In June 1973, the Russian rival to Concorde, the Tupolev TU144, crashed at the Paris Air Show, killing the crew of six and eight people on the ground. At the time the Soviet Union and the West were competing to produce the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft. Former British test pilot, John Farley, recalls the day of the fatal crash of the plane dubbed 'Concordski'.

(Photo: The Russian TU-144 supersonic airliner shortly before it exploded and crashed at the Paris Air Show. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

On May 30th 1961 Rafael Trujillo, the dictator in the Dominican Republic, was shot dead. Tim Mansel has spoken to 3 people with different reasons for remembering the day he was killed.

Photo: Antonio Imbert, one of the men who shot Trujillo. Credit:Tim Mansel.

On May 27th 1968, executives of Chemie-Grunenthal, the German company that made the drug thalidomide, went on trial charged with criminal negligence. Thalidomide had caused serious often fatal birth defects in thousands of babies after their mothers took the drug during pregnancy thinking it was safe. It was one of the biggest pharmaceutical scandals of post-war Europe, and the trial would last more than two years.

Photograph: A Thalidomide child undergoes rehabilitation, 1963 (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

In 1996, a delegation of Chechen separatist rebels negotiated peace with Russia's President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. It took them just two hours to reach an agreement. Akhmed Zakayev was a member of the Chechen delegation. He spoke to Dina Newman. Photo: Akhmed Zakayev in 2004. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In May 1991, at the end of Ethiopia's civil war, 14000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in just 36 hours during "Operation Solomon". An ancient Jewish community had lived in Ethiopia for centuries but amid war and famine, many tried to reach Israel. In 1984, Israel had rescued thousands of Ethiopian Jews from refugee camps in Sudan, Operation Solomon was meant to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel. We hear from Daniel Nadawo, an Ethiopian Israeli, about his memories of the dramatic airlift.

In May 1986, more than five million people took part in Hands Across America - an attempt to form a nationwide human chain to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness. Hear from the organiser of the event, Hollywood promoter Ken Kragen.

Photo: Santa Monica California. Credit: Associated Press.

In May 1536 the Queen of England was executed on the orders of her husband, Henry VIII. She was the second of his six wives, but why did she deserve to die?

(Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In 1984, Naida Glavish, a New Zealand telephone operator became famous for greeting customers in her native Maori language. Instead of "good morning" she insisted on saying "Kia Ora". The New Zealand prime minister supported her, and two years later Maori became an official language of New Zealand. Dina Newman spoke to Naida Glavish.

(Photo: Naida Glavish as president of the Maori Party in 2013. Credit: Joel Ford/Getty Images)

In 1954, French forces surrendered after a bloody 56 day siege of their base at Dien Bien Phu in the north of Vietnam. Their defeat by the communist independence movement, the Viet Minh, signaled the end of French colonial rule in Indochina. We hear from two veterans who fought on opposing sides in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

(Photo: A French military Red Cross helicopter preparing to land, while French soldiers try to defend their positions in Dien Bien Phu against the Viet Minh, 23 March 1954 Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In 1916 Marcus Garvey arrived in the US and began a movement for black pride. His dream was that black people would live independently of whites in a new empire in Africa.

Photo: August 1922 Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the "Provisional President of Africa" during a parade on the opening day of the Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World in Harlem, New York City. (Credit: AP Photo/File)