Main content

The History Hour Episodes

  1.

    Buddhist on Death Row

    How US prisoners turned to Buddhism to face execution, and the truth of a space "strike"

  2. 75 years of Unesco

    Why Unesco was set up 75 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War.

  3. Film special

    Featuring It’s A Wonderful Life, Studio Ghibli and Charlie Chaplin

  4. The birth of Bangladesh

    How Bangladesh’s struggle for independence began with a landmark election in Pakistan.

  5. The first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize

    The anti-apartheid campaigner Albert Luthuli plus a Neanderthal discovery and beavers.

  6. The fall of Addis Ababa

    How rebels toppled Colonel Mengistu of Ethiopia; France's headscarf ban; WW2's V1 bombs

  7. Disability History special

    The fight for disability rights in the UK, India, plus Helen Keller and the Invacar

  8. The world's first woman premier

    Sri Lanka's woman PM plus the first Arab leader to visit Israel and the women's sex book.

  9. The Guerrilla Girls

    Fighting sexism and racism in the 1980s art world, plus Pluto is downgraded

  10. The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

    The murder of the Israeli leader; Germany's "Occupation Babies"; nude theatre in London

  11. US presidential history special

    Inside JFK's election victory, plus Shirley Chisholm, Watergate, and the religious right

  12. Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs

    Why Portugal took a radical approach to drugs in 2001, plus theatre's Joan Littlewood

  13. CNN and the 24-hour news revolution

    The launch of CNN, the end of Lebanon's civil war and making a film in Saddam's Iraq.

  14. British black history special

    The voyage of the Empire Windrush, the battle of Lewisham and the creation of Desmond's

  15. The Mafia and Italian politics

    The trial which linked a senior Italian politician to the Mafia plus the birth of Google.

  16. Blackwater killed my son

    How US private security guards killed 14 Iraqi civilians; plus Florida's election chaos

  17. Stories of resistance and protest from around the world

    Different protest stories from China, Belarus, Kenya, USA and Argentina

  18. Prohibition in India

    How the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh banned alcohol in 1995 plus the birth of Reddit

  19. Inventing James Bond

    Ian Fleming and the genesis of James Bond and the birth of the Sony Walkman

  20. Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer

    The woman who fought for Nigerian independence plus the former policeman turned protestor

  21. The siege at Ruby Ridge

    The standoff that galvanised the US far-right; plus, growing up with Saddam Hussein.

  22. Beirut's hotel war

    Lebanon's civil war comes to Beirut's luxury hotel district, plus the first ventilators

  23. The Second World War in Japan

    It’s 75 years since the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan, leading to the end of WW2.

  24. Adrift for 76 Days

    Surviving the Atlantic in a liferaft, Spain's 1960s tourism boom, the death of Himmler

  25. The Million Man March

    Black Americans march on Washington, and the first Afghan women's refuge.

  26. South Korea's 1980s prison camps

    The horrors of a so-called Social Purification project and the birth of Club Med

  27. The 1960s report that warned the USA was racist

    A government report into the riots of 1967 warned that white racism was dividing America

  28. Quarantined in a TB sanatorium

    Quarantined in a TB sanatorium; looted Nazi art works and the Rolling Stones in the dock

  29. Dealing with economic crisis

    How countries from around the world dealt with economic turmoil in the 20th century.

  30. Sex trafficking and peacekeepers

    A UN sex trafficking scandal in Bosnia, the Five Stages of Grief, and Beethoven in China.

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 6
  5. 7
  6. 8
  7. 9
  8. 10
  9. …
  10. 25