The first World Romani Congress
Roma people from all over Europe met in England for a conference in 1971. The Roma, who migrated from India over a thousand years ago, often used to be called gypsies. Many Roma led a travelling life,...
8 Jul 20219min
The famine in North Korea
Communist North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union which had been one of the country's main supporters. Hundreds of thousands of people died of sta...
7 Jul 20218min
Britain's wartime gold
When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939 it had to find somewhere to keep its money. Because of the risk of invasion, a decision was made to send the country's gold reserves to Canada. Vincent Do...
6 Jul 20219min
Cuba's blindness epidemic
As Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis in the early 1990s, leading to severe food shortages and malnutritiion, some 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss. But health officia...
5 Jul 20219min
China's trailblazing foreign students
China has the largest number of overseas students in the world but when students first started venturing out of Communist China it was still a country feeling the aftereffects of the Cultural Revoluti...
2 Jul 202113min
The Chinese Communist Party
A small group of revolutionaries formed the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921. Led by Chairman Mao, they fought their way to power in the world's most populous nation and have stayed in control sin...
1 Jul 20219min
The Syrian playwright who challenged the regime
An experimental play staged in Damascus in 1971 undermined official Syrian propaganda. Simply by stating that the Arab nations had been defeated by Israel during the Six Day War its author, Sadallah W...
29 Jun 20218min
Zimbabwe's mass UFO sightings
It was one of the most reported UFO sightings in recent history. Local people in the quiet rural town of Ruwa in Zimbabwe reported a 'strange craft' and lights in the sky. Around 60 children said th...
28 Jun 202110min
