Pink Triangles: Gay men in Nazi concentration camps
In 2009, Rudolf Brazda, one of the last known survivors of the Pink Triangles, returned to the former site of Buchenwald concentration camp where he’d been imprisoned during World War Two, for being g...
28 Feb 20238min
Wounded Knee siege
Fifty years ago, indigenous American activists staged a historic protest against the US authorities.A siege began which lasted for two months and resulted in the violent deaths of two tribal members a...
27 Feb 20239min
When the Queen 'jumped out of a helicopter'
How did an estimated 900 million people come to witness Her Majesty the Queen apparently parachuting from a helicopter with James Bond?Frank Cottrell-Boyce who wrote the scene for the opening ceremony...
24 Feb 202310min
Families interned in WW2 China
Despite facing malnutrition, starvation and disease, Christopher John Huckstep's father set up a school in the Japanese internment camp where his family was sent in 1943.Herbert Huckstep ensured the 3...
23 Feb 202310min
The invention of Semtex
In 1958, Stanislav Brebera invented Semtex. It was a malleable, odourless and stable plastic explosive which became the choice weapon for those seeking to spread terror.In 2018, Maria Jestafjeva spoke...
22 Feb 20238min
Seggae riots in Mauritius
Mauritian musician Kaya, who pioneered a new genre called seggae, fusing reggae and sega, died in police custody on 21 February 1999.His death sparked three days of rioting. People believed Kaya had b...
21 Feb 20239min
Battle for the capital: Bonn v Berlin
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany had to decide which city would be the new capital. The contenders were the West German city of Bonn and the East German city of Berlin and the two fought it o...
20 Feb 20239min
First winter ascent of Everest
On 17 February 1980, the first people climbed Everest in winter.John Beauchamp hears from Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki from Poland who were the men who did it.It was at the height of the Cold W...
17 Feb 20238min
