Heathers: The making of a cult classic
In 1989, a dark teen comedy exploring self-harm and suicide flopped at cinemas.Heathers would have to wait years before achieving cult status through home video tape releases.Its stark portrayal of te...
7 Feb 20259min
The first global case of coral bleaching
In 1998, a mysterious phenomenon turned many of the world’s most colourful coral reefs deathly white.It was the first recorded global coral bleaching event in history, and ecologists blamed it on risi...
6 Feb 202510min
Cuban blindness
In the early 1990s, as Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis, leading to severe food shortages and malnutrition, around 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss.One of America's ...
5 Feb 202510min
Oradour massacre
In June 1944, a village in France was destroyed in just one day. German soldiers entered Oradour-sur-Glane and gathered the villagers together. They separated the men from the women and children and ...
4 Feb 20259min
Jacques Derrida: ‘Rock star’ philosopher
In 1966, at Johns Hopkins University in the US, a little-known glamorous French philosopher called Jacques Derrida took to the stage and eviscerated the prevailing philosophy of the day, making him an...
3 Feb 202510min
English TV lessons in China go primetime
In 1981 the first major series of English lessons was broadcast on Chinese television.President Deng Xiaoping had allowed private enterprise and was pursuing an era of “opening up” to the rest of the ...
31 Jan 202510min
1968 New York City teachers' strike
A series of unprecedented teachers’ strikes temporarily shut most of New York’s schools in the late 1960s, provoked by an ongoing dispute over whether parents could have a say in the running of their ...
30 Jan 20259min
Lithuania's 'wolf children'
In the aftermath of World War Two, children were left orphaned, or separated from their families. They were forced to flee East Prussia when the Red Army advanced.Whilst trying to survive, on their wa...
29 Jan 202510min
