bombers befor...
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The fall of Kwame Nkrumah from 2021-02-24T08:50
The Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, was one of Africa's most famous independence leaders. But in 1966, while he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a coup. T...
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Ireland's bank bailout from 2021-02-23T09:30
In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis Ireland had to borrow billions to stop its banks from going under and to keep its economy afloat. The IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank provi...
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Mary Wilson from 2021-02-19T09:30
The Motown group The Supremes had a string of number one hits in 1964. They would become the most popular girl group of the 1960s. One of the three original singers, Mary Wilson, spoke to Vincent D...
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Free breakfasts with the Black Panthers from 2021-02-18T09:30
The Black Panther Party hit the headlines in the late 1960s with their call for a revolution in the USA. But they also ran a number of "survival programmes" to help their local communities - the bi...
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The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks from 2021-02-17T11:21
The story of an African American woman who played a largely unsung role in countless medical breakthroughs over more than half a century. Henrietta Lacks had cells taken from her body in 1951 when ...
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Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part two from 2021-02-16T09:00
How one man used research by historians at University College London into Britain's forgotten slave-owners to track down the descendants of the family who'd owned his ancestors two centuries earlie...
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Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part one from 2021-02-15T09:00
It wasn't until recently that researchers working in the national archive in London discovered the extent to which ordinary people in Britain had been involved in the slave trade in the 18th and ea...
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How US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter in the first Gulf War from 2021-02-12T08:58
More than 400 civilians were killed when two US precision bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in western Baghdad on the morning of 13 February 1991. The Americans claimed that the building had s...
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A Ghanaian nurse's story from 2021-02-11T09:30
Nurses from outside the UK form a vital part of the country's National Health Service. Many come from African countries. Cecilia Anim - who left Ghana for England in 1972 - became the first black ...
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The paper that helped the homeless from 2021-02-10T09:10
In 1989 celebrities in New York set up the 'Street News' paper to help the homeless. People living rough sold the paper at a profit instead of begging, initially it was very successful with around ...
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Gay and lesbian support for the British miners' strike from 2021-02-09T12:26
In 1984 a group of lesbians and gay men organised a benefit concert to support striking coal-miners. They sent the money they raised to a mining village in Wales. The miners' strike was the biggest...
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Francis Bacon in the archives from 2021-02-09T09:30
Francis Bacon painted distorted and disturbing images but his works are now widely considered one of the great achievements of post-war British art. Vincent Dowd has been trawling through the BBC a...
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DES Daughters from 2021-02-08T12:00
DES or Diethylstilbestrol was a form of synthetic estrogen developed in the 1930s, regularly prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage. But in the 1960s it was discovered that not only di...
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General Robert E Lee: US Civil War rebel from 2021-02-05T09:30
The US Civil War of 1861-65 left 700,000 troops dead. The Southern Confederate states rebelled against the Union of the North because the Confederates wanted to protect the right to own slaves. The...
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Drugs in the Vietnam War from 2021-02-04T08:50
During the Vietnam war, US commanders grew increasingly concerned about the widespread use of drugs by US troops in Vietnam. Initially the focus was on marijuana. But in the early 1970s, reports be...
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The Burma uprising of 1988 from 2021-02-03T09:10
On August 8th 1988 the Burmese military cracked down on anti-government demonstrators, killing hundreds possibly thousands of people. In the weeks of protest that followed, Aung San Suu Kyi rose to...
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The Moscow State Circus from 2021-02-02T17:49
The biggest circus in Soviet Russia opened in Moscow in April 1971. Circus was considered the “people’s art form” in the USSR and was highly popular. The new Moscow State Circus building on Vernads...
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The first Eurostar from England to France from 2021-02-01T09:30
The first Eurostar train left London's Waterloo station heading for the Gare du Nord in Paris in November 1994. It was the first commercial passenger train to travel through the Channel Tunnel whic...
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The anthem of the Arab Spring from 2021-01-29T09:00
In December 2010, anti-government protests broke out in Tunisia after a young fruit-seller called Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight outside a government office in the south of the country. At on...
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Libya's Arab uprising from 2021-01-28T09:00
In the early months of 2011 demonstrators took to the streets across the Arab world in what became known as the Arab spring. In February, protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi soon turned...
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Yemen's 2011 uprising from 2021-01-27T09:30
Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt young Yemenis took to the streets in January 2011. Ishraq al-Maqtari was a lawyer and women's rights activist from the southwestern city of Taiz. She took he...
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Syria in the Arab Spring from 2021-01-26T09:10
Protests erupted across the Arab world in 2011, people wanted change, an end to tyranny and dictatorship. But in Syria the unrest, and its put down by the authorities, led to civil war, years of vi...
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Egypt's Facebook Girl from 2021-01-25T09:30
A wave of popular anti-government uprisings swept through the Arab world in the early months of 2011. Many of the activists who took to the streets were inspired by social media posts. Israa Abd el...
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Fighting for justice for India's Sikhs from 2021-01-22T09:30
Anti-Sikh violence erupted in India after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Looting, raping and killing broke out in Sikh areas. One of those killed ...
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Kenya's pioneering publisher from 2021-01-21T09:01
When Dr Henry Chakava became Kenya's first African book editor in 1972, there were virtually no books or educational material published in African languages, even in Kiswahili. He made it his prior...
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The Turner Diaries - America's manual of hatred from 2021-01-20T16:28
Following the assault on the US Capitol earlier this month, Amazon banned The Turner Diaries, a racist novel blamed for inciting American neo-Nazis to violence. The book calls for a race war and a ...
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Hitler's beer hall putsch from 2021-01-19T12:00
Adolf Hitler made his first attempt to overthrow democracy in Germany in Munich in 1923. It started at a beer hall called the Bürgerbräu in Munich, so it has become known as the "beer hall putsch" ...
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Landing on Titan from 2021-01-14T08:50
The story of the remarkable mission to land on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. The large mysterious moon has a thick orange atmosphere. No-one had ever seen the surface. In the late 1990s, the C...
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Cornelia Sorabji: India's first woman lawyer from 2021-01-13T09:30
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman lawyer working in India. She helped women living in purdah or seclusion in the 19th century who had no access to the law. The women were married into royal fam...
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Puerto Rican attack at the US Capitol from 2021-01-12T09:00
In March 1954, a group of Puerto Rican militants opened fire from the public gallery of the US Congress in an effort to promote their fight for independence for the American territory. Five members...
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When Spain's parliament was stormed from 2021-01-11T09:30
In February 1981 armed Civil Guards tried to take control of the Spanish parliament. For 18 hours they held 350 politicians hostage in the debating chamber. One of those politicians was a young Soc...
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The book that warned 2020 would bring disaster from 2021-01-08T09:30
The Limits to Growth was published in 1972 and warned of global decline from 2020. Claire Bowes spoke to one of the authors of the book, Professor Dennis Meadows, in 2019. He described how they us...
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Sequencing the Ebola virus genome from 2021-01-07T09:30
When the deadly Ebola virus broke out in West Africa in 2014, scientists in the USA set to work analysing it. What they discovered would eventually lead to a treatment. Pardis Sabeti is a virologis...
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The 'strike' in space from 2021-01-06T12:00
The three astronauts on the Skylab 4 space research mission in 1973 got behind schedule when one of them vomited before they'd even got onto the space station. They felt they were being micromanage...
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Buddhists and death row from 2021-01-05T09:30
In the 1990s a practising Buddhist called Anna Cox began visiting a murderer called Frankie Parker in jail. After his execution by lethal injection she carried on talking to prisoners on death row ...
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The oldest song in the world from 2021-01-04T08:50
A 3,500 year old song was found on a clay tablet by archaeologists in Syria in the 1950s. Often called the Hurrian Hymn, it had been unearthed amid the ruins of an ancient palace which belonged to ...
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The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas from 2021-01-01T09:30
In March 2001 the Taliban destroyed huge ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan. The statues were carved into the cliffs above the Bamiyan valley. Sayid Mirza Hossein, a local farmer, was taken p...
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Saving the Great Barrier Reef from 2020-12-31T09:30
In the 1960s conservationists began a campaign to prevent the Queensland government from allowing mining and oil drilling on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Eddie Hegerl told Claire Bowes that he a...
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Le Corbusier and Chandigarh from 2020-12-30T09:30
Shortly after Indian independence Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru persuaded the maverick Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, to help reinvent a newly independent India by building a new capital c...
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The building of the Aswan Dam from 2020-12-29T09:30
In July 1970, one of the largest dams in the world - the Aswan High Dam in Egypt - was completed. It had taken ten years to build, and was not without controversy. Louise Hidalgo brings us voices f...
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UNESCO and race and tolerance from 2020-12-28T09:30
UNESCO – the educational, scientific and cultural arm of the United Nations was first established in 1945. Its aim was to use education as a means of sustaining peace after the horrors of the Secon...
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It's a Wonderful Life from 2020-12-25T10:00
In December 1946, the classic Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life" had its premiere in Hollywood. Starring Jimmy Stewart, the movie's message of hope and redemption is loved by millions. Simon Wa...
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Studio Ghibli - Japan's Oscar-winning animators from 2020-12-24T10:00
In August 1986 the first Studio Ghibli film hit the cinema screens. It would go on to bring Japanese animation to a world audience. Hirokatsu Kihara was a young animator who joined the studio to wo...
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Satyajit Ray - India's master of film from 2020-12-23T10:00
Bengali film director Satyajit Ray has been described as one of the most influential directors in world cinema, with acclaimed US director Martin Scorsese among those crediting him as an inspiratio...
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The Sound of Music from 2020-12-22T10:00
The heart-warming musical, The Sound of Music, was released in 1965 and went on to become one of the most successful films of all time. It was based on the true story of the von Trapp family singer...
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The Great Dictator from 2020-12-21T10:00
In late 1940, The Great Dictator was first released in the USA. In his first role in talking movies, Charlie Chaplin satirised Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers, before America had joined World W...
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The GDR's Namibian children from 2020-12-18T09:30
On December 18th 1979 hundreds of Namibian children were taken to East Germany to escape the war in their home country. But after communism in Europe collapsed in 1989 the children were sent back t...
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The blockade of Gibraltar from 2020-12-17T10:00
In December 1982, Spain reopened its border with Gibraltar after a 13-year blockade of the disputed British territory. The border was closed by the dictator General Franco and led to the separation...
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British reality TV is born from 2020-12-16T08:50
The first British fly-on-the-wall documentary series aired on the BBC in 1974. It was called The Family and followed the lives of the Wilkins family in Reading. Marian Wilkins - now Archer - was th...
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The birth of Bangladesh from 2020-12-15T09:00
In December 1970 Pakistan held its first democratic elections since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. The elections led to war, the break up of Pakistan and the creation of ...
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White Christmas from 2020-12-14T09:30
American entertainer Bing Crosby made 'White Christmas' by Irving Berlin, one of the defining songs of World War Two. Rebecca Kesby has been speaking to his nephew Howard Crosby about the song and ...
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The return of the beaver from 2020-12-11T08:50
In 2009, beavers were released into the wild in the Knapdale forest on the west coast of Scotland, some 400 years after they were wiped out in the UK. The Scottish Beaver Trial was the first offic...
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Neanderthal cave mystery from 2020-12-10T12:00
A teenage potholer discovered a cave system near the town of Bruniquel in France in 1990 which contained a mysterious circular structure. It turned out to be nearly 200,000 years old, and built by ...
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Chief Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Prize for Peace from 2020-12-09T09:30
When Chief Albert Luthuli won the Nobel Peace Prize he was living under a banning order in rural South Africa. He won the prize for advocating peaceful opposition to the Apartheid regime. His daugh...
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The pioneer of 'Mountain Filming' from 2020-12-08T09:30
In 1920 a German filmmaker called Arnold Fanck shot his first film - 'Marvels of the Snowshoe' - high in the mountains. He and his team dragged cameras on sledges to reach the highest peaks. They e...
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The life and work of Chester Himes from 2020-12-07T09:30
The African-American crime writer Chester Himes first found widespread success in France. Although his early works had been published in the USA it was only after he moved to Europe and started wri...
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The V1 flying bomb from 2020-12-04T08:50
In 1944, Nazi Germany launched the V1s against the UK. The V1 was a pilotless, jet-propelled flying bomb - the first of its kind in the world and a precursor to the modern cruise missile. The V1 wa...
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The slaves who defeated Napoleon from 2020-12-02T22:10
The first successful slave uprising in modern times happened in present-day Haiti. Former slave, Toussaint Louverture, forced the French colony to abolish slavery in 1794. The rebellion sent shock ...
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France's Muslim headscarf ban from 2020-12-02T09:00
A controversial law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols from French state schools came into effect in 2004. The ban was designed to maintain France's tradition of strictly separ...
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Iraq's pioneering feminist from 2020-12-01T08:58
Dr Naziha Al-Dulaimi became the first woman to hold a ministerial office in the Arab world when she was appointed to head Iraq's Municipalities Ministry in 1959. As a minister, Dr Al-Dulaimi set ab...
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How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991 from 2020-11-30T08:50
In May 1991, the brutal Ethiopian dictator, Colonel Mengistu and his miltary regime were on the verge of collapse after years of civil war. The end came when a Tigrayan-led rebel movement advanced ...
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The fight for disabled rights in the UK from 2020-11-27T09:30
The UK government passed the landmark Disability Discrimination Act in November 1995. The legislation made it illegal for employers or service providers to discriminate against disabled people. Ca...
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Rwanda at the Paralympics from 2020-11-26T10:00
In 2012, the Rwandan sitting volleyball team became the first Paralympians from their country. The sport began in Rwanda after thousands of people were mutilated during the genocide of 1994, and th...
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India's campaign for disability rights from 2020-11-25T10:00
In December 1995, the first disability rights legislation was passed by India's parliament. An estimated 60 million people, almost six percent of India's population, are affected by physical or men...
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Britain's little blue disability car from 2020-11-24T09:30
For decades disabled people in the UK were offered tiny, three-wheeled, turquoise cars as their main form of transport. They were known as Invacars and they were provided, free of charge, to people...
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Helen Keller from 2020-11-23T09:30
Helen Keller was born in Alabama in the USA in 1880. A childhood illness left her deaf and blind, but she still learned to speak and read and write. She wrote several books, graduated from colleg...
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When the Egyptian president went to Israel from 2020-11-20T09:30
In 1977, Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to visit Israel and address the Israeli parliament the Knesset. At the time, Egypt was still formally at war with Israel - a country which n...
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Our Bodies, Ourselves from 2020-11-19T09:30
Some have described Our Bodies, Ourselves as “obscene trash” – for others it’s a vital source of information about women’s health and sexuality. First published in 1973, this radical, and sometimes...
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America's WW2 refugee camp from 2020-11-18T08:58
In August 1944 President Franklin D Roosevelt agreed to allow nearly one thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe to come to America. They were allowed entry only as "guests", so as no...
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The world's first woman premier from 2020-11-17T09:00
Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected the modern world's first female head of government in 1960 when she became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was known then. She entered politics after ...
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Captured by Somali pirates from 2020-11-16T08:50
In 2008, Captain Colin Darch and his crew were taking a tug boat from Russia to Singapore when they were attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. They were held hostage for 47 days. In the l...
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The 'good enough' mother from 2020-11-13T09:30
Psychoanalyst and paediatrician Donald Winnicott helped shape childcare in Britain through a series of BBC radio broadcasts in the 1940s and 50s. He suggested mothers did best when they followed th...
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When Pluto lost its planet status from 2020-11-12T09:30
An international committee of astronomers agreed Pluto wasn't really a planet in 2006. They reclassified it as a 'dwarf planet' instead. The decision was made after Mike Brown of the California In...
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World War One in Africa from 2020-11-11T11:01
At the start of World War One, British and German colonial forces went into battle in East Africa. Tens of thousands of African troops and up to a million porters were conscripted to fight and keep...
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Makaton - the signing system that changes lives from 2020-11-10T10:00
In the 1970s, British speech therapist Margaret Walker invented a revolutionary system of communication for children and adults with special needs. Makaton uses simple signs to reinforce spoken spe...
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The Guerrilla Girls from 2020-11-09T14:00
In 1985, a group of anonymous female artists in New York began dressing up with gorilla masks on their heads and putting up fly-posters around the city's museums and galleries. It was part of a cam...
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The church that rose from the rubble from 2020-11-06T09:30
In 2005 Dresden’s Lutheran church, the Frauenkirche, opened its doors to the public for the first time in 60 years. The Frauenkirche in the East German city of Dresden was destroyed in 1945 by Brit...
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The 1945 Pan-African Congress from 2020-11-05T08:50
The 5th Pan-African Congress was held in Manchester in 1945 to shape the post-war struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination. Prominent black activists, intellectuals and trade union le...
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The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin from 2020-11-04T09:30
On November 4th 1995 the Israeli rock star Aviv Geffen sang at a peace rally in Tel Aviv alongside Israel's leader Yitzhak Rabin. Moments later the Prime Minister was shot. Aviv Geffen spoke to Lou...
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'I just wanted to be white' from 2020-11-03T08:58
In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, thousands of children were born to white German women and black American soldiers who were stationed in Allied-occupied Germany. The mixed-race infants ...
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The sex musical that wowed New York and London from 2020-11-02T10:00
In 1969, a theatrical revue called Oh Calcutta opened in New York featuring extensive male and female nudity. Created by renowned critic Kenneth Tynan, a London version followed the next year and t...
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Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority from 2020-10-29T10:00
In June 1979 the Moral Majority was launched and changed the course of American politics. It was set up to promote family values by religious conservatives from Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Chr...
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The Watergate scandal from 2020-10-28T10:00
In 1973, the US Senate began an investigation which would eventually lead to Richard Nixon standing down as President a year later. Senator Howard Baker was on the Watergate committee. In 2013, he ...
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Shirley Chisholm - the black woman who tried to be president from 2020-10-27T10:00
In January 1972 Shirley Chisholm became the first major-party black candidate to make a bid for the US Presidency. She was also the first black woman elected to Congress. In 2015, Farhana Haider sp...
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When JFK won the US presidency from 2020-10-26T09:30
Ted Sorensen was a close aide and speechwriter for John F Kennedy. In an interview with Lucy Williamson he remembered the night that Kennedy won the US presidential election in 1960. It was a close...
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Nasa's pioneering black women from 2020-10-23T14:32
Usually it is the names of astronauts that people remember about the space race. But less celebrated are the teams of people working on how to put a rocket into orbit. Only in recent years have sto...
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The missing victims of apartheid from 2020-10-22T14:39
In 2005, South Africa set up the Missing Persons Task Team to trace and locate the remains of the hundreds, possibly thousands, who disappeared in "political circumstances" during the brutal years ...
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The Cutter Incident from 2020-10-21T09:00
In April 1955, more than 100,000 children in America were inoculated with a defective batch of the brand-new polio vaccine. Because of a manufacturing mistake at a small company called Cutter Labor...
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Joan Littlewood, 'mother of modern British theatre' from 2020-10-20T08:30
The working class woman who shook up the British theatre establishment in the 1950s and 60s. Joan Littlewood introduced improvisation and helped break down class barriers. She set up a theatre in a...
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Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs from 2020-10-19T08:10
In the grip of a drugs crisis, the country took a radical approach in 2001 and became the first country in the world to decriminalise all drugs for personal use. Drug abuse and addiction began to ...
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Saddam Hussein's big movie project from 2020-10-16T07:58
In 1980 the Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein, tried to launch his country's entry into the world of movie making. He spent millions of dollars on an epic movie called Clash of Loyalties, filmed almo...
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The US Voting Rights Act of 1965 from 2020-10-15T08:00
Although African Americans were guaranteed the right to vote by the constitution, many in the south were being denied that right. During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s black voting ...
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The last of the Kazakh herders from 2020-10-14T08:30
Many of the nomadic herders in Kazakhstan left the USSR and moved to China in the 1920s. They feared being forced into collective farms by the Soviet state. Then in the 1950s many of them moved bac...
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The end of the Lebanese Civil War from 2020-10-13T08:30
On October 13th 1990, the Syrian airforce pushed their most outspoken opponent in Lebanon, General Michel Aoun, to take refuge in the French embassy in Beirut, ending the last chapter of Lebanon's ...
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The launch of CNN from 2020-10-12T08:30
In June 1980, US media mogul Ted Turner launched the first TV station dedicated to 24 hour news, Cable News Network or CNN. Some were sceptical that there would be enough news to stay on air, othe...
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The Battle of Lewisham from 2020-10-09T09:00
In August 1977, the racist National Front organisation planned to stage a march into Lewisham in South London at a time of high racial tension in the area. The National Front activists were met by ...
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Desmond's - a sitcom that changed Britain from 2020-10-08T08:30
Desmond's was the most successful black sitcom in British TV history. It ran on Channel 4 for over five years, attracting millions of viewers. Trix Worrell, the man who wrote it, believes that Desm...
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Fighting racism on the dancefloor from 2020-10-07T08:30
New laws were used to stop nightclubs and discos from banning black and ethnic minority customers in 1978. The first club to be taken to court was a disco called Pollyanna's in the city of Birmingh...
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Britain's first black woman headteacher from 2020-10-06T08:30
Yvonne Conolly was made headteacher of Ringcross Primary school in North London in 1969. She had moved to the UK from Jamaica just a few years earlier and quickly worked her way up the teaching pro...
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The voyage of the Empire Windrush from 2020-10-05T08:30
Hundreds of pioneering migrants travelled from the Caribbean to the UK on board the SS Empire Windrush in 1948. The passage cost £28,10 shillings.
Passenger Sam King described to Alan Johnston ...
The house by the lake from 2020-10-02T08:30
A summer house built by a lake outside Berlin in the 1920s reflects much of Germany's 20th century history. Its first owners fled the Nazis. The Berlin Wall was built through its garden. Then after...
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Operation Breakthrough: Fighting to save three whales from 2020-10-01T08:30
Three Californian gray whales got caught in ice off Alaska in October 1988. Indigenous people, environmentalists, oil companies and even the Soviet Navy joined forces to try to free them. Rich Pres...
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The founding of Google from 2020-09-30T08:00
The world's most popular search engine was launched in September 1998 by two PHD students from Stanford University in California. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had an idea that would revolutionise the...
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The Mafia trial of Italy’s former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti from 2020-09-29T08:30
Prosecutor Gian Carlo Caselli explains how leading Italian politician Giulio Andreotti was put on trial in Sicily in September 1995, accused of collusion with the Mafia. Andreotti had been prime mi...
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The death of Gamal Abdel Nasser from 2020-09-28T08:30
The charismatic Egyptian president dominated Arab politics for almost two decades up until his death on September 28th 1970. His funeral was attended by millions of grief-stricken Egyptians. In 201...
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Bush v Gore: The 'hanging chads' US election of 2000 from 2020-09-25T07:00
The US presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest and most contested in history. It was more than a month before the result was decided after a Supreme Court decision. It all came down ...
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Blackwater killed my son from 2020-09-24T07:58
On 16 September 2007 private security guards employed by the American firm Blackwater opened fire on civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square. Seventeen Iraqis were killed, and another 20 injured. The ...
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When Nelson Mandela went to Detroit from 2020-09-23T08:30
Just months after his release from prison in 1990 the South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela toured the USA. One of the eight cities he went to visit was Detroit. Benita Barden has been spea...
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How Liberia wrote off its debts from 2020-09-22T07:50
How the Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was negotiated to write off billions of dollars of debt, accumulated over two decades of civil war. Coming to power in 2006, Johnson Sirleaf had to ...
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The Galileo project from 2020-09-21T08:30
The Galileo mission to examine the planet Jupiter had its beginnings in the 1970s. It finally came to an end on 21st September 2003. Professor Fred Taylor is one of the few scientists who worked on...
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The mothers of Argentina's disappeared from 2020-09-18T08:30
In April 1977 a group of women in Argentina held the first ever public demonstration to demand the release of thousands of opponents of the military regime. It was the start of a long campaign by t...
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The Greensboro lunch counter sit-in from 2020-09-16T08:30
Franklin McCain was one of four young black men who took a stand against racial segregation in the USA in 1960. They sat down at a "whites only" lunch counter and asked to be served. When they were...
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The Mau Mau struggle against British rule from 2020-09-15T08:30
During the 1950s in Kenya, armed rebels known as the Mau Mau fought against British rule. Thousands were taken captive and interned in camps by the British authorities. In 2011 Gitu wa Kahangeri, a...
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Resisting 'Europe's last dictator' in Belarus from 2020-09-14T07:50
For more than 20 years, people in Belarus have been protesting against the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko - who's been dubbed Europe's last dictator. Lukashenko came to power ...
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Why the US rejected universal healthcare from 2020-09-11T07:58
The USA is the only rich democracy not to provide universal healthcare. After WW2 US President Harry Truman was horrified that only a fifth of all Americans could afford proper healthcare. Most mid...
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Banning alcohol in an Indian state from 2020-09-10T11:28
Punyavathi Sunkara recalls how she campaigned to stop the sale of alcohol in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to protect women from domestic violence and safeguard family finances. Pressure from ...
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The birth of Reddit from 2020-09-09T15:29
Steve Huffman had been programming software since he was eight-years-old. At the University of Virginia, he met his future business partner, Alexis Ohanian. The pair went on to found Reddit, a disc...
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The Dawson's Field hijacking from 2020-09-09T15:27
Barbara Mensch recalls how she was hijacked and held in Jordan by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in September 1970. Barbara’s plane was forced to fly to a disused British airbase...
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Haiti's cholera outbreak from 2020-09-08T07:58
In October 2010, Haiti was hit by an outbreak of cholera, the first in recent history of the impoverished Caribbean nation. Nepalese peacekeepers belonging to the international MINUSTAH mission wer...
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Care in the Community from 2020-09-04T08:30
In the 1990s Britain closed down many of its long-stay hospitals and asylums and their patients were sent to new lives in the community. But the transition wasn't always easy. Some people had suffe...
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The Cape Town bombings from 2020-09-03T08:30
Between the late 1990s and 2002 there were more than 150 bomb attacks in the South African city of Cape Town. The authorities blamed them on a group known as Pagad - People Against Gangsterism And ...
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The birth of the Sony Walkman from 2020-09-02T08:30
The portable cassette player that brought music-on-the-move to millions of people was launched in 1979. By the time production of the Walkman came to an end 30 years later, Sony had sold more than ...
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Flying through a volcano from 2020-09-01T08:30
When a British Airways flight carrying 248 passengers took off one evening in 1982 heading from Kuala Lampur to Australia, everything seemed fine. But two hours later all of the jumbo jet’s engine...
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Inventing James Bond from 2020-08-31T07:50
The author Ian Fleming created the fictional super-spy, James Bond, in the 1950s. Fleming, a former journalist and stockbroker, had served in British naval intelligence during the Second World War....
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Who has the right to vote in America? from 2020-08-28T08:00
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights-era electoral law was designed to protect African-American and other minority voters. It was introduced to remove the many obstacles that were...
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Occupy Wall Street from 2020-08-26T09:00
In 2011, the Occupy movement staged demonstrations against financial inequality across the world. The biggest was in New York, where a retired police officer called Ray Lewis became one of the best...
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America's first woman combat pilot from 2020-08-25T09:00
In 1993, Jeannie Leavitt became the first woman to fly a US Air Force fighter plane after the Pentagon lifted its ban on female pilots engaging in combat. After hundreds of F15 missions over Iraq a...
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Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer from 2020-08-24T09:00
One of the leading figures in Nigeria's fight for democracy was Margaret Ekpo, a feminist politician and trades union leader. After Nigerian independence in 1960, Ekpo became an MP and a hero to a ...
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The siege at Ruby Ridge from 2020-08-21T08:30
Randy Weaver was a white separatist in Idaho in the north-west United States who was wanted by the government on firearms charges. When government agents approached his remote cabin on Ruby Ridge i...
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The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution from 2020-08-20T11:07
In November 1946, Emperor Hirohito proclaimed a new post-war constitution for Japan which contained clauses establishing women's rights for the first time. They were the brainchild of Beate Sirota ...
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The Guatemalan syphilis scandal from 2020-08-20T07:58
A team of American doctors, led by the distinguished physician Dr John Cutler, carried out secretive STD tests in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948. The doctors experimented on more than one thousand pri...
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The first modern asthma inhaler from 2020-08-19T08:30
Asthma affects more children than any other non-communicable disease - and it was a teenager who first asked her father "why can't they put my asthma medication in a spray can like hairspray?". Luc...
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The lost King of England from 2020-08-18T07:50
In 2012, archaeologists from the University of Leicester discovered the lost grave of Richard III under a car park in Leicester. Richard was the King of England more than 500 years ago and for cent...
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Surviving Saddam from 2020-08-17T08:00
Zainab Salbi grew up in the inner social circle of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in the 1980s because her father worked as Saddam’s personal pilot. It was a world of apparently glamorous part...
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The invention of the modern ventilator from 2020-08-14T07:00
In August 1952, the Blegdam Hospital in the Danish capital Copenhagen was overwhelmed by hundreds of seriously ill polio patients. During the first weeks of the epidemic over 80 percent of the pati...
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Scoring a victory for women's rights in Turkey from 2020-08-13T07:58
In 2004 feminist campaigners in Turkey forced a radical change in the law on crimes against women. The overhaul of the country's 80-year-old penal code meant a redefinition of crimes such as rape a...
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Beirut's Hotel War from 2020-08-12T09:00
At the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Beirut’s luxury hotel district was turned into a battlefield, with rival groups of gunmen holed up in some of the most expensive accommodation in the...
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Bremen’s Elephant Statue from 2020-08-11T11:00
Amid the ongoing debate about how to handle historical monuments which commemorate colonialism and slavery, Witness History hears the story of a giant statue of an elephant in the German city of Br...
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Radar and World War Two from 2020-08-10T08:00
During World War Two, British women were employed as operators of a top-secret radar system for detecting aircraft. The new technology had helped shift the balance of power in the air war with Nazi...
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The atomic bombs dropped on Japan from 2020-08-06T08:30
The USA dropped its first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. Three days later a second atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki. The explosion was bigger than the blas...
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The battle of Midway from 2020-08-05T07:50
On 4th June 1942, aircraft carriers of the Japanese and American fleets fought a huge naval battle near Midway Atoll in the Pacific. The outcome marked a turning point in the war. Using archive rec...
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The internment of Japanese Americans from 2020-08-04T08:30
Thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to prison camps after the USA entered World War Two following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Whole families found themselves housed in barracks behind barbe...
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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor from 2020-08-03T08:00
On 7 December 1941, Japan launched a surprise strike on the American naval base, Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. Thousands of American servicemen were killed or injured in the attack, which severely damag...
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The death of Heinrich Himmler from 2020-07-31T08:30
One of Hitler's most important henchmen was caught by British troops in the chaos of post-war Germany just after WW2 had ended in Europe. A British soldier described to the BBC how the leading Nazi...
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Benidorm and the birth of package tourism from 2020-07-30T08:00
The Spanish town of Benidorm is now one of the world's most popular holiday resorts - receiving more than 10 million visitors a year. The hotels and skyscrapers are the vision of Benidorm's mayor i...
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Adrift for 76 days from 2020-07-29T07:50
A remarkable story of survival. In 1982, Steven Callahan was sailing alone across the Atlantic when one night his yacht hit something in the water and began to sink. He managed to get into a life ...
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Australia's 'Black Saturday' bushfires from 2020-07-28T08:30
The forest fires of 2019-2020 in Australia were the worst the country had ever experienced - but ten years earlier Australia had a foretaste of that disaster when 400 separate bushfires burnt their...
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The writer who put Latinos centre stage from 2020-07-27T07:58
The Cuban-American Dolores Prida wrote with a distinctive voice in her plays, newspaper columns and as an agony aunt in the Latina magazine. She challenged perceptions of how Latin Americans should...
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The fastest vaccine ever developed from 2020-07-24T08:30
In the 1960s five-year-old Jeryl Lynn Hilleman got ill with mumps. Her father Dr Maurice Hilleman took a swab from the back of her throat and used it to help create a vaccine for the disease - more...
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The first safe house for Afghan women from 2020-07-23T08:00
In 2003 the first refuge for women fleeing violence and abuse was opened in Kabul, Afghanistan, a country that has been labelled one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. The U...
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The struggle to save Borneo's rainforests from 2020-07-22T11:00
The rainforests of Sarawak in Malaysia on the island of Borneo are some of the richest and most biodiverse ecosystems on earth - but for decades they've been under threat from commercial logging, p...
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The Million Man March from 2020-07-21T08:00
On 16th October 1995 hundreds of thousands of African American men marched on Washington D.C. in an attempt to put black issues back on the government agenda and to present a positive image of blac...
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The man who tried to kill Hitler from 2020-07-20T07:50
On 20th July 1944 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg put a bomb under Adolf Hitler's desk. Although the bomb exploded, it failed to kill the German Nazi leader. Alex Last spoke to Berthold von Stauffen...
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South Korea's 1980s prison camps from 2020-07-17T08:30
A so-called Social Purification project led to thousands of ordinary citizens being imprisoned under the military government in South Korea in the 1980s. Under the pretence of clearing the streets...
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The scandal of Liverpool's missing Chinese sailors from 2020-07-16T08:00
During World War Two, thousands of Chinese sailors and engineers served in the British Merchant Navy, keeping supplies flowing into the port of Liverpool and risking their lives in crossings of the...
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Returning Ethiopia's looted history from 2020-07-15T07:50
The Stele of Axum, a 4th century Ethiopian treasure, was finally returned by Italy in 2005. It had been taken from the ancient town of Axum in northern Ethiopia by invading Italian fascist forces i...
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How Club Med changed holidays from 2020-07-14T11:00
Holidaymakers arrived at the first Club Med resort on the Spanish island of Majorca in summer 1950. The French company - full name Club Méditerranée - was founded to offer a new kind of post-war ho...
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The fight for women's prayer rights in Israel from 2020-07-13T08:30
In 1988, a group of Jewish feminists demanded the right to pray as freely as Jewish men at one of Judaism’s holiest sites. They called themselves the ‘Women of the Wall’. The organisation is made u...
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The 1960s report that warned the USA was racist from 2020-07-10T07:50
In the summer of 1967 more than 100 cities in America were caught up in riots. US Senator Fred Harris urged the President, Lyndon B Johnson, to investigate the causes. He set up the Kerner Commis...
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The death of Frida Kahlo from 2020-07-09T08:30
The great Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, died on July 13th 1954, at the age of 47. The art critic, Raquel Tibol, lived in Frida's house during the last year of the artist's life. In 2014 she spoke to...
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Montreal's 'Night of Terror' from 2020-07-08T08:30
When Montreal's police force went on strike for one day over pay in 1969, there was looting and rioting in the streets. But the city's problems leading to the unrest had been building for more than...
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The doctor who discovered how cholera spread from 2020-07-06T09:00
In the 1800s cholera was a mysterious disease killing millions around the world. No-one knew how to stop it till an English doctor, John Snow, began investigating the outbreak of 1854. At a time b...
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How South Africa banned skin-lightening creams from 2020-07-03T08:00
In 1990, South Africa became the first country in the world to ban skin-lightening creams containing the chemical compound hydroquinone. For years the creams had caused an irreversible form of skin...
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The lost Nazi-era art trove from 2020-07-02T07:50
In 2012 a stunning, secret collection of art was found in Germany. Much of it had disappeared during Nazi rule in the 1930s and 40s. It had once belonged to one of the Nazi's top art dealers, Hilde...
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Quarantined in a TB sanatorium from 2020-07-01T09:12
What it was like to be a child quarantined in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients in the 1950s. Ann Shaw was nine when she was first admitted to the Craig-y-nos sanatorium in Wales and 13 when s...
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The Rolling Stones drugs trial from 2020-06-30T08:30
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went on trial for drugs offences in June 1967. The case attracted attention around the world, and sealed their reputation as rebels. The men were originally sentenced...
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Jana Andolan – Nepal’s people power movement from 2020-06-29T11:00
A people’s movement called Jana Andolan brought an end to Nepal’s absolute monarchy in the spring of 1990. Political parties worked together with students, workers and civil society groups to organ...
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Russia’s bitter taste of capitalism from 2020-06-26T08:30
Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the rapid market reforms in early 1992, just weeks after the collapse of the USSR. In 2018 Dina Newman spoke to one of the architects of this “shock therapy” - A...
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The Chilean economy and its 'Chicago Boys' from 2020-06-25T08:30
Following the violent military coup that overthrew Chile's socialist government in 1973, the new regime led by General Augusto Pinochet began a radical overhaul of the economy. It was based on a fr...
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Tanzania's socialist experiment from 2020-06-24T08:30
In the late 1960s Tanzania's first post-independence president, the charismatic Julius Nyerere, believed that endemic poverty in rural areas could only be addressed if peasant farmers relocated to ...
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South Korea's economic miracle from 2020-06-23T06:50
An eyewitness account of how a poor, war-ravaged nation became a global economic powerhouse. We hear the memories of Dr Kongdan Oh, who grew up in South Korea in the 1950s, in the aftermath of the ...
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The New Deal from 2020-06-22T08:30
When Franklin D Roosevelt became President in 1933 he promised to spend his first 100 days rescuing the USA from the Great Depression with one of the biggest public spending projects in history - t...
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The ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ anti-racist exercise from 2020-06-19T08:30
When Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, US school teacher, Jane Elliott, decided to try to teach her all-white class about racism. She decided to segregate them according to the colou...
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The friendship train from 2020-06-18T07:00
The passenger train service between India and Bangladesh was resumed after more than 40 years. The train service had been suspended after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan of which Bangladesh...
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Sex trafficking and peacekeepers from 2020-06-17T08:58
In the late 1990s, whistle-blowers implicated UN peacekeepers and international police in the forced prostitution and trafficking of Eastern European women into Bosnia, which was just emerging from...
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Beethoven's role in China's Cultural Revolution from 2020-06-16T08:30
During the early years of Cultural Revolution in China, all European music was banned. Even enjoying traditional Chinese music and art was illegal. Anyone found with old instruments or recordings c...
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Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages of Grief from 2020-06-15T11:00
Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. When Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross published her bestselling book On Death and Dying in 1969, she described a series of emotional stage...
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Three Strikes Law from 2020-06-12T07:50
One man's experience of the controversial US law that saw thousands locked up for life. Under the law in California, a third conviction for a felony offence would lead to a life sentence. At times ...
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Rodney King and the LA riots from 2020-06-11T08:30
People took to the streets of Los Angeles in fury after police, who had assaulted a black driver called Rodney King, were acquitted in 1992. His assault had been captured on video and played repeat...
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Black basketball pioneers - Texas Western from 2020-06-10T08:30
In 1966, an all-black team went head-to-head with an all-white team for the National College Basketball championship - one of the biggest prizes in American sport. To much surprise, the African-Ame...
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The 16th Street church bombing from 2020-06-09T08:30
Four young black girls were killed in a racist attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The 16th Street Baptist Church was a centre for civil rights activists in the city. One of the gir...
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Brown v the Board of Education from 2020-06-08T08:30
In 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. The case was a turning point in the long battle for civil rights in America. In ...
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The portable defibrillator from 2020-06-05T08:00
In the 1960s, doctors in Northern Ireland launched the world’s first mobile coronary emergency service using a new invention – the portable defibrillator. The defibrillators – which initially worke...
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The origin of the WHO from 2020-06-04T10:16
The WHO was first proposed as part of the new United Nations programme to reform the post-war world. The idea for an international health organisation to help promote good health globally was put f...
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How Christo wrapped the Reichstag from 2020-06-03T08:30
The artist Christo died on May 31st 2020. Famous for wrapping landmarks in fabric and plastic, one of his most ambitious projects was the former German parliament building which sat on the border b...
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The Zanzibar Revolution from 2020-06-02T08:30
Just one month after gaining independence there was an uprising in Zanzibar in 1964. It was billed as a leftist revolution but the worst of the violence was ethnically targeted. Zanzibar’s comple...
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The start of eco-tourism from 2020-06-01T07:58
The Monteverde cloud forest reserve in Costa Rica was established in the 1970s with the help of a group of American Quakers. The aim was to protect its unique habitat and abundant exotic wildlife....
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Ann Lowe - African American fashion designer from 2020-05-29T08:30
Ann Cole Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress in the 1950s. As a black woman working in high fashion she was a groundbreaking figurein New York. Sharon Hemans has been speaking to Judith ...
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Winston Churchill's doctor from 2020-05-28T08:00
Many people were shocked when Winston Churchill's personal doctor published his memories of Britain's wartime leader in 1966. Churchill's family tried to halt the publication, but as historian Pier...
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The Gwangju massacre from 2020-05-27T08:30
The South Korean army crushed a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju on 27 May 1980. Pro-democracy demonstrators had taken control of the city and were calling for an end to military rule. Hund...
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The book that changed the way we eat from 2020-05-25T08:00
The best selling book that highlighted the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet. The publication of "Diet for a Small Planet" in 1971 helped start a conversation about the socia...
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Britain's World War Two crime wave from 2020-05-22T08:00
During times of crisis in the UK, World War Two is often remembered as a period when the country rallied together to fight a common enemy. British politicians still refer to the so-called "Blitz Sp...
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Explaining autism from 2020-05-21T09:54
Ground-breaking work by developmental psychologist Professor Uta Frith has revolutionised our understanding of autism. Beginning in the 1960s, Professor Frith's research has overturned the long-hel...
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The first 3D printer from 2020-05-20T07:58
In 1983 Chuck Hull invented the first 3D printer. It could produce small plastic objects directly from a digital file on a computer. Instead of using ink the printer used plastic - adding layer upo...
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Kowloon Walled City from 2020-05-19T11:00
A unique way of life came to an end in Hong Kong in 1993 when Kowloon Walled City was demolished. When the rest of Hong Kong was a British colony, the seven acres of the Walled City were still nomi...
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The Miami riots from 2020-05-18T08:30
After four white policemen were acquitted of killing a black man - Miami rioted. Citizens took to the streets on the night of May 17th 1980. The unrest lasted for three days. 18 people died, hundre...
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Sweden's fishy submarine scare from 2020-05-15T07:50
The story of a scientist who helped solve a Cold War mystery involving flatulent fish and Soviet submarines. During the Cold War, foreign submarines infiltrated neutral Sweden's territorial waters....
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Confessions of a Prince from 2020-05-14T07:58
Over a period of four years before his death in December 2004, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the consort and husband of former Queen Juliana, gave a series of secret interviews to two Dutch j...
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The first 24-hour children's helpline from 2020-05-12T08:30
How a group of broadcasters and social workers in the UK set up the world’s first 24-hour telephone counselling service for children. It revealed just how widespread child abuse was in Britain. Est...
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The liberation of the Channel Islands from 2020-05-11T08:30
The only part of the British Isles to be occupied during World War Two was liberated when the German army surrendered in May 1945. The Channel Islands are situated just off the coast of France, and...
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The Soviet occupation of Berlin from 2020-05-07T08:30
After Germany's surrender to Allied forces in May 1945 Soviet soldiers occupied the German capital Berlin. For ordinary German citizens it was a time of fear and uncertainty. The city had been redu...
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The battle for Berlin from 2020-05-06T07:50
Hear the eyewitness account of a female Russian soldier and a German schoolboy who fought on opposing sides in the final, brutal battle for the capital of Nazi Germany. The fall of the city to Sovi...
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The death of Hitler from 2020-05-05T08:30
The German leader Adolf Hitler killed himself on April 30th 1945. He had taken shelter in a bunker beneath his government headquarters as the Red Army closed in on Berlin. Louise Hidalgo has gather...
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The Wehrmacht exhibition that shocked Germany from 2020-05-04T08:30
An exhibition about the role of the German army the Wehrmacht during the Second World War caused a scandal when it launched in Hamburg in March 1995. “War of Annihilation: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1...
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Hiroshima's trees of hope from 2020-05-01T08:30
When an atomic bomb was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured. Despite many survivors believing nothing would grow in the ci...
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The Galapagos sea cucumber dispute from 2020-04-30T07:58
A boom in demand for sea cucumbers in Asia in the 1990s set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists in the waters off the Galapagos islands, where the protein-rich sea creature w...
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The assassination of the UN's first Middle East mediator from 2020-04-29T10:38
The UN's first Middle East mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948. A Swedish diplomat and member of the Swedish royal family, Count Bernadotte was killed by Jewish ...
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The 1957 flu that killed a million people from 2020-04-28T08:30
In 1957 a new strain of flu emerged in East Asia and quickly spread around the world, killing a million people. It was dubbed the "Asian flu" but it spread to Europe and North and South America. G...
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Waria warriors - the fight for trans rights in Indonesia from 2020-04-27T08:30
Nancy Iskandar is a magician, snake dancer, former sex worker, committed Muslim and long-time campaigner for transgender women’s rights in Indonesia. Josephine Casserly talks to her about the figh...
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Tennessee Williams on the BBC from 2020-04-24T08:30
The great American playwright gave several interviews to the BBC over the years and some of them provide revealing insights into his personal life. He spoke about loneliness, mental illness and eve...
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The Brompton Manley Ventilator from 2020-04-23T11:00
In 1970 a modern portable ventilator system was designed for use in intensive care units. The Brompton Manley’s designer was Dr Ian English a gifted anaesthetist who worked at the Royal Brompton, a...
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Edhi: Pakistan's 'Angel of Mercy' from 2020-04-22T09:00
Abdul Sattar Edhi built one of the biggest welfare charities in the world. He started with a small pharmacy in Karachi dispensing free medication to the poor in the 1950s. His wife Bilquis Edhi sha...
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The last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade from 2020-04-21T08:30
The last surviving person to be captured in Africa in the 19th century and brought to United States on a slave ship, has been identified as a woman called Matilda McCrear, who died in Alabama in 19...
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The Deepwater Horizon disaster from 2020-04-20T07:50
On 20th April 2010, a deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico left 11 people dead. As the rig sank, the riser pipe connecting the platform to the oil well ruptu...
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Apollo 13: The drama that gripped the world from 2020-04-17T09:43
In April 1970, hundreds of millions of viewers around the world tuned into TV coverage of the drama on board Apollo 13 as it attempted to return safely to Earth after a devastating on-board explosi...
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A space crash from 2020-04-17T08:30
Michael Foale was on board the Mir space station when a resupply vessel crashed into it in June 1997. It was the worst collision in the history of space flight and it sent Mir spinning out of contr...
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When Skylab fell to Earth from 2020-04-16T08:30
In 1979 the world held its breath as the American space station Skylab, re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. NASA tried desperately to control Skylab's descent, but large fragments hit south-west Aus...
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The last men on the Moon from 2020-04-15T08:30
In 1972 the American space agency NASA carried out its final Moon mission. One of the three astronauts on board was geologist Harrison Schmitt. In 2012 he spoke to Louise Hidalgo about those moonwa...
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The first iPhone from 2020-04-14T09:32
The touchscreen smartphone changed mobile technology for ever. It was unveiled on January 9th 2007 by the Apple boss Steve Jobs. Within a few years smartphones had changed the way billions of peopl...
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Nasa's female aquanauts from 2020-04-14T09:16
Five 'aquanauts' became the first women to front a mission for America's space agency, Nasa, in 1970. But their mission was underwater rather than in space. They spent two weeks being continuously ...
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The unlikely pioneers of online shopping from 2020-04-10T07:50
In 1984, a 72-year-old grandmother became the first to try a new online shopping system, years before the arrival of the internet. Mrs Jane Snowball had been given new Videotex technology which all...
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Six Degrees: The first online social network from 2020-04-08T08:30
Six Degrees was the first online social network, allowing users to connect with their real-world contacts by creating a profile within a database. It was created by entrepreneur Andrew Weinreich. ...
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The Trojan Room coffee pot from 2020-04-07T08:30
The world's first webcam went online in 1993. Its camera was focused on a coffee pot so that computer scientists in Cambridge, in the UK, could see if there was any coffee available. Dr Quentin Sta...
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The Homebrew computer club from 2020-04-06T08:30
In 1975 a group of Californian computer enthusiasts began meeting to share ideas. Among those who took part were the founders of Apple.
In those days though, many of them were students or eve...
Being a Chinese Muslim from 2020-04-03T08:30
Practising a religious faith in communist China has always been hard. Uighur Muslims face incarceration in re-education camps. But other Muslims have seen repression under communism too.Things were...
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The Swedish warship restored after 300 years from 2020-04-02T08:30
In 1628, at the height of Sweden’s military expansion, the Swedish navy built a new flagship, the Vasa. At the time it was the most heavily armed ship in the world. But two hours into its maiden vo...
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Avenging the Amritsar Massacre from 2020-04-01T08:30
A former governor of Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer, was killed by an Indian immigrant in London in 1940. The assassin, Udham Singh, said he was avenging the deaths of hundreds of civilians who had be...
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The trembling giant from 2020-03-31T08:15
Scientists believe that the biggest living organism on Earth is a fungus. But the heaviest organism, and the most massive organism, is a tree, or rather a giant colony of quaking aspen tree stems w...
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Britain's first woman judge from 2020-03-30T08:30
Rose Heilbron was a trailblazer for women in the legal profession in Britain. She was made the first woman judge in the UK in the 1950s and made headlines around the world when she became the first...
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The AIDS Memorial Quilt from 2020-03-27T09:30
In 1985 activists hand-stitched a giant quilt to commemorate friends and relatives killed by AIDS, and to campaign for more funding and research into the disease. It was the brain child of Cleve J...
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The Cheonan sinking from 2020-03-26T17:22
On March 26th 2010 a South Korean naval ship, the Cheonan, sank after an explosion on board. 48 sailors were killed in an alleged torpedo attack carried out by North Korea. The North Korean authori...
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The Saudi bombardment of Yemen from 2020-03-25T11:10
On the night of March 25 2015 Saudi Arabia and its allies launched an intense aerial bombardment of the Yemeni capital Sana'a. The attacks pushed one of the poorest countries in the Arab world to b...
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Sequencing the 1918 influenza virus from 2020-03-24T09:30
Over 50 million people died from influenza during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Scientists trying to understand why that particular strain of flu was so virulent, dug into Alaska's permafrost to ...
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The Chinese cure for malaria from 2020-03-23T08:46
In the 1970s, scientists in China used ancient traditional medicine to find a cure for malaria. Artemisinin was discovered by exploring a herbal remedy from the 4th century, and can cure most forms...
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The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope from 2020-03-20T15:11
In 1990, NASA launched the historic mission which put into orbit the Hubble Space Telescope. The orbiting observatory has revolutionized astronomy and allowed us to peer deeper than ever before int...
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The 'I Love You' computer virus from 2020-03-20T14:34
In May 2000, a virus created by a college dropout in the Philippines caused chaos around the world. Millions of people received - and opened - an email titled I Love You, which then jammed computer...
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The Major and the VW Beetle from 2020-03-20T13:59
The story of how a car that had originally been the idea of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was saved by a British army officer at the end of World War Two. In August 1945 the British Army sent Major Ivan...
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Red Hollywood from 2020-03-18T09:00
In 1950, a 200-page-long directory called "Red Channels " was published in America. It was a list of people working in the media who were suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathisers. It...
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The fight to make sexual harassment a crime from 2020-03-17T09:00
In 1986, the US Supreme Court heard a landmark case which would define sexual harassment as a crime in America. The lawsuit, brought by bank clerk Mechelle Vinson, established that abuse in the wor...
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Marburg virus from 2020-03-13T12:00
A deadly new form of haemorrhagic fever was discovered in the small town of Marburg in West Germany in the summer of 1967. The first patients all worked at a factory in the town which made vaccines...
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The SARS epidemic from 2020-03-12T10:08
In early 2003 a medical emergency swept across the world. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, was a deadly virus which had first struck in southern China but soon there were cases as far aw...
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The polio vaccine from 2020-03-11T09:00
In 1955 scientists in the US led by Dr Jonas Salk announced they had developed an effective vaccine against polio. The poliomyelitis virus had caused paralysis and death particularly amongst childr...
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The Ebola virus from 2020-03-10T11:44
Some 300 people died during the first documented outbreak of the deadly disease occurred in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of Congo - then known as Zaire. The virus was named after the river ...
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The 'Spanish' flu from 2020-03-09T10:15
In 1918, more than fifty million people died in an outbreak of flu, which spread all over the world in the wake of the first World War. We hear eye-witness accounts of the worst pandemic of the twe...
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Battling Soviet psychiatric punishment from 2020-03-05T09:50
The story of Dr. Semen Gluzman, a Ukrainian psychiatrist, who took a stand against the psychiatric abuse of political dissidents in the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, Soviet authorities had man...
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Strikers in saris from 2020-03-04T10:15
In 1976 South Asian women workers who had made Britain their home, led a strike against poor working conditions in a British factory. Lakshmi Patel was one of the women who picketed the Grunwick fi...
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The petrol that was poisoning children from 2020-03-03T10:15
The UK was one of the first in Europe to declare it would ban lead from petrol after a successful campaign showing it was poisoning children and leaving them permanently brain damaged. But it took ...
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Womenomics in Japan from 2020-03-02T10:15
One of the toughest challenges facing Japan’s economy is that its population is ageing rapidly and its workforce is shrinking dramatically. But a Japanese investment analyst, Kathy Matsui, came up...
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Freeing American prisoners from Iran from 2020-02-28T10:00
In 2009, three American hikers were arrested and jailed after they crossed an unmarked border into Iran while on holiday in Iraqi Kurdistan. Sarah Shourd was released first and fought a long campai...
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The last smallpox outbreak from 2020-02-27T10:30
Thousands of people died in India during the world's last major smallpox epidemic. Individual cases had to be tracked down and quarantined to stop the deadly disease spreading. Ashley Byrne spoke t...
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The rebel nuns who left their convent behind from 2020-02-26T13:00
A group of Californian nuns left their convent and set up their own independent community in 1970. They’d been inspired by the social change they saw around them in Los Angeles in the 1960s, and th...
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The first mobile phone call from 2020-02-25T10:00
In 1973, an engineer called Marty Cooper made the world’s first mobile phone call from a street in New York City. Cooper worked for a then tiny telecoms company called Motorola, but he had a vision...
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An Antarctic mystery from 2020-02-24T09:50
In 1985, human remains were found by chance on a remote island in Antarctica by Chilean biologist Dr Daniel Torres. But whose were they? It would take years to determine their remarkable origin. We...
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Saving Antarctica from 2020-02-21T10:00
In October 1991, an international protocol to protect the world’s last wilderness, Antarctica, from commercial exploitation was agreed at a summit in Madrid. The agreement was the result of a long ...
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Saddam Hussein's 'Supergun' from 2020-02-20T09:50
An insider's account of Project Babylon, the plan to build the largest gun in the world for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The "Supergun" was the brainchild of Canadian artillery maverick, Dr Gerald Bull. ...
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Fighting oil pollution with art in Nigeria from 2020-02-19T11:00
"Battle Bus" was a sculpture made by Sokari Douglas Camp in memory of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists who were controversially executed in 1995. The sculpture was ...
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How meditation changes your brain from 2020-02-18T10:00
In 2002, scientists in the US began performing a landmark series of experiments on Buddhist monks from around the world. The studies showed that the brains of experienced meditators alter, allowing...
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The Pale Blue Dot from 2020-02-17T10:00
In February 1990, the Nasa space probe Voyager took a famous photo of Earth as it left the Solar System. Seen from six billion kilometres away, our planet appears as a mere dot lit up by the Sun, a...
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The Rules: A dating handbook from 2020-02-14T13:00
On Valentine's Day 1995, authors Sherrie Schneider and Ellen Fein published a dating handbook called The Rules: Time Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right. The book advised women that ...
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The best-seller Fear of Flying from 2020-02-13T09:58
The groundbreaking novel about female sexuality, called Fear of Flying, was first published in 1973. Dina Newman has been speaking to its author, Erica Jong.
Photo courtesy of Erica Jong
Diary of life in a favela from 2020-02-12T09:58
A poor single mother of three, Carolina Maria de Jesus lived in a derelict shack and spent her days scavenging for food for her children, doing odd jobs and collecting paper and bottles. Her diary,...
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The man who first published Harry Potter from 2020-02-11T09:58
In 1996, after many rejections, author JK Rowling at last finds a publisher for her first Harry Potter novel. Louise Hidalgo hears from editor, Barry Cunningham, who spotted the boy wizard's potent...
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Chairman Mao's Little Red Book from 2020-02-10T09:58
In 1966, the collected thoughts of China's communist leader became an unexpected best-seller around the world. A compendium of pithy advice and political instructions from Mao Zedong, it was soon t...
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The release of Nelson Mandela from 2020-02-07T13:30
On 11th February 1990 anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela walked free after spending 27 years in a South African jail. It was a day that millions of black South Africans had been waiting for and m...
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The Native American casino boom in the US from 2020-02-06T18:14
In February 1987, a small Native American tribe from California won a landmark ruling at the US Supreme Court granting them the right to conduct gambling activities on their reservation. The campai...
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Witnessing the birth of a new language from 2020-02-05T09:58
In the early 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language of their own. It was a remarkable achievement, which allowed experts a unique insight into how human communicat...
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The Treaty of Rome from 2020-01-31T10:30
The treaty which established the European Economic Community was signed by six countries in 1957 - France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was hoped that European c...
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The first self-made female millionaire from 2020-01-30T10:30
Madam C. J. Walker was the first ever self-made female millionaire. She was born to former slaves in the USA and was orphaned at seven but against all the odds she went on to create her own busines...
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The ancient oak tree that taught the world a lesson from 2020-01-29T09:50
The remarkable Turner's oak in Kew Gardens in London not only survived the Great Storm that ravaged the south of England in 1987, but also changed the way that trees are cared for around the world....
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Reforming India's rape laws from 2020-01-28T10:00
In January 2013 the Indian government began to overhaul the country's laws on rape following the brutal gang rape and killing of a 23 year old physiotherapy student in Delhi. The public outcry acro...
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The Way Ahead group: Modernising the Royal Family from 2020-01-27T13:00
Prince Harry and Meghan’s announcement that they will step back from their royal duties is not the first time the British royal family has tried to reform itself from within. In 1992 Queen Elizabet...
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The frozen zoo from 2020-01-24T10:00
In 1975, San Diego Zoo began placing tissue samples of rare animals in cryogenic storage for the benefit of future generations. Called the Frozen Zoo, the refrigeration system now contains the cell...
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The discovery of whalesong from 2020-01-23T10:30
Whales were being hunted to extinction, when in 1967, a biologist called Dr Roger Payne realised they could sing. It changed the perception of whales and helped found the modern conservation moveme...
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Silent Spring: A book that changed the world from 2020-01-22T10:30
Silent Spring, written by marine biologist Rachel Carson, looked at the effect that synthetic pesticides were having on the environment. Within years of its publication in 1962, the widespread use ...
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How the dodo died out from 2020-01-21T10:30
A flightless bird, the dodo became extinct just decades after being discovered on the uninhabited island of Mauritius by European sailors. Because dodos couldn't fly they, and their eggs, were eate...
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The mystery of the disappearing frogs from 2020-01-20T10:30
How scientists discovered that a deadly fungus was killing off amphibians around the world. The chytrid fungus has caused the greatest loss of biodiversity in our time. Alejandra Martins spoke to b...
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The story of George Stinney Jr from 2020-01-16T10:30
How a 14-year-old boy became the youngest person to be executed in the USA during the 20th century. George Stinney Jr was sent to the electric chair in 1944. He had been tried for the murder of two...
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The woman who negotiated peace with a rebel group from 2020-01-15T10:00
In January 2014 after decades of violent struggle, a peace deal was agreed in the Philippines between a Muslim separatist organisation and the government. The deal granted largely Muslim areas of t...
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Storming the Stasi HQ from 2020-01-14T10:30
Just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall East Germans found themselves able to walk into the communist secret police headquarters in Berlin. The much-feared Stasi agents had kept files on milli...
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Britain's National Trust from 2020-01-13T10:30
The National Trust was founded in 1895, and initially focused on preserving Britain's rural heritage. But their mission expanded in the 1930s to include protecting stately homes - the grand old hou...
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The battle for Fallujah from 2020-01-10T09:50
A US Marine's account of the massive US-led assault on the Iraqi city in November 2004. Amid post-invasion chaos in Iraq, the city was seen as a stronghold of insurgents. It was hoped the battle w...
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The Computers for Schools revolution from 2020-01-09T10:30
In 2009, Uruguay became the first country in the world to give a laptop computer to every child in state primary schools. At the time, only 10 per cent of poor Uruguayan children had access to IT, ...
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The murder of environmentalist Chico Mendes from 2020-01-08T09:58
In December 1988 the Brazilian environmental campaigner, Chico Mendes, was shot dead by cattle ranchers, unhappy at being prevented from exploiting land in the Amazon jungle. The 44-year-old leader...
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The exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from 2020-01-07T10:30
In January 1990 over 100,000 Hindus fled the Kashmir valley after an increase in tension between the Indian military and Muslim independence activists. Iknoor Kaur has been speaking to Utpal Kaul o...
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German atrocities in Poland during WW2 from 2020-01-06T09:58
Towards the end of World War Two in Europe, Polish civilians suffered terribly at the hands of retreating German troops. But many never received any reparations for what they’d been through. Kevin...
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East Germany's punks from 2020-01-03T10:30
In the early 1980s, thousands of young people in communist East German became punks, attracted by the DIY culture and anti-establishment attitude.
But the East German secret police the Sta...