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