Five great inventions that changed the world
The History Hour14 Heinä 2023

Five great inventions that changed the world

Max Pearson presents a selection of this week’s Witness History stories.

In 1999, Aibo: the world's first robot dog, hit the shops in Japan and sold out in just 20 minutes.

We hear from Toshitada Doi who spent six years on the project when he worked at Sony. Plus we hear from Dr Ella Haig about the development of artificial intelligence.

Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created the first emoji in 1999.

Valerie Hunter Gordon, from England, invented disposable nappies in 1947 after the birth of her third child. We hear from Valerie’s son, Nigel Hunter Gordon.

Hungarian journalist László Bíró was sick of smudging the ink from his fountain pen and so he invented the ballpoint pen in 1938.

Finally, a Hungarian architect Ernő Rubik invented what's known as the Rubik's Cube.

Contributors:

Toshitada Doi on developing Aibo: The world's first robot dog Dr Ella Haig, Reader in Artificial Intelligence, in the School of Computing at the University of Portsmouth in the UK Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita, who created the first emoji Nigel Hunter Gordon, the son of Valerie Hunter Gordon, on disposable nappies Hungarian journalist László Bíró, the inventor of the ballpoint pen Hungarian architect Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube

(Photo: The original Aibo. Credit: Jun Sato/WireImage via Getty Images)

Jaksot(468)

The outbreak of World War Two

The outbreak of World War Two

On September 1st 1939 German forces invaded Poland. Douglas Slocombe, a British cameraman, was there at the time and filmed the build-up to the war. Also the man who resisted the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990s plus the first all-female peacekeeping force, the defining trial of holocaust denial and why Apollo 11's astronauts were put in quarantine after their historic landing on the moon. (Image: German citizens in Gdansk (also known as Danzig) welcoming German troops during the invasion of Poland on September 3rd 1939 . Credit:EPA/National Digital Archive Poland.)

7 Syys 201952min

The Kindertransport children

The Kindertransport children

Around 10,000 children were sent by their parents to safety in the UK out of Nazi-dominated Europe in the run-up to the outbreak of WW2 in 1939. Many of the so-called Kindertransport children never saw their parents again. We hear from Dame Stephanie Shirley who arrived in London as a five-year-old girl. Also, how the legendary singer Nina Simone went to live in Liberia, plus a key breakthrough in criminal forensics, the lynching of a black teenager that galvanised America's civil rights movement, and the murder of Mexican young women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.(Photo:Getty Images)

31 Elo 201950min

The return of the wolf

The return of the wolf

Why the wolf was brought back to the US in the 1990s and the history of "rewilding", plus the liberation of Paris 75 years on, the missing children from El Salvador's civil war, the life and death of Brazil's legendary president Vargas, and the man who wanted to be a cyborg.Photo:.A Yellowstone wolf watches biologists after being tranquilized and fitted with a radio collar during wolf collaring operations in Yellowstone National Park (William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Images)

24 Elo 201950min

The division of Kashmir

The division of Kashmir

The origins of the crisis in Kashmir, the warnings ignored about 9/11 and the arrest of the notorious terror suspect Carlos the Jackal. Plus the invention in a British back garden of the daily disposable contact lens and how Dr Seuss taught America to read.Photo: Indian troops arriving in Kashmir in October 1947 (Getty Images)

17 Elo 201950min

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'

The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'

The French colonialists who returned to France after decades in Algeria, the Catholic welcome when the British army was first deployed to Northern Ireland, plus the US nuclear submarine that went under the north pole, Britain's last battle in China in WW2 and the introduction of Community Service to help relieve overcrowded prisons.(Photo: French repatriates leaving Algeria May 1962. (Photo by REPORTERS ASSOCIES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

10 Elo 201949min

The anti-nuclear protesters who won

The anti-nuclear protesters who won

The eight year protest campaign which stopped the construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf in Germany, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and from more than a decade later, the death of British weapons expert David Kelly, who got caught up in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. Also, the Warsaw uprising of 1944 and from one of the most significant discoveries of Anglo-Saxon treasure in 1939.Picture: demonstrators fight against police during a protest at the Wackersdorf construction site (Istvan Bajzat/DPA/PA Images)

3 Elo 201951min

When Tunisia led on women's rights

When Tunisia led on women's rights

Liberation for Tunisia's women in the 1950s; gay and lesbian fake marriages in China; the Chappaquiddick incident in the US; the birth of Mamma Mia! the musical, and the discovery of the fossilised remains of humanity's oldest ancestor.Photo: courtesy of Saida El Gueyed

27 Heinä 201950min

Exploring space

Exploring space

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in July 1969, five personal accounts of landmarks in space exploration. We hear from an Apollo flight controller about the moment Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, and from one of the astronauts who survived the Apollo 13 near disaster. Plus how Laika the dog became the first living creature in space, the pioneering woman cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, and Britain's attempt to put the Beagle 2 lander on Mars.PHOTO: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969 (Getty Images)

20 Heinä 201950min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
sita
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
aikalisa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
kaksi-aitia
joku-tietaa-jotain-2
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
kolme-kaannekohtaa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
mamma-mia
lahko
meidan-pitais-puhua
terapeuttiville-qa
rss-murhan-anatomia
isani-on-terapeuttiville
loukussa