Archive 2011

On January 3 1959 Alaska finally became a fully fledged member state of the USA.

US President Lyndon B Johnson's 1965 speech proposed healthcare for the poor and elderly

How Afghan women resisted the Taliban's efforts to prohibit education for girls

In 1983 a civil war broke out in Sudan which would last for more than 20 years.

On January 7 1999 the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton began in the US Senate

The Manila-based plot to blow up a dozen airliners over the Pacific Ocean

When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river 2,000 years ago he changed history

In 1967 a group of enthusiasts first tried to cryonically freeze a human being.

It is 10 years since the Wikipedia online encyclopedia was launched

We take you back to 1961 when the cap on football wages was abolished in England

The story of a boy who escaped Nazi Germany on a kindertransport train heading for Britain

In January 1997 Borge Ousland became the first person to cross the Antarctic alone

How a B-52 bomber crashed on the Spanish coast while carrying four nuclear weapons.

The story of how Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to power in Tunisia

On 21 January 1793 the French king, Louis XVI was executed in Paris

Sir Winston Churchill, the British wartime leader, died on 24 January, 1965

One of the worst maritime disasters in history - the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

In January 1991 the government of Siad Barre in Somalia, collapsed

The bloody battle between British police and a group of revolutionaries in London in 1911

Hundreds of thousands of civilians died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad.

On the last day of January 1953 high tides and storms brought a huge flood to Holland.

A simple non-violent action to protest against racial segregation in restaurants and shops

The last days of punk icon, Sid Vicious, in New York in 1979

The first week of February 1979 saw a revolution unfolding in Iran