It is 50 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

The young cosmonaut became a hero around the world and a poster boy for Soviet technological achievement.

Photo: Yuri Gagarin, Credit: Getty Images

Jackie Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player.

He broke the colour bar in professional baseball in the USA.

He suffered discrimination and abuse along the way.

(Photo credit: AP)

When Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams fell in love in post-war London, they expected their families to object.

He was African, she was English. But soon governments were trying to stop their wedding.

Part of our series in the run-up to Britain's Royal Wedding.

A plane crash on 6 April 1994, set off a wave of killing in Rwanda which lasted 100 days.

Almost a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus lost their lives.

Jean-Francois Gisimba survived that time and helped hundreds of others who had taken refuge in the family-run orphanage to stay alive as well.

Photo: Gisimba Orphanage in Kigali - as it is today.

Thirty years ago, in April 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle.

The death of the lead singer of the grunge rock ban Nirvana, shocked his fans and the whole of the music industry.

One of his former bandmates, Dave Grohl, has been talking to Tom Bateman.

This programme was first broadcast in 2011.

(Photo: Kurt Cobain singing on stage whilst playing the guitar. Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Via Getty.)

John Gotti was a mafia boss who had escaped prison for years.

In April 1992 he was finally convicted on several counts of murder - and was jailed for life.

One of the prosecutors, Patrick Cotter, tells his story.

Photo of John Gotti: AP

The anti-poll tax demonstration of March 1990 brought thousands onto the streets of London.

Some were simply there to protest against a new Thatcherite policy. Others were looking for trouble.

Rioters attack a police van.

On 30 March 1981, there was an attempt to assassinate the US President.

Jerry Parr was one of the special agents who helped to save Ronald Reagan's life.

Photo:AP

David Kirke was one of the first people to try bungee jumping in 1979. He and his friends chose the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol as their location, but had not tested the ropes before making the first jump.

It is 40 years since the beginning of the war between East and West Pakistan which resulted in the formation of Bangladesh as an independent country.

Junaid Ahmed reports.