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Tanzania's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the official language in the early 1960s Read more
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Tanzania adopts Swahili to unite the country
Tanzania's leader, Julius Nyerere, made Swahili the official language in the early 1960s
World's first solar-heated home
In 1948, the Dover Sun House, in the US, was the first home to be heated by solar power
La Haine: The film that shocked
How Mathieu Kassovitz's critique of policing shocked French society
Thousands of Danish brains in plastic buckets
In 1945, a collection that would amass 9,479 brains was started
A Greek coup: The day the colonels took power
In 1967, army officers seized power in Greece in a US-backed coup
‘The disappeared’ of Argentina
In 1977 a woman became one of thousands who disappeared from the streets of Buenos Aires
The release of DOOM
In 1993, a controversial sci-fi video game called DOOM was released
Murder of the Romanovs
In 1918, the Russian royal family were killed by the Bolsheviks
Yeltsin speaks at the reburial of the Romanovs
In 1998, the Russian president condemned the Soviet violence that killed Tsar Nicholas II
Anna Akhmatova: The poet who defied a regime
How the great poet kept writing even through the darkest days of Soviet history
Vatican citizen Emanuela Orlandi disappears
In 1983, a suspected kidnapping led to scandal
The funeral of Nelson Mandela
In 2013, South Africa's first black president was buried in his ancestral village
Tsunami devastates Samoa
In 2009 a tsunami killed 149 people. Lumepa Hald tells the story of destruction and loss
The assassination of King Faisal
In 1975, the king of Saudi Arabia was shot by his nephew
The mysterious death of Pablo Neruda
In 1973, the poet and prominent communist tried to flee persecution in Chile
Al Jazeera Three: Imprisoned in Egypt
There was an international outcry in 2014 when three journalists were imprisoned in Egypt
'The bad boy of Welsh politics'
In 1969, the singer Dafydd Iwan campaigned for official recognition of the Welsh language
Inventing Nutella
How the chocolate and hazelnut spread was created in 1946
Kiwi: How New Zealand hijacked China's fruit
How the Chinese gooseberry became the kiwi and one of New Zealand’s biggest exports
Flavr Savr tomato: The world's first genetically-engineered food
In 1994, a tomato became the world's first genetically-engineered food on sale
The disputed history of pad Thai
Exploring the different theories behind the creation of pad Thai
Ken Hom's 'Chinese Cookery'
In 1984, Ken Hom taught TV audiences to cook Chinese food for the first time
Earth: A pale blue dot in the universe
In 1990, a space probe's photograph of Earth captured the enormity of space
Discovery of the hole in the earth’s ozone
In 1985, news broke of a major environmental discovery: a hole in the earth’s ozone layer
The invention of the wingsuit
In 1999, skydiver Jari Kuosma developed the first commercial wingsuit
The Hindenburg airship disaster
In 1937, the Hindenburg burst into flames during mooring, killing 35 people on board.
What the 1989 solar storm did to Quebec
In 1989, a huge solar flare ground life to a halt in Quebec
The world’s first lesbian couple to get married
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise gay marriage
The mystery of 's lost king
The fate of Louis-Charles, imprisoned in 1795, was for years shrouded in rumour
Russian ballerina defects to the west
The Russian ballerina who defected to the west
The first World Laughter Day
The first World Laughter Day took place in Mumbai, India in January 1998
