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The UK’s first black-owned music studio
Sonny Roberts, a Jamaican carpenter, arrived in Britain in the 1950s. It was a time of racial disharmony, including the Notting Hill riots and the mu…
1 year ago
Wangari Maathai: The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize
In 2004, the Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Move…
1 year ago
The British oil tanker sunk in Indonesia
In 1958, the British oil tanker, SS San Flaviano, was sunk in the harbour of Balikpapan, Indonesia, while a rebellion was underway against President …
1 year ago
My aunt created The Moomins
The first Moomins story about a family of nature-loving white round trolls was published in 1945 during World War Two. The Moomins and the Great Floo…
1 year ago
Helen Fielding: The creator of Bridget Jones
In 1995, a single 30-something woman with big knickers and blue soup first appeared in a weekly column, published by British newspaper The Independen…
1 year ago
The trial of Soviet writers Daniel and Sinyavsky
In 1965, two writers were accused of publishing anti-Soviet material abroad.The arrest of Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky was seen as symbolic of th…
1 year ago
Jorge Luis Borges: 'Father' of Latin American fiction
In 1961, the Argentine poet and short story writer Jorge Luis Borges won the Formentor Prize for literature.Borges’ stories were characterised by min…
1 year, 1 month ago
Wallander and the rise of Nordic Noir
Published in 1991, Faceless Killers was the first of Henning Mankell’s crime novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander. The series changed the…
1 year, 1 month ago
How BRICS got its name
In 2001, a few months after 9/11, economist Jim O’Neill was working at Goldman Sachs when he wrote a report about which countries might become big pl…
1 year, 1 month ago
Japan surrenders in Beijing
Eighty years ago, in the autumn of 1945, World War II surrender ceremonies took place across the Japanese Empire.The one in China was held at the For…
1 year, 1 month ago