One man’s escape from McCarthyism
In 1951, at the height of the McCarthy era, a time when the US government pursued suspected communists, Victor Grossman was drafted into the army. A committed communist since his teens, he hid his pol...
19 Aug 202510min
Spot the Dog
In 1978, British artist Eric Hill designed an interactive book about a yellow puppy for his two-year-old son, Chris.Eric had noticed Chris kept lifting up the paper he was working on to see what was u...
18 Aug 202510min
Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The banned author of Indonesia
In 1969, Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer was imprisoned without trial in the notorious labour camp on Buru Island. He spent 10 years there.He is best known for his novels about the rise of Ind...
15 Aug 202510min
Jakarta’s ban on dancing monkeys
In 2013, Jakarta's governor moved to outlaw the use of dancing monkeys on the city’s streets.The Indonesian tradition saw macaques made to perform for passers-by - often restrained by chains and dress...
14 Aug 202510min
Discovery of the 'Hobbit'
In 2003, archaeologists on the island of Flores, in Indonesia, discovered the skeleton of a new species of human - Homo floresiensis.It was nicknamed the 'Hobbit', because they were just over a metre ...
13 Aug 202510min
Borobudur Temple
In 1983, Borobudur Temple in Indonesia reopened. The worlds’ largest Buddhist monument is in the shadows of an active volcano and was once lost to the jungle. In 1973, major restoration work started o...
12 Aug 202510min
The Santa Cruz Massacre
On 12 November 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on independence activists in East Timor's capital, Dili.During a protest march to the Santa Cruz cemetery after a memorial service for an independenc...
11 Aug 20259min
1965 Singaporean independence
On 9 August 1965 Singapore announced it had left the Federation of Malaysia and become an independent sovereign state. Explaining the separation at a news conference, the prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew,...
8 Aug 202510min
