In History

In May 1943, a specially formed RAF squadron embarked on a daring moonlit mission. In 1976, the BBC spoke to one of the airmen who made it home alive.

In 1956, Commander "Buster" Crabb disappeared during a visit to the UK by Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev. In 2006, a BBC reporter read the files that detailed his secret mission.

The CIA officer spent nearly a decade selling secrets to the Soviet Union, leading to the deaths of at least 10 Western agents. In 1994, the BBC spoke to one of the spies he betrayed.

In April 1983, a British newspaper, The Sunday Times, claimed to be printing an extraordinary historical document. In fact, the forged diaries were an extraordinary hoax.

Twelve suspects were put on trial in April 1964. More than a decade later, several of them talked to the BBC about the notorious heist.

After two planes collided, three hydrogen bombs hit a Spanish village, and one fell into the sea nearby. Two years later, villagers talked to the BBC about the terrifying accident.

Gates and Paul Allen launched computing giant Microsoft 50 years ago. In 1993, he talked to the BBC about the online innovations that would define the 21st Century.

In March 1944, 76 officers broke out of a German prisoner-of-war camp. In 1977, a key member of the escape team talked to the BBC about the mission, and the Hollywood film it inspired.