In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster focused the whole worlds attention on Ukraine. Tens of thousands fled the area, a whole city was abandoned, it was a catastrophe that still reverberates today with Chernobyl being on the frontline of war and now a cache of new evidence from secrets files in Ukraine reveals the role of the soviet KGB.The KGB files contain warnings that the atom pla
In 1958, nine years after coming to power Moa wanted to bring China out of its almost medieval state of underdevelopment. He launched a program of industrialisation in towns and in the country intended to take China into the promised land of the socialist paradise in less than 15 years, it was the Great Leap Forward. But the crazy dream quickly became a nightmare and dragged 650 million Chinese p
Just under 1500 years ago something terrifying happened to the world's climate something nobody could understand the sun began to go dark and rain the color of blood poured from the skies. Clouds of fine dust enveloped the Earth and winter gripped the land for two whole years. Then came drought, famine, plague, and death. Whole cities were wiped out civilizations crumbled and nobody knew what had
As the United States publicly engaged in the Vietnam War, there was a secret conflict raging right next door in the country of Laos. Under the direction of the CIA, a full-blown military operation took hold of Laos, with just a select few of the U.S. Armed Forces participating.The CIA was actively training an army of allied guerilla fighters at Long Tieng, a secret airbase located in the hea
Earth's conditions are so perfect for life that it would seem to be a planet that exists for that one reason. A place to create life and nurture it, and yet of all the organisms that have ever lived on Earth 98.5% have gone extinct because our splendid sanctuary has been visited by the apocalypse five times in all.Everything we see alive on Earth today is the end survivor of at least one or m
Pompeii is arguably the most famous historical site on Earth, at its height 2,000 years ago it was an important gateway servicing Rome, the center of the world's greatest empire. But violent eruptions from Mount Vesuvius buried this ancient city, capturing its people and its lifestyles on a very typical Roman day.One of the first things that strike you about Pompeii is the sheer size of it, i
Who was it that came before the Romans? About 3,000 years ago a mysterious people flourished in ancient Italy, they were rich, eloquent, sophisticated. They indulged themselves, feasting and drinking fine wines, amused themselves with sports and games, and spent their money on fabulous jewelry and works of art, they were called The Etruscans.Their world seemed to be a paradise but it was doom
The Great Wall of China, it's been studied for decades but now new technology is revealing its secrets like never before. In this National Geographic special we see archaeologist Allan Maca, an expert in ancient civilizations, set out to investigate China's distant past from a whole new perspective as he leads a team of intrepid experts on an epic adventure to solve mysteries, explore secrets and
For 2,000 years Europe has been divided by war, each passing century marked with the blood of endless conflict, sometimes religious, always political and never resolved, finally this never ending conflict exploded engulfing the world. It seems absurd that nearly all this bloodshed can be traced back to a single battle, but it can. A battle that few Europeans remember but no Roman was allowed to fo