麻豆约拍

The killing of Osama Bin Laden

The US tracked down the al-Qaeda leader to a city in northern Pakistan in 2011

• 9 mins

The mystery of the disappearing frogs

How scientists discovered that a deadly fungus was killing off amphibians.

• 9 mins

How the dodo died out

A flightless bird, the dodo was extinct just decades after being discovered by Europeans

• 9 mins

Silent Spring: A book that changed the world

Silent Spring examined the effect of pesticides on the environment

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The discovery of whalesong

In the 1960s whales were being hunted to extinction.

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The frozen zoo

Since 1975, San Diego Zoo has been deep-freezing cell samples from rare species

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The Way Ahead group: Modernising the Royal Family

The Way Ahead group was set up in the 1990s to make Britain鈥檚 monarchy more relevant

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Reforming India's rape laws

The overhaul of India's rape laws followed the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi.

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The ancient oak tree that taught the world a lesson

A tree in Kew Gardens survived the storm of 1987 and revolutionised gardening.

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The first self-made female millionaire

Madam C. J. Walker was born to former slaves and created a black beauty business.

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The Treaty of Rome

The document which formed the basis for what is now the European Union was signed in 1957

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London's first black policeman

Norwell Roberts endured years of racist abuse within the Metropolitan police

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Cixi: China's most powerful woman

The Empress Dowager Cixi ruled for 47 years until her death in 1908.

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Witnessing the birth of a new language

In the 1980s deaf children in Nicaragua invented a completely new sign language

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The Native American casino boom in the US

How a small Californian tribe won the right for Indian communities to host gambling.

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The release of Nelson Mandela

The day that South Africa's anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was freed

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Chairman Mao's Little Red Book

The collected thoughts of China's communist leader that became an unexpected best-seller

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The man who first published Harry Potter

The man who spotted the potential of the boy wizard books in 1996

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Diary of life in a favela

A shocking account of the realities of the slums of S茫o Paulo

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The best-seller Fear of Flying

Erica Jong's best-selling book about sex, creativity and love, published in 1973

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The Rules: A dating handbook

The best-selling dating handbook was published on Valentine's Day 1995

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The Pale Blue Dot

How the Voyager space probe captured a famous image of Earth as it left the Solar System.

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How meditation changes your brain

In 2002, a landmark study on Buddhist monks showed that meditation can alter the brain.

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Fighting oil pollution with art in Nigeria

"Battle Bus" was a sculpture in memory of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa

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Saddam Hussein's 'Supergun'

Building the largest gun in the world for Saddam Hussein's Iraq

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Saving Antarctica

A 1980s campaign to preserve Antarctica for science.

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An Antarctic mystery

Human remains were found on a remote island in Antarctica in 1985 but whose were they?

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The first mobile phone call

The American inventor who made the first mobile phone and the first mobile phone call

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The rebel nuns who left their convent behind

A group of Californian nuns left their convent and set up their own community in 1970

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The last smallpox outbreak

Thousands of people died in the world's last major smallpox epidemic in India in 1974.

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