Lucha Reyes: Peruvian music star

She overcame poverty, health problems and racism to become one of Peru’s greatest singers

• 9 mins

How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat helped end segregation in the United States

• 9 mins

The Battle of Versailles: Catwalk clash of American and French fashion

In 1973 a fashion show was held in France which the media dubbed the Battle of Versailles

• 9 mins

The WW2 escape line that fooled the Nazis

In 1940 a rescue operation helped Allied servicemen escape from Nazi-occupied France

• 9 mins

Patty Hearst: Rebel heiress

In 1974, a kidnapped socialite joined forces with her captors

• 9 mins

The Juliet letters

Since the 1990s the Juliet Club has answered letters to the Shakespearian heroine

• 9 mins

The small Irish town known as ‘Little Brazil’

How Gort in the west of Ireland became home to so many Brazilians

• 9 mins

Supermalt: The malt drink created after the Nigerian civil war

In 1972, a Danish brewery created Supermalt

• 9 mins

The Soviet scientist who made two-headed dogs

Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov shocked the world with his two-headed dog experiments

• 9 mins

Icelandic women's strike

In 1975, 90% of all women in Iceland took part in a massive nationwide protest

• 9 mins

Trans murder in Honduras

The 2009 murder of Vicky Hernandez forced recognition of transgender rights in Honduras

• 9 mins

Columbus Lighthouse

A memorial for the ashes of Christopher Columbus opened in the Dominican Republic in 1992

• 9 mins

Whistler: Creating one of the world’s biggest ski resorts

In 2003, Whistler Blackcomb won its bid to host the Winter Olympics

• 9 mins

Russia annexes Crimea

In 2014, Russia took over the Crimean peninsula

• 9 mins

Crimea's Soviet holiday camp

The hugely popular Soviet holiday camp, Artek

• 9 mins

The lost Czech scrolls

The Torah scrolls stolen by the Nazis, rescued by an London Jewish community.

• 9 mins

The discovery of the Lord of Sipan in Peru

In 1987, the looting of an ancient pyramid led to an extraordinary golden discovery

• 9 mins

The Whisky War: Denmark v Canada

Beginning in 1984, a dispute over an island was marked by geniality, and bottles of booze

• 9 mins

Uruguay v the tobacco giant

In 2010, Uruguay was taken to court by a tobacco company for its trailblazing smoking ban

• 9 mins

French child evacuees of World War Two

In World War Two, tens of thousands of children left Paris to escape the threat of bombs

• 9 mins

The Carnation Revolution in Portugal

In 1974, a 41-year regime was overthrown in a day

• 9 mins

Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda

In 2002, a nun was sent to northern Uganda to help those suffering from a bloody conflict

• 9 mins

MH370: The plane that vanished

Ghyslain Wattrelos' wife and two children were on MH370, the plane that disappeared.

• 9 mins

11M: The day Madrid was bombed

Nearly 200 died when Spanish commuter trains were bombed in 2004

• 9 mins

Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate

In 1992 a student found a set of fossilised footprints from the earliest vertebrate

• 9 mins

Paraguay adopts its second language

How Guarani was officially recognised in Paraguay’s new constitution

• 9 mins

Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero

The forgotten story of Winifred Atwell, the pianist from Trinidad who broke sales records

• 9 mins

The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius

Vesuvius is famous for burying Pompeii but it last erupted in 1944, during World War II.

• 9 mins

Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write

In 1958, Zhou Youguang introduced a new writing system in China

• 9 mins

Surviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution

Thousands of people were sent to re-education camps during China’s cultural revolution

• 9 mins