In 1966, the collected thoughts of China's communist leader became an unexpected best-seller around the world. A compendium of pithy advice and political instructions from Mao Zedong, it was soon to be found on student bookshelves everywhere.(P

Russia's 'Dog Man'

Dec 30th, 2016 9m

In November 1994, the Russian conceptual artist Oleg Kulik posed in front of an art gallery in central Moscow, naked, pretending to be a guard dog and attacking passers by. It was his way of highlighting the fact since the collapse of the USSR

The Launch of Vogue Russia

Dec 29th, 2016 9m 13s

After the collapse of the USSR, Vogue Magazine launched in Russia in 1998. But it was a difficult beginning for the glossy fashion publication as the country was in the middle of an economic crisis at the time. Aliona Doletskaya was the first e

The Nuclear Legacy

Dec 28th, 2016 9m 11s

One of the most potentially dangerous legacies of the collapse of the Soviet Union was its huge nuclear arsenal and nuclear weapons industry. There were particular concerns about the Soviets' former nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk in Kaza

Georgia In Crisis

Dec 27th, 2016 8m 54s

After the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991, freedom came at a price for some of the newly independent Soviet states. Georgia found itself on the verge of civil war, while President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was forced into hiding and gunm

The Break-Up of the Soviet Union

Dec 26th, 2016 8m 51s

In December 1991 the leaders of three Soviet Republics - Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia - signed a treaty dissolving the USSR. They did it without asking the other republics, and against the wishes of the USSR's overall President Mikhail Gorba

Apollo 8

Dec 23rd, 2016 8m 52s

The biggest audience in TV history watch NASA's Apollo 8 mission beam back the first pictures from an orbit around the moon at Christmas 1968. The broadcast captured the world's imagination and put the Americans ahead of the Soviet Union in the

Samuel Beckett

Dec 22nd, 2016 8m 58s

On December 22nd 1989, the great Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett died. Beckett, whose play Waiting for Godot had revolutionised post-war theatre, was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Louise Hidalgo has been

Turkey-Greece Island Dispute

Dec 21st, 2016 9m 1s

A Turkish cargo ship ran aground on a tiny rocky island in the Aegean Sea in December 1995. But a dispute between Turkey and Greece over who owned the island sovereignty almost brought the two nations to war. Agreement still hasn't been reached

Derek Jarman

Dec 20th, 2016 8m 54s

The experimental film-maker made his first full-length film in 1976, it was called Sebastiane - and it was in Latin. It was the first openly gay feature film in British cinema. Vincent Dowd has been speaking to Keith Collins who lived with hi

Death of an Anarchist

Dec 19th, 2016 8m 51s

Giuseppe Pinelli was an Italian anarchist arrested by police in Milan. A few days later he was seen falling out of the police station window. It is still not clear exactly what happened to Pinelli. Right-wing activists were later convicted o

The First Latin American 'Telenovela'

Dec 16th, 2016 9m 1s

Vida Alves starred in Latin America's first soap opera, or telenovela. 'Sua Vida Me Pertence' was broadcast in Brazil in December 1951. It kick-started a TV genre that has spread across the globe and is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars

Cot Death

Dec 15th, 2016 8m 59s

In December 1991 a British government campaign was launched to help prevent the sudden unexpected deaths of apparently healthy babies. The incidences of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), at the time often referred to as 'cot death', had been

The Hindu 'Milk Miracle'

Dec 14th, 2016 8m 56s

In September 1995, millions of Hindus around the world were gripped by reports of their God, Ganesha, 'drinking' milk. Rachael Gillman hears from Hindu priest Radha Krishna Bharadwaj about first seeing the apparent 'miracle' at the Shree Durga

Sara Ginaite Lithuanian Jewish Partisan

Dec 13th, 2016 9m 14s

During World War Two, a young Jewish woman, Sara Ginaite, escaped from the Kaunas Ghetto in Lithuania to fight the Nazis, With her husband Misha, she joined a detachment of communist-led partisans in the Rudnicki forest . They took part in the

Yoyes - Woman leader of ETA

Dec 12th, 2016 8m 55s

In the 1970s, Maria Dolores Gonzalez Katarain, known as Yoyes, became the first woman to reach the leadership of the Basque separatist group, ETA, who were fighting a violent campaign for independence from Spain. Yoyes eventually decided to le

Fighting for Rural Women in South Africa

Dec 9th, 2016 9m 10s

In the 1990s Sizani Ngubane began the Rural Women's Movement to fight for the rights of one of the most marginal groups in South Africa. It's estimated that across the whole of Africa between 70 and 85 per cent of all food is grown by women, bu

Recreating Down Syndrome in Mice

Dec 8th, 2016 8m 55s

In 2005 British scientist Elizabeth Fisher and a colleague successfully transplanted a human chromosome into a mouse for the first time. It transformed medical research into the genetic condition Down Syndrome that affects millions of people wo

Wangari Maathai Wins Nobel Prize

Dec 7th, 2016 9m

In 2004, Kenyan Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was an environmentalist and human rights activist who founded the Green Belt Movement in the 1970s. She focused on the planting of trees, conservat

Colombia's 'Lost City'

Dec 5th, 2016 8m 58s

In 1976, Colombian archaeologists found the ruins of a huge indigenous settlement hidden in a remote mountain range near the Caribbean coast. Known to local tribes as Teyuna, the site is one of the biggest and oldest of its kind in Latin Americ

Digging up the Truth

Dec 5th, 2016 8m 54s

In the early 1980s Mercedes Doretti, a student of anthropology in Buenos Aires, began helping in the search for some of the victims of Argentina's military rule. She went on to form the prestigious Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which ha

Bob Marley Survives Assassination Attempt

Dec 2nd, 2016 9m 9s

In December 1976 unidentified gunmen tried to kill Bob Marley at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. The legendary reggae singer miraculously survived with just light injuries. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from Nancy Burke, one of Marley's friends

India's City of the Future: Chandigarh

Nov 30th, 2016 8m 56s

After India's traumatic Partition Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru persuaded the maverick Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, to help reinvent a newly independent India by building a new capital city for the province of Punjab.Le Corbusier had

Car Safety and Ralph Nader

Nov 29th, 2016 8m 57s

In the early 1960s there were virtually no laws covering car safety in the USA. Even seatbelts weren't compulsory. Then a campaigning young lawyer called Ralph Nader came along. He researched car accidents, and safety requirements in other c

The Assassination of the Mirabal Sisters

Nov 28th, 2016 9m 37s

On November 25th 1960, three sisters and political activists in the Dominican Republic were beaten to death on the orders of the dictator, General Trujillo. Their deaths sparked outrage, and inspired the assassination of the leader himself six