The Children's Crusade

Thousands of black American children protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama

• 9 mins

The White Collar Art Collectors

In 1992 an ex-postal worker and his wife donated a priceless art collection to a gallery

• 9 mins

IRA Hunger Strike

In 1981 the British government was faced with prisoners on hunger strike

• 9 mins

Pavarotti's UK Debut

On May 7th 1963 Luciano Pavarotti first perfomed on a British stage, in Northern Ireland

• 9 mins

The Secret US Bombing of Cambodia

In May 1969 the New York Times revealed that US war planes were secretly bombing Cambodia

• 9 mins

FA Cup - The Matthews Final

It is 60 years since England's football legend Stanley Matthews led his team to victory

• 9 mins

The Arctic Convoys

Allied ships battled arctic storms, bombers and U-boats to ferry supplies to Russia in WW2

• 9 mins

The Great Gatsby

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald as remembered by two close personal links

• 9 mins

Polish Protests in 1968

As rebellion swept across Europe, Polish students called for democratic change in Poland

• 9 mins

Announcing an Ethiopian Coup

The journalist who became an unwitting voice against Ethiopian ruler Col. Mengistu

• 9 mins

The Death of Marlene Dietrich

It is 21 years since screen star Marlene Dietrich died in Paris at the age of 90

• 9 mins

Dambusters

A crewman's account of the famous British raid on Hitler's dams in 1943.

• 9 mins

Protect and Survive

In May 1980 the British government published a booklet on how to survive nuclear war

• 9 mins

The Murder of Aldo Moro

It is 35 years since the Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro was found dead in a car in Rome

• 9 mins

The Watergate Hearings

The scandal which lead to President Richard Nixon standing down 40 years ago

• 9 mins

Africa United

The leaders of 32 newly-independent African countries met to discuss uniting the continent

• 9 mins

Israel withdraws from Lebanon

A senior UN official recalls Israel's hasty withdrawl from southern Lebanon in 2000.

• 9 mins

Liberace

A film-maker remembers the flamboyant pianist and entertainer immortalised in a new film.

• 9 mins

The Rite of Spring

100 years ago, the premiere of a Stravinsky ballet caused a riot in Paris.

• 9 mins

The Ascent of Everest

How Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing conquered the world's highest mountain in 1953.

• 9 mins

The New Deal

Eighty years ago, Franklin D Roosevelt promised to rescue the US from the Great Depression

• 9 mins

The Queen's Coronation

Two Maids of Honour remember the crowning of Queen Elizabeth the Second in London in 1953.

• 9 mins

The Nepali Royal Massacre

Twelve years ago, the Crown Prince of Nepal massacred his family at the royal palace

• 9 mins

Bristol Bus Boycott

How a protest by black activists in 1963 led to the UK's first anti-racism laws

• 9 mins

The Oklahoma Bomber

Twelve years ago, Timothy McVeigh was executed for carrying out the 1995 Oklahoma bombing

• 9 mins

Stalin's Gulag

Millions of people were sent to brutal labour camps in the USSR under Joseph Stalin

• 9 mins

Robert Kennedy's Funeral Train

How huge crowds of Americans mourned Bobby Kennedy after his 1968 assassination.

• 9 mins

The Mau Mau Rebellion

Britain's disturbing abuses against the Mau Mau in colonial Kenya

• 9 mins

Escape from Alcatraz

In June 1962 three prisoners escaped from the maximum security US jail.

• 9 mins

Nigeria's Lost Election

The election of Chief MKO Abiola 20 years ago, which was annulled by the military

• 9 mins

Post-war Berlin

A child's eye view of life in Berlin in the aftermath of World War II

• 9 mins

The Pentagon Papers

In 1971 one man leaked thousands of pages of secret US government documents to the press.

• 9 mins

Gay Marriage

The first gay marriage in America took place more than 40 years ago in Minnesota.

• 9 mins

The Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

It is 60 years since the American couple were executed for spying

• 9 mins

Rocky Horror Show

It is 40 years since the opening of a comedy musical which would become a cult phenomenon

• 9 mins

Murder in Managua

In June 1979 an American TV reporter was shot dead by government forces in Nicaragua

• 9 mins

The first woman in space

In June 1963 Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit.

• 9 mins

Ultrasound

It's 55 years since a picture of a foetus inside the womb was first published.

• 9 mins

War Requiem by Benjamin Britten

It is regarded as one of the most important pieces in 20th Century English music.

• 9 mins

Smoking and Lung Cancer

It took until the 1950s for researchers to connect smoking with lung cancer

• 9 mins

JFK in Ireland

Novelist Colm Toibin recalls US President John F Kennedy's visit to Ireland in June 1963

• 9 mins

Iraq's Sectarian Violence

The recent surge in violence in Iraq has echoes of the sectarian conflict in 2006-07

• 9 mins

The Battle of Gettysburg

It is 150 years since the Battle of Gettysburg, a turning point in the American Civil War

• 9 mins

Chilean Students Set on Fire

In July 1986 two students were set on fire by Chilean government soldiers

• 9 mins

Penguin Rescue

The mission to save thousands of African penguins from an oil spill in July, 2000

• 9 mins

Ludwig Wittgenstein

How the publication of Philosophical Investigations in 1953 revolutionised philosophy

• 9 mins

Yasser Arafat Arrives in Gaza

When the Palestinian leader was allowed to return from exile to the Gaza strip in 1994

• 9 mins

The Crate Escape

In the summer of 1984 a Nigerian exile living in London was kidnapped in a crate.

• 14 mins

The Death of Jean Moulin

The day the leader of the French Resistance was killed by German forces on July 08, 1943

• 9 mins

Iran Student Protest

The Iranian student who became an unwitting symbol of the anti-government protests in 1999

• 9 mins

The Death of Thich Quang Duc

In June 1963, a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in central Saigon

• 9 mins

Skylab Falls to Earth

The day when fragments of the US space station Skylab hit an Australian town in 1979

• 9 mins

Disco Demolition Night

How a disgruntled Chicago DJ hosted an anti-disco event which turned into a riot in 1979

• 9 mins

The Soviet Gulag

Hear one man's story of life in a Soviet labour camp during Stalin's rule.

• 14 mins

Women's Baseball in WWII

In 1943, the first and only professional women's baseball league was launched in the US

• 9 mins

The Hong Kong Handover

Former Governor General, Chris Patten, remembers the day the territory returned to China.

• 9 mins

Freeze

In 1988 a group of students put on an exhibition called Freeze. It changed British art.

• 9 mins

The Birth of Second Life

It is ten years since the launch of Philip Rosedale's online virtual world Second Life

• 9 mins

Escape from the KGB

How Soviet double agent Oleg Gordievsky escaped from under the noses of the KGB in 1985

• 9 mins

Haile Selassie visits Jamaica

In 1966, the Emperor of Ethiopia made a state visit to the Caribbean island of Jamaica.

• 15 mins

The Lillehammer Hit

In July 1973 a Moroccan waiter was shot dead by an Israeli hit-squad in Norway

• 9 mins

Black July

In 1983 violence erupted between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka

• 9 mins

Alcoholics Anonymous

In the summer of 1935 Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio

• 9 mins

Abducted by Joseph Kony

The woman forced to bear the children of the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army

• 9 mins

The End of the Korean War

On July 27 1953 the Korean War came to an end and thousands of prisoners were released

• 9 mins

The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

July 1945 - a US warship sinks in the Pacific; its crew face days in shark-infested waters

• 15 mins

IRA Decommissioning

In July 2005 the IRA in Northern Ireland promised to put its weapons out of use.

• 9 mins

The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis

In July 1945 hundreds of US sailors were left adrift for days in shark infested waters

• 9 mins

The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

The controversial American union leader, Jimmy Hoffa, was last seen alive on July 30 1975

• 9 mins

Ramayan - India's TV Epic

It is 25 years since the final episode of one of India's biggest ever TV programmes

• 9 mins

Gorkhaland

The sisters whose lives were devastated during the campaign for Gorkhaland in India

• 9 mins

Vietnam - US Prisoner of War

In August 1964, Everett Alvarez was shot down by communist North Vietnamese forces.

• 15 mins

Malaysian Hostage Crisis

In August 1975, Japanese Red Army militants took 53 people hostage in Kuala Lumpur

• 9 mins

Beverly Johnson - Vogue's First Black Covergirl

It wasn't until 1974 that American Vogue put a black model on its cover for the first time

• 9 mins

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In 1997, a patch of plastic waste was discovered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

• 9 mins

Burma's 1988 Protests

In August 1988 protests demanding an end to military rule in Burma were met with violence

• 9 mins

Bombing of Nagasaki

Survivors remember the atomic explosion over the Japanese city in 1945

• 9 mins

The Opening of Euro Disney

Twenty-one years ago, Disney finally opened a park near Paris after years of negotiations.

• 15 mins

Conflict in Congo

The Congolese student who saw war come to his small hometown of Uvira

• 9 mins

Scientists Flee Nazi Germany

How the rise of Hitler forced great physicists such as Max Born out of 1930s Germany

• 9 mins

The Battle of the Potato Beetle

In 1950, East Germany claimed American planes were dropping beetles over their fields.

• 9 mins

The Omagh Bombing

In August 1998, 29 people died in a massive car bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

• 9 mins

Stanley Kubrick

Set designer Sir Ken Adam recalls working with the famously difficult director

• 9 mins

The Nepali Royal Massacre

In 2001, the Crown Prince of Nepal killed nine people and then turned the gun on himself.

• 15 mins

Saddam Hussein's 'Human Shields'

The British family who were held as 'human shields' in Iraq before the First Gulf War

• 9 mins

Prague Spring

The student who appealed for the world's help when Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia

• 9 mins

The Assassination of Benigno Aquino

On August 21 1983, the opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, was shot dead in the Philippines

• 9 mins

Legionnaires' Disease

In August 1976 more than 200 people developed a mystery illness at a hotel in Philadelphia

• 9 mins

Brazil Protests: Caras Pintadas

In 1992, a huge wave of protests forced President Collor of Brazil from office.

• 9 mins

The Ballerina and the Coup

In 1959, Dame Margot Fonteyn was part of a bizarre plot to overthrow the Panama government

• 15 mins

Krakatoa

In 1883, the Indonesian volcano caused one of the world's biggest disasters

• 9 mins

The Sherri Finkbine Abortion Case

How one Arizona couple's campaign for a termination split America in 1962

• 9 mins

I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King made his historic plea for racial equality at the March on Washington

• 9 mins

Aboriginal Strike

The first ever strike by Australian Aborigines to help free them from virtual slavery

• 9 mins

Women Murdered in Mexico

In 1993 young women began disappearing in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

• 9 mins

Eritrea's Long War

A doctor who took part in Eritrea's 30 year struggle for independence from Ethiopia

• 9 mins

Jack The Ripper

In September 1888, the most famous serial killer in history stalked the streets of London.

• 9 mins

Fleeing from Laos

In 1973 the American war against communism in Laos ended leaving their allies behind

• 9 mins

Special Operations Executive

During WWII Britain set up a secret organisation to wage war in Nazi occupied Europe

• 9 mins