Roundup

WWI • Born in a Gaol • Uniform of the Hussars • Pitt Rivers Museum [28min]

Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history. 1)"Making History" listener Janet Dean is trying to find out more about the activities of her grandmother Margrit Ballegeer during the First World War. When she was alive she told stories of her work for the Belgian Resistance but the family did not write down or record what she said."Making History" consulted Christine Van Everbroec

History of Gardening: Medieval [6min]

What does gardening tell us about the past? Recent research into gardening habits suggests that little has changed over the years: men grow prize-winning vegetables, obsess about the lawn and lay a bit of decking whilst women potter in the borders enjoying the whiff of fragrant flowers. When the writer Jenny Uglow looked into the history of gardening she found that medieval monks and nuns conformed to such horticultural stereotyping. Katy Hickman went to Jenny's house in Canterbury to find out w

The Rosslyn Code, 2nd of 3 [26min]

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code has already made Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian world famous, and the film isn't even out yet. Richard Holloway investigates Rosslyn's secrets.

2 May -- On This Day [multiple clips]

1997: Labour routs Tories in historic election. The Labour Party wins the general election by a landslide, leaving the Conservative Party in tatters after 18 years in power. Other video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004, includes 1982: British sub sinks Argentine cruiser; 1952: Comet inaugurates the jet age; 2001: Sotheby's and Christies chiefs charged; 1969: Crackdown on student protests in US.

Recalling the Iran Hostage Crisis [39min]

This past week marked the 26th anniversary of the failed rescue attempt of hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. We talks with journalist Mark Bowden, author of Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam.

Three TV Eras, Three DVD Sets [7min]

Critic David Bianculli reviews three DVD box sets from different eras of television: Mr. Peepers, which starred Wally Cox as a high school science teacher, ran on NBC from 1952-1956; interviews from The Merv Griffin Show (1965-1986); and the fifth season package of HBO's Six Feet Under, which completed its run last year.

The Lost Library of Herculaneum [15min]

Rick Gekoski tells the remarkable stories behind five missing art works. Part 1: Pompeii was famously destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. But only recently are the literary treasures buried just along the coast being rediscovered.

The French Revolution -- Things We Forgot to Remember [30min]

Former British Conservative politician Michael Portillo presents a series which revisits the great moments of history to discover that they often conceal other events of equal, but forgotten, importance. Michael visits France, a land defined and shaped by the Revolution of 1789. Think of the Revolution and we think of the Guillotine, the tumbrils, the rivers of blood and the Paris mob, manipulated by Robespierre. But, could it be that g

Empire State Building Marks 75th Year [3min]

Seventy-five years ago Monday, the lights went on for the first time in the Empire State Building. Reporter Dave Johns spends an afternoon with the landmark's chief electrician Bill Tortorelli and gets a view from the 72nd Floor balcony where Tortorelli and his team change the gels to create the world-famous light shows.

John Galbraith's Lasting Economic Impact [7min]

John Kenneth Galbraith, the renowned economist, teacher and diplomat, died Saturday at the age of 97. Galbraith, who served presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, reached a mass audience with books like The Affluent Society. He was an unabashed liberal, who believed government has a large role to play in the economy.

Civil-Rights Author Florence Mars Dies [1min]

Florence Mars, a Mississippi native who wrote about the slaying of three civil rights workers in her state by the Ku Klux Klan, died last week at 83. Her book, Witness in Philadelphia, tells the story of the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

John Kenneth Galbraith, In His Own Words [3min]

John Kenneth Galbraith -- social economist, Harvard professor, diplomat -- is dead at 97. His work influenced Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as generations of U.S. politicians. He spoke with NPR's Howard Berkes in 1999. The 6-foot-8 Galbraith literally towered over many of the people he brushed paths with over his astonishingly long career. He tells Berkes that his role as supervisor of price controls during World War II was the height of his official power

'Clemente' Tells Story of a True Baseball Hero [8min]

Many of today's baseball icons owe a debt to the first Latin-American superstar: Roberto Clemente. His 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates were a kaleidoscope of batting titles and brilliant defensive plays. On the last day of the 1972 season, Clemente collected career hit number 3,000. He died three months later, in the crash of a charter plane he had hired to take relief supplies to survivors of an earthquake in Nicaragua. Clemente's legacy is the latest topic for Pulitzer-winning journalis

Grant Wood's 'American Gothic' [12min @18:00]

Two people, a house, a pitchfork, and a barn. It's hard to find a better-known American painting than Grant Wood's masterpiece American Gothic. But just who are those grim people, and why do they have such a hold on the American psyche? In this hour of"To the Best of Our Knowledge," the history of an American classic. Steven Biel is the Director of the History and Literature Program at Harvard University, and the author of American Gothic. He talks with Jim Fleming about Grant Wood

1 May -- On This Day [multiple clips]

1945: Germany announces Hitler is dead; the German Fuhrer is killed in the Reich Chancery of Berlin fighting the Soviets, according to German radio. Other video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004 includes 1982: RAF bombs Port Stanley; British planes attack two airstrips near the capital of the Falkland Islands in the war to rid the islands of Argentine forces. 1994: Race ace Senna killed in car crash; the world-class Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna dies in a crash at th

The Search for Sepharad, 1st of 4 -- In Mobility There Is Blessing [45min]

Broadcaster and film-maker Dennis Marks travels across the Mediterranean in the footsteps of the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Travelling from Israel via Greece to Andalucia, he discovers a unique collaboration between Jews and Muslims which lasted half a millennium, and a culture which still influences our lives today.

30 April -- On This Day [multiple clips]

1975: Saigon surrenders. The war in Vietnam ends as the government in Saigon announces its unconditional surrender to the Vietcong. Other video and audio from the BBC news archive, WWII and 1950-2004 includes 1973: Nixon takes rap for Watergate scandal; 1999: Dozens injured in Soho nail bomb; 1993: Tennis star stabbed; 1952: Anne Frank published in English.

The Haymarket Riot Remembered [7min]

On May 4, 1886, a bomb went off in Chicago that ignited one of the nation's first red scares. The blast killed seven police officers and led to the hanging of four anarchists accused of plotting the attack. Historian James Green's book Death in the Haymarket explores the tensions that led to the explosion and the panic that followed. He talks with Debbie Elliott about a period of paranoia in American life, and the ways the violence helped to shape the modern labor movement.

Wax Cylinder [9min]

Bill Radke talks to Tim Brooks about some of the earliest recordings put to wax. Literally. Tim is the author of Lost Sounds: Blacks And the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. He talks about how these recordings helped shape history.

L.A. Hosts Pentecostal Centennial Celebration [4min]

In April 1906, a mission on Azusa Street in Los Angeles launched an international religious movement. As Rachael Myrow of member station KPCC reports, 100,000 Pentecostal and charismatic Christians are celebrating the centennial.