In 1961, Viv Nicholson became a household name in Britain when she and her husband scooped a massive win on the football pools. Asked what she would do with the money, Nicholson famously replied "Spend, Spend, Spend" and the tabloids followed her closely over the next few years as she spent the winnings on the high life. Viv Nicholson's story later became a successful West End musical and stage play. Simon Watts talks to her son, Howard Nicholson, author of "You Don't Know Viv". PHOTO: Howard an...
Dec 31, 2017•10 min
How two pilots, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, became the first to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling in December 1986. Their experimental aircraft was designed by Dick's brother, Burt Rutan. It had to be incredibly light to carry the huge weight of fuel required. But that meant the plane was vulnerable to breaking up in turbulence. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager endured storms and equipment malfunctions to set the world record. They spent 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds in the air. Al...
Dec 29, 2017•12 min
Mountaineers risked their lives to camouflage churches and palaces in the great Russian city during World War Two. The city was besieged by the Germans and under bombardment. The climbers used paint and canvas to conceal the landmarks from enemy attack. Mikhail Bobrov was just 18 years old when first got sent up the city's spires. He's been speaking to Monica Whitlock about his wartime experiences. Photo: A climber suspended from a spire in Leningrad. Credit: Tass/PA.
Dec 28, 2017•10 min
In December 1966, a group of Black activists in Los Angeles created the winter holiday Kwanzaa to try to reclaim their African heritage. It's now celebrated by millions across the US. Lucy Burns speaks to Terri Bandele, who attended the first Kwanzaa celebrations aged 11. Picture: Children at the first Kwanzaa celebration - courtesy of Terri Bandele (on right)
Dec 26, 2017•10 min
The game has become a holiday tradition with families around the world since its launch in 1981. Ashley Byrne has been speaking to the designer of Trivial Pursuit, Michael Wurstlin, about how it was first created. Photo: The original Trivial Pursuit game. Credit: BBC.
Dec 25, 2017•10 min
One of the most successful American films of all time was released on Christmas Day 1962. Written by the best-selling author Harper Lee it starred Gregory Peck as a lawyer who stood against prejudice in the Deep South of the USA. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Gregory Peck's son Carey Peck about the film, and about his family's long-standing friendship with the reclusive Harper Lee. Photo: Gregory Peck with the author Harper Lee in 1962. Credit: Getty Images.
Dec 22, 2017•10 min
When Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a schoolboy, he was not allowed to drink from the same tap as his fellow students because he was a member of what was then known as an "untouchable" caste. But he went on to become a prominent leader in the campaign for Indian independence and oversaw the writing of the Indian constitution - which made the idea of "untouchability" illegal. A hero to many, he died in December 1956. Lucy Burns hears recordings of BR Ambedkar from the BBC archives and speaks to biogr...
Dec 21, 2017•10 min
When Chinese universities reinstated entrance exams in December 1977 it was a sign that the Cultural Revolution was really over. For the previous decade students had been judged on their political fervour, rather than their academic abilities. Wu Yuwen, was one of the class of 1977 and she's been speaking to Michael Bristow about her student experiences. Photo: Wu Yuwen in 1978, during her first year at Peking University. Credit: Wu Yuwen
Dec 20, 2017•10 min
Australian scientists were central to the development of wifi. John O'Sullivan and David Skellern were among the group that gave us the ability to connect to the internet on-the-go. They've been speaking to Olga Smirnova about their breakthrough. Photo: WiFi prototype Photo credit: Richard Keaney / Radiata
Dec 19, 2017•10 min
A controversial Islamic movement brought a brief moment of peace to Mogadishu in 2006 after years of war. The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) came to power after defeating rapacious American-backed warlords. They had no unified ideology or leadership. Some were moderates, some were hardline Islamists. But they brought law and order to the capital unseen since civil war began in 1991. But their rule would only last for six months and from the ashes would emerge the radical militant group Al-Shabab. Ph...
Dec 18, 2017•10 min
The Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared after going for a swim in the ocean on December 17th 1967 - never to be seen again. Susan Hulme has been speaking to Martin Simpson who was with the group that went to the beach with the Prime Minister that day. Photo: Harold Holt on the beach with three women the year before his disappearance. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images
Dec 15, 2017•9 min
In December 1967, the great American soul singer, Otis Redding, was killed in a plane crash as he stood on the brink of superstardom. Simon Watts introduces the memories of Otis’s guitarist, Steve Cropper, and trumpeter, Wayne Jackson, as recorded in the BBC archives. (Photo: Otis Redding in 1967)
Dec 14, 2017•9 min
Thousands died as a thick polluted fog engulfed London in 1952. People with respiratory and cardiovascular conditions were most at risk. The smog was a combination of pollution from millions of coal home fires and freezing fog. Unusual atmospheric conditions trapped the pall over the city for four days. The civil disaster changed Britain. Two years later, the government passed the Clean Air Act to reduce the use of smoky fuels such as coal. Alex Last speaks to Dr Brian Commins, who worked for th...
Dec 14, 2017•10 min
The African-American lab technician, Vivien Thomas, whose surgery helped save the lives of millions of babies but whose work went unrecognised for years. Claire Bowes has been listening to archive recordings of Vivien Thomas describing his long partnership with Dr Alfred Blalock, the man solely credited with inventing an operation in 1944 which helped manage a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. (Photo: Vivien Thomas, US Surgical Technician, 1940) (Audio: Courtesy of US National ...
Dec 13, 2017•9 min
In 2001, American hypnotist Larry Garrett was invited to Iraq to treat an "important businessman". When he arrived in Baghdad he was told his special patient's true identity: Uday Hussein, the volatile and violent eldest son of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mike Lanchin speaks to Garrett about the time he spent with Uday, about their long conversations and how he coped with the challenges of treating one of the most feared men in Iraq. Photo: Larry Garrett in Baghdad, 2001 (courtesy of Larry Garr...
Dec 11, 2017•9 min
The Russian Revolution of 1917 led not just to huge political and social change, but to a new artistic freedom. Russian avant-garde artists like Malevich, Kandinsky and Chagall flourished in the immediate aftermath of the revolution. One of their greatest supporters was art curator Nikolai Punin. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to Punin's granddaughter, Anna Kaminskaia, about how that freedom was gradually replaced with censorship and repression, and her grandfather ended his life in the Gulag. ...
Dec 08, 2017•10 min
In 1967 a biologist began listening to strange sounds recorded way out at sea, he realised it was whales and that they were singing. Claire Bowes has been talking to Dr Roger Payne about the discovery that helped change people's perception of whales and helped found the modern conservation movement at a time when whales were close to extinction. (Photo: Humpback Whale, courtesy of Christian Miller of Ocean Alliance)
Dec 07, 2017•11 min
In December 1917 Finland proclaimed its independence. For many centuries it had been controlled by its powerful neighbours, Sweden and Russia. As World War One raged across Europe and Russia was embroiled in its own revolution, Finnish intellectuals took the opportunity to push for their own state. But many ordinary people were more concerned with dire food shortages and the chaos caused by conflict. Olga Smirnova hears memories of that time. (Photo: 1917: A Communist base burning during the Fin...
Dec 06, 2017•10 min
In 1967 the British withdrawal from their colony of Aden led to the creation of the People's Republic of South Yemen. Britain had colonised the port city in 1839. Aden had been at the centre of the British colonial trading system and had been one of the busiest ports in the world. The handover has been described as one of the most chaotic in British colonial history. Farhana Haider has been speaking to the former British diplomat, Oliver Miles and to Ghassan Luqman who says the scars of Britain'...
Dec 05, 2017•10 min
The four huge granite heads of former presidents on Mount Rushmore have become one of America's most famous monuments. Construction started on the site in 1927, led by sculptor Gutzon Borglum. His granddaughter Robin Borglum Kennedy speaks to Lucy Burns about his work. Picture: Mount Rushmore, June 1995 (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)
Dec 04, 2017•10 min
Thousands of scientists moved to deepest Siberia to dedicate their lives to research. The Soviet authorities began building the city in 1957. Academics were enticed there by the promise of housing and interesting work. Olga Smirnova spoke to Dr Victor Varand who made his life in Akademgorodok, or Academic City. Photo: Scientists at work in Academic City. Credit: Victor Varand.
Dec 01, 2017•10 min
Alexander Litvinenko was a former colonel in the Russian secret service, but fled to London seeking political asylum when he became critical of the Putin government in 2000. In November 2006 he was poisoned with the highly radioactive substance Polonium 210. Rebecca Kesby has been speaking to his wife, Marina, about his life and excruciating death. (PHOTO: Alexander Litvinenko in a London hospital a couple of days before his death in November 2006. Credit Getty Images.)
Nov 30, 2017•10 min
In November 2002, an oil tanker, the Prestige, sank off the coast of Galicia in north-west Spain, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in the country's history. In the following months, thousands of people from all over Spain travelled to Galicia to help clean up the spill. Simon Watts talks to Xavier Mulet, one of the volunteers. (Photo: Volunteers cleaning up after the Prestige. Credit: Xavier Mulet)
Nov 29, 2017•10 min
Colonel Domingo Monterrosa was one of El Salvador's most successful and ruthless military commanders in the fight against leftist rebels. But in October 1984 the rebels carried out an audacious plan to kill him. Mike Lanchin has spoken to one former rebel and a war correspondent about the man and the plot. (Photo: Colonel Domingo Monterrosa (R), speaking with one of his company commanders, 1983. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
Nov 28, 2017•10 min
It was one of the most notorious spy cases in US history. On 27th November 1954, former US diplomat Alger Hiss was released after spending four years in jail for allegedly lying about being a Soviet agent. Alger Hiss had been seen as a potential secretary of state, but was unable to shake off allegations that he'd passed official documents to Moscow. His conviction was the prelude to a Communist witch-hunt in America that became known as the McCarthy era. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to Alger...
Nov 27, 2017•10 min
East Germany's most famous singer-songwriter was exiled to the West in November 1976, causing an international outcry. Wolf Biermann was stripped of his GDR citizenship while on tour in West Germany. Wolf Biermann speaks to Lucy Burns about his political songs and his fame on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Nov 24, 2017•9 min
The buddy movie about a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut used computer-generated images to tell a story that appealed to audiences around the world. Animator Doug Sweetland has been speaking to Ashley Byrne about his work on the Pixar film. Photo: Woody (R) and Buzz Lightyear (L) in a Japanese cinema. (Credit:Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)
Nov 23, 2017•9 min
The president of South Vietnam was overthrown and murdered in a coup in November 1963 - with the support of the American government. Lucy Burns speaks to Ngo Dinh Diem's niece Elisabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, and American official Rufus Phillips. Picture: Keystone/Getty Images
Nov 22, 2017•9 min
Charles Manson's followers murdered nine people on his orders. But how to prove his guilt when he wasn't on the scene at the time of the killings? Vincent Bugliosi was the young prosecutor who succeeded in bringing him to trial. Mr Bugliosi spoke to Chloe Hadjimatheou for Witness - the former prosecutor died in 2015. Photo: Charles Manson in 2009. Credit: Getty Images.
Nov 21, 2017•9 min
In 1979 Islamic militants seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. Hundreds were killed as Saudi security forces battled for two weeks to retake the shrine. The militants were ultra-conservative Sunni Muslims who believed that the Mahdi, the prophesied Redeemer, had emerged and was a member of their group. The BBC's Eli Melki spoke to eyewitnesses who were inside the Grand Mosque during the siege. Photo: Fighting at the Grand Mosque in Mecca after militants seized ...
Nov 20, 2017•9 min
