The Peter Principle

Why promotion leads to incompetence

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Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis

The journalist who revealed the affair between the Greek shipping magnate and JFK's widow

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Mexico's miracle water

People flocked from all over the Americas to central Mexico in search of healing water

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The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

How one of Vladimir Putin's critics was killed in London with a radioactive substance

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James Bond on screen

As the latest James Bond film hits cinema screens we look at the appeal of the franchise

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Kenya: Westgate Mall attack

Gunmen attacked a Nairobi shopping centre, the siege lasted four days in September 2013

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The rise of the Taliban

How the Afghan fighters first came to power in the 1990s

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Photographing Brazil's Yanomami

Claudia Andujar spent almost five decades taking unique photos of the remote Amazon tribe

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'Mad cow disease' and CJD

In 1996 the UK government said there was a link between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans

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Petra Kelly and the German Greens

The radical German Greens reshaped the country’s political landscape in the early 1980s

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The Tanker War

Surviving a deadly attack on a merchant ship in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war

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London's first black policeman

In 1967 Norwell Roberts became the first Black officer in the Metropolitan police

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Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'

The stigma of growing up as a mixed race child in post-war Britain.

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A Somali sailor in 1920s Britain

How Ibrahim Ismaa'il escaped poverty in Somalia to live in the British countryside.

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The unlawful death of Christopher Alder

The black former soldier choked to death on the floor of a British police station in 1998

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Clyde Best - A black footballing pioneer

The Bermuda-born West Ham striker recalls the rampant racism in 1970s English football

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Winning the Arabic Booker prize

Saudi author Raja Alem was the first woman to win the prestigious international award

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Colin Jordan and the British Nazi rally

The teacher who formed Britain's Nazi party and the antifascists who fought against them.

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The story of 'Baby Jessica'

When a toddler fell down a well in Texas she became the centre of a media storm

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The Pakistani law that jailed rape survivors

In the 1980s, a horrific rape case galvanised the women's rights movement in Pakistan.

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The doctor killed by an anti-abortion extremist

American anti-abortion extremists began killing doctors in the 1990s.

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The first transgender minister in the Church of England

Sarah Jones is the first person who had made a gender change to be ordained by the C of E

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The mysterious death of Samora Machel

Many suspected foul play when Mozambique's socialist leader was killed in a plane crash

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Polish refugees in Africa

How Polish women and children found refuge in African countries during WW2

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The Greenham Common women's peace camp

Throughout the 80s women protested against nuclear weapons which were held at the UK base

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Britain’s lesbian families ‘scandal’

A media storm about lesbian mothers caused a heated national debate in 1970s Britain.

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Proving climate change: the 'Keeling Curve'

The US scientist who began recording carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in 1958

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The world's first environment conference

Countries first tried to tackle the damage humans are doing to the planet in 1972

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How the world woke up to climate change

A scientist delivered a direct message to US politicians about climate change in 1988

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The child climate activist of the 1990s

Severn Cullis-Suzuki was 12 when she spoke to world leaders at the UN Earth Summit in Rio

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Kilimanjaro: Africa’s disappearing glaciers

In the past 100 years, 90% of the glacial ice at the top of Kilimanjaro has disappeared

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The miracle of walking

The doctor who revolutionised the treatment of 'club foot' - rejecting invasive surgery

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Judgement at Nuremberg

It is 75 years since verdicts were delivered on leading German Nazis at Nuremberg

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The enduring legend of Fu Manchu

The evil criminal mastermind Fu Manchu was a recurring film character for decades

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The end of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising

On November 4th 1956 Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest crushing the anti-Soviet uprising

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When Eritrea silenced its critics

How a journalist tried to escape Eritrea's historic crackdown on critics and the press

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Britain's Black Schools

The alternative schools for black British children set up to counter racist attitudes.

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Chanel No. 5

One of the world's most famous perfumes was launched in 1921

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Spying in Berlin

At the height of the Cold War Berlin was known as the spy capital of the world.

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The South African football star murdered for being a lesbian

How the killing of a female footballer got South Africa talking about ‘corrective rape’.

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Kuwaiti oil fires of 1991

As the first Gulf War ended, retreating Iraqi forces set light to oil wells in the desert

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Shoot: A milestone in performance art

In November 1971, Chris Burden asked a friend to shoot him in the name of art

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The capture of war criminal Radovan Karadzic

How Serbia finally caught one of Europe's most wanted men in Belgrade in 2008.

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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

How a particular form of psychotherapy became popular for treating anxiety and depression

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Sudan's October Revolution

How Sudanese civilian protesters first brought down a military regime in 1964

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Russia’s Democracy pioneer

Galina Starovoitova, the murdered politician who championed democracy in '90s Russia

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The Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt

The story behind one of Klimt's most famous paintings

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Europe's last smallpox epidemic

The virologist who helped tackle the last smallpox outbreak in Europe

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The doctor who helped her mother to die

How a Dutch doctor’s euthanasia dilemma changed the world.

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Estonia’s internet ‘Tiger Leap’

Estonia started connecting all schools to the internet in 1996 ahead of other countries

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The assassination of the Mirabal sisters

Three sisters, all political activists, were murdered in 1960 in the Dominican Republic

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The Aids 'patient zero' myth

How Gaetan Dugas was mistakenly identified as the 'patient zero' of the Aids epidemic.

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The early days of HIV/Aids

The experience of a Ugandan-born woman diagnosed with HIV in the early days of the virus.

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AZT: The breakthrough treatment for Aids

How the first successful Aids drug was developed and approved in record time in 1987

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South Africa and Aids drugs

How activists fought successfully for cheaper Aids treatment in South Africa.

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Derek Jarman

The British experimental film-maker who spoke out about Aids in the 1980s.

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Fighting 'virginity tests' in the Indonesian police

How an Indonesian policewoman campaigned to ban intrusive examinations of female recruits

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The V2 rocket

How the Nazis secretly developed the first modern ballistic missile

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Spies or plane-spotters?

Why a group of British aircraft enthusiasts were arrested for spying in Greece in 2001.

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The Aldi kidnap

The abduction of Theo Albrecht, co-founder of the discount supermarket chain ALDI.

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The explosion heard by millions

In 2005 people across southern England woke up when a huge fuel depot exploded.

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The Bengali language movement

How a march in defence of Bengali galvanised demands for an independent Bangladesh.

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The birth of Bangladesh

How Pakistan's first elections sparked civil war and the creation of a new country

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Rape as a weapon in Bangladesh

How Bengali women suffered appalling sexual violence during the war of independence.

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On the front line in Bangladesh

A Pakistani soldier's account of fighting in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

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Bangladesh wins independence

An inside account of the moment Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971.

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Tanzania's first elected albino MP

How Salum Barwany overcame discrimination and fear to make history in Africa

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Rudolf Nureyev defects

In 1961 the great ballet dancer stunned the world by defecting from the Soviet Union.

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The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi women who used social media to campaign against being banned from the roads.

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Bahrain's 2011 protests

In 2011 thousands of protestors occupied Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain’s capital.

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The home of Santa Claus

How Rovaniemi, a small town in Lapland, became the centre of Christmas tourism.

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Pong and the birth of computer games

The pioneering table tennis simulator which started the video games industry.

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Grand Theft Auto

The controversial action-adventure gaming series developed in Scotland in the 1990s.

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Tetris

In 1984 one of the most popular computer games ever was invented in Moscow.

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Lego

One of the world's most popular toys was invented in a small Danish town in 1958.

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The secret history of Monopoly

The true story of one of the world's most popular board games, Monopoly.

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The "Wild Lily" protests in Taiwan

In 1990, Taiwan’s students took to the streets in their thousands to demand democracy.

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The end of Stalinist rule in Albania

In 1990 Albania’s communist government agreed to allow independent political parties.

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Marcel Proust

The great French writer remembered by one of his friends and by his faithful maid.

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Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane: From professor to freedom fighter

The leader of Mozambique's fight against colonial rule remembered by his daughter

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The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

In January 1945, nearly 10,000 people died in the worst maritime disaster in history.

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India's freedom fighter: Subhas Chandra Bose

The man who campaigned against colonial rule, allying himself with Hitler during WW2

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Kazakhstan's nuclear legacy

The secret plan to clear a huge nuclear testing site after the fall of the Soviet Union.

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Malick Sidibé: Mali's superstar photographer

How a Malian photographer's pictures of Mali's swinging '60s and '70s amazed the world.

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Costa Concordia

The dramatic story of the cruise ship which sunk in the Mediterranean, killing 32 people.

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The first silicone breast implants

How a Texas woman became the first in the world to have the popular cosmetic procedure.

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The rise of Boko Haram

How a small Nigerian Islamist group launched a brutal insurgency

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The first bicycle-sharing scheme

How a Dutch engineer invented a scheme to share bikes and cut pollution in the 1960s.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment

The story of the famous psychology study, the Stanford Prison Experiment, of 1971

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The story of Coretta Scott King’s campaign to have her late husband honoured in the US.

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A Cold War love affair

The story of a West German woman who crossed the Iron Curtain for love.

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British troops in Northern Ireland

The British army was sent to keep the peace in 1969; it stayed for nearly four decades.

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Bloody Sunday

How British paratroopers opened fired on a civil rights march in Northern Ireland in 1972

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The Grand Hotel Bombing

The IRA tried to kill Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in October 1984.

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IRA gun-running in America

How an undercover FBI agent bust an IRA gun-running operation in New York in 1981

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The Good Friday Agreement

The frantic last-minute negotiations that led to a peace deal for Northern Ireland.

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Kazakhstan's new capital

The story of Kazakhstan's new capital

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The murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl

The reporter who was killed by Islamist extremists in Pakistan while investigating 9/11.

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The day the world looked up

In 2012 a rare astronomical event occurred when Venus flew past the Sun

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