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The building of the Berlin Wall

In August 1961, East Germany began building the wall that symbolised Cold War Europe

• 9 mins

Escaping from East Berlin

East Germans used all sorts of methods to escape from communism across the Berlin Wall

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Exiled from East Germany: Wolf Biermann

East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in 1976

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East Germany's nudists

The communist regime restricted many things in the GDR but not the freedom to go naked

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Inside an East German jail

Vera Lengsfeld was imprisoned by the communist authorities in East Germany in 1988

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The man who coined the term genocide

The Holocaust survivor who coined the term genocide and spent his life trying to stop it

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US withdrawal: The fall of Saigon

The desperate scramble to evacuate US personnel and locals at the end of the Vietnam war

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India's secret freedom radio

When Gandhi was jailed in 1942 activists launched a secret radio station for independence

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Saddam Hussein's foreign hostages

A British Muslim family was among hundreds of foreign nationals held hostage in Iraq

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When The Queen met Ceaușescu

It was the first time a communist leader had been given a full state visit to the UK

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John Maynard Keynes

The remarkable man who transformed 20th century economics and changed our world.

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My father survived the sinking of the Titanic

How six Chinese sailors were rescued from the Titanic, but then faced racism in America.

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Campaigning for Mexico's women with disabilities

Activist Maryangel Garcia-Ramos on the struggle faced by Mexico's disabled women

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Syria's rebel poet

Nizar Qabbani is one of the Arab world’s most famous poets but his legacy is contested

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Nigeria's 'War Against Indiscipline'

A campaign to make life in Nigeria more orderly in the 1980s

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The strike that changed Poland

Shipyard workers in Gdańsk changed communism in Poland when they went on strike in 1980

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The first modern electric car

The first mass-produced modern electric car was launched by GM in 1996

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Surviving the fall of Saigon

When South Vietnam fell in 1975, most could not escape.

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The businessman who defied the Mafia

How an anti-Mafia businessman paid the ultimate price for standing up to organised crime

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North Korea's founding father

How Kim Il-sung came to power in communist North Korea

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The warnings before 9/11

Throughout 2001 the US administration was being given warnings a terror attack was coming

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The killing of Ahmed Shah Massoud

Two days before 9/11, al-Qaeda killed a key Afghan leader in a suicide bombing.

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With the president on 9/11

How the White House chief-of-staff broke the news of 9/11 to President George W Bush.

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America attacks Afghanistan

Just a month after 9/11, the US launched airstrikes against the Taliban and al-Qaeda

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9/11: The backlash against American Muslims

In the aftermath of September 11th, American Muslims faced increased discrimination

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The Attica prison rebellion

One prisoner's memories of a dramatic siege in a high security jail in the USA.

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The lost king of France

When DNA solved a two hundred year old French royal mystery. Did the king die or escape?

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The earthquake that devastated Haiti

In 2010 the Haitian capital was hit by a catastrophic earthquake

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Christiania: Copenhagen’s hippy commune

Copenhagen’s Christiania commune was created as a radical social experiment.

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The Peter Principle

Why promotion leads to incompetence

• 9 mins