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

The 'comfort women' of World War Two

Hundreds of thousands of Asian women were forced into sex slavery in the 1930s and 1940s

• 9 mins

Discovering the Terracotta Army

In 1974, Chinese farmers stumbled upon an astonishing archaeological site

• 9 mins

Wham! in China

How Wham! became the first Western pop act to perform in communist China

• 9 mins

Britain's Mirpuri migration

In 1967, the Mangla Dam was built in Mirpur spurring a huge global migration

• 9 mins

The Heimlich Manoeuvre

How the life-saving method to stop choking was developed

• 9 mins

Britain's first beach for nudists

In 1980, a seaside town opened a beach where people could strip off as they pleased

• 9 mins

The founding of Nato

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed to block the Soviet Union's expansion

• 9 mins

Surviving the Rwandan genocide

April 1994 was the start of the Rwandan genocide. One hundred days of atrocities followed

• 9 mins

Fifty years of Abba

In 1974, Swedish act Abba won the Eurovision song contest

• 9 mins

The man who invented the seat belt

In 1958, Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars

• 9 mins

Sweden's pioneering paternity leave

Fifty years ago Sweden introduced gender neutral parental leave

• 9 mins

The Bluetooth story

The story of how a Viking inspired wireless technology.

• 9 mins

Sweden's Cinnamon Bun Day

In 1999, a delicious new tradition was born in Sweden's kitchens

• 9 mins

Bonus: The Black 14

The lives of 14 black American footballers are changed forever in a fight against racism

• 32 mins

The 2010 Kampala bombings

Bombings in Uganda in 2010 killed 74. Many were football fans watching the World Cup

• 9 mins

How Lake Karla in Greece was drained

In 1962, Thessaly’s Lake Karla was drained by the Greek government

• 9 mins

The Scream: A stolen masterpiece

In 1994, an undercover operation was launched to recover the Scream painting

• 9 mins

St Teresa of Avila's severed hand

How General Franco kept the hand of St Teresa of Avila for spiritual guidance.

• 9 mins

Hiroo Onoda, Japan’s last WW2 soldier to surrender

Hiroo Onoda spent 30 years fighting in the jungle, believing the war was still going on

• 9 mins

Egypt and the ‘Cairo 52’

In May 2001, 52 men were arrested in a gay nightclub floating on the River Nile

• 9 mins

The friendship train: Connecting India and Bangladesh

In 2008, India and Bangladesh were reconnected by train after 43 years

• 9 mins

West Africa's Ebola virus epidemic

In 2014, Sierra Leone was devastated by Africa's biggest Ebola outbreak on record

• 9 mins

Deadly Everest avalanche

In 2014, an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall killed 16 sherpas on Mount Everest

• 9 mins

Major Charity Adams and the Six-Triple-Eight

The first African-American woman to lead a World War Two battalion

• 9 mins

South Africa's referendum on apartheid

The last whites-only vote in South Africa was held in 1992

• 9 mins

Soweto uprising: Children who marched against apartheid

In 1976, an uprising was sparked when demonstrating children were gunned down

• 9 mins