In History

In 1911, a US professor claimed he found the secret mountain stronghold of the last Incan king. 53 years later, a new explorer proved him wrong – and the BBC followed in his footsteps.

Thirty years after the bombing of Nagasaki, a US physicist who helped to assemble the bomb revealed to the BBC the decision-making behind the blast.

In 1977, the BBC looked back at the summer of 1944, when Allied agents smuggled pieces of Hitler's V2 rocket by hiding them in the apartment of a German officer.

Kim Philby's defection to the Soviet Union was made public on 30 July 1963. In 2016, the BBC broadcast previously unseen footage of a lecture he gave to the Stasi.

Argentina's iconic first lady died in July 1952. Sixty years on, the BBC looked back at her cadaver's bizarre disappearance – and its 16-year journey around the globe.

In 1989, the Komsomolets sank off the Norwegian coast. Four years later, the BBC reported on plans to seal in its torpedoes' toxic plutonium.

The US oil billionaire's 16th-Century English mansion was home to a stunning art collection and a lion named Nero. In 1963, the BBC visited him there to discuss his "great success".

In July 1983, Clash of Loyalties was screened for the first – and almost last – time. In 2020, its producer told the BBC about conscriptions, interrogations, and a drunk Oliver Reed.

The author's childhood was rocked by bankruptcy and deceit. In 2008, he told the BBC that his "hectic background" trained him to be an author – and a spy.

Lord Lucan was found guilty of killing Sandra Rivett on 19 June 1975 – but by then he had already disappeared. His wife was interviewed by the BBC in 1980.

US journalist Martha Gellhorn tricked officers so that she could write firsthand dispatches from Normandy in June 1944. In 1991, she told the BBC about her daring subterfuge.

Martha Mitchell was a flamboyant Washington socialite whose husband was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. Her shocking claims of a "dirty business" were dismissed as delusional.

It's 35 years since Helen Sharman boarded a space capsule heading into orbit, all thanks to a job ad that she had stumbled upon.