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Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant riot
In May 1991, a female police officer shot and wounded a young immigrant from El Salvador in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Washington DC in the …
1 year, 2 months ago
Creating CAPTCHA
In 2000, as the internet expanded, websites faced a growing challenge to stop spam bots from flooding their systems.To separate humans from machines,…
1 year, 2 months ago
The creation of the International Criminal Court
In 1998, at a conference organised by the United Nations, a blueprint was devised for what would be the world's first permanent International Crimina…
1 year, 2 months ago
Geneva Conventions
In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He couldn’t believe the lack of aid for the wounded soldiers and…
1 year, 2 months ago
The rise and fall of BlackBerry
In the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the phone that ruled the world. But within a decade, it collapsed, overtaken by the touch screen revolution.Sam Gr…
1 year, 2 months ago
The book that changed Norway’s view of immigrants
In 2010, a book came out in Norway that transformed the way people looked at paperless immigrants. The author, a 25-year-old Russian woman, fled Nort…
1 year, 2 months ago
One man’s escape from McCarthyism
In 1951, at the height of the McCarthy era, a time when the US government pursued suspected communists, Victor Grossman was drafted into the army. A …
1 year, 2 months ago
Spot the Dog
In 1978, British artist Eric Hill designed an interactive book about a yellow puppy for his two-year-old son, Chris.Eric had noticed Chris kept lifti…
1 year, 2 months ago
Pramoedya Ananta Toer: The banned author of Indonesia
In 1969, Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer was imprisoned without trial in the notorious labour camp on Buru Island. He spent 10 years there.He…
1 year, 2 months ago
Jakarta’s ban on dancing monkeys
In 2013, Jakarta's governor moved to outlaw the use of dancing monkeys on the city’s streets.The Indonesian tradition saw macaques made to perform fo…
1 year, 3 months ago