The Bard of Bengal

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

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Bulgaria's cash crisis

How an American economist helped save Bulgaria from financial collapse.

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Hundreds die in Darayya

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

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The Gay Games

The first ever Gay Games were held 40 years ago

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

In 1971, the US President, Richard Nixon, abandoned the Gold Standard

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India's onion election

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

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Marikana Massacre

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

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The 'Last Indian'

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

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Princess Diana dances with John Travolta

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

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Mikhail Gorbachev: Perestroika

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

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Mikhail Gorbachev: Release of Irina Ratushinskaya

The imprisonment and release of dissident poet Irina Ratushinskaya

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Doomed hero of Brazilian democracy

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

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The murder that shocked Brazil

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

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Building of Brasilia

How Brazil opened a modernist capital city in 1960

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The Candelaria child massacre

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

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The car that charmed Brazil

How the Fusca charmed Brazil

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The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

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

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Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Derby

The Coronation Derby of 1953

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Windsor Castle fire

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

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When the Queen opened Buckingham Palace

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

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The last days of Queen Victoria

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

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World War Two child evacuees in Britain

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

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Ancient fossils give new insight

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

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The first Pope to visit Africa

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

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Iran-Iraq War begins

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

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Festival of Light

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

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The power of Jomo Kenyatta

Death pardons and chasing diplomats with sticks

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Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

In 1940, Chiune Sugihara saved the lives of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis

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Castrating Pablo Escobar's hippos

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

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The raising of the Mary Rose

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

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Dassler brothers’ rift

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

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The funk and soul club that changed Manchester

Manchester’s first racially inclusive nightclub

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The release of Gilad Shalit

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

• 9 mins

The fall of Slobodan Milosevic

How the Yugoslavian president was forced from office in October 2000

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The Harder They Come

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

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The beginnings of Notting Hill Carnival

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

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UK’s ‘Winter of Discontent’

In 1979, British gravediggers went on strike over pay

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Disney animators' strike

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

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Torturing strikers in South Korea

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

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Geisha mountain top strike

In 1937, geisha from Osaka sat on a mountain for a week until their union was recognised

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Cesar Chavez’s campaign for farm workers

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

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Cuban Missile Crisis: The photos

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

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Cuban Missile Crisis: The showdown

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

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The ‘army’ that taught Cuba to read and write

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

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Cuba's boxing ban

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

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Founder of the Cuban National Ballet

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

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Indonesia’s indigenous people take a stand

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

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The Iranian Revolution and women

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

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Theatre siege in Moscow

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

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Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan

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

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Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech

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

• 9 mins

The Little Black Book survival guide

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

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Albania’s Stalinist purges

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

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Campaigning against sex-selection in India

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

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Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher

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

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Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme

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

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Polynesian Panthers

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

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First rape crisis centres in the US

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

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The assassination of Pim Fortuyn

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

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Māori protests stops South African rugby tour

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

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The child evacuees of World War Two

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

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Formation of the United Arab Emirates

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

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Burj Khalifa: Designing the world’s tallest building

The tallest building in the world opened in 2010

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Inventing robot camel jockeys

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

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First Emirati female teacher

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

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Qatar's first female published author

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

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The invention of the seat belt

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

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First women’s minister in Iran

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

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When Sweden’s roads went right

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

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The corruption and sodomy trials of Anwar Ibrahim

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

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How cat's eyes were invented

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

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Mombasa terror attacks

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

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CrossFit: The fitness phenomenon that changed the industry

In 2000, an American personal trainer invented CrossFit

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The islands Japan and Russia can’t agree on

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

• 9 mins

The woman who smuggled HIV into Bulgaria in her handbag

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

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Miss World protest

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

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Quebec’s 1995 referendum

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

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Demolishing the Babri Masjid

Hindu extremists demolished a mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya

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The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

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

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'The Dismissal' of Gough Whitlam

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

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Creating Teletubbies

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

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Mongolian revolution

In 1990, a peaceful revolution brought democracy to Mongolia

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The Nazi occupation of Jersey

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

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Returning to District Six

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

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Soviet fashionista

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

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Felix Baumgartner's huge leap

In 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from space back to earth

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Una Marson and the BBC Caribbean Service

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

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The BBC broadcasting through the Iron Curtain

Transmitting independent broadcasts through the Iron Curtain between 1947 and 1991

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Colombia's 'false positives' killings

When Colombia's military murdered thousands of innocent civilians

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Grozny siege

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

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Chile mine rescue

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

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Creating ciabatta bread

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

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Inventing Chicken Manchurian

Chef Nelson Wang created Chicken Manchurian in 1975

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Malta's bread strike

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

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Inventing instant noodles

In 1958 Japanese entrepreneur, Momofuku Ando, invented instant noodles

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The birth of the Slow Food Movement

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

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One team in Tallinn

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

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Arctic African

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

• 9 mins

When America banned silicone breast implants

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

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