The History Hour
Episodes
Deaf Rights Protest
10 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A landmark protest by deaf students in the US; the early fight for women's reproductive rights; the life and times of political thinker, Hannah Arendt...
China's Barefoot Doctors
03 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How China's barefoot doctor scheme revolutionised rural healthcare; plus M*A*S*H, the ground-breaking American TV show that taught a generation about ...
The Boy in the Bubble
24 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How a young boy lived with a rare genetic disorder; plus "Ghana Must Go" - when 1 million Africans were expelled from Nigeria, battling the last major...
Women's Rights In Iran
17 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We hear from Mahnaz Afkhami, Iran's first ever minister for Women's Affairs, appointed in 1975. Plus, the so-called "headscarf revolutionaries" who fo...
The Munich Air Disaster
10 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The plane crash that killed eight of Manchester United's top players, the courage of the British Suffragettes, uncovering South Africa's nuclear secre...
The Tet Offensive
03 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In January 1968, North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong guerrillas launched a huge surprise attack on towns, cities and military bases across South Vie...
The Capture of the USS Pueblo
27 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When North Korea and the US came close to war in 1968; plus Salvador Dali, re-creating Francis Bacon's studio, the first veggie burger and the origin...
Truth And Reconciliation in South Africa
20 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After Apartheid was abolished in the 1990s, South Africa set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to try to confront the legacy of its brutal past...
When France Said 'Non' to Britain Joining Europe
13 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When France stopped Britain joining Europe in the 1960s, the boy who set a record for continuously staying awake, the launch of the first iPhone, hand...
Boris Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation
06 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mrs Yeltsin, on the day her husband shocked the world, half a century since the Mafia's grip on America was exposed, the 1999 protests in Iran - the ...
Kwanzaa - The African-American Holiday
30 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How Black activists invented a new holiday, flying around the world without refuelling, what not to do if you win a fortune, and the mountaineers who...
To Kill A Mockingbird
23 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most successful American films of all time was released on Christmas Day 1962. Based on the best-selling book by author Harper Lee, To Kill...
The Unsung Hero of Heart Surgery
16 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The African-American lab technician, Vivien Thomas, who pioneered surgery that saved millions of babies, Otis Redding remembered 50 years on from his ...
British Withdrawal from South Yemen
09 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty years since Aden gained independence from Britain, plus an amazing discovery under the oceans, a celebration of Finnish independence, Russian ar...
The Poisoning of Litvinenko
02 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2006, the world was shocked by the murder in London of former Russian intelligence officer, Alexander Litvinenko. We hear from his widow M...
The Siege of Mecca
25 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The secret battle for the holiest site in Islam in 1979; the coup that changed the Vietnam war, plus an East German musical icon, prosecuting Charles...
The 'Disappeared' of Lebanon
18 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The women searching for their loved-ones who went missing during the Lebanese civil war, plus the man who first discovered diamonds in Botswana, a pio...
The Russian Revolution: The Bolsheviks Take Control
11 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Eye-witness accounts from the Russian Revolution of October 1917; the first dog in space; Sabah, one of the biggest 20th-century stars of the Middle ...
Martin Luther's 95 Theses
04 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The German monk who began a religious uprising; the book that made us think of humans as animals; how the murder of a Brazilian journalist by the secr...
The Fake IDs That Saved Jewish Lives
29 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews escaped the Nazis by using false papers; what happened when abortion became illegal overnight in 1960s Romania...
The 43 Group: Battling British Fascists
21 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How Jewish veterans fought fascism in post war Britain; plus investigating the death of Mozambique's president Samora Machel, we hear from a survivor ...
The Death of Che Guevara
14 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1967 the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured and killed in Bolivia - we hear from the CIA operative who was one of the last peop...
The Hate Crime That Changed American Law
07 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why the brutal killing of a young gay man in Wyoming prompted change, how white people came to terms with their past after segregation in deep south A...
Walking the Great Wall of China
29 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Walking the Great Wall of China; the death of Pope John Paul 1 after just a month in the job; turning against a colonial power - how Guinea gained ind...
When Animals Make History
24 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Five remarkable stories of animals in recent history - from the guide dog who led her owner out of the World Trade Center on 9/11 to a ferocious shark...
The Collapse of Northern Rock
16 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The run on a British bank which signalled the coming global financial crisis, a schoolboy arrested in East Germany for writing a letter, a doctor reme...
The Fairy Photos
09 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The search for a spirit world after WW1 that led people to believe that photographs of fairies were real. Plus Jamaica's worst train crash, France's l...
The Death of Princess Diana
02 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Princess Diana's brother remembers the passionate speech he gave at her funeral, and one of the doctors who treated her at the scene of her fatal car ...
Medicine in World War One
26 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In BBC archive recordings, veterans tell the story of how medical care dealt with the horrors of WW1. Plus when Germany put Nazis on trial, race riots...
Nike and the Sweatshop Problem
19 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's programme, how campaigners took on Nike in the 1990s, plus the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the newspaper which defied Argentine's mi...
Reagan's Bombing Joke
11 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ronald Reagan's joke about bombing Russia in the 1980s, the murder of a Palestinian cartoonist in London, communal violence in India a year before par...
When Homosexuality Was a Crime
29 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Comedian and broadcaster Pete Price speaks about being subjected to horrific aversion therapy to "cure" him of his homosexuality in 1960s Britain. Plu...
Psychological Warfare
22 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Spooking fighters during the Vietnam War, building the Mont Blanc Tunnel, designing a Nintendo legend, the murder of Gianni Versace and archive voices...
The Oka Crisis
15 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A watershed moment for Canada's indigenous people as Mohawks take on the developers, the birth of UKIP in Britain, memories of the poet Irina Ratushin...
The Roswell Incident
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In July 1947 a US rancher found some debris in the New Mexico desert - did it come from an alien spacecraft? Witness hears from the son of one of the ...
The History of Modern Tourism
02 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In a tourism special we look at the original low-cost transatlantic airline, based in Iceland, the 1960s Hippie trail. Also the journey that led to t...
Italy's Secret "State-within-a-State"
24 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Murder and conspiracy among Italy's elite, an Italian atrocity in 1930s Ethiopia, Christians in the Korean War, Japan hosts the first Body Worlds, and...
The Woman Who Stopped Equal Rights in America
17 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Phlyllis Schalfly, the woman who defeated a law to guarantee gender equality in the US; plus, the first performance of the Beatles hit "All You Need I...
The Six Day War 1967
10 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Soldiers from both sides on the battle for Jerusalem; plus Robert Kennedy's assassination, the child who fought slavery in Pakistan, and the cousin of...
Operation Lifeline: Canada's Refugee Revolution
03 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How private citizens in Canada sponsored Vietnamese boat-people. Plus the first ever charity rock concert for Chernobyl, the actor who stared in a Hit...
Brown v The Board of Education
20 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The 1954 US Supreme Court ruling that led to the end of racial segregation in US schools, the Iranian woman protestor whose death on film shocked the ...
The Trial of Maurice Papon
13 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The French minister tried for colluding with the Nazis, the USSR's version of James Bond, the beginning of China's economic boom, plus the first time ...
The Invention of Liposuction
06 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, Italian cosmetic surgeons Arpad and Giorgio Fischer developed the modern technique of liposuction, which involves sucking out fat from u...
Searching For Argentina's Disappeared
29 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1977 a group of women in Argentina held the first ever public demonstration to demand the release of thousands of opponents of the military r...
Charlie Chaplin Returns to America from Exile
22 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Charlie Chaplin's son on his father's political views and his rocky relationship with his one-time adopted home, America. Plus the Hubble telescope pr...
The Takeover of Russia's NTV
15 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
NTV was Russia's only nationwide independent TV station until it was taken over in April 2001. We hear from the head of the station at the time. Plus,...
How Princess Diana changed the perception of AIDS
10 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The royal handshake that changed attitudes to AIDS, America enters WW1, plus Egypt's Facebook girl, Nagorno Karabakh and remembering Jane Fonda's work...
The Flavr Savr Tomato - The World's First Genetically Engineered Food
01 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 1994 the world's first genetically-engineered food went on sale in the US. It was a tomato, called the 'Flavr Savr' which stayed fresh for up to 30...
The First Russian Revolution of 1917
18 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
100 years since the Russian Revolution, Imperial Russia in colour, AIDS and the mystery of 'Patient Zero', when Indian sex workers marched for employm...
Kuwaiti Women Secure the Vote
10 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Women in Kuwait win the right to vote, and the only women on the front line on the Western Front in World War One; battling smog in Mexico City in the...
Mother Teresa - The Nun Who Became A Saint
04 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Life with Mother Teresa among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, how the World Health Organisation came to realise that obesity was a global problem...
The German American Bund
25 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1930s, a group of German-American Nazi sympathisers known as the German American Bund held rallies and summer camps across the US. Also, the la...
Love and Marriage
18 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From speed-dating to gay romance, from divorce to bigamy we look at recent changes in the way society perceives love and marriage. Plus - an expert vi...
Sanctuary Cities in the USA
11 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This week how American cities like San Francisco became safe havens for undocumented immigrants, the story of Tilikum and first recorded killing of a ...
The End of Apartheid
04 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Former South African police minister on ending apartheid, eyewitness to Black Hawk Down, landmark sexual harassment case in India, the last South Ame...
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
28 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On 26 January 1972 four Aboriginal men began a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. They erected a beach umbrella on the grass and...
Roots - The TV Series
21 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The epic mini-series about slavery in the US hit TV screens in January 1977. We hear from actor Leslie Uggams, who played the character Kizzy, recalli...
Princess Diana's Minefield Walk
14 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 1997, the Princess of Wales made a high-profile visit to a landmine clearance programme in Angola. Her trip is credited with boosting the campaign ...
American Communists
07 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The early American Communists, a North Vietnamese tunneler who helped outsmart the Americans and win the war in Vietnam, plus the pyramid scheme failu...
The Break-Up of the Soviet Union
31 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
December 1991 saw the end of 70 years of communist rule and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We hear from two of the key signatories of the dissoluti...
Death of an Anarchist
24 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The controversial death in police custody of Italian anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli, the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett how Greece and Turk...
Yoyes, ETA's female icon
16 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The life and untimely death of a Basque separatist fighter, resisting the Nazis in Lithuania, a medical breakthrough that prevented babies from dying ...
100 Women History Hour
10 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A special edition of the programme remembering some of the women that history has overlooked. From women warriors to women scientists. From rural wome...
Bob Marley Survives Assassination Attempt
03 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The shooting of Bob Marley in 1976, the resistance of the Mirabal Sisters, how Ralph Nader made Americans safer, discovering Colombia's ancient Lost C...
The 1948 French Miners' Strike
25 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the French Miners' strike of 1948, 50 years since the launch of the Cabaret musical, the Silk Letters Movement of British India, the plane-...
The Dili Massacre
19 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It is 25 years since Indonesian troops attacked protestors in the East Timorese capital, plus the impact of The Satanic Verses on British society, smu...
The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial
13 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A mass child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific that shocked the world, a controversial Kurdish song, the birth of Rolling Stone magazi...
Dickey Chapelle - War Reporter
05 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's programme, how pioneering American woman war reporter, Dickey Chapelle, was killed in Vietnam; plus two very different perspectives on ...
Shell Shock
29 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
World War One veterans describe Shell Shock and Prof. Edgar Jones of Kings College on the psychiatric cost of war; plus Hungary's 1956 uprising, how F...
The Mayak Nuclear Disaster
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
One of the world's worst nuclear disasters, the most notorious prison riot in America, Second World War internment in Australia, resistance in aparthe...
The University of Texas Shooting
08 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On 1 August 1966, student Charles Whitman shot dead 14 people and injured another 32 in America's first mass shooting at a university. Plus, the oldes...
First CIA coup in Latin America
30 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's programme, we hear personal accounts of two fronts in America's Cold War fight against communism: Guatemala and Russia itself. Plus, th...
Tanzania's Ujamaa
04 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Socialism in Tanzania, the man who assassinated the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, the crash of the Soviet supersonic jet Concordski, 20 years to...
The Thalidomide Trial
28 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Executives of the German company that made the drug Thalodomide go on trial. Plus, Chechen rebels negotiate peace with President Yeltsin; the Israeli ...
Remembering Chernobyl
30 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster; the funeral of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution changed the world; plus, the impact of being a...
The Original Revolutionary Feminist
12 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Russia's revolutionary feminist, British women after the First World War, poisoning in the Balkans, a miscarriage of justice in Britain, and the world...
The Battle of Verdun
20 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The World War One battle that traumatised France; the Austrian mountaineer who wrote Seven Years in Tibet; how Christian Dior revolutionised fashion w...
Prozac
06 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The birth of the Prozac generation, the battle to save Afghanistan's ancient artworks and death and violence in the Spanish embassy in Guatemala. Plus...
The Challenger Disaster
30 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The launch of space shuttle Challenger goes horribly wrong, Rupert Murdoch goes to war with his print unions, Australia's 18th century penal colonies,...
Michael Jackson's Thriller
31 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The 1982 release of the world's best selling album; plus the untimely death of General George S Patton; the former child star Karolyn Grimes on the fi...
The Battle of Tora Bora
12 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The hunt for Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan; a Ku Klux Klan trial in 1965; the siege of Kut in World War 1; an unexpected alliance in 1980s...
The Amman Bombings
14 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Suicide bombings in Amman; a massacre in East Timor that was a turning point on the road to independence; the fall of the Taliban; anti-Sikh riots in ...
The Death of Rock Hudson
03 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Angie Dickinson remembers her friend, the Hollywood superstar who became the most high profile celebrity to acknowledge he was suffering from Aids; pl...
Korea Divided
15 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this programme: Korea split along the 38th parallel, child prisoners of the Japanese during World War Two, the notorious Devil's Island penal colon...