The Soweto Uprising

A former schoolgirl remembers the demonstration that sparked an uprising in South Africa.

• 9 mins

Disney Goes to Europe

The first Disney theme park in Europe took years of negotiations to get off the ground.

• 9 mins

The Bombardment of Baghdad

The people of Baghdad faced death when the US and its allies began their invasion of Iraq

• 9 mins

Iceland Jails Its Bankers

The man who jailed 40 top bankers in Iceland after the 2008 global credit crunch

• 9 mins

Women Airline Pilots

Two of the first female airline pilots in the US remember their struggle

• 9 mins

British Cameroons' historic referendum

The 1961 vote lies at the heart of the violent conflict in Cameroon's Anglophone region

• 9 mins

Confessions of a Soviet alcoholic

How a homeless Russian drunk wrote a secret classic

• 9 mins

Maastricht: The birth of the European Union

In 1992 European ministers signed a treaty towards greater economic and political unity.

• 9 mins

The true story of Roma

The student massacre in México portrayed in Alfonso Cuarón's award-winning movie.

• 9 mins

The Columbia space shuttle disaster

The US space shuttle disintegrated on its way back to Earth on February 1, 2003.

• 9 mins

The curse of Agent Orange

One woman's battle against the toxic legacy of the Vietnam War

• 9 mins

The men who tried to warn us about smoking

When doctors said cigarette smokers were dying prematurely the UK government did little.

• 9 mins

How science ended the search for Josef Mengele

A panel of scientists went to Brazil to identify the remains of the infamous Nazi in 1985

• 9 mins

Venezuela's oil bonanza

The boom and bust years of "Saudi" Venezuela in the 1970s

• 9 mins

Swine flu shuts down Mexico City

A highly infectious virus appeared in Mexico in 2009 and rapidly spread round the world

• 9 mins

Sucked out of a plane

Nine people died when a cargo door opened mid-flight over the Pacific in February 1989

• 9 mins

Asama Sanso: Japanese hostage crisis

Armed left-wing extremists fought off Japanese police in the mountains in February 1972

• 9 mins

Happy Beer Day!

On March 1st 1989 Icelanders were allowed to buy beer for the first time in decades

• 9 mins

Britain's first Muslim woman in government

Sayeeda Warsi was appointed to the coalition government's Cabinet in May 2010

• 9 mins

The creation of the Barbie doll

Hear from the woman who created the most famous doll in the world.

• 9 mins

Speaking out against my abuser: Daniel Ortega

How Nicaragua's president was accused of sexual abuse by his step-daughter

• 9 mins

The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles

Melina Mercouri asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles removed by Lord Elgin.

• 9 mins

Britain's first female black headteacher

Yvonne Conolly was appointed head of Ringcross Primary school in North London in 1969

• 9 mins

The fall of Singapore

Life under Japanese occupation in Singapore during World War Two.

• 9 mins

Lenin and the deadly mushrooms

A spoof TV show persuaded some Russians that Lenin took too many hallucinogenic mushrooms

• 9 mins

China's breakthrough malaria cure

Chinese scientists used ancient traditional medicine to find a cure for malaria.

• 9 mins

Slaughterhouse-Five

In March 1969, American author Kurt Vonnegut published his cult anti-war novel.

• 9 mins

How Little America was built in Afghanistan

In the 1950s, US engineers were sent to Afghanistan to build a dam.

• 9 mins

The millionaire Nazi war criminal

How the Dutch art collector Pieter Menten was exposed as a war criminal in the 1970s

• 9 mins

The first democratic elections in the USSR

Soviet citizens voted in democratic elections for the first time in March 1989.

• 9 mins