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.

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When America banned silicone breast implants

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

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The man Pinochet wanted dead

In 1973, Miguel Enriquez led resistance against the dictatorship in Chile

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Pussy Riot’s cathedral protest

In 2012, a punk protest took place in one of Moscow's main cathedrals

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Plastics in oceans

In 1971 Edward Carpenter discovered plastic floating about in the Atlantic Ocean

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Dutch North Sea flood

In 1953, a storm combined with high tides breached sea defences in the Netherlands

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Paul Robeson and the transatlantic phone line

In 1957, Paul Robeson used a new phone line to perform the first transatlantic concert

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Galápagos Islands’ sea cucumber dispute

A demand for sea cucumbers set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists

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World’s first tidal power station

French President Charles De Gaulle opened the power station in 1966.

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Miracle on the Hudson

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York

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Europe's horse meat scandal

In 2013, horse meat was discovered in beef products across Europe

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Kosovo’s house schools

In the 1990s a generation of Albanians got their education crammed into private homes

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France's nuclear tests in Algeria

Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara

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Swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy

In 2009 a vaccine designed to stop swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder

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When Britain tried to censor the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Paul McLoone recalls the time he was the voice of Martin McGuinness

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Japanese death row guard

Yoshikuni Noguchi was a prison guard in Japan and witnessed the hanging of a prisoner

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Smolensk air disaster

In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, crashed and killed everyone on board

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Albert Pierrepoint: Britain's executioner

Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman

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Invention of the MP3

It took Karlheinz Brandenburg and his team more than a decade to perfect MP3 technology

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Palestine Post bombing

Mordechai Chertoff was the editor on the Palestine Post when it was bombed in 1948

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Czechoslovakia's 'Velvet Divorce'

Two former Prime Ministers describe how they split Czechoslovakia in two in 1993

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Columbia space shuttle disaster

The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003

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The assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye

In 1993, Burundi’s first democratically elected President was murdered

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The first black music station in Europe

In 1981, Leroy Anderson launched Europe’s first dedicated black music station

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How a Pope is chosen

After the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI

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Reforming the Catholic Church with Vatican II

In 1959, Pope John XXIII announced a council of all the world's bishops and cardinals

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Pope John Paul I’s sudden death

Cardinal Albino Luciani became Pope John Paul I in 1978. He died 33 days later

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