The History Express

Bamyan lies on the Silk Road which lies in the Hindu Kush mountain region, in the Bamiyan Valley. It was the site of several Buddhist monasteries, and a thriving center for religion, philosophy, and Indian art. The destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas became a symbol of oppression and a rallying point for the freedom of religious expression. Despite the fact that most Afghans are Muslim, they too had embraced their past and many were appalled by this destruction.

Afghanistan is not so much a country as a series of shifting borders. A place with no easily definable physical or civil boundaries. A place where war is an everyday fact of life. A place where more children will learn to use a gun than will go to school. About 1.5 million have been killed during the past 20 years of war. Perhaps another 4 million have fled. Every major road has been torn apart by tank treads. Almost every major building left standing has been blown full of holes. This is the most militant Islamic state on Earth but it was once was peace loving and Buddhist. In the Bamian Valley north of Kabul the two largest statues of Buddha on the planet were carved in the third century. David Adams was the last Westerner to exhaustively film them before they were blown up in 2001.

One of the central events of the French Revolution was to abolish feudalism, and the old rules, taxes and privileges left over from the age of feudalism. The National Constituent Assembly, acting on the night of 4 August 1789, announced, "The National Assembly abolishes the feudal system entirely." It abolished both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate (the nobility) and the tithes gathered by the First Estate (the Catholic clergy). The old judicial system, founded on the 13 regional parlements, was suspended in November 1789, and finally abolished in 1790.

Battle of Agincourt (/ˈæʒɪnkɔːr(t), -kʊər/;[a] French: Azincourt [azɛ̃kuʁ]) was one of the English victories in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France.[b] England's unexpected victory against the numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war.

After several decades of relative peace, the English had renewed their war effort in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French. In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army. Despite the disadvantage, the following battle ended in an overwhelming tactical victory for the English.

King Henry V of England led his troops into battle and participated in hand-to-hand fighting. King Charles VI of France did not command the French army himself, as he suffered from psychotic illnesses and associated mental incapacity. Instead, the French were commanded by Constable Charles d'Albret and various prominent French noblemen of the Armagnac party.

This battle is notable for the use of the English longbow in very large numbers, with the English and Welsh archers comprising nearly 80 percent of Henry's army.

Agincourt is one of England's most celebrated victories and was one of the most important English triumphs in the Hundred Years' War, along with the Battle of Crécy (1346) and Battle of Poitiers (1356). It forms the centrepiece of William Shakespeare's play Henry V, written in 1599.

Battle of Agincourt is well documented by at least seven contemporary accounts, three from eyewitnesses. The approximate location of the battle has never been disputed, and the site remains relatively unaltered after 600 years.

Immediately after the battle, Henry summoned the heralds of the two armies who had watched the battle together with principal French herald Montjoie, and they settled on the name of the battle as Azincourt, after the nearest fortified place. Two of the most frequently cited accounts come from Burgundian sources, one from Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy who was present at the battle, and the other from Enguerrand de Monstrelet. The English eyewitness account comes from the anonymous Gesta Henrici Quinti, believed to have been written by a chaplain in the King's household who would have been in the baggage train at the battle. A recent re-appraisal of Henry's strategy of the Agincourt campaign incorporates these three accounts and argues that war was seen as a legal due process for solving the disagreement over claims to the French throne.

Bettany Hughes goes to Alexandria, Egypt, too look at one of the great cities of history. Founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was once one of the intellectual and culture hubs of the world. It was home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the immense Library of Alexandria.

Bettany Hughes travels to Alexandria, an Egyptian city with an illustrious history. Founded by Alexander the Great, the city was an intellectual hub, the Silicon Valley of antiquity, and was home to the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Library of Alexandria, which supposedly held all the knowledge on earth, and to Hypatia, one of history's unsung heroes.

Documentary to mark the 150th anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

What really happened at the battle of Mazar I Sharif? Using footage of combat never seen before, award-winning filmmaker Paul Yule chronicles an extraordinary ten days in November 2001 that involved the US Armed Forces, the CIA, the British SAS, the Taliban, al Qaeda, the warlords of the Northern Alliance, the Red Cross and the western media.

20th Century Gals

Britain's system of social welfare, law and order and a yearning for knowledge had made us the envy of Europe - and a country under threat from violent and oppurtunistic raiders. But what was it really like to live just before the end of the first millennium? 1000 AD recreates life circa 999 AD, showing the everyday lives, loves and passions of the Anglo-Saxon people. A soap opera-style drama runs alongside interviews with leading historians who paint a revealing picture of the political and social structure of pre-Norman Britain.

Based on a WW II legend: A German soldier awaiting his doom in the pocket of Stalingrad spots an undamaged piano in the no-man's land between the lines. The urge to play one more time becomes irresistible. -Appassionata- is inspired by an army postal service letter send by a German soldier from Stalingrad to his wife. The movie tells of the short moments in which soldiers try to escape the demons of war - of those rare instants in which longings and emotions out dare the maelstrom of daily cruelty and humanity wins over the frenzy of war.

Hitler of the Andes identifies declassified documents in the FBI archives that reveal, for the first time, the American authorities' belief that Hitler did not die in his Berlin bunker, but escaped to Argentina.