The Secretary General of the UN was killed in a plane crash 50 years ago.

He was on his way to Congo, in an attempt to prevent war.

Two people who knew him well remember the man.

Photo: Associated Press

On 16 September 1992, Britain lost billions in foreign currency reserves in a single day.

Norman Lamont was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the country had to crash out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Image: VT Freeze Frame

On 15 September 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

Two New Yorkers at the centre of the crisis talk about the events leading up to that day.

Photo: AFP

The trials of senior Nazis began in the autumn of 1945.

Howard Triest was a German Jew who acted as a translator during their questioning.

Photo: Getty Images

In the 1960s, non-white immigrants were not welcome in Australia.

Five-year-old Nancy Prasad became a focus for campaigners trying to reverse the policy.

She tells the story of her deportation.

On 12 September 1980, the army took control in Turkey.

It was not the first time they had done so. It was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been in 1960 and 1971.

The coup followed growing street fighting between left and right-wing groups. Politicians were arrested and parliament, political parties and trade unions were dissolved.

Following the coup at least 50 people were executed and around half a million were detained. Many were tortured and hundreds died in custody.

Vice Admiral Isik Biren, who was an official in the defence ministry, and a former student activist, Murat Celikkan recount their different memories of that time.

(Photo: Portraits of people killed or tortured during the coup are displayed in a courthouse in the capital Ankara. Credit: Adem Atlan/ Getty Images)

Two days before 9/11, al-Qaeda killed an Afghan leader in a suicide bombing.

Ahmed Shah Massood had been one of the main figures opposing the Taliban.

Photo: VT Freeze Frame

The story of how a teenage girl in Azerbaijan became disenchanted with Moscow's propaganda.

She sided with nationalists who campaigned for the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Image: An Azerbaijan resident removes a picture of Lenin, Credit: Getty Images

In September 1666, a fire destroyed much of the city of London.

The diarist, Samuel Pepys, and a schoolboy called William Taswell both watched in horror as the fire consumed houses and even St Paul's Cathedral.

Witness briccngs together their aounts of a blaze which changed the city for ever.

The programme also hears from Meriel Jeater, an expert on the fire from the Museum of London.

PHOTO: A sketch of St Paul's burning from a contemporary pamphlet (Hutton Archive/Getty Images)

It is 45 years since the South African Prime Minister was killed in Parliament.

His attacker was a parliamentary messenger.

Photo: Dimitri Tsafendas, the man who killed Hendrik Verwoerd. (Getty Images)