麻豆社

Harry Houdini

How a performance in London made the reputation of the world's greatest escape artist

• 9 mins

A Black GI in China

How an African American soldier captured in the Korean war, decided to settle in China

• 9 mins

Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution

A former communist Red Guard recalls his role in China's Cultural Revolution.

• 9 mins

Octavio Paz

In October 1990 the Mexican poet and essayist was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

• 9 mins

War Photographer, Dickey Chapelle

Photographer Dickey Chapelle was the first woman war reporter to be killed in Vietnam

• 9 mins

The Pitcairn Sex Abuse Trial

In 2004 a child sex abuse trial on a remote island in the Pacific shocked the world.

• 9 mins

The First Loebner Prize

On 8 November 1991, a competition which judged artificial intelligence was held.

• 9 mins

Rolling Stone Magazine

Writer and musician Michael Lydon recalls the birth of an iconic magazine.

• 9 mins

Kurdish Singer Ahmet Kaya

The widow of the famous folk singer recalls the night that changed her husband's life.

• 9 mins

The James Bond Theme Tune

In 1962 Monty Norman wrote the music for the first James Bond film, Dr No.

• 9 mins

The Burning of the Satanic Verses

The publication of Salman Rushdie's book outraged many Muslims around the world

• 9 mins

East Timor Massacre

In November 1991 Indonesian troops opened fire on independence activists in Dili.

• 9 mins

The Madagascar Palace Fire

In 1995 one of Madagascar's most historic sites was destroyed by fire

• 9 mins

Smuggling Endangered Birds

In Nov 1996 leading ornithologist Tony Silva was convicted of smuggling endangered birds.

• 9 mins

The Musical Cabaret

Director Hal Prince remembers the hit musical opening on Broadway in November 1966

• 9 mins

The Stockholm Syndrome

One of the original Stockholm hostages talks about her kidnap ordeal.

• 11 mins

Marcel Duchamp in New York

Remembering a wartime surrealist exhibition put on by Marcel Duchamp.

• 11 mins

Plane spotters arrested in Greece

In Nov 2001 a group of British tourists was arrested in Greece and charged with spying.

• 9 mins

Saving Orphaned African Elephants

How a Kenyan woman, Dame Daphne Sheldrick, first raised orphaned baby African elephants

• 9 mins

The Concordski Crash

A fateful day in the race to develop the first supersonic passenger plane.

• 11 mins

The Abduction of Mehdi Ben Barka

In 1965 a Moroccan disappeared from the streets of Paris. His body has never been found.

• 11 mins

The Silk Letters Movement

In 1916 the authorities in India uncovered plans to overthrow British rule

• 9 mins

The 1948 French Miners' Strike

How coal miners in France went from post-war heroes to pariahs

• 9 mins

The Bugging of the US Embassy in Moscow

How the Soviets hid hi-tech bugs deep inside the walls of the new US embassy in Moscow.

• 11 mins

The Assassination of the Mirabal Sisters

3 sisters in the Dominican Republic were beaten to death on the orders of the dictator

• 9 mins

A Black GI in China

How did a black American soldier end up living a privileged life in communist China?

• 11 mins

Car Safety and Ralph Nader

In the early 1960s there were virtually no laws covering car safety in the USA.

• 9 mins

The Imprisonment of Irina Ratushinskaya

The dissident poet spent four years in Soviet prisons and labour camps.

• 11 mins

The US School Bible Controversy

How a schoolboy challenged the practice of daily Bible reading in US schools - and won.

• 11 mins

India's City of the Future: Chandigarh

World famous architect Le Corbusier built a city to revive Indian pride after Partition.

• 9 mins