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How London Was Built: Utilities and Shopping

Sat July 4th at 11:00pm

The British Empire In Colour: A Tryst With Destiny

Mon July 6th at 2:00am

Ka

In ancient Egyptian religion, the energy or life force of the dead which dwelt beside the mummy in the tomb and would perish unless provided with sustenance by the family of the deceased.

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Human Weapon

Sky Legacy

The Planet of The Apes

Victoria's Wars

European History for Dummies

Sudan

Chechnya in Focus

Origins Of Terrorism

Zimbabwe's Political History

Global Warming

The Arab-Israeli Conflict

VANISHINGS: Amelia Earhart

Alexander the Great

Ramses, Warrior Pharaoh

Pope John Paul II

The Boys of H Company

The Negotiator

The True Story Of Seabiscuit

Yasser Arafat

Soviet UFO Secrets Revealed

OJ And Company: 10 Years Later

LOST SHIPS: The Ghost Of The Trafalgar

The Hillside Stranglers

The Great War: Germany’s failed gambit

The Gunpowder Plot

The Killing Fields: The Khmer Rouge and Cambodia

Tanganyika

The 11th Day

Captain Cook

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Titanic: A Tale Of Two Journeys

The American Civil War: The Road to War

Last Voices of World War I

Zimbabwe's Political History

Global Warming

The Arab-Israeli Conflict

3 January 1959

Alaska becomes the 49th state of the United States of America.

5 January 1945

Japanese pilots are first ordered to use Kamikaze (‘Divine Wind’ in Japanese) tactics.

6 January 1994
American figure-skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by a man wielding a crowbar. It later transpires that her rival for the American National Figure Skating Championships and Olympics, Tonya Harding, was implicated in the attack.

7 January

12 January 1982
Mark Thatcher, the son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara Desert during the Paris-Dakar Rally. He is spotted by a search plane several days later and rescued.

13 January 1964

In Calcutta (Kolkata), India, more than 100 people are killed following Hindu-Muslim rioting.

15 January 1970

The Republic of Biafra, a breakaway state of eastern Nigeria, surrenders to the Nigerian government after three years of resistance.

16 January 2001
The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent Kabila, is shot by one of his own bodyguards. He later dies from his wounds.

17 January 1893
A group of American sugar planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, and establish a new provincial government. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of the U.S. government.

23 January 2002

Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. He is subsequently murdered.

26 January 2004

Afghan President, Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.

28 January 1968

A recovery team is searching for wreckage from an American Air Force B-52 bomber, armed with four hydrogen bombs, which crashed into the sea near the Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland.

29 January 1891

Liliuokalani becomes Queen of the Hawaiian Islands. She is the last monarch of the Islands.

31 January 1996

91 people are killed and 1,400 injured when Tamil Tiger guerrillas explode a lorry bomb in the centre of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

3 February 2005
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili takes temporary charge of the government following the death of the Prime Minister, Zurab Zhvania. Zhvania died from poison emitted by a faulty heater.

9 February 1934
The Balkan Entente is formed between Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece and Turkey.

10 February 1996
The IBM computer Deep Blue defeats chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov for the first time.

11 February 1976
Figure skater John Curry wins Britain's first Olympic gold in the sport.

14 February 1984

British ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win the ice dance gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sarejavo.

16 February 1987

In Israel, John Demjanjuk, who was accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed ‘Ivan the Terrible’ in the Treblinka extermination camp, goes on trail in Jerusalem.

17 February 1987

A group of Tamils from Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Britain protest at Heathrow airport by removing their clothes as they are about to be deported.

20 February 1998

American figure skater, Tara Lipinski, becomes the youngest gold-medallist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

22 February 2006

In Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, the Al Askari Mosque, is severely damaged in a bomb attack.

24 February 1739

The Battle of Karnal: Nadir Shah Afshari, Emperor of Persia defeats the Mughal Emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.

25 February 1994

Jewish settler Meir Kahane, shoots dead between 30 to 50 Arabs in the Hebron mosque massacre.

2 March 1991
A bomb blast in Colombo, Sir Lanka, kills nineteen people, including the deputy defence minister.

5 March 1940
The Second World War: The Soviet politburo signs an order for the execution of thousands of Polish citizens, known as the Katyn massacre.

7 March 1959
Kanyama Chiume, one of the leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), an independence movement in the British territory of Nyasaland in central Africa, flees to London to escape arrest.

9 March 1956
British authorities order the deportation the Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, from Cyprus in attempt to restore order to the island.

10 March 1956
Riots and demonstrations break out in Cyprus following Britain’s decision to deport the head of the island's Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Makarios.

17 March

18 March 2005
Private Johnson Gideon Beharry, of the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, becomes the first recipient of the Victoria Cross since a posthumous award to Sgt Ian McKay, in 1982.

21 March 1968
The Battle of Karameh in Jordan takes place between Israeli and the Palestinian Fatah movement.

24 March 1998
Two young teenagers shoot dead four girls and a teacher at their school in Arkansas, USA.

27 March 1964
Measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, America’s largest ever earthquake hits Alaska, killing 125 people and injuring thousands more.

29 March 2006
Acting Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, declares victory for his new Kadima Party in the country’s general election.

30 March 1867
America signs a treaty with Russia to by Alaska for $7 million.

31 March 1905
The First Moroccan Crisis: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany arrives in Tangiers to declare his support for the sultan of Morocco, provoking French and British anger.

3 April 1996
In America, Theodore Kaczynski, the “Unabomber” is arrested in Montana.

4 April 1979
Former Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is hanged following a widely criticised show trial.

5 April 1970
Count Karl von Spreti, the German ambassador to Guatemala, is killed by left-wing rebels who had kidnapped him.

12 April

13 April 2005
The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Omar Karami, resigns after failing to form a government.

16 April 1993
The Balkan War: The UN votes to make the Bosnian town of Srebrenica a safe haven.

21 April 1987

A car bomb planted by the Tamil Tigers in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo kills more than 100 people.

30 April

1 May 1941
Orson Welles' landmark film, Citizen Kane, premiers in New York, America.

4 May 2002
An EAS Airline plane crashes in the town of Kano, Nigeria killing 148 people.

6 May 1877
Native American Chief, Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux, surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

15 May 1932
Japanese Prime Minister, Inukai Tsuyoshi, is assassinated in an attempted coup by members of the Japanese Navy. The coup ultimately failed, and has come to be known as the 15th May Incident.

22 May 2003
In America, Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam becomes the first female to play in a men’s PGA tour event since 1945.

25 May 1997
In Sierra Leone President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is deposed in a military coup by Major Johnny Paul Koromah.

30 May 1967
The breakaway state of Biafra proclaims its independence from Nigeria.

31 May 1223
The Mongol armies of Genghis Khan defeat East Slavic warriors at the Battle of the Kalka River.

2 June 2003
In Kazakhstan, the European Space Agency launches the Mars Express probe.

6 June 1912
The Novarupta volcano in Alaska erupts causing the largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century.

7 June 1942
The Second World War: Japanese troops occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska.

9 June 1944
The Second World War: The Red Army push into East Karelia, in Finland, fighting to gain back control of territory that had already been ceded to the Soviet Union.

11 June 1963
In America, Alabama Governor George Wallace ends his blockade of the University of Alabama and allows two African American students to enrol.

12 June 2004
A 1.3 kg meteorite strikes a house in Auckland, New Zealand. Remarkably, nobody is hurt.

13 June 1525
German Religious reformer, Martin Luther, marries Katharina von Bora.

15 June 1888
In Germany, Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II.

16 June 1976
Thousands of schoolchildren in the South African township of Soweto near Johannesburg begin a revolt against the Government instruction that teachers must teach Afrikaans in black schools. More than 1,000 people – including many children - are killed in the rioting.

18 June 2006
Kazakhstan launches its first satellite into space – KazSat.

20 June 1977
Opening of the 8,000 mile oil pipeline across Alaska, America.

24 June 1948
The USSR begins a blockade of West Berlin.

26 June 1948
In response to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin the United States begins a massive airlift of food, water and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city.

29 June 2003
Four-time Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn dies aged 96.

30 June 1971
Three Russian cosmonauts are found dead as their space rocket, Soyuz 11, lands in Kazakhstan.

3 July 1970
A flight from Manchester to Barcelona goes missing. The next day the wreckage of the plane is found having crashed into the Montseny mountains in Northern Spain. All 105 people onboard were killed.

5 July 2000
A mass airlift of Jackass penguins from Dassen Island, 50 miles north of Cape Town, South Africa is carried out following an oil slick from a Panamanian tanker.

12 July 2006
Hezbollah launch Katyusha rockets into Northern Israel and capture two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

13 July 1878
The Balkans is re-organised with Serbia, Montenegro and Romania gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire as the Treaty of Berlin is signed.

14 July 1958
Major-General Abdul Karim el Qasim stages a coup in Iraq, overthrowing the monarchy and killing both the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister.

15 July 1974
On the island of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios is overthrown in a coup led by Greek officers in the National Guard. Nikos Sampson, a former EOKA leader, is appointed President.

17 July 1918
Tsar Nicholas II, and the rest of his family, are murdered by the Bolsheviks in the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg.

18 July 1925
German politician Adolf Hitler publishes the first volume of his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

19 July 1996
The Bosnian Serb President, Radovan Karadzic, agreed to resign after an arrest warrant was issued for him by the International War Crimes Tribunal.

21 July 1774
The victorious Russian Empire signs the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca with the Ottoman Empire ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774.

22 July 1942
The Second World War: In Poland, the Nazis start to deport the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.

23 July 2001
Megawati Soekarnoputri becomes the first female President of Indonesia.

26 July 1945
The Second World War: Harry S Truman, Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek issue the Potsdam Declaration, outlining the terms of surrender for Japan.

29 July

31 July 1991
U.S. President George Bush and Soviet President Mikail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow.

5 August 2003
A bomb explodes outside the Marriot hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is thought that the attack, in which 13 people were killed, was carried out by the radical Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah.

10 August 2003
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko becomes the first person to get married in space. He marries Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who is in America, via satellite link.

14 August 1784
On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska.

15 August 1994
The French authorities announce the capture of the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal - real name Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.

16 August 1960
Cyprus becomes an independent republic, with Archbishop Makarios its first president.

19 August 1960
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 5 into space with the dogs Belka and Strelka onboard.

25 August 2003
Two car bombs explode in Bombay (Mumbai), India killing 44 people. It is thought that the bombs were planted by a Kashmir militant group.

29 August 2005
Hurricane Katrina pounds New Orleans and quickly becomes the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

30 August 1918
Soviet Russian leader Vladimir Lenin is shot and wounded by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party in a Moscow factory.

31 August

2 September 1998
A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, the first conviction of this kind since the 1948 law banning genocide was introduced.

4 September 1957
In America, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus uses the National Guard to prevent nine African American students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.

5 September 1986
Pakistani troops storm a hi-jacked Pan Am Boeing 747. 22 people are killed -including several of the hostages. The hi-jacking began 16 hours earlier when 4 Palestinian terrorists boarded the plane at Karachi.

9 September 2004
A car bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. The bombing, which killed several people, was carried out by the Islamic extremist group Jemaah Islamiah.

13 September 1990
Andrei Chikatilo, the Soviet Union’s most prolific serial killer, is charged with the murder of 53 people.

20 September 2002
In Russia, the Kolka Glacier partial collapses, burying a village and claiming the lives of over a 100 people.

21 September 1964
The British Admiralty announces that it has annexed Rockall a tiny formation of rocks 300 miles of the west coast of Scotland in order to prevent the Soviets spying on missile tests.

22 September 1828
Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka’s mental illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe.

25 September 1996
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are imbedded around Kabul, poised to launch an attack on the capital.

27 September 1996
The Taliban seize control of the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.

13 October 1923
Istanbul is replaced by Ankara as the new capital of Turkey.

16 October 1978
In the Vatican, Polish born Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope since 1542.

17 October 1912
The First Balkan War: Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece declare war on the Ottoman Empire.

18 October 1867
America formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million.

21 October 1944
The Second World War: The first kamikaze attack by a Japanese plane takes place against the HMAS Australia during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the seas surrounding the Philippines.

23 October 1855
The Kansas Free State forces in America set up a governor and legislature under their Topeka Constitution, a document that outlaws slavery in the territory, in opposition to the fraudulently elected pro-slavery legislature of Kansas.

25 October 1828
St Katharine Docks opens in London, England.

2 November 1982
A truck explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing an estimated 3,000 people, mostly Soviet soldiers travelling to the capital, Kabul.

3 November 1997
French lorry drivers form blockades across the country causing havoc on the roads. The drivers were trying to negotiate a better pay deal.

9 November 1988
Vice-President George Bush wins the American Presidential election, defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis.

10 November 1871
Journalist Henry Morton Stanley, sent to Africa by his newspaper to find Scottish missionary Dr David Livingstone, finally makes contact with him in Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika in Zanzibar and asks, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

15 November 1978
A plane carrying Muslim pilgrims from Mecca to Indonesia crashes in Sri Lanka killing 183 people.

22 November 1943
The Second World War: Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek meet for the first day of talks in Cairo, Egypt to discuss joint operations against the Japanese.

26 November

29 November 1945
In the Balkans, Yugoslavia is proclaimed a Federal People’s Republic under the leadership of Marshal Tito.

4 December 1977
Jean-Bédel Bokassa proclaims himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.

5 December 1995
In Sri Lanka, government troops force the Tamil Tiger guerrillas out of their stronghold in the city of Jaffna after a 49-day operation.

6 December 2006
Joseph Kabila is inaugurated as President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

7 December 2004
Hamid Karzai is sworn in as President of Afghanistan.

8 December 1907
Gustavus V becomes King of Sweden following the death of Oskar II.

9 December 1962
The East African country Tanganyika gains independence from Britain.

10 December 1974
Representative Wilbur D. Mills, a Democrat from Arkansas, resigns as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the aftermath of the first truly public sex scandal in American politics.

11 December 1915
The first president of the new Chinese republic, Yuan Shih-kai, accepts the title of emperor of China.

12 December 1936
In China, in what is known as the Xi'an Incident, Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped by his own generals and forced to call a truce with the communists and form a united front against the Japanese.

14 December 1959
Archbishop Makarios is elected first President of Cyprus.

16 December 1949
The Swedish company, Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, which is later known as Saab, produces it first car.

20 December 1917
The Soviet secret police the Cheka is established.

23 December 2005
Lech Kaczynski is sworn in as President of Poland.

27 December 2006
The French space agency launches the spacecraft COROT from Kazakhstan in a search for extra solar planets.

3 December 1912
Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the first Balkan War.

3 January 1959

Alaska becomes the 49th, and largest, American State.

1776: United States declares independence
After a decade of economic conflict with Great Britain, the 13 colonies answer King George III's... More >

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Ancient Chinese Sports

Catapulting viewers into a sporting world that few knew existed, a world that thrived centuries... More >

Sat 4 Jul 9.00pm

The Plague (Part 2 of 2)

In 1437, the worst biological disaster in history swept... More >