The first democratic elections in the USSR
On March 26th 1989, Soviet citizens were given their first chance to vote for non-communists in parliamentary elections. Democrats led by Boris Yeltsin won seats across the country. Dina Newman spoke ...
19 Mar 20199min
The millionaire Nazi war criminal
The story of how one of the wealthiest men in the Netherlands was exposed as a Nazi war criminal. In the 1970s, Pieter Menten was a respected art dealer, but it was revealed that during the Second Wor...
18 Mar 201910min
How Little America was built in Afghanistan
In the 1950s, US engineers were sent to Afghanistan to build a huge dam.The aim was to irrigate the deserts of Helmand.The town of Lashkar Gah was built to house the workers.Photo: Lashkar Gah from th...
15 Mar 20198min
Slaughterhouse-Five
In March 1969, the cult American author, Kurt Vonnegut, published his famous anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. The novel is a mixture of science fiction and Vonnegut's experiences as a prisoner-of-...
14 Mar 20199min
China's breakthrough malaria cure
Chinese scientists used ancient traditional medicine to find a cure for malaria in the 1970s. Artemisinin was discovered by exploring a herbal remedy from the 4th century, a small team of scientists m...
13 Mar 201910min
Lenin and the deadly mushrooms
As communism was crumbling in the early 1990s a spoof made for Soviet TV, persuaded some Russians that Vladimir Lenin's personality had been seriously affected by hallucinogenic mushrooms. The mushroo...
12 Mar 20199min
The fall of Singapore
In 1942, during the Second World War, the British colony of Singapore fell to Japanese forces. Its capture marked the start of Japan's three-and-a-half year occupation of the island state, during whic...
11 Mar 201910min
Britain's first female black headteacher
Yvonne Conolly was appointed head of Ringcross Primary school in North London in 1969. She had moved to the UK from Jamaica just a few years earlier and quickly worked her way up the teaching professi...
8 Mar 20198min
