The founding of USAID
On 3 November 1961, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was founded, bringing all existing aid work under one single agency. A key proponent of it was Barbara Ward, a pio...
2 Sep 202510min
Discovering the Titanic
In September 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was discovered around 400 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during a joint American-French expedition.It had remained undisturbed, 13,00...
1 Sep 202510min
John Lennon's final headline concerts
In 1972, after leaving The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed in the United States at the One to One benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, New York. They were helping to raise money for ...
29 Aug 20259min
The making of the Third Man: A film noir classic
In 1948, filming began on a post-war thriller that would become one of the greatest British movies of all time.Directed by Sir Carol Reed, the film captured the atmosphere of a divided, ruined Vienna....
28 Aug 20259min
Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant riot
In May 1991, a female police officer shot and wounded a young immigrant from El Salvador in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Washington DC in the United States. It sparked several days of disturban...
27 Aug 20259min
Creating CAPTCHA
In 2000, as the internet expanded, websites faced a growing challenge to stop spam bots from flooding their systems.To separate humans from machines, researchers at the United States’ Carnegie Mellon ...
26 Aug 202510min
The creation of the International Criminal Court
In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Criminal Court.Judge Phillipe Kirsch chaired the Rome conf...
25 Aug 202510min
Geneva Conventions
In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers and came up with two ideas – a voluntary aid organisat...
22 Aug 202510min
