The invention of the balloon-expandable stent
An estimated 2 million stents are implanted into people’s hearts around the world each year – making it one of the key treatments for heart disease. The treatment was invented by Argentinian doctor J...
28 Loka 202510min
Death of a priest
The 1977 murder of Father Rutilio Grande sent shockwaves through El Salvador. The 48-year-old Jesuit priest was an outspoken champion of the poor in the deeply divided central American nation. In the ...
27 Loka 202510min
The man who invented the scratch card
In May 1974, scratch cards went on sale for the first time in the US State of Massachusetts. Free giveaway and coupon games from stores had been commonplace across the USA during the 1950s and '60s –...
24 Loka 202510min
GLP-1: A breakthrough for diabetes and obesity
In the 1980s, scientists made a discovery that would eventually lead to the development of drugs now used worldwide to treat diabetes and to help people manage obesity through weight loss injections.O...
23 Loka 202510min
The UK’s first black-owned music studio
Sonny Roberts, a Jamaican carpenter, arrived in Britain in the 1950s. It was a time of racial disharmony, including the Notting Hill riots and the murder of Kelso Cochrane. In this tense atmosphere, b...
22 Loka 20259min
Wangari Maathai: The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize
In 2004, the Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, a grass-roots organisation empowering...
21 Loka 202510min
The British oil tanker sunk in Indonesia
In 1958, the British oil tanker, SS San Flaviano, was sunk in the harbour of Balikpapan, Indonesia, while a rebellion was underway against President Ahmed Sukarno. It’s reported the bomb was dropped b...
20 Loka 202510min
My aunt created The Moomins
The first Moomins story about a family of nature-loving white round trolls was published in 1945 during World War Two. The Moomins and the Great Flood was created by writer and artist Tove Jansson as ...
17 Loka 202510min
