Programme Archive
On August 25 1944 General Charles De Gaulle, who had been in exile in London for the majority of World War 2, finally entered Paris at the head of the Free French forces. But the French capital was far from secure. |
The late 1960s were a time of social upheaval in the West and, perhaps fittingly, the era that gave birth to one of the most famous peace protests of all time: Woodstock. |
The contact lens was once a precious and expensive piece of eyewear which had to be looked after and carefully cleaned every night. But that all changed in the 1990s. Ron Hamilton was involved in developing lenses and packaging which could be made so cheaply they could be worn just once and then thrown away. |
Guardian Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner charts the story of the infamous Peterloo Massacre - a devastating event 200 years ago in Manchester, which would have a huge impact on how Britain was run. |
In July 2001 a team of palaeontologists led by Michel Brunet discovered a seven million year-old fossilised skull in the Djurab desert in Chad. Ahounta Djimdoumalbaye was the member of the team who first uncovered the skull which has been nicknamed Toumai. |
In 1989, American Greg Lemond won the Tour de France by just eight seconds – the narrowest margin in the 100-year history of the race. Lemond took victory by beating local hero Laurent Fignon in the final time trial on the Champs-Elysees. |
From her home in LA, singer-songwriter Michelle Phillips tells the story of the group that made her famous, the Mamas and the Papas. It is 50 years since the quartet known for its cheery sound finally split up but their songs still endure to this day. |
On July 20 1969, millions tuned in to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. But those astounding images on TV didn't come from NASA space headquarters in the US. Instead, they were beamed by a radio telescope in the middle of an Australian sheep farm. |
In June 1999, the US skateboarder Tony Hawk made history by becoming the first person to perform a trick that was thought to be virtually impossible. At the X Games in San Francisco, Hawk successfully completed a “900” – flipping round two-and-half times before landing safely back on his board. |
Russia's rap scene is still reeling after authorities canceled a wave of concerts across the country last year. Bureaucrats and police justified their actions by calling the music immoral. But rapper Ptakha says artists are only documenting social realities in Russia, and that it'll take more than political pressure to silence them. |
On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops backed by tanks opened fire on student-led protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Thirty years on, we hear from former student activists about the brutal crackdown that brought the democracy movement to a tragic end. |
Protests about expensive school uniforms in the Central African Republic eventually led to Jean-Bédel Bokassa's fall from power in 1979. The demonstrations started with school children, but soon widened to involve university students. Bokassa ordered brutal reprisals and within months his regime had lost its international support and French troops had invaded. |