The world's first woman premier

In 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first woman Prime Minister

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America's WW2 refugee camp

How nearly a thousand Jewish refugees were housed in an old fort near New York during WW2

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Our Bodies, Ourselves

The story of a radical book about women’s health and sexuality.

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When the Egyptian president went to Israel

Why Anwar Sadat became the first Egyptian president to visit Israel in November 1977

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Helen Keller

The deaf and blind American writer who became famous around the world

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Britain's little blue disability car

For decades disabled people in the UK were offered tiny, three-wheeled cars for transport

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India's campaign for disability rights

How activists forced through the first law to help tens of millions of disabled Indians

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Rwanda at the Paralympics

In 2012, Rwanda's sitting volleyball team became their country's first Paralympians

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The fight for disabled rights in the UK

The wheelchair warriors who brought London to a standstill to make their point

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How Ethiopian rebels took power in 1991

In 1991 a Tigrayan-led rebel movement took power in Addis Ababa ending years of war

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Iraq's pioneering feminist

Dr Naziha Al-Dulaimi was the first woman to hold a ministerial office in the Arab world

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France's Muslim headscarf ban

A law banning religious clothing from French state schools came into effect in 2004

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The slaves who defeated Napoleon

The first successful slave uprising in modern times, it prompted the abolition of slavery

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The V1 flying bomb

How the first of the Nazi's new "revenge weapons" terrorised Londoners in WW2

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The life and work of Chester Himes

The African-American crime writer Chester Himes first found widespread success in France

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The pioneer of 'Mountain Filming'

How a German filmmaker, Arnold Fanck, shot films high in the mountains in the 1920s

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Chief Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Prize for Peace

Albert Luthuli was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

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Neanderthal cave mystery

A remarkable discovery in a cave at Bruniquel in southern France in 1990

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The return of the beaver

Why beavers were officially reintroduced to the UK 400 years after they were wiped out

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White Christmas

American entertainer Bing Crosby made 'White Christmas' one of the defining songs of WW2

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The birth of Bangladesh

Pakistan's first democratic elections led to the creation of a new country, Bangladesh

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British reality TV is born

The first British fly-on-the-wall documentary series aired on the BBC in 1974.

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The blockade of Gibraltar

How a Spanish blockade of the disputed British territory ended in December 1982.

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The GDR's Namibian children

At Christmas 1979 hundreds of Namibian children were taken to East Germany

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The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin's classic satirical film about Adolf Hitler was released in 1940

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The Sound of Music

The real story behind the heart-warming musical released in 1965

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Satyajit Ray - India's master of film

An actor's memories of working with the Bengali director on the classic Apu trilogy

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Studio Ghibli - Japan's Oscar-winning animators

The early days of the studio which brought Japanese animation to a global audience

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It's a Wonderful Life

A former Hollywood child star remembers filming the classic Christmas movie in 1946.

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UNESCO and race and tolerance

How UNESCO fought racism and advocated tolerance.

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The building of the Aswan Dam

One of the largest dams in the world, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed in 1970

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Le Corbusier and Chandigarh

The modernist architect Le Corbusier agreed to build a 'city of the future' in India

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Saving the Great Barrier Reef

In the 1960s the Queensland government wanted to mine and drill for oil on the reef

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The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas

In March 2001 the Taliban destroyed huge ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan

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The oldest song in the world

Deciphering the 3,500 year-old song discovered on a clay tablet in Syria

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Buddhists and death row

How criminals facing the death penalty in the USA found peace

• 9 mins

The 'strike' in space

How three astronauts on the Skylab space station fell out with mission control

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Sequencing the Ebola virus genome

When the deadly Ebola virus broke out in West Africa scientists in the USA set to work

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The book that warned 2020 would bring disaster

The book describing a sudden uncontrollable downturn that was ignored by governments.

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When Spain's parliament was stormed

Armed Civil Guards took MPs hostage in Spain's parliamentary chamber in 1981

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Puerto Rican attack at the US Capitol

How independence campaigners opened fire in Congress in 1954, wounding five US law-makers

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Cornelia Sorabji: India's first woman lawyer

She was the first to graduate from Oxford and was a pioneer for women lawyers in Britain.

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Landing on Titan

The remarkable mission to explore one of the moons of Saturn in 2005

• 9 mins

Estonia's singing revolution

Rock star Tõnis Mägi describes how Estonia sang its way out of the Soviet Union.

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The New Cross fire

How the New Cross fire in 1981 led to The Black People’s Day of Action.

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Hitler's beer hall putsch

Adolf Hitler made his first attempt to take power in Germany in 1923

• 9 mins

The Turner Diaries - America's manual of hatred

The white supremacist novel by William Pierce which has been blamed for inciting violence

• 9 mins

Kenya's pioneering publisher

Dr Henry Chakava made it his life's mission to publish in African languages.

• 9 mins

Fighting for justice for India's Sikhs

Anti-Sikh violence flared in India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984

• 9 mins

Egypt's Facebook Girl

How social media was used to organise against Egypt's government before the Arab Spring

• 9 mins

Syria in the Arab Spring

The moment that hundreds of thousands of Syrians demanded change in 2011.

• 9 mins

Yemen's 2011 uprising

Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt young Yemenis took to the streets in January 2011

• 9 mins

Libya's Arab uprising

In 2011 protests soon turned into an armed revolt seeking to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi.

• 9 mins

The anthem of the Arab Spring

How a singer in Tunisia helped inspire young protestors all over the Middle East in 2011

• 9 mins

The first Eurostar from England to France

The driver of the first train to take passengers from London to Paris remembers

• 9 mins

The Moscow State Circus

The biggest circus in Soviet Russia opened in Moscow in April 1971.

• 9 mins

The Burma uprising of 1988

People took to the streets of Burma, or Myanmar, to protest against military rule in 1988

• 9 mins

Drugs in the Vietnam War

How a heroin epidemic among US troops in Vietnam caused panic in the military

• 9 mins

General Robert E Lee: US Civil War rebel

Lee was charged with treason, so why did Congress reinstate his citizenship in 1975?

• 9 mins

DES Daughters

A medical scandal which affected millions of women around the world

• 9 mins

Francis Bacon in the archives

The painter Francis Bacon was known for his disturbing images and bohemian lifestyle

• 9 mins

The paper that helped the homeless

The 'Street News' paper was sold by homeless people in New York at a profit to earn money

• 9 mins

A Ghanaian nurse's story

Nurses from outside the UK form a vital part of the country's medical workforce

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How US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter in the first Gulf War

More than 400 civilians died when US bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in Baghdad

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Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part one

How researchers in London uncovered the story of Britain's forgotten slave owners

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Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part two

The story of Britain's forgotten slave owners and the people they enslaved

• 9 mins

The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks

The story of a woman who played a largely unsung role in countless medical breakthroughs

• 9 mins

Free breakfasts with the Black Panthers

How the revolutionary black rights organisation started serving breakfast to children

• 9 mins

Mary Wilson

The American singer died on 8th February 2021

• 9 mins

Acid rain

How the world woke up to the threat from acid rain

• 9 mins

Ireland's bank bailout

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis Ireland had to borrow billions

• 9 mins

The fall of Kwame Nkrumah

How one of Africa's most famous independence leaders was overthrown in 1966

• 9 mins

The WW2 airman from Sierra Leone

Johnny Smythe was one of very few West Africans to fly with Britain's airforce during WW2

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Banning landmines

A landmark treaty banning anti-personnel landmines was agreed in 1997

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The world's deepest dive 11km down

Don Walsh was the first to go to the very bottom of the deepest part of the ocean in 1960

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Refugee Island

How a tiny Pacific Island became a limbo for asylum seekers

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When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home

How 11 people died when explosives were dropped on a house by a police helicopter

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The Sharpeville massacre

In 1960, South African police shot dead 69 black protestors, sparking worldwide outrage

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Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech

How the historic speech in March 1946 came to symbolise the beginnings of the Cold War

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The women of Egypt's Arab Spring

In 2011 women were at the forefront of protests calling for a change in power in Egypt

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