My dad created Dungeons & Dragons

In 1974, Gary Gygax created the fantasy roleplay game.

• 9 mins

The creation of Greenwich Mean Time

Experiments by John Flamsteed in the 17th Century led to the time zone being created

• 9 mins

Jean Batten: New Zealand’s record breaking aviator

Jean Batten was nicknamed the Queen of the Skies for her pioneering flights of the 1930s

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The Ken Burns Effect

In 2002, the 'Ken Burns effect' was created.

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Brazil’s electronic voting

In 1996, an electronic voting system in Brazil was used for the first time

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Siegfried and Roy tiger attack

In 2003, illusionist Roy Horn was attacked by a tiger live on stage.

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Iran hostage crisis

In 1979, Barry Rosen was held hostage after the US embassy in Tehran was stormed

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In exile from Iran

Former empress Farah Pahlavi and social scientist Rouhi Shafi speak about leaving Iran

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The Shah of Iran's party

In 1971, the Shah of Iran, celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian Empire

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The woman who saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto

Polish aid worker Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in WW2

• 9 mins

The invention of the ‘Baby’ computer

In 1948, the first stored-program computer the ‘Baby’ was invented

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The Pakistan mountain massacre

In 2013, 11 people were killed by members of a militant group at Nanga Parbat base camp

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How Greece got rid of their king

In a 1974 referendum, the Greek people voted two to one in favour of becoming a republic

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India's capsule coal mine rescue

In November 1989, 65 miners were rescued from the Mahabir Coal Mine, in India

• 9 mins

Luana Mansilla: Changing gender aged six

In 2013, the gender of a six-year-old from Argentina was legally changed

• 9 mins

German naturists

The naturist movement began in Germany at the end of the 19th Century

• 9 mins

Iran's secret Christian 'house churches'

Between 2002 and 2005, Naghmeh Panahi set up a network of 'house churches' in Iran

• 9 mins

The Siege of Yarmouk

How the Syrian army turned one neighbourhood near Damascus into a bombed-out wasteland

• 9 mins

Handover of Macau

In 1999, Macau was handed back to China after more than 400 years as a Portuguese colony

• 9 mins

Lord of the Flies

It’s 70 years since William Golding’s acclaimed novel was published

• 9 mins

Creation of the UFC

In 1993, a new sport was born. Its founders called it the Ultimate Fighting Championship

• 9 mins

Arrested for "immorality" in South Africa

Dr Zureena Desai was arrested in South Africa for breaking the Immorality Act

• 9 mins

Strictly Come Dancing

Television extravaganza Strictly Come Dancing debuted in 2004 in the UK

• 9 mins

Thich Quang Duc: Buddhist monk who set himself on fire

In June 1963, Thich Quang Duc set himself alight in protest against the government

• 9 mins

The deepest man-made hole in the world

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists in Russia managed to dig a 12,000-metre deep hole

• 9 mins

The end of the US HIV travel ban

In 2010, a travel and immigration ban stopping people with HIV entering the US was lifted

• 9 mins

The Iran-Contra Affair

In 1986, Oliver North was accused of orchestrating the illegal sale of weapons to Iran

• 9 mins

Gloria Steinem: The start of Ms. Magazine

In 1972, Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine in the United States

• 9 mins

The discovery that led to Covid vaccines

In 2005, Dr Katalin Karikó published research that eventually won her the Nobel Prize

• 9 mins

The ‘Three Marias’

In 1974, a judge decided if three Portuguese women should be jailed for writing a book

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