The History Hour Episodes Episode guide
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Saving Antarctica
Environmentalists save the ice continent; how meditation changes the brain; Nigerian art.
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The publication of Harry Potter
The origins of the boy wizard, plus Mao's Little Red Book and Erica Jong's Fear of Flying
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London's first black policeman
London's first black policeman, a new sign language, and the release of Nelson Mandela
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The early days of the European Union
The EU in the 1950s, the British royal scandal and the self-made female millionaire.
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The mystery of the disappearing frogs
How scientists discovered that a deadly fungus was killing off amphibians.
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Storming the Stasi HQ
East Germany's secret police; killing Osama Bin Laden; saving aristocrats' houses
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The Computers for Schools revolution
Bringing laptops into education; the battle for Fallujah; environmentalist Chico Mendes.
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The book that warned of an end to civilisation
Environmental warnings from 1972, El Salvador, East German punks and the Chippendales.
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet-Afghan war, the invention of chemotherapy, and Cirque du Soleil.
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The Romanian revolution
In December 1989 a wave of protests finally deposed communist dictator Nicolae Ceau葯escu.
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The Awakenings
A medical experiment that brought the catatonic back to life; and an IRA siege in the 70s
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The Cuban writer who defied Castro
The life and death of Reinaldo Arenas, plus Henry Moore and tracking down Pablo Escobar
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The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking
The scientist who pioneered synthesised speech. Plus the first US AIDS case. .
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I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests
An atrocity in El Salvador, the first Taser, and building the Delhi metro
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Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean
Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean; the demolition of the Ayodha mosque; Wilfred Owen
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Britain's secret propaganda war
'Fake news' in WW2, why Indian police blinded detainees and the Berlin Wall rock concert
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'Jane' - the underground abortion service
The secret 1960s US abortion network and the battle to protect the Barrier Reef.
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The fall of the Berlin Wall
A look at events across Europe in 1989 that led to the wall coming down in Germany.
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An environmental history special
A pioneer of climate change science, UK's nuclear accident, the man who fed the world
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Black British history
Some landmark moments in British Black history to mark Black History Month in the UK.
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The birth of the People's Republic of China
70 years of communist China, we hear from Mao's friends, followers and critics.
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Fighting the Islamic State group online
The Mosul historian who battled IS online, plus growing up black under Hitler
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The Cambridge spy network
The distinguished British art historian exposed as a former Soviet spy.
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Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war
How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa.
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The outbreak of World War Two
Eyewitness account of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the first all-female peacekeepers.
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The Kindertransport children
Children fleeing the Nazis, a breakthrough in criminal forensics, plus Nina Simone
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The return of the wolf
Restoring the wolf in the US, the liberation of Paris and El Salvador's lost children
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The division of Kashmir
How Kashmir was separated, the warnings about 9/11, Carlos the Jackal and Dr Seuss.
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The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'
Why French returnees from the colony of Algeria were ostracised after independence.
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The anti-nuclear protesters who won
The protest which stopped the construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant in Germany.